Box for the Philippines

Thanks to everyone who donated books for the Book Drive at school! These books were for a book mobile and school in the Philippines. My brother, Randy, lives in the Philippines and is involved in the Rotary Club there. These books are used in a program that the Rotary Club is involved in. After all the books were counted, 288 books were donated!!

This was sponsored by my Community Action Fabulous Friday class. We learned that one way to help others is to donate to some sort of drive. That way you don't necessarily have to buy something, but can give things you don't need or use any more. What a great lesson for children to learn!

I mailed the books yesterday. When mailing to the Philippines it is much more cost effective to get a special box called a balikbayan box to pack in, instead of mailing from the US Post Office. It is a huge box and you pay one price for shipping no matter what the weight is! We put so much in the box that we can't lift it, so we have to pack it at the store! A Filipino grocery store in Madison is where we have packed and mailed our box every year. We mail books to my brother, and we always mail it around this time of the year, because we include his Christmas gifts and other things that he asks for. It takes about 2 months for the box to get to him, so that is why we mail it early in the fall.

When I called the store last week to check on the hours, I found out that it was in the process of moving to a new location in Athens and was not open. The owner said she would meet me there, but when I called yesterday, she was busy cooking for her daughter's birthday party, and said I could just come to her house to pack and leave the box!

 

I invited my parents to go with me, since they had never packed one the these boxes. They were very good help! The owner of the store, Leny, was so nice and even brought us out a bowl of traditional Philippine food for us to try!! The dish was called pancit and it was very tasty - noodles, shrimp, and green beans! When I went into the house to pay for the shipment, she had me try a type of egg roll called lumpia shanghai with sweet and sour sauce! It was very yummy also! I told her she ought to open a restaurant, and she told me she loves to cook and has been to culinary school.
                                                        

Leny and my Mom

There were several other boxes in their garage waiting to be shipped. She said they should be picked up on Saturday. I will post pictures (that my brother sends) when they get to the Philippines! Thanks again for donating!

Extras

Each class at our school visits the library for a 40 minute scheduled time each week. The time in the library has two parts, the first part is our library lesson  and the second part is for checking out books. The checking out books part is usually about 15 minutes.  After the students check their books out they are allowed to do "extras". That's what I call the things they can do in that remaining time before it is time to go. There are many things to choose from for "extras". Here are some pictures of their options.

Puzzles

 

Stencils are a huge hit!

                                                            Read their library book

                                                                   More stenciling

Make a bookmark

 

Go to the computer (if it is your group's day)

 

Draw

Work on the United States floor puzzle

Look at a magazine

Computer time

Work a puzzle (This is what I call teamwork!)

 

Prepare a speech!

Alabama/Auburn Reading Challenge

Be a Champion and Read! Read your way to the Iron Bowl (maybe)! We are going strong with our Alabama/Auburn Reading Challenge! This is a state-wide promotion sponsored by the Alabama Education Association. Click on the link for more info:

http://www.myaea.org/wp-content/uploads/E-Parent-Letter-2013W.pdf

Our deadline at Ben Davis for having the form filled out and turned in is Friday, October 18.

 

Basically, your child reads 6 books on their level. They don't all have to be chapter books. Record those books, sign the form, then send it back to school.

Just by turning their form in to me they will get a coloring sheet and a bookmark for either Alabama or Auburn and two stickers!

They are also entered in a drawing with students from all over the state for 3 tickets to the Alabama/Auburn game!! There will be one winner for each team. For each student who turns in a form, their teacher will be entered into a drawing for money!! And if we get 70% of our student body to participate, our library will be entered into a drawing for $5,000!

 

 I laminated this paper so that we can erase the number with a tissue, then write in the new total each day.

 Students can practice counting by 5s and 10s with the way the footballs are displayed on the bulletin board.

 Today I added these classroom total charts. They generated lots of interest! Students were anxious to find our how their class was stacking up against the competition.

 The students can practice counting tally marks with these new classroom charts.

 The students love all the information at the Reading Challenge bulletin board!

Donations accepted!

The library is always in need of donations. Some things that we seem to always be in need of are pencils, cap erasers, paper, and small treats (stickers, bookmarks).

 

The paper would be for the children to draw on in "extra" time after we have our lesson and after they check their books out. The paper can be "nice" copy paper or it can be any kind of paper that you have at your house that you don't use anymore. For example, I found a box of old dot matrix printer paper at my parent's house this summer. That was the kind that was all connected and had the edge that attached to pins on the printer (a few of you might remember what I am talking about!). Anyway, after we separated the pages and tore off the edge, it has been great paper for the children to draw on. Other kinds of paper they like: small pads of paper, stationary, envelopes, old lined notebooks that you aren't going to use.

 

The items in the picture below were given by one student and her mother. It was fantastic! It felt like Christmas morning!

 

The picture below was another donation. Perfect!!

I give a small treat to all students who stay on their green dot during class time. The treat is most often a sticker, so the stickers that were donated (below) were super! I don't ever give food, but I have given bookmarks, athletic cards, etc. If you or your workplace have any small items to give way, please keep us in mind!

None of this has to be brand new either!! If you have some stickers, for example, and you have used half of them and want to donate the rest, that is perfectly fine!

Teddy Roosevelt at Decatur Public Library

The elementary and middle school librarians in Decatur City Schools are trying to work a little more closely with the children's librarian at Decatur Public Library so that they can be ready when our students come to them for materials for reports or reading. The Public Library offers so many resources that can benefit our children.  Also, September was National Library Card Month, so in honor of that, if you don't have a library card for the Public Library, go get one!

There are so many fun, educational programs there as well. One of those will be this Thursday afternoon, October 3, at 4:00 p.m. A Teddy Roosevelt impersonator will be there to tell the story of the teddy bear. He will also present a show for adults later in the evening. Here's a link with more information:Teddy Roosevelt at Decatur Public Library.

Lunch Bunch

This is the 5th year that I have done Lunch Bunch for the students at our school. I invite each class to eat their lunch in the library (you heard that right!) one time a year. I get to all the classes in the fall semester. I have a class in once a week, on Tuesday, which is a day that I can accommodate all lunch times. The students are so shocked that they get to eat in the library! Of course, they have to be on their best lunch behavior, and over the last 5 years we have had very few spills!

This year, instead of an author study like previous years, we are studying the mystery genre. I first read Olivia and the Missing Toy by Ian Falconer then we discuss the mystery using this handout from Scholastic: Ingredients of a Mystery.

(Notice there are no seat pockets on the chairs during Lunch Bunch:). I don't want them to be used as a napkin.)

The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau

Recently I read The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino to our second graders. It is a really great book that they like. In their classrooms they have been talking about visualizing and this is a super book to reinforce that strategy. After reading the book they practiced being communicators by writing a letter to the author. It is a hard concept to write to the author of a biography. I did much explaining that we were not writing to Jacques Cousteau, especially since he is dead!  They did a fabulous job on their letters. They made connections, told Mr. Y their favorite parts in the book, and ask him questions. And we are anxiously awaiting his reply!

 

This student wanted to look back through the book as she was writing her letter. Reading this book kicks off our semester long unit on research, mainly focusing on Jacques Cousteau and his life.