I just downloaded one of my 5 free downloads of MS Word 2016. Thank you Microsoft and DOE!
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Avoid the summer slide Students can lose 2-3 months of learning over the summer by not reading (or doing math!) Don’t let your child get behind. (National Summer Learning Association - summerlearning.org) For some kids, reading is its own reward. For other kids, rewards help to motivate them. Here are some programs: PS 261 Summer Reading Challenge! Read 20 mins a day (or more) for 10 weeks to improve reading skills! 3-5 picture books/week or 100-150 pages of chapter books. Log your books here, sign and bring in forms in September for a party! 50% of our challenge goal can be met with read alouds or audiobooks
Other incentive programs: Brooklyn Public Library - Make sure you have a PS 261 MylibraryNYC card for no late borrowing fines (take application to any branch). Complete board game for raffle and free rides at Coney Island! Barnes & Noble – for students going into grades 1-5. Chuck E. Cheese – Earn free tokens when your child fills in a form for reading every day for 2 weeks. A food purchase is required. Scholastic Summer Challenge – Children can log in their reading minutes online and earn rewards like online badges. There are games and features to keep kids interested in books. Help make sure your kids have lots of things they love to read. Research shows that enjoyment is the most important factor for getting kids to read a lot! Books online: (in age order) ● Day by Day - NY State Library early literacy initiative ● Storyline - picture books read by actors/actresses ● Unite for Literacy - early readers ● E-books from Mackin - all ages username ps261 password ps261 ● Myon, - all ages, login = student Osis # (on report card) and password= 1+first two digits of first name (example for Joy :1jo) Online Magazines and other reading (in age order) ● PBS Kids Summer Reading Camp ● National Geographic Young Explorer; National Geographic for Kids ● Ranger Rick ● Time for Kids ● Wonderopolis – answers to quirky questions ● Sports Illustrated for Kids ● Newsela Book Reviews and Recommendations: ● Common Sense Media - book recommendations and age ratings ● Cooperative Children's Book Center - Books for the Elementary Age ● Guys Read - Boy books that anyone could love ● Read Kiddo Read - by James Patterson ● We Need Diverse Books - Summer Reading Series Please email me – [email protected] I am collecting pictures of kids doing summer reading for our celebration in September. I also always looking for good resources for summer learning! Happy Reading! Joy Librarian [email protected] It is really common to go straight to Google or a default search engine, but sometimes that is not the best for kids' research. Search results can be geared towards an older audience, too commercial (selling things), or not good quality. It can be tricky because a good looking website might have poor information. So, we have been using Kiddle.co in the library for research with topics like: events of the American Revolution. Results have been much better! Another great option is Sweetsearch.com, especially for the upper grades. Results are previewed for quality! Book Court Book Store has a book club for the "Middle Reader," which sounds like Middle School reader, but actually is aimed at readers aged 8- 12. Middle Reader Book Club Book: Wild Robot Meets Next: Sat June 11, 4:00PM Host: Aubrey Nolan When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island. Can a robot survive in the wilderness? New attendees: sign-up is necessary to attend. Please sign up in the store or via email to[email protected]. If you know of other book clubs, let me know... We were so fortunate that Zetta Elliott recently visited our 5th grade classes, giving them the inside scoop on her book Bird, a picture book for older kids. When talking about diversity in publishing she made us think about books as a mirror of our lives, a window into the lives of others and even possibly a sliding glass door to step into the story of someone else. Her path to writing captured everyone's attention and students wanted to stay even though it was 2:40! We want to read all of her great books. Thanks, Zetta! And a big thanks to the Brooklyn Public Library for sponsoring this visit.
We've been meeting on Mondays to read the non-fiction series, The Unsolved Mysteries.... Our favorite was Bigfoot! We debated reasons people might think it is real, and reasons they might have doubts. Now, we are alternating fiction and non-fiction. We just read a true book about Penguins and a fiction book called Giraffe, and Pelly and Me, by Roald Dahl. The kids made posters for the window washing company in the book. Take a look!
This November we were lucky to have a visit from Rachel Payne, a judge on the Caldecott committee and Coordinator of Early Childhood Services at Brooklyn Public Library. She shared some interesting information about the criteria for choosing Caldecott winners. The Caldecott is one of the most prestigious American book awards and goes to the "most distinguished American picture book for children" from the year before.
Here is a list of past winners: 2015 and earlier I had so much fun reading this book to kindergarten classes and looking at Tom Lichtenheld's pictures. Afterwards, children decided whether they mostly saw a duck or a rabbit or both! Students wrote their names on a sticky note then "voted." We counted together and came up with class numbers. Here are the results of the day - 15 Duck! 5 Rabbit! 15 either/both! Please share your ideas.
K 113 voted: 6 Duck! 7 Rabbit! 7 both/either! I finally was able to attend and WOW! It was just like I thought - entering planet comic book. |
Authorby Vanessa Nutter, Librarian Archives
March 2018
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