As we have completed the first two weeks of school, we are off to a great start.
First, I would like to thank the St. Linus Ladies Guild who generously donated the funds for the new library carpet. It has made the library feel more open and welcoming as well as given me the chance to reorganize the location of the shelves. Please stop by and see the new library layout at the open house later this month.
The Preschool class attend library for the first time this week. This students will be here for about 20 minutes. During this 20 minutes, we will read stories and encourage the students to use their imaginations. They do not take out books this year but will begin to take out books when they get to Kindergarten.
The Kindergaten class will be allowed to take out books every week as long as they return the books from the week before. I understand that sometimes books do get lost. Please make me aware so that replacement arrangements can be made and your child can resume taking out books. During the Kindergarten library class, we will practice the words that they are reading in the classroom as well as have story time.
First graders will be reviewing the words learned in Kindergarten as well as reading aloud to the class. We have begun the school year with me reading to them, however, within the next few weeks, the students will be reading to their classmates with assistance. WE will begin with the Frog and Toad books.
Second graders will be broken into reading group this year to read their weekly assignments from their readers. After completing the assigned reading 2 times, they will come together as a group and read a book from the Magic Tree House series. These students will as be taking out books n a weekly basis.
The 3rd grade class will begin work on "Crazy Horse" which is a one act play. This is the first year the library is reading plays during class. My goal is to have the students act the play out but since this is still a work in progress, more information will follow. The third grade students are allowed to take out books at the end of class. The reason I am having them take books out at the end and not the beginning is to encourage the students to come into the library and immediately focus on the task at hand.
The 4th and 5th graders will be woring on research projects this year. These projects will be cross-disciplinary and will be coordinated with the homeroom teacher. The research will be done only during Library time and will not be something that requires completion at home. Each project will take typically 4-5 classes. The first research project has begun - 4th grade is researching plants and the 5th grade is researching Classical Music (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms or Mozart).
For the 1st quarter of the school year, the 6 and 7th grade will have a book report. The guidelines for the report have been given to the students. The due for the reports is the week of October 18th.
The 8th graders have begun to watch "To Kill A Mockingbird." This year the library focus for the class will be on comparing and contrasting movie vs book. I want the students to understand that everything you see in a movie is not the way the book was written and in fact many parts of the book have been left out or changed.
Finally, grades 4-8 will be receving a pass fail grade for library. As long as the work as been completed according to the set guidleines and the students behavior has met the expectation that were discussed on the first day of class, the student will pass.
I look forward to the exciting year ahead. If you have any questions, please email me at dconn@stlinusschool.org.