I’m overdue on this post, but the good part is that my delay means there’s lots of news to report. We had a two week spring break and are now beginning the busiest months of the school year. The spring dash includes school plays, overnight trips, parent/teacher conferences, Capstone presentations – all culminating in a celebration of our 8th grade graduates in early June.
The third grade students continue their combined library and technology class. The kids are enjoying learning about the Caldecott Awards, especially when they chose past winners to re-award with a new medal. The highlight for them, though, is the day when they will receive their official Inly email addresses. Joining the Inly email network is a rite of passage, a visible sign that they are moving to the upper school. They don’t have them yet, but it will be very soon. In the meantime, here are a few of the redesigned Caldecott Medals:
In the middle school, students sometimes design “one pagers” a response to reading that includes visual images and words to demonstrate understanding of the text. As part of their study of World War II, they are currently reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli.
The Lower Elementary students are enjoying their library visits. Last week we read a brilliant new picture book called, Too Many Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf by Davide Cali. It’s a super funny fractured fairy tale – and kind of a math book!
We have blocked off the graphic novel section this week. By blocking, I mean we place chairs in front of the graphic novels so they can’t be accessed (very easily). It is no criticism of our collection to say that we sporadically give Hilo and the Bad Guys a rest.
As I explain to the kids, there are lots of books in the library that are often overlooked because everyone is in the same section. It’s been fun to watch them check out The Good Dog series, The Secret Explorers, Frank and Bean, and many others.
A few weeks ago, an Upper Elementary student spotted this picture in a graphic novel:
It’s in this book:
We all agreed that it looks like the Inly Library:
Over Inly’s spring break, my husband and I were in Paris for a few days, and of course, we went to several wonderful English bookstores. The first one we visited was Galignani, the oldest English bookshop in Europe. It’s been in its present location since 1856.
We also found a wonderful shop near our hotel:
Of course, I purchased books in both stores. I bought this book at Galignani:
And this one at The Red Wheelbarrow:
In this case, I was guilty of purchasing a book we already own, but that cover! And the introduction by Amor Towles is wonderful. I found myself referring back to it several times while re-reading the novel.
Currently reading a book by my favorite NPR host:
Happy Spring!
Sommer Reading 