Boston by Book and by Lit Trip

4th and 5th graders, it is so exciting that you are going to Boston this week!  Of course, one of the most famous children's books ever written takes place in Boston - Make Way for Ducklings.  How do the book and the virtual tour of Boston by Lit Trip, help you get to know the city you're going to visit?

Book Spine Poetry

In honor of National Poetry Month, we're going to create some book spine poems!  I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Check out this Book Spine Poem Gallery to get some inspiration.

I Haiku, Do You?

 

In honor of National Poetry Month and the Chickadee Award winning book Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku, we are reading and writing haikus in the library!

The 5th grade class wrote a haiku together:

Phippsburg

We see the ocean

We can taste the salty sea

Phippsburg is awesome.

The 4th graders wrote a haiku together:

Porcupine

I'm a porcupine

You don't want to mess with me

Because of my quills.

5th Grade Haikus
Google Images

Congratulations Battle of the Books participants!

Our students did an amazing job at the 2013 Battle of the Books!  I was so proud of each and every one of you for representing our school with such extraordinary teamwork, sportsmanship and knowledge.  Bravo!

And the winners are...

The Maine Children's Choice book award winners have been announced!

The 2013 Maine Student Book Award winner is Lost Trail: Nine Days Alone in the Wilderness.

The 2013 Chickadee Award winner is Won-Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku.

At PES, our Chickadee winner was All the Way to America and our Maine Student Book Award winner was True (Sort of).  Congratulations to ALL our readers for another greater year of children's choice reading!

Celebrating the Chickadee Award

We are celebrating the Chickadee Award nominees this week at PES! There are so many excellent contenders for the award... which book will you vote for?  Why?

Henry Knox

5th graders, as you study the American Revolution, you'll learn about some amazing people! One of those people was Henry Knox.  He is not as well known as some of the other participants in the Revolution, but he was pretty cool, for reasons you will soon discover.

As I read Anita Silvey's book Henry Knox: Bookseller, Soldier, Patriot, please add sticky notes to one of our two walls (I'll tell you which one you'll be working on).  Don't worry too much about complete sentences, grammar, etc., but make sure that your note will be understandable to you (and others) later.

The American Revolution Wall (part 1)
 Henry Knox and the American Revolution Wall (part 2)
Henry Knox (part 3 - the third time's the charm!)

Valentine's Day Catalog Scavenger Hunt

4th graders, please use the library catalog to discover the answers to the following questions:

Skype visit with author Kate Messner

The 3rd graders had an amazing opportunity to visit via Skype with author Kate Messner today.  We recently read her book entitled Marty McGuire and we loved it!  Everyone in the class wrote a really thoughtful question for Kate and it was so fun to hear her answers.

Kate said that the best way to become a good writer is to read a lot.  She carries around a "writer's notebook" everywhere she goes and jots down ideas as they come.  She now has more ideas in her book than she could ever write books for.  The question "what if...?" inspires Kate in her writing every day, as she imagines different scenarios unfolding.

We were so honored to have Kate Messner "visit" our school library!

Amelia, Continued

5th graders, now that we've gotten to know Amelia Earhart a little bit better, please choose a quotation from her webpage that is meaningful to you.  What do her words mean?  Why do they speak to you in particular?

Her quotations are HERE.

What happened to the rabbit and the little fish?

After reading I Want My Hat Back and This Is Not My Hat, you might have some strong ideas about what happened to the rabbit and the little fish.

What inferences can you draw from the words and the illustrations about what happened to those two characters?

After you've written your response, visit this interview with Jon Klassen.  What does he say happened to the rabbit?

Amelia

5th graders, as you do your biography research, one of the things you might discover is that there are sometimes "clues" about who or what somebody is going to become long before they are adults. 

When looking at her childhood, Amelia Earhart said that there were "threads" which led her to airplanes.

Where were some of those threads?  Are there any threads in your own life which might be showing you the path that you are going to take?

And the winners are....

We could not be any more thrilled here at PES with the Newbery and Caldecott winners!

This year's winner of the John Newbery Medal is The One and Only Ivan, the book that we all read in December for our One Book, One School project.  Hooray!







The winner of this year's Caldecott is This is Not My Hat, a book which makes everyone laugh when they read it.   Many PES students correctly predicted this one as a winner!

Who is going to win the Newbery Medal?

I can't wait for the Newbery and Caldecott Medal announcements next Monday!  Who do you think is going to win?

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

We are honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday.  His "I Have a Dream" speech is one of the most important speeches ever given in our country.

What are the big ideas of Dr. King's speech? Why do you think it was (and is) so important to our country?