Merry Christmas everyone!

See you back at school next year! Enjoy your break ~

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One of my favorites...

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree (Robert E. Barry) is one of my all-time favorite Christmas stories! I have loved it since i was a little girl. This week I want to share it with all our students...

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I LOVE it!!

Dinosaurs

To continue our comparison of fiction vs. non-fiction, we talked about dinosaurs this week! Dinosaur books are found in 567 of our non-fiction, and we talked about some giant dinosaurs and the smallest dinosaurs. Then we read this great story...

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We love that the illustrator included pictures of ACTUAL dinosaurs and shared their name. That way we can look them up and learn more about them.  My favorite dinosaur in this story is the Dimorphodon.

Bears

We've been learning the difference between fiction and non-fiction, and this week we discussed "real" bears, and "pretend" bears... =)

REAL bear books are found in 599 of the non-fiction books in our library. We found books about black bears, grizzly bears, panda bears, and polar bears. We also talked about hibernation, and how nice it would be (for me at least) to sleep through winter =) Then we read a super cute story about one of MY favorite bears...

 

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I LOVE Bear...

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

It's almost time for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! I LOVE this time of year (minus the snow)! The parade is a family tradition, we turn it on and watch while we prepare for the day, getting dinner ready, playing games, doing crafts... it's a wonderful way to spend Thanksgiving Day morning.

 

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This fun book is the "True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade" and is a great read! Illustrator Melissa Sweet (Caldeccott Honor Winner) has done a beautiful job (as always) with this book! We will be learning all about the history behind Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this week, and fun facts about parades in general! Visit the Macy's Web page for fun activities for your family!

 Happy Thanksgiving!

Blackout!

With the East Coast still recovering from Hurricane Sandy, (hundreds of thousands are still without power) I thought it would be a great time to introduce one of our Beehive Book Award Nominees this year...

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Blackout, written and illustrated by John Rocco! This is such a wonderful book, with a great story, and beautiful illustrations! When the power goes out in a busy city neighborhood, amazing and wonderful things happen in this cute family and the community around them. It's a great read, and the illustrations tell as much of the story as the words. Don't miss this! I'm excited to share it with our students this week!

The Book Fair is Coming, the Book Fair is Coming!

NEXT WEEK!! Yay!

But if you can't wait until next week...you can shop our ONLINE Book Fair, starting TOMORROW!

(Click on the image above, and it will take you directly to our online fair! 

Don't you just LOVE technology?)

Books that are ordered online will be delivered here to our school, and you can pick them up after the fair has ended.  Grandparents that live out of state, can purchase books for your families, and NOT pay SHIPPING! (I love no shipping...)

Want to donate a book to a teachers classroom? Purchase online, and again, it's delivered right here to our school, and you can specify which teacher you would like to give it to.  Nice, huh? =) Whichever way you choose to shop, just don't forget to SHOP!  The holiday season is just around the corner, and the little readers in your life would LOVE a new book, or two, or three... or... more! =)

Thank you SO much for your wonderful support of our school, our library, and most importantly, our students!

OH!! And don't forget... The 2013 Scholastic Book of World Records will be at our fair ($10.99) and WE ARE IN IT!! Remember?  Our FOURTEENTH Place WORLD finish in the Scholastic's Read for the World Record?  yes!!

New Books!

We've got some new books in our library!

        

The Library Gingerbread Man...

This week in the Library, we are working on our "Dewey" skills!  It's FUN when we do it with Dotti Enderle''s The Library Gingerbread Man!

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Shel Silverstein

It's Shel Silverstein's birthday this week (September 25) so I thought it would be fun to celebrate his greatness by reading a few of his most famous poems from...

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Did you know that Shel wrote SONGS?  Famous ones, too!  I wasn't shocked (he was quite the talented man,) but I was surprised.  Check out his super great website HERE, it's chocked full of fun things to do, and you can get to know Shel even better than you think you do!

Press Here

Our "book of the week"continues our DOT theme from last week...

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This is such a fun book!  Younger children will think you are MAGIC!  

(It's a fun lesson in following directions, too!)

International "Dot Day!"

I love Peter Reynolds!

Seriously! He's got to be one of the most talented men on the planet! I am in love with each and every book he has written/illustrated!  

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International Dot Day is Saturday September 15th...go to the International Dot Day website to get more information, or to register to participate.  Riverview is REGISTERED!!

UPDATE:

After we read the book The Dot during library time, our art teacher Mrs. Quiroz had the students draw their very own dot... 

Aren't these spectacular?  I think my favorite one is the "singing" dot =)

Maybe you should design your OWN dot!  Thanks Peter for a great week celebrating The Dot, we have made our mark, now we will see where it takes us!

WE DID IT!! GO OTTERS!!

I just wanted to share some fun that we've been having at Riverview...

All summer we've been reading for Scholastic's "Read for the World Record" Challenge, and we have blown our own socks off!

The challenge started May 1st, and ran through August 31st, and during that time the students read, and read, and READ!! More minutes were read, than were logged I'm sure, but all the same the students did SUCH a great job, that Riverview was ranked FIRST in the state of Utah, and FOURTEENTH in the WORLD!  (Just got a call from Scholastic, and it's official!  Out of the 4,446 schools worldwide that participated, Riverview is ranked 14th!) The final tally's will be posted by Scholastic in a couple of weeks, and we are excited to see the FINAL totals.  The top 20 schools get their name in the Scholastic Book of World Records, 2013.  Yay us!! (flags in the pic below represent the top 20 schools =)

Just. Right. Books.

We talk about this all the time, how to choose a "just right book." This week we are reading a super cute story ...

 

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On her way to school, and late, Goldisocks takes a short-cut through the woods... (short-cuts through the forest are NEVER good, doesn't she know that??) and she stumbles upon a cute cottage made of books!  You will have to read the book for the rest of the story, but let's just say it all turns out "just right."  Goldisocks tells us about the 5 Finger Rule and shares other ways to help us choose "just right books."  Check it out for yourself! 

WHAT?

Can. You. Believe. It?

Did your summer go as quickly as mine did? Holy smokes!

Hope you are ready for this...we've got some GREAT things happening this year!

FIRST, an update on our Scholastic "Read for the World Record" Challenge... we are 35th in the ENTIRE WORLD!!  First in the state of Utah!  Woohoo!  Nice work, otters!  Now to get into the top 20... keep reading!  I have more minutes to record, that students have been bringing to me at school, so hopefully when those get connected to our school, our total minutes will JUMP!  I am SO very proud of all of you!  Keep up the good work!

SECOND, did i mention we've got some GREAT things happening this year?  Well, we do!  And you will just need to find out what they are next week at library time =)  see you SOON!

bookmarks!

I LOVE these bookmarks!  I've recently discovered digital scrapbooking, and I might be hooked, especially if I can play with cute kits like this one from Meredith Cardall!  (by the way, I did ask her permission before I posted this... check out her beautiful designs HERE.) These are one of the very first things i created, and I love them so much, I wanted to share them with you!

DOWNLOAD HERE

Books I've Read... so far =)

So, I've tried to read as often as possible this summer, and here's a few of the books I've finished:

The Emerald Atlas, by John Stevens

With a Name Like Love, by Tess Hilmo

Lulu and the Brontosaurus, by Judith Viorst

Invisible, by Lorena McCourtney

Tears of the Broken, by A.M. Hudson

  

and

Knight of the Rose, by A.M. Hudson

I've been BUSY!  Driving to Seattle, Washington though, will give you plenty of time to read =)  The last three books are NOT children's fiction, (they are FREE Nook books from Barnes & Noble) but the first three are actually 2012-2013 Children's Fiction Beehive Book Nominees!  I'm trying to read all of the books on the Children's Fiction nominee list this summer.  Only 7 more to go =) 

First project of the summer - complete!

In case you haven't noticed, wandering around the library, I LOVE signs... LOVE them!  So here's one I finished today, just special for the library...

 

{photo/sign copyright 2012 - come home with me}

Do you love it as much as I do??  I sure hope so! 

Summer Reading!

I'm gearing up for all my summer reading, and I thought I would share with you some wonderful sites that have great summer reading "helps"...

chickabug

Scholastic

Classroom Jr.

It's Written on the Walls

ABC Teach

School Family

DLTK Teach

PBS

Barnes & Noble

These sites each have different helps, lists, printables, logs, ideas, programs to help your kids read this summer.  My favorite is Barnes & Noble's Summer Reading program, where you read 8 books, then take the log in and you get a FREE book!  There is nothing better than FREE BOOKS!  =)  So check out these sites and keep reading this summer!

Don't forget... 

WORLD RECORD READING!!

May 1, 2012 - August 31, 2012

This summer we are going to READ!!

We are one of two schools in Utah registered in Scholastic's "Read for the World Record" competition!  Papers were sent home week before last with all the directions on how to get registered, but here's the link just in case.  Click HERE to register, then log on weekly (or as often as you would like =) to record your minutes!

I am SO excited to be participating in this!  If we are one of the top 20 schools participating, we will get our schools name RIVERVIEW ELEMENTARY published in the 2013 Scholastic Book of World Records!  How oober cool is that?? =)

Our Scholastic Buy One Get One Free book fair is coming!  This is a great opportunity to pick up some super reading material for the summer, and to keep you on track with your personal goal in our Read for the World Record activity.  As of this posting, I (Mrs. Haymond) have logged 180 minutes of reading.  Not as high as I would like, because I had WAY too many things to do this weekend, but I hope to get back on track with my reading TONIGHT!!  So gear up, and join me!  Heck, why not BEAT me?  Collect MORE minutes than I do...think you can do that?? =)  I double dog dare you to read more than I do!  Ready?  Set?  GO!

Author Blogs

Anyone checked the author blogs/websites in the right sidebar??  NO?  You REALLY should because every now and again they do something even more fun that posting... they have C O N T E S T S !!  Yup, contests!

Check out author Frank L. Cole's blog in the right side bar... he's amazing as you all know!  Remember Hashbrown?  Yup, this is the guy that created him... go check it out!

OH!  And he has a new book out...

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It's  A W E S O M E !!

Beehive Book Award Winners!

We've been reading the nominees for the 2012 Beehive Book Award, and the winners were announced Friday, April 20, 2012!  I thought you might be interested to know who won in each category... =)

Children's Fiction

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

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Informational

Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's "Chocolate Pilot" by Michael O. Tunnell

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Picture Book

Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton

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Poetry

The Dancing Pancake by Eileen Spinelli

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Congratulations to all!  All the nominees were spectacular this year!  

If you are curious... the nominees have been announced for next year, too =)

www.clau.org

100th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic

This week in the library we will be commemmorating the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912.  We will be looking through this book -

 

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and looking through our Titanic display.  An amazing ship, and such a tragic turn of events.  We will learn about some of the survivors, and also about Morse Code.  This site provides some great help in learning and understanding Morse Code, we will even practice with it! =)

(most of the information for our display came from this website)

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This fun book, is also about a ship that sank, and is based on a true story.  

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It's a very cute story about circus animals that sought refuge in a coastal town after their ship sank, and how the townspeople come to their rescue.  Love it! The illustrations are AMAZING, thank you Chris!