A Little Trash & Treasure

Mrs. Anderson’s 4th grade class is studying the southeastern United States.  She decided to collaborate with the library staff and practice using the World Book Encyclopedia and  taking notes using  the “Big 6 “ Trash & Treasure approach.  Top that off with a an interesting note taking technique involving  paper folding, cutting  and we had fun, while learning.

Wrapping up this U.S. state project.

Accelerated Reader Gets Kids Reading!

Even our littlest readers are taking the Accelerated  challenge.  Thanks to the support of this little ones parents, she’s off  running reading a new book daily and taking the AR quiz challenge.  Her reading can’t help but take off!

AR Book Finder is a great site to go to if you want to find out if a book you have or one checked out from the library has an AR quiz.  Check it out!

Author Jerry Pallotta Wants To Visit Schools! How About Ours?

Jerry Pallotta visits 150 schools every year. Scholastic Book Company is sponsoring a Jerry Pallotta visit to a winning school for 1st – 4th grade students. How can HHES take the challenge? Jerry wants kids and adults to write him a postcard telling why you would like him to visit Hermon Hutchens Elementary.

Sound like fun? 1st through 4th grade classes that would like to participate with this postcard writing activity and take the challenge to get Jerry Pallotta to visit HHES contact the library staff.

Below are some of the awesome books Pallotta has written which are in our library.

NoveList K-8 : Looking For Your Next Good Book To Read?

Thanks to funding from our state, all Alaska school libraries have access to NoveList K-8. This is a great resource for teachers, students, and parents created by EBSCO. You can search for books by title, author and subject and locate a wide variety of award winning books from kindergarten through 8th grade.

Books have annotations which means there is a brief write up telling you about the story.

Valdez City Schools students are able to access NoveList K-8 through the Alaska Digital Pipeline. You will need to contact the HHES Library staff for the user name and password to access this excellent reading source. 

Check out the site and give us feedback on whether you are able to get in and what you think of it.

Battle of the Books: Get Wrapped Up In Reading

This year HHES students in kindergarten through 6th grade can get “Wrapped Up In Reading” the 2008-2009 Alaska Battle of the Books. Swing by the HHES Library to pick up a brochure that gives the kindergarten through 6th grade titles the students will be reading this year, or print out the list from the Alaska Battle Book website above.

Students in 3rd – 6th grade who have read 6 battle books and received 80% or better on Accelerated Reader quizzes will be invited to attend the annual swimming pizza party Friday November 21st.

HHES District Battles and the annual Battle Book Slumber Party will be in January for all students on the 3rd/4th & 5th/6th district battle teams, as well as students who have read all 15 books and received 80% or better on Accelerated Reader quizzes.

State level battles will be February 23rd – 26th.

Here’s Sammy the Snake to help us “Get Wrapped Up In Reading” this year’s 2007-2008 Battle Books.

We’re always looking for parent volunteers to come in once a week to quiz kids on battle book titles/authors and questions from the books.   Please contact Barb Bryson at 835-4728 if you’re interested in helping out.

Poet Eric Ode Visits HHES!

 

 

 

 

 

This week, poet Eric Ode will be visiting Hermon Hutchens Elementary School, thanks to support from the Valdez Literacy Council. Eric is known for the poetry and songs he writes for children. This week Eric will present to all classes as well as do writing workshops with small groups of students.

Ode has produced CD’s of poetry and music that may be purchased from his website. His poetry can also be found in two of Bruce Lansky’s poetry books called: “Dinner with Dracula: A Spine-Tingling Collection of Frighteningly Funny Poems”, and “Rolling in the Aisles: A Collection of Laugh-Out-Loud Poems” Below is his most recent CD, “I Love My Shoes”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cat In The Hat Turns 50!

This week we celebrated 50 years of “The Cat In The Hat” as well as many of the other books written by Theodore Guisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. There are lots of great websites out there that you can learn more about this interesting man as well as games webquests and much much more.

World Book Encyclopedia Now Available From Your Home!

The Valdez City School Libraries have joined forces to purchase World Book Encyclopedia Online. (Log in with username: “valdez” and password: “wbonline”.)

Students, parents, and teachers can access this accurate web-based up-to-date resource from home or school by going to any of the VCS library catalogs. The library catalogs may be reached from the Valdez City School website.

World Book is a company with a long history of quality reference products. Here’s some of the great information you can find out from this site:

* “Behind the Headlines” helps users understand current events in a changing world by providing background information.

* “Feature of the Month” includes in-depth articles on a variety of topics.

* “Today in History” lists important events that took place on the current date.

* “Atlas” has up-to-date maps of many countries including alternative views such as population density, rainfall, temperature ranges, agriulture, mining, manufacturing, and terrain.

* “Surf the Ages” is based on the premise, “If the internet had existed since ancient times, what kind of Web sites would have been created fring the different historical periods?”

* All this along with excellent facts, photos, maps, and recommended websites on a wide variety of subject.

Check it out! World Book Online. Username “valdez”. Password: “wbonline”.

Meet Cynthia Rylant!

The HHES Library “Author of the Month” is Cynthia Rylant! Check out her website.

Cynthia is one of those children’s authors who was working in a library, reading lots of children’s books, when she realized she wanted to become a children’s author. Our library has a nice selection of Rylants books in the “Everybody Section”. They’ll be out on display for September! Swing by and take time to read one. Better yet, check one out and enjoy it with your family at home.