Mustang Media Musings

Hey students! I’m glad to see that some of you are commenting on the blog even though I am behind in updating it   Please remember to use only your first name or your nick name. I will have to remove any posts that contain the first and last names of students. It’s for everyone’s safety.

So…keep posting! Just use your first name or a nickname.

I look forward to reading your comments.

The 2009-2010 school year is off to a great start! Kindergarten and first grade students have been checking out books and learning the difference between fiction and nonfiction. Our 2nd and 3rd grade students can now visit the media center whenever they like and are very excited to start taking AR tests.   4th and 5th graders are showing their Mustang Pride and learning about different collections in the media center and what their call numbers mean.

Our theme for this year is READ, LEARN, GROW! We’re off to a great start!

I have started reading the books on our list for each grade and they are all wonderfully fun! I hope you don’t miss out on the chance to read these great books.  Remember, they are available at school in the front office for checkout.

Let’s use this post to comment on the summer reading books or anything else you have read this summer. What is your favorite part of the story? Which characters are most interesting to you? Why? Would you recommend this book to a friend?

Have a great summer with a great book!

Mrs. Ingram

Well, this school year is coming to a close and we are all looking forward to summer. Students – post comments here about what you are doing over the summer, what great books you are reading and where you are traveling. I will let you know the same about me!  Have an awesome summer break!!!

Students,

This is the place you can comment on your favorite thing we did in media or studio this year or on things you would like to do next year. I love to hear your comments and ideas for next year!  Thank you for your input.

Mrs. Ingram

The past few months have flown by and I have neglected to report all that we have been up to in the media center.  We finished reading the FRA books nominated for the children’s book award and voted for our favorite – The Gooey Jellyfish. Wow! I am encouraged that my students are so excited about nonfiction books.  We will explore more books about “real” things.

3rd through 5th grade students voted for their favorite Sunshine State Young Reader’s Award.  Listen! won by a wide margin.  Books featuring dogs have always been popular with Mustang readers so I was not terribly surprised.  We had a great time exploring these great books and have added a couple to our summer reading list!

Finally, our most recent event was a very successful book fair. It was a busy week with lots of shopping.  Students really enjoy visiting the book fair during media and guidance.  It was exciting to see students and parents come to shop clutching the summer reading list in their hand.  Several titles sold out and had to be restocked. WOW!

We are looking forward to the final month of school. There is still much to be learned and lots of fun to experience.  We’ll try to take a break and keep you posted!

Flat Stanley had an exciting trip to Louisiana over winter break.  He traveled with Mrs. Ingram and Mrs. Ingram’s daughter Kathryn.  He saw Alabama and Mississippi along the way.  In Mississippi he met Santa and Elvis!  He also saw many exciting sites in Baton Rouge, Mrs. Ingram’s home town.

Check out my favorite picture of Stanley’s journey. We had a great time visiting Mike the Tiger before going downtown to see the Mississippi River and the capital.  Students will use an atlas to trace Stanley’s trip and learn interesting facts about our neighboring states.  We made a movie of the trip, but can’t get it to upload We’ll keep trying!

The kindergarten, first and second grade students are enjoying the books nominated for the Florida Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award.  First, we read “Do Unto Otters” and talked about the importance of good manners and doing unto otters as we would have them do unto us.  The students especially liked the otters neighbor, the rabbit, and the way he enters the story “Dum, de dum, de dum.”

Next, we read “Winston the Book Wolf” together.  We were worried that he liked to eat books (not good at all) but were relieved when he learned to “eat words with his eyes”, that is, he learned to read!  What an exciting way to describe what we love to do in media.  The students enjoyed retelling their favorite part of the story and putting these parts in sequence.  Anytime we can stand up in front of the class and share, we are happy students!

Last week we read “Emma’s Turtle” and learned how to find the places the turtle visited on a map and a globe. We learned that the globe represents the earth and that it is better than a map since the earth and the globe are both round. We played a game with an inflated globe and practiced finding the United States, Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and other places near and far.  We also found China, India, Africa and Australia (these were all places the turtle “visited” in the story).  We learned that reading can take us anywhere in the world and we like to explore new and exciting places.

We look forward to reading more FRA nominated books and voting for our favorite later in the school year. We’ll let you know which one is our favorite!

Wow! There are so many great books to read.  I pulled out all of the Christmas and Hanukkah books from the collection and the students can’t get enough.  At story time, I read The Gingerbread Girl, last year’s FRA Children’s Book Award winner. (This award is given after children all over Florida vote for their favorite nominated book.) The students then compared this story to the more traditional Gingerbread Boy story and decorated their own gingerbread girl for our tree.

Finally, we made sure we all had a great book for the long winter break.  We are looking forward to time with our family and coming back to a new year and more exciting adventures in the media center!