Chat and Chew will start back up again soon!  We will be reading The Great Shelby Holmes from the 2017-2018 Bluebonnet list.  We will Skype with author Elizabeth Eulberg in March.  Looking forward to reading this book with our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders.

In 4th grade we tried out some of our new makerspace goodies.  We used Ozobots to code different types of poems.  Our library has a great series of books on different types of poetry; I found examples of the types for students to read and coded them out for students to run the robots.  Then, they got to try drawing their own poems.

For our acrostic poems, the Ozobot turned different colors on each line and letter.

The Ozobots spun on each syllable for both Cinquain and Haikus.

Kids used the dry erase marker to fill in the haiku on on the code; we used haikus from the super-cute book I Haiku You.  They could also write their own!

For limericks, the Ozobot lit up different colors to match and highlight the rhyme scheme of the poem.

And the concrete poems were my favorite!  The Ozobot followed the shape of the poem perfectly.

We are excited to start using our Maker Area!

At the end of July, we unboxed the opening day collection and put all the books on the shelves.  It was a long and amazing day to see the process of a library coming together.  Our vendor, Mackin, had all of the books organized in boxes, I drew up a map of where we wanted the different collections, and we moved them from the boxes to the shelves in a single day.  We have been up and running for a month now, but I’m still trying to catch my breath!  Opening a school is a lot of hard but rewarding work!

I packed up at Pink at the end of last spring to go on an adventure of opening a brand new school and library.  It’s been an emotional, bittersweet journey.  I came to Pink as a brand new librarian at 25 years old; I learned a lot there in 8 years…probably more than the kids.  I’m excited for the opportunity to open a new library and hopeful that I will get to work with and inspire a brand new group of students!

We wrapped up our Bluebonnet Club for the year at Pink with a celebration for the winning book When the Beat Was Born.  We had about 100 students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade participate in 2015-2016.  There’s no party like a Bluebonnet Party!

Our school was so lucky to host “The Smartest Man in the World” from Story Pirates.  He quizzed our students in an interactive game show all about the famous people from the book series Who Was by Penguin Young Readers.  Our students were ready for his questions because we have been reading and promoting these books in the library.  The Who Was Adventure app is a fun way to learn about these famous people, and our 2nd grade students have been doing research using these fun biographies.  At the end of the presentation we won the title of the “Smartest School in the World!”

February 25th was World Read Aloud Day!  Pink Library participated in this awesome event for the first time this year with lots of wonderful reading experiences.  Each class invited a special guest to read for WRA Day, and older classes were paired with younger classes to share in a Buddy Reading time.  Throughout the morning, we had three very special guest readers broadcast to all classes: our superintendent, school board representative, and our former school principal were welcome faces reading on the “big screen” in the classroom.  The library hosted five author Skypes for 4th and 2nd graders, where authors shared about themselves, read from their books, and answered our questions. Special thanks to all of our visitors; looking forward to the next WRA Day!

Winter Chat and Chew wrapped up our Lost Planet book club last week by Skyping with Rachel Searles. Students were excited to hear their questions answered and ready to move on to the sequel The Stolen Moon.  Stay tuned for our spring Chat and Chew announcement; this time we’ll open it up to our third graders.

It was groovy!

Only a few more days before we vote on our favorite Bluebonnet Books!  Read five and decide!