Look it up in the Dictionary!

As part of a unit on Reference Books, Timberlake 5th and 6th graders worked in pairs today utilizing their dictionary skills. We studied the importance of guide words, when you would use a dictionary, and checking the correct spellings of words. The students worked beautifully together and gained confidence using this basic reference tool. Next week, the thesaurus...

Biography Study

Timberlake 3rd and 4th grade students are learning more about Biographies this month in the Library. This week, we learned that a Biography is a story written about a person's life by another person. An autobiography is a story written about a person's life by that person. A collective biography is a book which contains biographies of many people. Students read sample titles of books and determined whether or not they were biographies, autobiographies, collective biographies, or neither. Later this month, students will read a biographical sketch about a famous person, take notes, and then present their findings to the class. We may even write our own autobiographies!

Jan Brett Author Study

Timberlake 2nd graders love Jan Brett and her wide variety of books! This week, we read Hedgie Blasts Off! and then colored pages of Hedgie as an astronaut and floating in space. We even learned how to draw a hedgehog! What a creative group of students!

Cinderella

You know the story...with the beautiful girl who is stuck at home cleaning while her step sisters go to the ball at the palace. Then her fairy godmother arrives and saves the day! She loses her glass slipper after she dances all night with the handsome prince. Well, the First Grade class heard a couple of versions of the Cinderella story as part of their unit on Fairy Tales this week during Library class. We discussed prediction, and compared the books with the Disney movie that many of the students had seen. For the rest of the month, we will be enjoying Cinderella stories from around the world...

Penguins 'n' Polar Bears!

January will be a fun month for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten Timberlake students as they enjoy penguin and polar bear story time in the library! The Pre-Kindergarten class met Tacky the Penguin on Monday and learned that every friend has a place in the group, even if they are a little odd like Tacky was in the story. Kindergarteners were introduced to Lars, a polar bear cub in Hans deBeer's Little Polar Bear! We will be enjoying more arctic themed stories throughout the winter months ahead!

Leadership Class

Every day 8th hour, I have the privilege of teaching a Leadership class to a wonderful, motivated group of students! This 9 weeks, we have been reading and studying the book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Students LOVE this book and are constantly begging for more reading and more projects revolving around this book! This week, we will complete our reading and next week will be filled with creative projects revolving around the book. The Timberlake Leadership class highly recommends this book and its two companion novels, Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

Book Fair!

The Scholastic Book Fair is coming to the Timberlake Elementary School Library December 6-10th! There will be a variety of books for all ages to purchase just in time for the holiday season. You can view the website at this link: http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bookfairs/cptoolkit/publish/timberlake to view featured books and other important information. Plan to visit Wednesday night during PTO's Pancakes With Santa event and shop at the book fair from 5-8pm!