Sheboygan Children's Book Festival

Last weekend I took my oldest daughter down to Sheboygan to check out their Children's Book Festival. Initially I had to bribe her to go (we were only an hour from Milwaukee, so we headed down there after) but when we left the John Michael Kohler Arts Center more than four hours after we arrived, my daughter was begging me to bring her back the following year! It was pretty exciting for both of us!

We arrived a few minutes before the festival was to begin and surprisingly, there were only two other people in line in front of us. When the doors opened at 10, I was starting to think that maybe this wasn't going to be a very big festival! We walked around the art center while we waited for the events we wanted to attend to begin. {It is a very pretty center and I'm definitely going to head back another time!} At 10:45 we went into the auditorium and listened to author Blue Balliett talk about her adventures in writing, how she got started, and how she keeps going today. She was very interesting to listen to and my daughter even took the time to ask her questions about her books. Afterwards, we went to the lobby where we purchased a couple of her books and had them autographed.

After a quick lunch, we were off to see my favorite children's author, Kevin Henkes! He started out by telling us that he prefers to stay home rather than getting out but he was happy to be at this particular festival. He shared with us that he grew up in Racine, Wisconsin and is currently living in Madison. It's so exciting to have such a great author from our state! Kevin shared with us his family (mom, dad, brothers and sister) and how his family helps to shape the characters in his books. He also shared with us some hilarious letters from fans and one that really stood out where the young fan kept complimenting him on the books he writes, "especially the ones with the mice!" After his talk we headed back out to the lobby to stand in a very long line to get Kevin's autograph, but it was well worth it as he took the time to have a picture taken with us as well. We felt very spoiled!

Kevin Henkes, my daughter - Emma, and me!

I would highly recommend this book festival next year if you are looking for something fun (and free!) to do with your family. It is held at three locations in Sheboygan so there is plenty to check out! For more information on the festival or the authors mentioned above, click on these links:

Sheboygan Children's Book Festival

Blue Balliett, author

Kevin Henkes, author

STUDENTS GOING INTO GRADES 4 AND 5!!!

Now that I have your attention...Do you like to read? Are you interested in competing with other students around Wisconsin? Well the Battle of the Books may be  just the thing for you! We’ll be getting teams together next school year but you can get a head start on reading this summer! Here is the list of books we’ll be reading for the competition. If you think this is for you, go ahead and start reading! I’ll see YOU in the fall!!!

• 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
• Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming
• Big Nate Flips Out by Lincoln Peirce
• The Dark by Lemony Snicket
• The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck by Jeff Kinney
• Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
• How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell
• Killer Species: Out for Blood by Michael P. Spradlin
• The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
• Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
• Loser by Jerry Spinelli
• My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
• The Nazi Invasion, 1944 (I Survived series #9) by Lauren Tarshis
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
• Oh, No! by Candace Fleming
• Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by James Dean
• Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
• That Is Not a Good Idea! by Mo Willems
• Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Summer Reading Incentives

With summer vacation right around the corner it becomes difficult to encourage kids to read. I can attest to this myself as a parent of two elementary age students (one moving on to middle school in the fall). So in order to help parents encourage their kiddos to read, there are a couple of opportunities that parents and students can take advantage of:

Brown County Library Summer Reading Programs

The Brown County Library has three summer reading programs for kids of all ages to take part in. The first is Fizz, Boom, Read which targets students from birth through fifth grade. The second, Spark a Reaction, is for students going into grades 6 through 12. The third, Literary Elements, is geared toward us adults! So as you can see, they've worked hard to encourage all family members to enjoy their programs! Be sure to stop in and see what prizes are available for all levels. Sign up begins tomorrow, June 7th.

Barnes & Noble Summer Reading - Imagination's Destination

This program is for students going into grades 1 - 6. The steps are quite simple. Download a reading record from their website, read 8 books and record them on the reading record, bring your completed record to your local B&N store, enjoy a free book from a selection they have available! Who doesn't love a free book? I know I couldn't pass that up!

Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge

Scholastic has an online opportunity for students. This program began May 5th and runs through September 5th. Students can help to set a summer reading world record!

No matter what you decide to do this summer, I hope you will find time to read every day!

3rd Grade Early America Project

Over the last few weeks the third grade students have been studying Early America. To demonstrate their learning they created a variety of projects and showed them off in a museum format for their parents and the other students to see. It was wonderful to see so many smiling faces as they eagerly showed off their hard work! Here is just a small sampling of their fantastic projects. Nice job third graders!!!

ATTENTION PARENTS: Summer Bucket List Free Printable!!!

I cannot lie. I am a HUGE Pinterest fan. I can spend endless hours on this site and just pin, pin, pin away! Last night I was perusing the site and stumbled across the CUTEST printable!! I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm always looking for ideas of things to do with my daughters during the summer. So when I found this, it felt like I hit the jackpot!! Because I love it so much, I'm going to share it with you!

Before we get that far though...I recently had a conversation with the upper grade levels about "borrowing" images from the Internet. I do not own this document, nor do I own the rights to the images so before I posted this information I contacted Gretchen, the blog owner at Three Little Monkeys Studio. I sent her a brief email requesting permission to share her awesome list and permission to use a photo to grab your attention. Obviously I got both! I am soooo thrilled!! (See kids? Sometimes all it takes is a quick email to get permission to borrow an image!)

A great big THANKS goes out to Gretchen and I hope that you will all run (don't walk!!) to her site and check out these awesome Summer Bucket Lists!! {Click on the photo below to head over to her page!}

We're on Instagram!

I love using Instagram for my personal photos but recently (yesterday) created an account for my school photos. Please take a minute to check us out! Follow me so that you don't miss out on all the fun! Click on the icon below to find my page!

Summer Reading Program

Today the Glenbrook students had a special guest come and visit us. Katie Guzek, a youth services librarian from the Brown County Library came out and talked to all grade levels about the upcoming Summer Reading Programs. For kids ages birth to entering 5th grade this summer's theme is "Fizz! Boom! Read!". The theme for Middle School and High School students is "Spark a Reaction" and for adults (yes, they even have a program for adults!) your theme is "Literary Elements". The kick-off event is happening on Saturday, June 7th at the Central Library from 10 am to noon. Stop in and check it out! Sign up for the program begins on June 7th and can be done at any of the Brown County Library locations.

I hope you continue to read all summer long!

I Love Writing By Mrs. Skinkis's Class

The other day I had the opportunity to work with a first grade class on their "I Love Writing" project. They first wrote a sentence about why they loved writing. Next, they colored a picture illustrating their sentence. I took the completed images, scanned them into the computer and uploaded them to Little Bird Tales. From there, the students were recorded reading their sentence and a book was created! Enjoy!

• Click to view my tale.
• 

Attention Grabber!!

We just got a new sign for the library and it definitely has the attention of the kids! I'm hearing lots of buzz coming from the hallway and they all want to know...what's new?!

Summer Reading

Summer is just around the corner and with summer comes long days of hanging out with friends and running around the neighborhood. Unfortunately, some students suffer from "summer learning loss" since they don't have the daily reminder of school anymore. Big Universe came up with an infographic to help students with ideas for learning during the summer. Enjoy!

What's New in the Glenbrook LMC?

Check out this video to find out what's new in the library!

School Library Month ~ Staff Reading Memories

From Mrs. Skinkis:

“When I was a kid, my sister and I loved to read Shel Silverstein poetry books.  Those books made us laugh and giggle uncontrollably.  Our favorite book was "Where the Sidewalk Ends," and our favorite poem was "Sick."  Still, to this day, I love reading his poems!”

From Mrs. Laurent:

“When my son was just 4 years old, he wanted us to read a book about the Titanic everyday!!! And every night!!! Finally, we read it onto a cassette tape (yes, that long ago!) and he could listen to it whenever he wanted to.”

From Mrs. Malchow:

“I remember the first time I was introduced to Robert Munsch books almost 20 years ago. It was the story, Purple, Green and Yellow. I remember thinking that I could make so many connections with the story as I had always begged my mom for smelly markers and of course- who didn't draw on themselves at some point? If you haven't read this story, it's definitely one to take a peek at- guaranteed to make you laugh.”

From Mrs. Rupno:

“My favorite childhood book was "The Tale of the Fourth Grade Nothing" by Judy Blume. It was my favorite because my third grade teacher read the story with the funniest voices. She could make our whole class laugh.”

From Mr. Hendricks:

“Reading allows me to enter worlds that don't actually exist, while giving me the opportunity to image: 'What if?' (City of Ember)  Reading also gives me the opportunity to make connections to old memories through characters and story lines. (Harris and Me)”

From Ms. Watermolen:

“I grew up reading right here in our Glenbrook library! Mrs. Bock was our librarian and I loved hearing her read us many stories. I've always loved Dr. Seuss and his wacky stories. My favorite book is Oh The Places You'll Go. This story inspired me to do many great things in my life, including becoming a teacher!”

School Library Month - Staff Reading Memories

From Señorita Olsen:

"My favorite book as a child was But No Elephants! by Jerry Smith. It was about an old lady named Grandma Tildy who bought many pets from a salesman, but would not buy an elephant! I loved the book so much that I asked for (and got) a purple elephant cake for my 4th birthday."

From Mrs. DeCleene:

“My favorite childhood book is Purple, Green and Yellow by Robert Munsch! I love how she gets a bunch of smelly, never come of until your dead and maybe even later coloring markers! I always wanted some.”

From Mrs. Dietrich:

“Loved when my mom and dad read "Are You My Mother?" to me.  I actually think I still have the book on the shelves in the basement!”

From Mrs. McAllister:

“I can still remember in my sixth grade classroom that my teacher challenged our whole class to read, read, read!  Mrs. Moore did this by having us earn a circle for a caterpillar that traveled around the top of our classroom walls for every book we read.  I earned A LOT of circles to add to the caterpillar.  Every time we got the caterpillar from one wall to the next, we got to watch a movie.  Finally by the end of the year, our caterpillar had traveled around all four walls of our classroom.  We read a lot that year!”

From Mrs. Bradford:

“I loved the author Ruth Chew.  I have a few of my books still from elementary school.  I also wrote to her as a third grader and she wrote back!  I still have the letter (somewhere!).”

From Mrs. Wendricks:

“I had so many books that were my favorites when I was little, but the one that I remember reading the most was Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.  My mom read it so many times to me that I had it memorized.  Then once I had it memorized, I read it to myself so often that the pages started to fall out.  My mom had to buy me a new copy!  It is still one of my favorite books!”

School Library Month ~ Staff Reading Memories

From Mrs. Yaw:

“My favorite childhood book was "We Help Mommy". It was about a little girl and boy who stayed at home with their mom and helped her do her work around the house. I think I liked it so much because it was just like me and my brother at home with our mom. My mom read this book to me over and over!”

From Mrs. Wiedeman:

“When I was a kid, my mom was the elementary librarian at the school I attended.  I remember getting so excited for library days because we would always sit in the library pit and my mom would read us a new story or perform a puppet play for us.  My mom would order lots of new books for the library and she would bring them home for us to read. I always felt lucky to be the "first" person to read the new books.  To this day, I still can't wait to get my hands on new books and read, read, read!”

From Mrs. Hendricks:

“My favorite books as a child were American Girl, Boxcar Children, and Babysitters Club.”

From Mrs. Carrie Birr:

“I remember someone recommended that I read "The Kissing Hand" book to my youngest before she went to her first day of Kindergarten.  So the night before I read her the book, hoping it would encourage her and make her feel safe about going to Kindergarten.  Instead I was crying and could barely see the words to finish reading the book.  She ended up telling me, "It's okay mom, I'll be fine."  Great book - but just don't read it the night before your baby goes to Kindergarten.”

From Mrs. Hucek:

“My absolute favorite book as a child was "The King Who Rained" by Fred Gwynn (also known as Herman Munster of TV's popular "The Munsters") It's basically a book of illustrated idioms.  I remember sitting with my mother reading and looking at it over and over again.  My favorite parts/illustrations were the page with the "frog in the mom's throat" and the page with the "coat of arms" (which also kind of creeped me out) Now when I work with ELL kids on learning English idioms I have used this book and it always brings me right back to my childhood! I love kids' books!!!!!”

From Mrs. Pamperin:

“When I was little I used to love fairy tale books where the impossible could happen to regular people. Spin straw into gold?  If only I could do that I too could marry a prince!  I took up sewing instead and waited for my prince to find me....... That is one of the best things about reading----we can experience in a book something that could never really happen.”

School Library Month ~ Staff Reading Memories

Here are more staff memories about reading! Enjoy!

From Señora Tewes:

“I loved reading the Little House on the Prairie books when I was a kid. My mom always read them aloud to me and my sister.”

From Mr. Pierre:

“When I first picked up the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien in 6th grade, I had no idea I wouldn't be able to set it down.  Two-and-a-half months of that winter found me reading it and the whole Lord of the Rings series on the bus, going to the library instead of recess, and at home when my chores were done.  Since then, I think I've re-read that whole series about 5 times!”

From Mrs. Miller:

“My favorite book was Are You My Mother? I bought it for my first nephew when he was born.”

From Mrs. Millikin:

“My favorite book when I was in second grade was The Little House in the Big Woods.”

April is School Library Month

In honor of School Library Month, I asked the adults at Glenbrook what some of their favorite reading memories are. I received a lot of responses and will post them on the blog over the next couple of days. If you are interested in reading them all, before I post them, stop on down to the library and check them out!

From Mr. Sufka:

“I've always loved reading, from learning new things through non-fiction, to being able to explore far off places and go on adventures while turning the pages of a great fictional novel, reading has always been something I enjoyed.  I grew up reading "Little Golden Books" and Curious George stories and through elementary school, I  probably read all of the "Encyclopedia Brown" and "Choose Your Own Adventure" books along with authors such as Mark Twain, Judy Blume, and Robert Newton Peck.  I also remember my 4th grade teacher reading 3 novels to us they were "Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of Nihm", "The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler", and "A Taste of Blackberries".  I remember this as being the favorite part of my day in his class.  As I got older and even now, I love reading biographies of athletes and interesting figures along with books from James Patterson and John Grisham.”

From Ms. D:

“The first book that I remember falling in love with was "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George. We read this novel as a class when I was in 5th grade. Being a very outdoorsy kid the book really held my interest. Our teacher had us build a log cabin while reading the novel. We had to correctly measure and cut dowels utilizing a hand saw, use clay for chinking between the dowels, cut paper bag shingles, and utilize gravel to build a chimney. It took several weeks to construct the cabin but we did it independently which resulted in a huge feeling of accomplishment.  I still have the cabin today which sits in my living room as decoration. Every time I look at that cabin it brings back memories of my love for that story.”

From Mrs. Gee:

“My parents read to me every day when I was a child so I learned to love reading at a very young age. My favorite memory was from when I was in third grade. My teacher, Mrs. Luther, brought in the entire Nancy Drew series which my best friend and I proceeded to read in its entirety. To this day, I still read every day!”

More eBooks Have Arrived!!

Woohoo!! The Jake Maddox series of book has become so popular among our students that I placed an order for copies of the book in eBook format. Why is this so great? Well, rather than purchasing one book title, I purchased each title as an "unlimited" copy in eBook format so every Glenbrook student can enjoy this title at the same time! I am so excited!! Can't remember how to access eBooks? Check out my previous post here to learn how to access eBooks! As always, you can stop in the library and see me and I'll help you out!!

Using Images for Educational Purposes ~ The Right Way!

The Internet has created a place for students to go and get almost unlimited information and images for use in schools and at home. With this comes the responsibility to use the Internet properly. This week I showed the students a website (www.pics4learning.com) where they could download pictures, for educational use only, and use them without asking permission first. We still have to acknowledge the owner of the photos and give credit where credit is due, but we don't have to seek out permission before using them.

Google is a great place to find images of people, places, and things but this isn't always our best choice for finding images that we can just use, even if only for a report, presentation or other project. However, there is a way to safely borrow images. It takes a couple of steps to get there so I am posting the instructions for students to follow.

First, do a Google Image search for your chosen topic. I chose Donald Driver!

You'll notice that there are a TON of images to choose from...but sadly, we cannot just pick any image from the Internet and just use it. So, our next step is to go to the tool bar near the top of the page and click on "Search Tools".

From here, we get a drop down tool bar where we need to choose "Usage rights" in order to get images that are "legal" for us to use.

Choose "Labeled for noncommercial reuse":

And voilá! We have copyright-friendly images! Now these may not be the "best" pictures the students are looking for, nor can we use them to create items to sell for a profit (or even to give away!) but they will be useful when creating education-related projects and presentations. Again, always give credit where credit is due!

As always, students need to make sure they are choosing safe images and should always report to an adult when they see something that makes them uncomfortable.

Finally, if students are unable to find images online that are acceptable for them to use, they can always try to reach out to the owner of the images they want to use. I did this with a student last year and the owner gladly gave us permission to use his images! Contact me directly if you'd like assistance with this!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Glenbrook Video

It is no surprise to know that Glenbrook is a GREAT school! Everywhere we look there are great staff members, great students, great families...everyone is GREAT! However, we don't always have time to stop and enjoy our greatness or share it with others who are not around us. So, we put together a video showcasing many of the people and things that that make Glenbrook great.

Thank you so much to the students and staff that helped to make this video what it is. Enjoy!

Drum Roll Please!!!

The winners are...Amelia, Bella, and Raven!! This team of 5th graders won the spot as the Glenbrook representatives for the Battle of the Books! Congratulations girls!!

A HUGE thank you goes out to EVERYONE who participated!! You were all such hard workers, I'm very proud of each and every one of you!!! I hope that next year we'll get another great group of readers!!

New Books Have Arrived!!

The library just received an order of 99 brand new books (with more to come)! Ms. Rodgers worked hard at processing them and they are now available for check out!! Please stop in when you have time and "check out" our new books!

Just a small sampling of the new books we recently received!

Storybirds in Kindergarten

The kindergarten classes have been working really hard on writing stories together. This is the end result of the activity that we did with one class. I'm so proud of them!!!

Be sure to look out for more published work by other kindergarten classes!!

Music Class in the Library!

Who would have thought that we could have a music class in the library? Well, we can and we do! This week Mr. Pierre brought in his 5th grade music classes to collaborate with me on a research project. We worked with the students to help them research their music class choices for 6th grade. The students used the Chromebooks in the library and their Google Drive to access a Big 6 Unit that will help them to make an educated decision about their music choice for middle school. The students spend two class periods down in the library and any additional time their teacher gives them to finish up their research. At the end of the project, the music teachers from the middle school come over to Glenbrook and the students are given time to interview the teachers and ask any questions they couldn't answer during their research time. In the end, students make a decision about which 6th grade music class they would like to participate in next year and if their parents give them the okay, they are set! Check out some pictures of hard at students hard at work: