February and March Newsletter
Weber Elementary Library
Book Checkout Days
It is time to search for any overdue books that may be tucked away at home. In effort to organize and order books for our Weber collection, it helps to know which books need to be replaced. Help your child put their library books in his/her backpack the night before book check out. Here is the schedule:
Monday: Elmer, Herring/McCurdy, Lustig
Tuesday: Spencer, Murray, Bass, Whitmore, Duff, Whitmore
Wednesday: Guthart, Vanderveer, Johnson, Williamson
Thursday: Riepe, Sodoma, Burk, Williams
Friday: Hill, Ferrel, Gorsh, Vittetoe
Write Out Loud Writing Contest
Bravo to the many participants in this year's One Book Two Book Literacy Festival. It is a delight to live in Iowa City, an honorable City of Literature. Many students entered their writing in the Write Out Loud essay contest. I had the pleasure of reading all entries, and am impressed by the varied topic choices and genres that were produced by Weber students. Congratulations to Lydia Evans for being selected to read her piece at the Once Upon a Time dinner at Hotel Vetro to kick off the weekend in celebration of literacy. Certificates of Merit were awareded to Asher Overholt, Isaac Fletcher, Caroline Mascardo and Zoe Nolte.
Kindergarteners
The Kindergarteners have enjoyed comparing traditional fairytales and tall tales to the many variations that our Weber collection holds. Some of our favorites are Sleeping Bobby and Bubba the Cowboy Prince.
First and Second Graders
Students are huffing and puffing over the many variations of their favorite tales, such as: The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. We discuss the changes made in creating a variation of a story, and students get to create their own variation of a tale. Take a look at the "Fractured Fairytale" link from this Symbaloo.
Third and Fourth Graders
The Optimist Good Reader Program encourages students to read excellent books from a wide range of genres. Our third and fourth grade teachers encouraged each student to read to obtain the highest level of achievement, and their hard work really payed off! Congratulations!
5th graders
Each fifth grader was given the challenge of choosing, redefining, and engaging in a research project on the subject of his/her choice! This was such a treat to see the students clamor for information using print resources, digital resources, citing their sources, and reaching beyond the walls of our school. One student researched raptors, and even spoke with an expert from the Macbride Raptor Rescue Center. Shawn Hawks not only served as a resource for research, but provided the catalyst to begin a Kestrel Project here on the campus of Weber Elementary. We now have two Kestrel boxes awaiting inhabitants! The 5th grade students in Miss Bass's class used a power drill to assemble the boxes, and now we wait...and wait!
6th graders
This group of students worked diligently through the process of biography research. They used bibme.org to create citations for their many resources, wrote an essay, and created a smore flyer to show off the new treasures of information they found during this process. There is a link on this Symbaloo to reach some of the digital resources used for research.
100 Grannies.org
This organization of women donated a wonderful picture book that I read with the younger students at Weber in preparation for Earth Month. We are so fortunate to have beautiful books like Nanuk to open our eyes to the Earth's many creatures.