This week we started a new unit on the Monarch Award nominee books. I will read nine of the twenty nominees to the kindergarten children and they will choose the one that they like the best during the week of January 30th. I'll announce the winner in the blog and the monthly school newsletter. The state winner isn't announced until March.

The books we are reading are: Butterflies and Moths by Nic Bishop, Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krause Rosenthal, Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein, Little Mouse Gets Ready by Jeff Smith, Memoirs of a Goldfish by Devin Scillian, The Mitten by Jim Aylesworth, Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca, Otis by Loren Long and Panda Kindergarten by Joanne Ryder.

This week we read Interrupting Chicken, which is the story of a little chicken who does not want to go to bed and continues to interrupt her Papa's stories that are supposed to put her to sleep. It is also a Caldecott Honor book. Duck! Rabbit! is based on the optical illusion where you can see these two animals, depending on how you look at the drawing. Two outside voices argue over which is which. Panda Kindergarten is a nonfiction book based on the Wolong Nature Reserve in China that raises giant panda cubs. The photographs are outstanding as they show the young pandas playing and growing.

Thanks for reading!

Hello Everyone! Life has gone crazy with my mom being very ill and four new reading groups at the two kindergarten buildings. So, the Library Blog will be hit-or-miss from here until the end of the year. Today I have added some photos from making our Sylvester and the Magic Pebble puppets as well as an audio file of the story, in case you can't figure out what to do with the red dot, the clothespins and the old scribbled newspaper :-)

Sorry, the camera says communication error, so it's just the audio track.

I hope you all have the best of holidays and that 2012 is a wonderful year for your families. Enjoy your children over our winter break--I smile every time I am with them! Thanks for reading! Ms Trimby

Hello from the libraries! Another busy week in Kindergarten Land! We finished our unit on alphabet books with Lydia Monk's book Aaaarrgghh Spider!, and singing the Itsy-Bitsy Spider and the song Today is Monday, with the book by Eric Carle. We also sang the Silly Song, which is from the Wee-Sing series. To the tune of "Revelry," you first say "no" and then "yes." We clapped to no and stomped to yes and went as fast as we could! Everyone had a great time, and we had all the volunteers smiling! And it was great for our hearts! I can't find a link to it, so you will have to use your imagination, but it was a lot of fun!

We also watched the DVD of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom song and movie. It is a great animation piece to the classic book by Bill Martin, illustrated by Lois Ehlert. Here is the link for that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlBuNibrJHY It has a great tune and everyone went out of the library singing it.

We have finished another art project, and there are now hundred of gingerbread people decorating the library. I have a grandma gingerbread person, several vampires and some all around cute ones. Here are some pictures from Spencer Trail.

Next week we are starting a unit on Award Winning Books. This is one of my favorites, as I get to read a lot of classics and some of the great Caldecott winners. We will finish by making a puppet that tells the story of Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig. You will enjoy it! As always, thanks for reading!

Here are some photographs of students at Cherry Hill working with their spinning toys.

Finally, I am so thankful for our libraries, for the great people that I work with, for our library volunteers, for your children and for you. Thank you for encouraging reading, for returning books on time and for supporting our efforts. Have a blessed Thanksgiving and as always, thanks for reading!

Greetings from the NLSD kindergarten libraries in this, my favorite month, November. That would be because the children are really into the groove of learning and listening by November and that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. We have so absolutely much to be grateful for as a nation, a community and as individuals. I love it when your children remind me of this!

We have begun another new unit--alphabet books. This week Cherry Hill students heard a great pop-up book, ABC3D by Bataille, Look Once Look Twice by Marshall, (identifying patterns) A My name is Alice by Bayer and Kellogg (the jump rope rhyme) and SuperHero ABC by McLeod (just plain silly super heros :-) At Spencer Trail we learned some sign language words--hi, bye, thank you and you're welcome and of course, book and library. We also read Firefighters A to Z by DeMarst, (written and illustrated by a fireman from New Hampshire) Action Alphabet by Neumeier and Glaser (the letters in action from acrobat to piano and orbit to zig-zag) and Read Anything Good Lately? by Allen and Lindaman (showing genres and place to read.) These two collections will flip for next week.

Some of the boys and girls are now struggling with choosing books. Any clues you can give them about what they might like to borrow would be greatly appreciated! We continue to talk about books parts, title page, fiction (story) and nonfiction (true) books. I know some folks equate "fiction" with "fake," to remind them of the connection, but I like story.

I hope some of you will stop in at the libraries during conferences. My schedule is Friday morning and Monday afternoon and evening at Cherry Hill and Friday afternoon and Tuesday morning and afternoon at Spencer Trail. Some of you know that I have been away from the libraries because my mom is ill. Thanks for your concern, thoughts and prayers. It means a lot of me.

Here are some photographs of Spencer Trail students, looking at our great books.

Finally, I had one little friend who had an absolutely terrible time choosing books this week. He flitted from place to place, wandering past shelves, looking at the tables, back to the nonfiction, through the storybooks, over to Disney, back to the dinosaurs. I tried to help, but my suggestions fell on deaf ears. He missed the first book after check-out time, I advised him to hurry and choose something (I try hard not to say that) and then he missed most of the second book too. On his way out he confided that he liked library so much that sometimes he just didn't want to leave! Made my day :-) As always, thanks for reading!

Hello! Another busy week in the kindergarten libraries. The children did very well with borrowing two books and there is a great interest in the nonfiction section of the library. Please encourage your child (children) to have a idea of what they would like to borrow when they come to library. That makes it so much easier to help them. Thanks!

This week we finished our community with two great songs--"The Ants go Marching" and "Wheels on the Bus." There is a great site for traditional children's music with piano and lyrics. The songs are listed alphabetically, so you can find just about anything. Here is the link: http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/games/songs/childrens/index.htm

It is sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Science, and how that relates to children's music, I'm not sure, but I love that all those songs are available. Check it out!

I also tried to fit in two stories, but that had limited success. What with singing, and drawing our thankful pictures, and investigating the nonfiction selections and borrowing two books--Wow! That didn't leave much time for listening to Ms Trimby read. But the books were The Great Gracie Chase by Cynthia Rylant about a little dog who doesn't like the painters who come to work and runs away and Duck in the Truck bu Jez Alborough about a duck who's truck gets stuck in the muck. This one is great rhyming fun!

Here are some photographs from Cherry Hill computer lab.

Our libraries are beautiful with drawing by your children showing how we are thankful. They have such wonderful ideas. We are thankful for God, and stars, and rainbows, and sunshine and families. For mamas and daddies, for "nanas and poppys," for sisters and brothers and babies. We are thankful for horses and cats and fish and gerbils and geckos and snakes and for dogs-we-don't- have-yet-but-we-really-want-one -and-maybe-some-day, :-) and dogs we have now too. We are thankful for books (yeah!) and teachers and our school and games and "rock-paper-scissors" and toys. We are thankful for our food and watermelon and blueberries! (This drawing is so precious--many many little circles, all colored blue) We are thankful for trees (they give us oxygen, you know) and flowers and plants and "seeing trees outside at night." (now that one is a keeper)

I am thankful for all of your great children and for you and our two great kindergarten schools, for our wonderful library volunteers and all of the blessings we take for granted. Thanks for reading!

Greetings from the kindergarten libraries! We were busy as we continued to talk about communities this week and also practiced our library skills. We are still working on placing books on the shelves with the spine facing out, (kind of hard for five year olds) choosing a book, waiting in line and practicing those pesky book parts.

This week, I read Working Together by Schnuemann, Smash! Crash! by Jon Sciezka (part of the "Trucktown" series, very good,) If I Built a Car by Van Dusen, and if there was time, While You Sleep by Isaacs (about folks who have to work at night.) We also attempted to watch a National Geographic five minute video on robots making cars (successful at Spencer Trail, not so accessible at Cherry Hill.) Here is the link: http://www.5min.com/Video/How-Cars-Are-Made-64727537

Next week is so exciting! The kindergarten students will be able to borrow two books with your permission, and I introduce the last part of the library--nonfiction. The children are fascinated with these books, and if you get tired of reading about snakes, sharks, spiders etc, just send a note of leave a message with the secretaries and I will steer your child in another direction. Personally, I can only read so many books about any of those animals and would love a chance for a nice "happy ever after ending" book!

We are also changing the display for next week, as we head into November, and each student will have an opportunity to make a small "I am thankful for" picture. These will be on display in the library, so stop by during parent-teacher conferences to take a look. Next week is also music, so we will have fun singing :-)

Here are some photographs from Spencer Trail.

And finally, about this time of year, I begin to see readers and also boys and girls who love books. It is so gratifying to have them show me the book that they have chosen and then hear how they loved it when they return it. Love of books and reading is a skill that has life long implications, and I hope your child catches the bug. As always, thanks for reading :-)

Hello from the kindergarten libraries! We started a new short (3 week) unit on communities this week. This is a topic that all the kindergarten classrooms cover in social studies, and last year we chose two topics that would be introduced in the library. I will also do "Pilcher Park" in the spring to tie in with our school field trips.

We watched a short powerpoint presentation on communities, discussed what makes a community and the students listened to two books. Houses and Homes is a nonfiction by Ann Morris and Sky Boys is a fiction by Deborah Hopkinson. This is a story about building the Empire State Building in New York City. If you get a chance, be sure to check out this one. It is great! We also worked on finding books "the first grade way" by using our hands and fingers to look through the volumes and then returning the book in the right spot and then we located and identified the title page of our books. As you can see, we were all quite busy!

We also watched two short internet movies that showcase animal communities--Botswana, Africa and Australia. They both had great songs with the photographs/video, so I have added the links so that you can enjoy them with your children too.

Next week we will talk about communities and transportation. Then during the week of October 31st, we will have music and a couple of more books. Please take note, that beginning October 31st at Cherry Hill and November 1st at Spencer Trail, students will be able to borrow two books at a time, with your permission. There is no need to send a note or call, just tell your child--one book or two. I will also introduce the nonfiction section of the library.

Here are some photographs from Cherry Hill.

Finally, I had two experiences of unbounded joy this week, as we worked through our days. On one day, I was headed out to bus duty when a little one stopped me to say that I should hold on to my hat and stay warm because he heard the wind was going to be 100 miles per hour! And then, I watched as a very nice kindergarten boy helped the girl beside him in line get her hood uncaught from her back pack and onto her head. Two fine examples of what it is all about and thank you for all you do as parents as I get to share time with your children. As always, thanks for reading!

Wow! We had a great time singing and decorating the library this week! i was hoping to produce an "enhanced podcast" for you with our school songs, but having more than one class singing uses up all the space and it won't let me add any pictures. So, you will have to just listen and look at our great smiling faces on the screen.

We sang three songs this week, "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" complete with the old lady puppet and bean bag animals, "A Peanut Sat on the Railroad Track" along tomatoes, watermelon, grapes, and pumpkins getting squashed, and our school songs. We also heard the first book, Hi Fly Guy which is part of the Buzz and Fly Guy series by Tedd Arnold.

Here are the podcasts and words for each school song:

Cherry Hill is our school, is our school, is our school.

Cherry Hill is our school, students here are cool.

(Other verses--We love learning, We love listening, We love sharing)

(tune: London Bridge is Falling Down)

Here we are together, together, together.

Oh, here we are together, at Spencer Trail School.

We're sharing and learning and helping each other.

Oh, here we are together at Spencer Trail School.

(Tune: Here We Are Together)

Here are pictures from Cherry Hill.

Pictures from Spencer Trail

And finally, in one of the classes, we were getting in line after a great time singing the peanut song,

A peanut sat on the railroad track, His heart was all a-flutter

Around the bend came number ten! Toot! Toot! Peanut Butter! Splat! Toot! Toot! Peanut Butter! SPlat!

when one of the little ones raised a hand and said, and what does "splat" mean anyway? I answered squished, and the student said oh! and smiled. And I thought we were all on the same page with that song! Thanks for reading!

Another busy week in the kindergarten libraries! No photographs this week, but just wait till you see next week--an enhanced podcast of each of the school songs! I am working to gather photos and recording the students and it will be just great!

We are finishing our unit on Series and Favorite books, with Firehouse Dog by Amy Hutchings, White is for Blueberries by George Shannon, Mouse Count by Ellen Walsh, Hide and Snake by Keith Baker, Duck on a Bike by David Shannon and Alphabet Mystery by Audrey Wood. If any of these titles intrigue you, send a note or tell your child to borrow it.

The students brought home their wonderful Peter Rabbit water colors this week, and I hope you got to see it. We will paint again in the spring. Next week, we will cut paper pumpkins for the display in the library but it is a personal choice for each child. Each student may also choose to draw a spooky, silly or happy face on the pumpkin.

I have begun to introduce "title page" to the classes. This is another skill for first grade--being able to find and identify the title page of a book. The students are doing really well with fiction and non-fiction. I am really proud of them! Remember that we will begin to borrow two books the week of October 31st, and that is when I will introduce the non-ficiton part of the library too.

Finally, I was walking down the hallway to bus duty last week, greeting the children as I passed by. I heard the scurry of little feet behind me, but before I could turn around and say hi, here came a teacher, saying no, no, don't follow Miss Trimby! She likes art, but she is not taking you to your drawing class! I felt like The Pied Piper there for a moment! Enjoy the long weekend and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello Preschool Families! I thought I would give you an update of what your students do in library at Spencer Trail school. We follow the themes suggested by the teachers during the fifteen minute lesson, and I usually read three books and then we have music or a finger play. Two great series for preschool students are the Spot books by ERic Hill and the Biscuit books by Alyssa Satin Capucilli. I especially like the Spot series because it is "lift the flap" which is great for conversation and you just can't beat those moveable books!

We also spend some time singing and doing little finger play rhymes. Many of the boys and girls will do one or the other--sing or do the motions, and that is just fine! I think it just exposes them to the activity and then when they experience it again in kindergarten, they are more apt to participate. We just finished an apple song to the tune of "Are You Sleeping."

Picking apples, picking apples

One by one, one by one.

Put them in the basket, put them in the basket,

Oh, what fun! Oh, what fun!

Other favorite stories this month have been Alphabite by Reasoner (a little pig eats his way through the alphabet,) David Goes to School by David Shannon (a little boys gets into a lot of trouble at school,) Mouse Paint by Walsh (mice mix primary color paint and discover secondary colors,) and Fuzzy Yellow Duckling by Van Fleet (a touch and feel books about shapes and animals.)

We also sang "Where is Thumbkin?" and "Wheels on the Bus" this month. Here is a link to music for "Wheels on the Bus."

Next month, I will include photographs of our fun. Thanks for reading! Ms Trimby, librarian

We had another busy week in the libraries at Cherry Hill and Spencer Trail. First, thanks to everyone who stopped in at last night's open house at CH. I hoped you liked our Peter Rabbit paintings and it was nice to meet you. Peter Rabbit paintings at both schools will come home next week.

This week, I introduced the term "nonfiction" by displaying pet books and talking about true books as compared to story or fiction books. Fiction and nonfiction, as well as book parts are skills the kindergarten students need to know for first grade. We now have three areas of the library open for browsing--the tables, the special collections and the fiction shelves. By the end of October, I will be showing the children how to use "place finders" as they look for books--another great skill to take to the primary buildings.

There were a few questions about how the children chose books. At the kindergarten level, the first step is something that interests them. We look at book covers, but there isn't much room or time for browsing through a book before they select it. So if you child ends up with somethings/he does not like, just send it back the next day. You, as parents or guardians, may choose to send me a note that limits what type of books your child can borrow. I have heard from several folks that want to limit scary books, certain holidays or other topics. Just let me know and I will make note of it.

Here are some photographs of us learning about nonfiction, choosing our books, and reading together!

And finally, in the "from the mouth of babes" file, I was wearing what I thought was an acceptable outfit earlier this week, when one little one stopped me and said, "You look just like my granny!" Well! I know I'm old, but . . . And then one of the other specialists was asking the kiddos their first and last names when one child answered with a first name and then a popular restaurant. When questioned, the student admitted forgetting the family's last name, but that was their favorite place to eat! As always, thanks for reading!

WOW! Peter Rabbit week was fantastic! I hope the children had as much fun painting as I had watching them! And, no spilled water--an added bonus for the librarian and the volunteers :-) It was great seeing everyone at Spencer Trail last night and I look forward to seeing Cherry Hill families next week. Here are a ton of pictures--I only wish there was room for more! As always, thanks for reading!

Hello, hello from the NLSD kindergarten libraries! What an exciting week--borrowing a book for the first time this year! The children did a great job choosing a book and waiting in line to check it out. We try to use correct "library language" and say borrow (not rent or buy) and check out and check in.

To alleviate a little confusion, your child may return a library book any time that you are finished with it, one day, two five or keep it until the next schedule library visit a week later. When he/she brings it back to school, there is a cart in the neighborhood. Books are left there and are brought down to the library for check-in. But, if your student does not return his/her books, not to worry! The computer is set so that each student may have two books out at once. Just return the previous book as soon as you can. If a book gets lost or damaged, please sent a note or call the school--Cherry Hill 815-462-7831 or SPencer Trail 815-462-7007.

Here are some photographs of Cherry Hill students with their first books! Great fun for all of us!

Next week--great excitement in the libraries! We are doing one of my absolutely favorite stories--Peter Rabbit and then watercoloring a picture that will be on display at the Kindergarten Open House. Most of the water color sets are washable paints, but you still might want to send your little one in an old shirt on library day. We will hear the story, watch a movie of it and if we have time watch an iMovie of actual animals that are featured in Beatrix Potter books, and borrow books! I just absolutely love this lesson and will include a lot of photographs next week!

To close this week, here are pictures of Charlie Cheetah, our mascot at Cherry Hill and WIlson Wildcat, the mascot at SPencer Trail. Both of them stay in the library and I move them around to emphasis an area or activity. The students love to pet them. However, one of the little ones confided to me this week, that "He really can't talk. We are just pretending!" :-) Thanks for reading!

We had a great week reading good books in the kindergarten libraries. At Spencer Trail, we read Franklin in the Dark by Paulette Bourgeois, a great Max and Ruby story, Bunny Money by Rosemary Wells and I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont. At Cherry Hill, we read Dylan's Day Out by Peter Catalanotto, Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas and There's an Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Mayer. There is a great youtube video of author Mercer Mayer playing his guitar and singing the alligator under my bed song. Here is the link:

We will be borrowing our first books next week. We practiced book parts--front cover, back cover, library bar code (circulation number) and spine. Here are some photographs from Spencer Trail while we were practicing "turning pages" in our library books and not sliding the pages.

And, to end today, here is a typical kindergarten library conversation:

Trimby: You have your coat on backwards. (it was chilly in the library this week.)

Little One: I was cold.

Trimby: No, you have your coat on inside out.

Little One: I know. It keeps me warm.

And that explains why there is so much misunderstanding in the world! Wishing you warm coats (inside out or not) when you are cold and thanks for reading!

Fly the flag on September 11th.

Well, we have had a fantastic week! I enjoyed reading McDuff Moves In by Rosemary Wells and I Stink! (the garbage truck book) by Kate and Jim McMullan twenty-six times and some of the classes heard I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child and others heard See You Later Alligator by Laura Kvasnosky, depending on the time we had. All of these books are part of the "Series and Favorites" unit that we are on for the next few weeks. Next week, I start to split the unit, so that I only ready something 12-14 times a week (a little sanity break there, for the librarian:-)

A note on the book I stink!, if you don't know that book or DVD, you should. It follows a garbage truck in New York City with great five-year-old humor but also shows the steps of garbage removal and brings up a good questions, what would we do without garbage trucks?

The highlight of the week, for me, was singing the Peanut Butter song with all of the classes. The students did a great job and I have high hopes for the spring musical! We have some great singers! In fact, one little one was so involved with the music, that he wanted to show me how he could play music by putting his hand under his armpit. Quite a talent! I wonder who taught him that? (see, I promised to share the humor!)

Here are pictures from Cherry Hill with students being "squished like peanuts" after we sang and there is a podcast of three classes from Spencer Trail singing. Warning--the song does have a tendency to get stuck in your head:-)

Next week, with Labor Day on Monday, the Green Neighborhood at Cherry Hill will have library on Friday, September 9th. We are not borrowing books yet, but I am getting close to having all the names in the Library World database and getting the pages of student barcodes, printed and checked for accuracy. We will borrow books beginning September 12th at both schools.

Have a great holiday weekend. Thanks for reading!

Hello from the kindergarten libraries! I'm Ms Trimby, the librarian and I work at Cherry Hill and Spencer Trail. Every week I will tell you what we are doing in the library, list the books I read to the students, and share pictures and stories. I hope you find this interesting, informative and sometimes even funny!

The students will begin to borrow books during the week of September 12th. I am scurrying to get everyone's name into the database, and it looks like we will hit that goal. Students have one book until November 1st, and then they can borrow two. Please put the library books back in your child's backpack when you are finished reading it, so that it will be there for return. You can return it early or on our library day. Thanks a lot!

Here is a photo of Mrs. Spain, our computer technology assistant, and me from the beginning of school.

There are also pictures from the two libraries. I will add photos of a neighborhood group or two each week, so that you can see our activities. Thanks for reading! Ms Trimby