Our students share why reading is important to them in this video. Thanks to CCSD Instructional Technology Director Djamal Balbed and ESOL instructor Marilyn Murphy for helping us create this film.
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Wildcat Reader
Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary School Library Media Center- Athens, GA
Monthly Archives: February 2014
Welcome, Wildcats! Hope you are having the best week ever. It’s been great to be back from our unexpected snow break. Here in the Media Center there is so much going on.
Our 2-5th grade is continuing our reference blitz. 2nd- 3rd grade is continuing to delve in to dictionaries. Our 4th and 5th graders are learning all about almanacs- annual publications that in our case (we use the Scholastic Book of World Records) contain information about a particular year’s statistics and facts. We’ve been focusing on using indexes to search for answers to different questions- including fun ones like “Which celebrity shares your birthday?” Fun fact: When Mrs. Sugiuchi was waiting tables in college, she waited on her celeb birthday twin, soccer player Mia Hamm.
Our kindergarten and 1st grade are enjoying this week’s read aloud- Angela Johnson’s Wind Flyers, a story in which a young boy learns about his uncle’s time serving with the Tuskegee Airmen (their nickname was the Red Tails). We viewed archival footage of the Red Tails flying, and looked at pictures of their planes in a nonfiction book. We love learning that they were the best fighter pilots in the U.S.Air Force- they didn’t lose one plane!
Our UGA interns have been creating exciting displays. They created two different ones to celebrate Black History Month. They also created this beautiful collage of Fairy Tales from Around the World.
Students, you know that your reading improves with practice. You know that books build brains. We know that you have been hard at work reading at home, and we want to reward you! Don’t forget- Reading Rock Star logs are due February 25.
This Tuesday we received more than $4000 of new books. We are currently processing them. I can’t wait for you to check them out!
Red Tails, Reading Rock Stars, Reference, and More!
Reference Skills, Reading Rock Stars, the Return of Poetry Party, and Rap a Tap Tap
This week we have been practicing our reference skills. 4th and 5th grade has been locating key places in the atlas. Our 2nd and 3rd graders have been using guide words to locate definitions.
Our Kindergarten and I have enjoyed reading about tap-dancing legend Bill Robinson, otherwise known as Bojangles in Leo and Diane Dillon’s Rap a Tap Tap. We all agree- there’s no better way to start your day than dancing. Afterwards we enjoyed dancing along to Bojangles videos we discovered online.
Last Friday over a hundred of our students were recognized as Reading Rock Stars. We are very proud of all our students who practice their reading at home.
And yesterday (Wednesday) marked the return of Poetry Party in the Media Center. We decorated our poetry journals and began writing and reciting our first poems.
Spotlight on Black History Month!
February is Black History Month! Check out some of the new titles on our shelves that celebrate and explore the lives of people who helped change the world!
Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America
Written by Andrea Davis Pinkney, Illustrated by Brian Pinkney
Call #: 920 PIN
Explore the lives of some of the world’s most inspirational men! Read about the childhood influences of Martin Luther King, Jr, discover the time and place in which Frederick Douglas lived, and explore the accomplishments and motivations of President Barack Obama. Other historical figures profiled include: Booker T. Washington, Jackie Robinson, W.E.B. DuBois, and Malcolm X. It includes awesome illustrations, a civil war timeline, and sources for further reading!
What Color Is My World?
Written by Kareem Abdul Jabbar
Call #: F ABD
We think you’ll love this awesome book written by basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar!! Did you know that James West invented the microphone in modern day cell phones? That Fred Jones invented the refrigerated truck that makes supermarkets possible? Or that Dr. Percy Julian synthesized cortisone from soy, easing the pain of countless people? Offering profiles with fast facts and framed by a funny contemporary story featuring two feisty twins, with this book you can find out about all the little-known African American inventors that helped shaped the world as we know it!
A Dangerous Search
Written by Nancy I. Sanders
Call # F SAN
Want to learn more about the Revolutionary War while reading a great book too? We’ve got just the book for you! A Dangerous Search is historical fiction based on actual events from the Revolutionary War. Follow the story of Tobias Gardner, a twelve-year-old free black in Lexington, Massachusetts in 1775 who steals away on a dangerous journey to find his uncle in Boston at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Along the way, Tobias meets African American militia men Peter Salem, Lemuel Haynes, and Barzillai Lew, all real figures from history! The book includes primary sources and biographical information about the events and people that are mentioned.
Eliza’s Freedom Road
Written by Jerdine Nolen
Call #: F NOL
Eliza’s Freedom Road tells the story of a young slave living in Virginia in 1852. Eliza’s mother has been sent away and it is Abbey, the cook, who looks after Eliza, when Eliza isn’t taking care of the Mistress. Eliza has the quilt her mother left her and the memory of the stories she told to keep her close. When her Mistress’s health begins to fail and Eliza overhears the Master talk of Eliza being traded, Eliza takes to the night. She follows the path and the words of the farmhand Old Joe, “ … travel the night … sleep the day. Go East. Your back to the set of the sun until you come to the safe house where the candlelight lights the window.” All the while, Eliza recites the stories her mother taught her along her Freedom Road from Maryland to St. Catherine’s, Canada.
Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington
Written by Jabari Asim
Call #: B WAS
An award-winning artist illustrates this book that captures the hardship and the spirit of one of the most inspiring figures in American history. Born into slavery, young Booker T. Washington could only dream of learning to read and write. After being freed, Booker began a five-hundred-mile journey, mostly on foot, to Hampton Institute, taking his first of many steps towards a college degree. When he arrived, he had just fifty cents in his pocket and a dream about to come true. The young slave who once waited outside of the schoolhouse would one day become a legendary educator of freedmen.
Check out these books and many more on our new books shelf!
Happy Reading!
– Ms. Erin
