The winner of the 2009 Newbery Award is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline. After reading Coraline and seeing the stunning movie, I just couldn’t wait to read The Graveyard Book. Luckily, I discovered from a friend that Neil Gaiman has a special treat on his website. He did a book tour a few months ago and read a chapter at each stop on his tour. Visit his website to hear him read The Graveyard Book in its entirety.
Monthly Archives: February 2009
Immigration Simulation
The fifth grade teachers led an immigration simulation today in the media center. Students each became an immigrant and journeyed to Ellis Island where they went through a series of stations before being allowed into the country. Participants were very involved with their characters and roles. Watch a short video clip by clicking here.
Immigration Projects
This week 5th grade has been coming to the media center to learn about software called Photo Story. This program lets students create a video that contains photos, text, music, and speech to tell a story. Fifth grade is currently learning about immigration. Each student has developed a story about an immigrant. They are telling the immigrant’s story using Photo Story. On Friday, students will participate in an immigration simulation. The Photo Story projects will also be shared. The Barrow Media Center has been excited to be a part of this great learning opportunity.
A New Blog
The third grade at Barrow is learning about blogging and how to use blogs to promote and review books. Today, I did my first lesson with a third grade class and we wrote a book review together about Sweet Tooth, one of the GA Book Award nominees. We posted this review in our circulation system and it’s not posted on third grade’s book review blog. I invite all of you to check out and subscribe to the new third grade book blog. It will have lots of activity in the coming days and weeks.
Reviews Now Available
We are excited to announce that students can now post reviews of the books that they read by using the review feature in our online catalog. Writing reviews is a great way to practice response to literature writing. It also provides valuable feedback to other students on the books that are in our media center. It will take a long time to build our list of reviews, but if you want to write one, see Mr. Plemmons for more assistance. Classes are currently coming to learn about and practice this feature. If you feel ready to give it a try at home….visit our card catalog.
- Click on David C. Barrow Elementary.
- Login with your username and password.
- Search for a book that you have read.
- Click the reviews tab.
- Click Add Review.
- Give the book a star rating and type your review (or copy and paste from a Word document)
- Click Save
- Now your review is sent to Mr. Plemmons for approval. Once approved it will appear in the card catalog with the book.
A New Obama Book is Here
Many of you have been asking for a book on our new president, Barack Obama. A new book just arrived today, and more will be arriving soon. The book we received today is called Barack Obama Son of Promise, Child of Hope by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Bryan Collier.
From the cover: “Ever since Barack Obama was young, Hope has lived inside him. From the beaches of Hawaii to the streets of Chicago, from the jungles of Indonesia to the plains of Kenya, he has held on to Hope. Even as a boy, Barack knew he wasn’t quite like anybody else, but through his journeys he found the ability to listen to Hope and become what he was meant to be: a bridge to bring people together. ”
Stop by the media center and check it out today.
Expect the Miraculous 