Manners Advice Video from Family Reading Night

At our Family Reading Night, families had to find different stations based on the numbers in the Dewey Decimal System. In the 100s area, students were invited to give manners advice. Here's what they had to say:

One Book, One School Family Night!

Next week is an exciting week for Prospect readers! The Bookfair will be in the Gym on Thursday, Nov. 20 (8:30 am - 4:30 pm; 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm), Friday, Nov. 21 (8:30 am - 4:30 pm), and Monday, Nov. 24 (2:00 pm - 6:00 pm).


We will also celebrate our reading of our One Book, One School book, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, with a Family Reading Night! It will be on Thursday, Nov. 20 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm.  Families will be able to listen to entertaining stories from storyteller W. Nikola-Lisa in an upbeat, action-packed presentation filled with music and lots of humor. Prospect's hallways will be transformed into stations relating to the 10 divisions of the Dewey Decimal System, with activities ranging from using conductive dough to make "Squishy Circuits" to designing your own Greek monster. We hope to see you and your family there!

Going Batty

Third graders have been doing bat research! After being introduced to the topic, students brainstormed questions and chose one they wanted to research. They have been using books and websites from the LibGuide: http://libguides.d181.org/bats.

After gathering facts and working hard to put their findings into their own words, the third graders are now organizing their facts into paragraphs. This can be a bit tricky! We will share our learning using the presentation iPad app Shadow Puppet EDU. 

Last Friday, third graders heard from a bat expert, Dan "The Bat Man" from Incredible Bats. (See his website at http://www.incrediblebats.com/). The students heard all kinds of facts and got to meet his Egyptian Fruit Bat and African Straw-colored Bats.  Even though bats are a common symbol for Halloween, one of the facts we learned was that no bats would be out and about on Halloween in Illinois! Dan told us all 12 of the species of bats in Illinois would be hibernating by now. 

One Book, One School

We are so excited to be starting our One Book, One School for this year! This year we chose the book Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein. This fast-paced book features an eccentric billionaire, game-maker Luigi Lemoncello, who welcomes twelve 12-year-olds to an overnight lock-in filled with fun and games. But the next morning, when the lock-in is supposed to be over, the doors remain locked. The children must follow book-related clues and unravel all sorts of secret puzzles to find the hidden escape route if they want to win Mr. Lemoncello's most fabulous prize ever.  

In addition to all the puzzles the characters try to solve, rumor has it there is even one puzzle that is in the book but not in the story. Can you find and solve it?

Another challenge is to see how many book titles you can find in the book. 

For more fun information about the book and author, see his website at http://chrisgrabenstein.com/kids/. Third, fourth, and fifth graders will be Skyping with him in December. 

You also won't want to miss our Family Reading Night from 6:00-8:00pm on Thursday, November 20. You will hear from storyteller and author W. Nikola-Smith in an action-packed presentation, explore stations around the school that relate toEscape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library and the Dewey Decimal System, and have fun with your family! For more information and to RSVP, see the attached flyer on the MRC website. You can also RSVP by emailing Mrs. Swanson, MRC Director (rswanson@d181.org). 

A month in...

It's hard to believe we have been in school for almost a month already! Here's what we have been up to in the MRC.

Kindergarten has been learning about using the library, including good listening and checking out books. We also have been talking about fiction and nonfiction.  We describe fiction as having a story, characters, and not being real. We describe nonfiction as having facts, being real, and having realistic pictures. Of course things are not always so clear-cut!  It is trickier to know whether a books is fiction or nonfiction when a fiction book is very realistic, or a nonfiction book has cartoon drawings, but it is a discussion we will continue to have.

First grade has enjoyed some books about using the library and choosing a "just right" book (with the book Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians. They also learned about this year's Monarch Award nominees and started looking at author Kevin Henkes.

Second grade also has been learning about this year's Monarch Award nominees and enjoying some different titles, as well as learning about the MAP test.

Third, fourth, and fifth grade students all learned about the Bluestem Award, and fourth and fifth grade students also learned about the Battle of the Books club. We also reviewed using the catalog and finding books in the MRC, as well as putting books on hold.

Welcome Back, Panthers, and MRC checkout times

We are excited to welcome back our Prospect Panthers! Teachers and staff have been busy this past week participating in professional development and working on our school improvement plan. We are looking forward to working together to help all of our students learn and grow.

In the MRC this year, I will be collaborating with teachers both in their rooms and in the MRC. The MRC schedule will be fairly flexible, but classes will have a typical checkout time as well. Please know that students are encouraged to come visit us whenever they need new materials (and when their teacher allows.)
Here is the schedule of when classes will checkout together as a class(very subject to change)!

Monday: 3W, 4A, 2N
Tuesday: 3T
Wednesday: 5S, 4M, 1T, 1G, 2S
Thursday: KB, KA am, 5L, KA pm, 2T
Friday: 1M, 5J, 4W, 3G

Prospect Receives Monarch Award Grant

Prospect School received the good news that we were granted a hardcover set of the 2015 Monarch Award books from the LBSS Endowment Fund! There are twenty books for grade K-2 on the list of the Monarch Readers Choice Award. Students in K-2 at Prospect all are encouraged to read books from the list and vote for their favorite in March. In 2014, 196 students voted! Nineteen second grade students also read all twenty books on the 2013-2014 list! The 2014 Monarch Award winner was The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray.
In the congratulatory letter from the ISLMA/LBSS Endowment Fund Board, Chair Gail Janz shared that more than 200 libraries applied to receive one of the reader's choice award grants given for the 2014-2015 school year.