Chris Grabenstein Author Visit

At the end of March, Chris Grabenstein, author of our One Book, One School book Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, talked to 1st-5th graders in a very engaging assembly! He talked about his writing process and with the students' help, improvised a story about a skiing squirrel named Darrell. His encouragement to keep on writing and revising fit in well with what students are learning about the writing process in the classroom. He also read from his new book, The Island of Dr. Libris. Many students were very excited to read that one next!

Thanks to Anderson's Bookshop for sponsoring his visit to Prospect School! See below for more pictures.

Monarch Award Celebration Lunch

2nd graders who read all 20 Monarch Award nominees are invited to a special celebration lunch next week Tuesday! For more information, see below.

Voting for Student Choice Book Awards

This week, Prospect students are voting for their favorite Monarch and Bluestem Award books from the list of twenty nominees. This is exciting because for these Student Choice awards, students all across Illinois vote to decide which book will win. Each year, the Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA) gives an award to the author and/or illustrator of the book that got the most votes from students.

At Prospect, all kindergarteners through second graders are voting for their favorite Monarch Award book. ISLMA requires that they read or listen to at least five of the twenty nominees, and they have listened to at least five in MRC this year. They vote by filling out a paper ballot, and put it in the ballot box in the voting booth in the MRC. Third graders that have read at least five Monarch nominees can also vote.

Third through fifth graders that have read at least four books from the Bluestem Award list can vote for their favorite Bluestem book. They vote using an electronic ballot.

Second graders who challenged themselves and read all 20 Monarch nominees will be able to attend a Monarch Award Celebration on Tuesday, March 24 during their lunch. They will be the first in the school to find out the Monarch Award winner for 2015.

Third through Fifth graders who challenged themselves and read all 20 Bluestem nominees will be invited to attend a Bluestem Award Celebration on April 7 and 8. They will be the first to find out the Bluestem Award winner and will create a READ poster with their picture.

To download student record sheets, see the Prospect MRC homepage.

Final Battle of the Books!

The Prospect Battle of the Book Club meetings at Prospect have come to a close, but we are excited to participate in the District Battle of the Books next week!

The team that earned the most points at Prospect will represent us at the District Battle. Congratulations to the members of that team: Aiden B., Aidan W., Arnima, Christine, and Vandana.

The final Battle will be at Madison School on Tuesday, February 3 at 4:00 pm. We hope to see lots of Prospect supporters there!

Thank you to everyone who participated in Battle this year!

Mo Willems, KidPix, and the Hour of Code

Students in kindergarten through second grade have been using the laptops and iPads in the MRC in the last few weeks.

First graders have been enjoying Mo Willem's books in MRC and in the last week, they came up with their own ideas for what other adventures Willem's Pigeon could get into. After brainstorming, they used the iPad app Explain Everything or Book Creator to create a book cover for their story. Some of them recorded their voice explaining their idea. After the winter break, they will use the Book Creator app to create a biography of Mo Willems.

Kindergarteners spent some time in December using the laptop application KidPix to draw a holiday tree. Using the trackpad to draw can be tricky for many kindergarteners, especially as more and more of them are used to using touch screens, but it is good practice of coordination. They were proud of their drawings!

Second graders learned a little bit about coding. December  8-14 was this year's Hour of Code Week as part of Computer Science Education Week. We talked about what coding was and the different kinds of jobs people have in computers. Students learned some pre-coding and problem solving skills by giving step-by-step directions to a crane in the iPad app Cargo-Bot. For more activities and information about the Hour of Code, see http://code.org/. 

3T Bat Research Projects

3rd graders have been doing research on different kinds of bats. They chose a question, researched with books and websites to try to answer their question, and made a presentation using the Shadow Puppet Edu app to share their learning. Below are the presentations from Mrs. Tweedie's class!




How Bats Fly by Adam

 



Bat's Bodies by Aidan






Bat's Bodies by Annie




What is Important to Know About Bats by Ben B.




What Bats Eat by Ben D.




Vampire Bats by Brooke




How Bats Eat by Cailley




Sizes of Bats by Charlie



Echolocation by Finn



Bat's Bodies by Griffin





Bat's Bodies by Madeline



Bat's Prey by Matthew





Vampire Bats by Michael




What's Interesting about Bats by Morgan




 Bat's Bodies by Nora




Bat's Life Cycles by Will

 

3W Bat Research Projects

3rd graders have been doing research on different kinds of bats. They chose a question, researched with books and websites to try to answer their question, and made a presentation using the Shadow Puppet Edu app to share their learning. Below are the presentations from Mrs. Wichman's class!


Ghost Faced Bats by Alex



Vampire Bats by Audrey



Vampire Bats by Brendan




Little Brown Bats by Cece

 


Bats' Bodies by Charley



Vampire Bats by Connor




How Bats Fly by Diego





Vampire Bats by Evan



Vampire Bats by Henrik




Predators and Problems Bats Face by Izabela




Bats' Predators and Problems by Iydan




Little Brown Bats by Janet





Bats' Predators and Problems by Kaitlyn



Ghost Faced Bats by Luke

 


Bats' Sleeping Habits by Mark




Vampire Bats by Nate