Wildcat Welcome - August 13, 2013

Wildcat Welcome is for any student new to Walt Disney Elementary. It is a fun way to meet some of our fabulous 3rd grade teachers & to tour the school. Parents & students were greeted by Mrs. Tribble and Mr. Monaghan in the cafeteria then the students went to the library to begin a scavenger hunt. This year we incorporated technology by having a QR code scavenger hunt. Students were divided into groups and each group was led by a teacher who had a smartphone with a free QR reader app. Groups had 19 questions and hunted all over the school for the answers. The QR codes were scanned to check their answers. Groups could also stop and play a Minute to Win It game which were set up in each pod. Parents were also given a tour of the school by Mrs. T and Mr. M. 

Hopefully, the students left feeling very excited about their new school! 

July 25 - 10 Rules You Absolutely Must Not Break If You Want to Survive the School Bus

This story by John Grandits is so cute! A boy is getting ready for his first bus ride to school and receives lots of advice from his older brother. But, is his older brother wiser? 

We also finished up the paper mâché balloons since it was the last day for our summer reading program. 

Come by the library to see one of the balloons and see if you can tell what Bluebonnet book it represents!

July 23 - Looking at Lincoln

Today we read Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman. It is a fun story teaching about Abraham Lincoln. We had a lot of fun building log cabins with pretzel sticks, frosting, and graham crackers. 

Waiting for the Magic

July 16 & 18

We read Waiting for the Magic by Patricia MacLachlan. It is a chapter book and we completed the entire book! If you are an animal lover, this book is for you!

We also spent a little time working on our paper mâché projects. 

We only have 2 days left of summer reading program! We have 2 more great books to read! See you Tuesday!

Skype author visit - Jason Chin

WOW! We had a great day today in the library! We had a Skype visit with author/illustrator Jason Chin! He wrote and illustrated Coral Reefs, one of the 2013-2014 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee books. The pictures tell a story and the words give lots of great information about coral reefs. We read the book this past Tuesday and then students came up with questions they wanted to ask. The kids had great questions about his writing and illustrating process. Mr. Chin talked about another book he wrote and illustrated as well as giving us a sneak peak at some of his upcoming books! It was a great experience for the students and for Mrs. Mathis and me! (Mrs. Mathis & I were beyond thrilled with the experience as this was our first author visit via Skype! I think we will try to do this again during the school year.) 

Thank you, Mr. Chin! We love Coral Reefs!

Tuesday, July 9

MackinVia Open House

Today we learned about the website, www.mackinvia.com and the app, MackinVia. Via is the platform Walt Disney Elementary uses for all our e-books. We have 154 e-books available. Many are multi-user (every student in school could read the same book at the same time) and others need to be checked out. Each student can log in with their student ID & computer password and have access to a backpack. This allows students to read on various devices and they can pick up reading in the same spot they stopped reading. We currently have 4 of the 2013-2014 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee books available as e-books and 1 more is on order. Parents can create an account by logging on the website on a computer first. Check it out! E-books can be very interactive (read aloud feature, dictionary, highlight text, take notes). Ask the students if you have questions!

More pics from 7-2-13

We also worked on our paper mâché balloons (an on-going project) from Balloons Over Broadway. 

Pics from 7-2-13

Barnum's Bones

Today we learned about Barnum Brown, the man who discovered the bones of the T. Rex. We had fun digging for dinosaurs and watching a fun music video about wanting to become a paleontologist. Here is the link: http://www.squidoo.com/paleontology-for-kids

Fun Summer Freebies

Check out our Walt Disney Library webpage for some fun summer things & freebies:

http://www.alvinisd.net/domain/2899

Upcoming Summer Reading Program events

WDE Summer Reading Program upcoming special events:

Parents: Join us on July 9 (9:30 – 11:30 am) for Mackin Via Open House. Bring your own device. We will show you the app and the website so you can read e-books! We have 4 of the 2013-2014 Bluebonnets available and 1 more on order. Door Prizes!

July 11 – We will be Skyping with the author of Coral Reefs, Jason Chin. We may run a little late that day because we are starting our chat at 11:00 am and hope to be visiting with him for 30 minutes.

More pics from 6-27-13

Pics from 6-27-13

Jangles: A Big Fish Story

Fish stories have a tendency to become exaggerated at each retelling. That is the idea behind the story of Jangles. This is a great story! We made foil fishing lures in honor of the story. 

We also had an adventure during our morning together. The fire alarm went off and we all filed out. Then the fire trucks and police and Alvin ISD personnel came and we waited outside for hours in the sweltering heat. Mrs. Tribble had to come save us and she gave us Popsicles. 

Just kidding! Part of that is true - we did have to go outside because of the fire alarm and the kids did eat Popsicles. Never a dull moment in the library!

More pics from 6-25-13

Tearing lots of paper...

Balloons over Broadway

Today we learned about Tony Sarg and how he created the first balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. The students are designing their own balloons  and will make a paper mâché balloon over the course of summer reading program. This is a fun website about the Macy's parade: www.macys.com/parade

Summer Reading Program 2013

Bluebonnet Book Camp is the theme of the WDE 2013 Summer Reading Program. Mrs. Mathis and I (Mrs. Louthan) are excited to spend time with our recruits and some great Bluebonnet books! We have lots of great activities planned and will be posting pics daily! Come join us from 9:30 - 11:30 am on the following days: June 25, 27 July 2, 9, 11, 16, 18, 23, 25 No pre-registration required. This camp is for 3rd - 5th graders who will be attending WDE in the fall.