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.