Next week, we are launching our annual Math-A-Thon at Elizabeth Ide. This project helps our children to practice their math skills in a fun way. They recruit sponsors to support their work. Each sponsor donates money and we send all the money to St. Jude's Children Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. St. Jude is the first and only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute. The daily operating cost for St. Jude is nearly $1.4 million, which is primarily covered by public contributions. Every dollar we donate makes a difference. Please consider supporting your children in this endeavor.

What are we up to?

At Elizabeth Ide, we have been reading books about fall, pumpkins, and Halloween. The second graders are finishing their private lessons on the search stations this week.

Due to MAP testing in the computer lab at Prairieview, we had to interrupt our computer lessons. This week and next week, we are doing some work on dictionary skills. It is interesting to see how much trickier this is for third graders than it is for fifth graders. The fifth graders have definitely had more practice and are more developmentally able to locate words in alphabetical order.

Books on Display

Part of our mission is to teach children how to find the books they want on the shelves, where they belong. The students are taught to look up authors, subjects, or titles on the computer. They choose what they want and write down call numbers. Then they go to the shelves and find the books for themselves. That is the goal, anyway.
At the same time, we like to show off our books. So, we choose one or two subjects at a time and put the books on display. Both the children and the library staff know which books are away from home and out on display. For the last few weeks, we have been promoting books about Halloween, including such things as true books about pumpkins and books about ghosts and witches.
At Prairieview, we find that it does not cause too much confusion to segregate the nominees for the Rebecca Caudill and Bluestem awards. They are on display for the entire school year. We really want the students to participate in these programs.

Preview Books

Several times each year, I get a call from a publisher or small book supplier asking permission to send a box of preview books. Sometimes these collections are a disappointment. Many times, they are not. Small publishers often work very hard to produce high quality books. They are bound well and have appropriate reading levels with good illustrations. My assistants and I are delighted by subjects we might not have thought of. Or we are reminded of things that the students like, but our collection might be out of date. I have been cataloging a group of books we obtained from magical preview boxes.

Keyboarding

This week we are starting our keyboarding lessons at Prairieview. This is review for the fourth and fifth graders, but brand new for the third graders. It is a very valuable skill and will definitely be a part of our students' lives. We use a program called UltraKey by Bytes of Learning. It is very straightforward and has the added advantage of keeping track of each student's progress. We get the process started during I.M.C. classes and then ask the teachers to use it, as they can find time, during the rest of the school year. It can be used at any computer in the building. Students have the chance to continue right in the classroom when they have completed other work.