Category Archives: Library

Library: May 21, 2010

By Kathy Lifka | Published: May 21, 2010

Calling All Books

This is the last week that I am allowing books to be checked out of the library.  Please have your children return ALL of your St. Cletus library books next time they come to the library.  I will be sending out final notices about missing books in the next 2 weeks but please save me that work & return them.  Thank you for your help! 

Six Flags Tickets   

Six Flags tickets were earned by over 100 St. Cletus students in Kindergarten through 6th grades this year.  Congratulations to them for their dedication to reading 6 hours this winter!  The tickets will be sent home this week in your child’s Wednesday envelope, or if they are not the oldest/only, in their take home folders this Wednesday.  If you have any questions about these tickets, please e-mail me at mdelaney@stcletusparish.com. 

 Battle of the Books  

This year was the 1st time that St Cletus competed against St. Francis in the Battle of the Books.  We did this at St. Francis on May 4th.  Both St. Cletus’ 5th & 6th grade teams did an admirable job but were defeated by well prepared St. Francis’ teams.  We plan to make this an annual event.  Congratulations to all of our 5th & 6th grade students but especially to Sean Burke, Thomas Cirrinicione , Lauren Engels, Neomi Mireles & Cailey Muldoon who represented our 5th grade well & Marissa DeLaurentis, Andrew Hubona, Chase Nacker & Karoline Orloff, our 6th grade team.  Thank you to the many parents & students who came to show their support.  We’ll get them next year!

 Summer Reading!

What better way to spend a warm summer afternoon than reading on a blanket in the backyard or up in the tree house with a cool breeze blowing?  None!  So please “back away from the screen” & pick up a good book!  It will fill your summer with great joy & great adventure without leaving your home.  It is also a great way to retain all that the students have worked so hard to learn this school year.

Representatives from La Grange Library have been speaking to many of our students in the last few weeks talking to them about their summer reading program which includes games, prizes, movie nights, pen pals & craft projects & reading.  You do not have to have to have a La Grange library card or even be a La Grange resident to participate or sign up for these many fun activities.  Your own local library also will have summer programs.  Sign up for their summer programs begin June 7th.

Noel Zethmayr, the Young Adult Librarian from La Grange Library & a St. Cletus graduate was here this week.  She talked to all of our Junior High students about the summer reading program aimed at young adults & she book talked a few books.  Her recommendations in the past have always been popular & many of the Junior High students have already asked me if I have them in the library.  If your student is looking for a good book for their summer reading requirement, head to the library & check out her newest recommendations.  One that I’m sure will be popular is “After Ever After” by Jordan Sonnenblick.  It is a sequel to “Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie” which was a wildly popular book here at St. Cletus.   

The La Grange Library is also looking for students in 7th through 12th grades to serve as volunteers to help run their summer reading program for the younger children.  This would be a great opportunity if your child is looking to stay busy this summer & earn service hours in the process.  You can sign up online at the library’s web site, at the library or call them.  A meeting for these teen volunteers is June 3rd at the library.  Check out the library’s web site or call them for additional information.  

Listed below are some of the many web sites which will help you & your student find some great & entertaining things to read this summer:

www.lagrangelibrary.org   information about their summer reading program, new books at the library & a calendar of many fun events.

www.islma.org/monarch.htm    Monarch Award nominated books for K-3 students.

www.islma.org/bluestem.htm    The Bluestem Award is designed for books for students in grades 3-5. 

www.rcyrba.org   2011 nominees for the Illinois Caudill can be found on this site with books designed for students in 4th through 8th grades.  We will be choosing books from this list for our annual Battle of the Books.

www.ala.org  find a list of Newbery Book Award winners & other great books on this site.

www.guysread.com   this is an interactive web site for boys of all ages & is designed to help even reluctant readers find books that they will enjoy.   

I hope all of you have a safe & happy summer.  Remember to “pop open a good book”!

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Library: April, 2010

By Kathy Lifka | Published: April 30, 2010

Six Flags Great America tickets

I have received the tickets for those children who earned Great America tickets.  I will distribute them in the coming weeks.  Congratulations to the Kindergarten through 6th grade students who earned these tickets.  Parents, please check the web site on the ticket for information about purchasing discounted tickets for other family members.

Dr. David Aguilar

Dr David Aguilar is an astrophysicist who visited our school last week & talked to our 4th through 8th grade students.  We were able to book him for this free program due to our relationship with Anderson Books.  Dr. Aguilar has written 3 books published by National Geographic about stars, planets & galaxies.  It was an interesting presentation & the children enjoyed it.  The St. Cletus library purchased all 3 of his books & there are waiting lists for each of them. Your support of the annual book fair provides these opportunities for our children.  Thank you.

Pre-school

Spring has sprung so we have spent our time in library reading some great spring books like “Max & Maggie in Spring”, “Happy Easter Biscuit” & “The Twelve Days of Springtime” which is sung to the tune of “Twelve Days of Christmas”.  We also read some books in honor of earth Day & discussed ways that all of them could help the earth.

Kindergarten

We read some books by author David Shannon.  The children enjoyed the stories by this author so you may want to check other books by him when you visit your local library.  The children will be checking out readers when they come to library throughout the rest of the year.  We want to build their reading skills which they have worked so hard to develop.

1st grade

April is poetry month so we have read many poems which the children have enjoyed.  They especially liked “I’m Allergic to School”.  We will be reading some books about Earth Day & books about how to care for our planet.  I continue to have them check out readers or chapter books at each visit.

2nd grade

Congratulations to our 2nd grade as they receive their First Holy Communion!  I hope all of you enjoy this special day.  We will be reading some Bible stories to remind the children of the special sacrament that they will celebrate. 

3rd grade

April is poetry month & humor month so we enjoyed some funny poems.  They also had the opportunity to tell the class some jokes gleaned from the humor books we have in the library.  We will be reading some books about eggs & chickens as they study the development the chickens hatching in their classrooms.

4th grade

Judy Blume is an author who writes great books for this age group.  We read some excerpts from her book, “Soupy Saturday” to encourage them to check out books by this author.  This group also enjoyed choosing poems & reading them to the class. 

5th grade

I was able to accompany the 5th grade on their great field trip to author James Kennedy’s art show/writer’s workshop.  Mr. Kennedy wrote the book The Order of Odd Fish & the children and adult chaperones were inspired by his enthusiasm & creativity.  We have also been reading about life in colonial times.

Battle of the Books

St. Cletus will battle St. Francis in a Battle of the Books.  The 5th grade team named ‘Vanilla Penguins’ from Room 116 will represent St. Cletus at this 1st battle. Sean Burke, Thomas Cirrinicione, Lauren Engels, Neomi Mireles & Cailey Muldoon will battle the winning team from St. Francis on Tuesday, May 4th at 4:00 at St. Francis.  A traveling trophy will be awarded to the winning team.  Please try to come to cheer on our great readers!

6th grade

These students used their library time to work on their travel brochures for their Spanish class & also on the Battle of the Books.  Kudos to all the students who diligently read the books on our Battle list!

Battle of the Books

‘The Pink Ponies’ a team comprised of Marissa DeLaurentis, Andrew Hubona, Chase Nacker & Karoline Orloff were the winning 6th grade team from Room 119 who will represent St. Cletus in our battle against the winning St. Francis team.  Please try to come to cheer on these young & enthusiastic readers.  This 6th grade team will battle the winning team from St. Francis on Tuesday, May 4th at St. Francis.  The 6th grade will follow the 5th grade battle & will occur at about 4:30.

7th grade

The 7th grade has been very busy doing lots of research in the library as they work on their travel brochures for Spanish class and their Civil War reports.  We will also be doing our research for their mold project. 

8th grade

Eighth grade used their library time to research information for their travel brochures for Spanish.  They also used their time for vocabulary & other homework.

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Library: March 26, 2010

By Kathy Lifka | Published: March 30, 2010

Pre-school

We celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday this month by reading many of his books, including the old favorite, “One Fish, Two Fish”.  We also read “Maybe You Should Fly a Jet” which is about all the different jobs you can have when you get older.  We also read some dinosaurs books to go with their classroom study of dinosaurs.

Kindergarten

Dr. Seuss’ birthday was celebrated in the library by reading “Maybe You Should Fly a Jet” and “Oh, The Thinks You Can Think”.  We also enjoyed “Mulan” to help the children understand the play performed by our Junior High students.  We end our quarter by reading about Easter & its customs.

 1st grade

“Oh, the Places You’ll Go” is my favorite Dr. Seuss book which I shared with the children to honor Dr. Seuss.  We also read “Mulan” to help the students understand all the action in the “Mulan” play performed by the Junior High.  We are reading about Easter & its traditions.

 2nd grade

We read a biography of Olympic great, Jesse Owens, as a way to celebrate black history month & to learn more about the Olympics.  We also read “Hooray for Diffendoofer Day” to coincide with their field trip to “Seussical”.  We are now reading “The Story of Easter”.

3rd grade 

We read a short biography of Richard Allen, an early leader of the civil rights movement, & another one about Medgar Evers in our study of black history month.  We read “Mulan” to prepare us for the Junior High presentation of the play. 

 4th grade

We continued presenting our encyclopedia research facts to the class.  We have learned a lot of interesting things about a wide variety of subjects & also learned how to use our encyclopedias.  We also read “The Empty Pot” which has a great lesson about doing the right thing even if every one else makes a bad choice.

 5th grade

We continued to use library time to get information for their black history research projects.  Room 116 has had their 1st round of the Battle of the Books.  Congratulations to our winning Battle team from Room 116:  Sean Burke, Thomas Cirrincione, Lauren Engels, Neomi Mireles & Cailey Muldoon.  This was a close contest with the team winning by only 1 point.  You should be proud of their efforts!  The librarian from La Grange Library who helped with the contest was very complementary about our students’ knowledge of the Battle books & their respectful behavior.  Room 117 will have their 1st round of the Battle on 3-31-10.  The winning team from Room 116 will battle the winning team from Room 117 on 4-27-10. 

We also had twenty-one 5th grade students who read 3 or more of the 2010 Caudill book nominees & were eligible to vote in the Caudill (an Illinois children’s book award) election.    

6th grade

Room 118 has had their 1st round of the Battle of the Books.  It was an exciting battle & was tied at the end which sent it into the tie breaker round.  The team whose members are Jack Dahill, Steven Heim, Hannah Hornacek, Amanda Sadowski & Sebe Valdes will represent Room 118 in the next round of the battle scheduled for 4-27-10.  Room 119 will have their 1st round of the Battle on 3-31-10. 

Nineteen 6th grade students were eligible to vote in the 2010 Caudill election.  They had to read at least 3 of the 20 nominated Caudill books.  The Caudill Children’s Book Award is chosen in an election by Illinois school children. 

 7th grade

Five 7th grade students were eligible to vote in the Caudill election this year.  They had to have read 3 or more of the 20 nominated Caudill books. 

Seventh grade completed their summaries of the Time magazine articles that they read during library.  These summaries from articles about current events led to some very interesting discussions. 

8th grade 

The 8th grade continues to use their library time for homework, study & to work on their many projects at this time of year.

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Library: February, 2010

By Kathy Lifka | Published: February 24, 2010

 

Six Flags Great America Reading Program

Congratulations to those students in Kindergarten through 6th grade who completed 360 minutes or 6 hours of reading to earn a free ticket to Great America!  I will process the forms & will receive the tickets sometime in May.  I will distribute the tickets then.  Thank you for your help.

Pre-school

We have been reading some great books during library to coincide with the topics that the children have been learning in their classroom.  We read some great books about snow & Valentine’s Day.  We also read “Corduroy” and played the ‘Find the Button’ game.  We will also read the book “A Bed for Winter” about animals’ winter homes.

 Kindergarten 

There were mixed responses when the children were asked whether they would like it if their teachers moved in with them after we read “Arthur’s Teacher Moves In”.  Some of the kids were all for it, some, not so much.  We took no offense either way.  We also read a book about 100 days of school and Ella, the elephant’s talent show. 

 1st grade  

The children really enjoyed the book, “Knut”.  It is a true story about a polar bear cub raised by its zookeeper in Berlin, Germany.  The children also enjoyed the books chosen specially for them by their 4th grade buddies.  Our 1st graders checked them out so you might have seen them. 

 2nd grade

We read the book, “Don’t Know Much about the 50 States” during the 2nd grade students’ states project.  We learned a lot of interesting information about our country.  We are now reading “Jessie Owens, Fastest Man Alive” as we learn about black history and the Olympics.

3rd grade

“George Did It” is a book about George Washington’s reluctance to be our country’s 1stPresident which the children found interesting.  We also looked for books relating to their assigned president for the mobile project.  We are now reading some short biographies about African-Americans leaders to honor Black History month.

 4th grade 

The 4th graders were happy to choose books for their 1st grade buddies & write short reviews of the books for them.  They also were given a topic to research using our encyclopedias.  We are now in the process of presenting these interesting facts to the class.   

5th grade

The 5th grade has been busily reading their Battle books for the upcoming Battle of the Books.  The 1st round of competition for Room 116 is March 16th & March 31st for Room 117.  In this round, the teams within each classroom compete against each other.  The winning team from each classroom will compete against the other classroom’s winning team to find the winning 5th grade team.  Thank you to the many parents who have taken their children to their public libraries when our copies have not been available.  The students are also using their library time to work on their research projects.

 6th grade

Sixth grade has been using their library period to prepare their teams for the Battle of the Books.  The 1st round of competition for Room 118 is March 16th & March 31st for Room 119.  Librarians from La Grange Public Library write the Battle questions & have been a great help in running the Battle.  Thanks to those parents who have taken their children to their public libraries in search of Battle books.  I could not keep my supply on the shelves!

Room 119 was fortunate enough to hear a presentation from the author, James Kennedy.  He wrote the book, “The Order of Odd Fish”.  He came to our school last year & enjoyed it so much that he came back.  He was only able to come that 1 day so only Room 119 was able to hear this very enthusiastic writer read excerpts from his book & the students did a writing/performance exercise.  Great fun!

 7th grade

The students had to read a Time magazine article & write a 1 page summary.  The article had to pertain to current events but could not be about popular culture.  They chose a wide variety of interesting topics, & they are now presenting their summaries to the class.  It had made for some interesting discussions.

 8th grade

The 8th grade was also able to hear the author, James Kennedy, read excerpts from his book, “The Order of Odd-Fish” during their advisory period.  After listening to his enthusiastic presentation, many 8th graders checked his book out of our library.  The 8th grade uses their library time for vocabulary homework & have recently been doing research on their World War II paper.

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Library: January 29, 2010

By Kathy Lifka | Published: January 27, 2010

Library:  Ms. Delaney

Update on Book Fair Proceeds

The library received the cash portion of the proceeds from our successful Book Fair, and we are able to order many great new books for the library and for classroom use.  We have purchased many new class sets for 4th, 6th, 7th & 8th grades.  We purchased several new Literature Circle sets for 5th grade use and a great selection of the Monarch Award books for the younger children.  Thank you for your generous support of the Book Fair.  It has helped make the library a place in which we can all be proud!

 Pre-school

We read a great book called “Recess at 20 Below” which is a Monarch Award book.  It is a non-fiction book about school children who live in Alaska and go out for recess even when it is 20 degrees below zero.  So the next time the children complain about going out for recess in the cold, mention the icicles on the eyelashes of the kids in Alaska when they go out for recess. 

Kindergarten

Our Kindergarten students are now able to check out 1 book from the library & bring it home.  They are very excited & proud to be able to check books out.  I tell them that it is their responsibility to remember to return their book on their library days, but please help them remember to do so.  If they don’t return their book, they cannot check out another until it is returned.

Six Flags Great America Reading Program

All students in Kindergarten through 6th grades are eligible to participate in the Six Flags Great America Reading Program & earn one free ticket to Great America.  I recently passed out the forms with a note attached to provide parents with the necessary information.  The students need to read for 360 minutes or 6 hours to earn a free ticket.  They keep track of their time on the form & return it to me with a parent or guardian’s signature by 2-24-10.  I cannot accept late forms because I have a deadline to submit our forms.  Please note that younger students can count the time that someone reads to them.   

1st Grade

The 1st grade has been studying penguins in their classroom so we have read several penguins stories during library.  They will now begin a unit about bears so we will use their time in library to read fiction & non-fiction books about bears.

 2nd Grade

Second grade has been hard at work on their states’ projects.  We have a great selection of books containing fun facts about the states & how the states got their names which we have been reading.   

3rd Grade 

The 3rd grade has studying land forms in science so we have been reading a Magic School Bus book about Ms. Frizzle’s adventures inside the Earth. 

4th  Grade

Our 4th grade students have chosen books for their 1st grade buddies & have written book reviews about them.  This is a way for the 4th grade to share their favorite book with their buddy or find a book that they think their 1st graders will enjoy.   We will also be doing some simple research projects using an animal book set & our encyclopedias. 

 5th  Grade

The 5th grade is excited to be participating in the Battle of the Books!  Teams have been formed.  Each Battle team has a leader & administrator  who will help keep their teams organized & will help them prepare for the Battle of the Books.  Our 1st round of competition against other teams in their classroom will begin in mid-March.  Please encourage your child to read Battle books.  If we don’t have the books at the library, please consider taking them to their local public library to check out the Battle books.

Junior High   

The 6th grade Battle teams have also been formed.  Team leaders & administrators have been selected by each team to help keep them on track & to help them prepare for the upcoming battles.  The 1st round of battles against the teams in their own classrooms will be held in mid-March.  Please help your student prepare by taking them to your local library to check out Battle books if we don’t have them available for check-out here.

 The 7th grade is working on improving their knowledge of current events by reading an article from an issue of Time magazine and then writing a summary of it to present to the class.  The presentations will help educate the whole class on what is happening in the world.

 The 8th grade has been using their library time to work on some of their projects in Spanish & Language Arts.  They can also use their library time to work on vocabulary and other homework.   

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