Amberly Media Center

Kristie and Angus discover a mysterious egg that hatches a strange creature. Their grandfather knows it is a kelpie or water horse from Scottish legend. Crusoe quickly outgrows the bathtub, the pond out back, and must be taken to Loch Ness where it soon becomes famous all over the world.

Even if you know what happens, this is fun to read. It looks like some of the characters have been changed for the movie.

Elijah is the first child born in the town of Buxton, Canada, founded as a home for slaves who have escaped on the Underground Railroad. His parents try to protect him from the horrible life they led as slaves in the United States. Elijah learns to read and write. His parents even worry that he is too fragile. But all that changes when one of the former slaves living in Buxton steals the money that has been sent to Michigan to free the family of the man that Elijah works with. Determined to do something to help, Elijah goes with Mr. Leroy to help recover the money. Once he crosses the Detroit River into Michigan, Elijah discovers the horrors of slavery for himself. He also discovers what it takes to be a hero.

Full of adventures and humor, Christopher Paul Curtis has a unique voice that deserves to be read aloud.

Kindergarten

• Numeroff. If You Take a Mouse to the Movies.

First Grade

• dePaola. Legend of Old Befana.

Second Grade

• McDonald. Stink and the World’s Worst Super Stinky Sneakers.

Third Grade

• Medearis. Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story. (394.26 Med)

Kindergarten

• Balian. Bah! Humbug?
• Zalben. Papa’s Latkes.

First Grade

• Hobbie. Toot & Puddle: Let it Snow.
• Zalben. Papa’s Latkes.

Second Grade

• McDonald. Stink and the World’s Worst Super-Stinky Sneakers.

This week and next week in media we put on our lab coats to investigate the meaning of those numbers on the spine labels of our nonfiction books. We learned that Melvil Dewey was a librarian in the 1800s who solved the problem of how to arrange his books with a numbering system based on “decimals”–groups of ten to organize subjects.

We remembered how we use letters to create words that “symbolize” objects in the real world, and talked about how numbers could also stand for real world subjects. For example, the letters “C” “A” “T” and the Dewey number “636.8″ both represent that soft, furry pet that meows.

We discussed how the numbers can be used as both a symbol for the subjects and as an “address” for shelving and locating the books. In this system similar subjects are shelved nearby, different subjects are farther apart. For example, cats and dogs are shelved nearby (but not on the same shelf at Amberly), and the wild animals are separate from the domestic animals. Horses are near the cats and dogs, but zebras are closer to the lions and tigers (oh my!).

For most of the session this week and next week, we rotated among stations with books from each of the Dewey Decimal System’s ten sections. In each one we found a couple of books that were surprising. Students always enjoy discovering Bigfoot, UFOs, and the Loch Ness Monster among the encyclopedias, books of records and lists, libraries and computers in the 000 section; the accounts of (possibly?) true encounters with ghosts among the books on optical illusions and feelings in the 100s. Many students have already discovered their favorite fairy tales and tall tales in the 300s and jokes, riddles, and poetry in the 800s, so they are beginning to see that the Dewey system isn’t just for classifying informational books.

Kindergarten

• Monroe. A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree.

First Grade

• Martin. Snowflake Bentley. (921 Bentley)

Second Grade

• McDonald. Stink and the World’s Worst Super-Stinky Sneaker.