Bryant School Library

March Is Reading Month 2021

2/26/2021

March is here! In March, we celebrate Reading Month. Check out our calendar of reading activities! Each day has an optional activity to encourage students to celebrate reading. The calendar has been shared with families and students in Seesaw as an announcement. You can also get to the calendar at the link tinyurl.com/AAPSMIRM2021.

If you have any trouble getting to the activities, feel free to email Mx. Rohde at rohdem@aaps.k12.mi.us.

All students are encouraged to set a personal reading goal. Here are a few ways students can keep track of their reading goals:

Print a copy of the PDF version of the MIRM calendar and color each day you read.
Use the Reader Meter in myON to keep track of the time you spend reading the books in that database.
Use a Book Log to record a list of your books.
Set an active reading goal together as a family.

You can also play Reading Lotto! The directions are in the digital MIRM calendar. Here's how you play:

Click here to get a game card. You can bookmark it or print it. (Here's how to bookmark it as a button on an iPad.)
Browse the myON library for books in each category (go to Library, then the glasses to browse).
Any time you read a book in a category, you can check off that square on your Lotto card. Go for three in a row, or try for the whole board!

Want more reading time, but not more screen time? Come to our Sketch & Listen Storytimes at lunch or before bedtime throughout the month of March! Students can snack, sketch, build, play with Play-Doh, or just close their eyes and listen while a Bryant teacher or staff member reads to them. We will also have some special guest readers throughout the month. Click here for a copy of the schedule and the Zoom link.

We hope these activities will make reading more fun and exciting for your amazing Bryant Tiger!

Questions? Contact Mr. Humphrey at 734-997-1212 or email humphrey@aaps.k12.mi.us.

Click here for a printable PDF of the calendar.

Library Lesson (Week of June 1): Talking About Race

6/1/2020

If you came looking for more Yours Sincerely, Giraffe, it's coming. Right now this is the most important thing.

I know we've had lots of conversations in the library about how some people think people are good or bad because of their skin color. People who think this way are being racist. Sometimes I can't believe people think this, but it does happen, all the time, and the reasons why are complicated.

When people get really mad about race, they sometimes get mean and hit. You might not always know about when these things happen because grown-ups don't want you to be scared. We do want you to understand what's happening, and right now, the teachers at Bryant are working on ways to help you with that, and how to help your families, too.

The thing I want you to know, first, is that I love you, and you matter. Every teacher at Bryant School loves every kid: every Black teacher, every white teacher, every brown teacher. We all want you to be safe and to learn and to know you are special and important.

Epic has put together two really excellent collections of books that might help you make sense of some of the things grown-ups are talking about. You'll need to log into Epic using your class code. If you don't have one, use the library code (wnu2374). Then you should be able to come back here, click on these collections, and get right in.

Click to get to some books with fantastic Black and brown characters.

Click here to get to some books about race and racism.

Parents & families: All of the teachers are working on recording parts of the book Something Happened in Our Town to share with you. You may want to read about this book before it comes home. We wish we could put the book into your hands, but right now, it is out of print and hard to find, so we hope it will be a useful resource for you.

Library Lesson (Week of May 26): Writing Letters, Part 3

5/26/2020

Click to hear the newest chapter of the story.

Here are links to Mrs. Rohde reading all the chapters of Yours Sincerely, Giraffe from previous weeks, in case you missed them or want to hear them again.
Chapter 1: A Bored Giraffe Write His First Letter (5/11)
Chapter 2: Is the Horizon Near or Far? (5/18)
Chapter 3: Penguin and the Magnificent Professor Whale (5/26, this week)

When you mail a letter, there are some things you have to have in order to make sure the letter gets from your home to the person it's intended for.

An envelope - this will keep the letter safe. If you don't have an envelope, here's a video that will show you how to fold one out of a regular piece of paper. You need scissors and a little bit of tape or glue to stick it together. If you're really good at folding, here's a different way to fold an envelope that doesn't need any tape or glue!
The address of the person you are sending the letter to - you'lll have to ask a grown-up to help you find this. You need the person's first and last name, their street number and name, their city, state, and ZIP code. All of this information helps the post office get the letter to their mailbox.
A stamp - this is how you pay the post office to send your letter. You buy stamps (at the post office or online). They are special stickers. Then you stick the stamp on your letter. You have to put it in the top right corner.

Click the picture to watch a video showing a virtual field trip to the post office!

Some people also write their own address on the front or back of the letter. This is called the return address, and it's especially useful in case the letter gets lost.

The last thing you have to do is to put the letter in a place where the mail carrier can pick it up. If you have a mailbox on or near your house, put the letter with the stamp and address in the mailbox and put the flag up. If you don't have a mailbox with a flag, there might be a MAIL OUT slot near your mailbox.

I would love to hear more about your experiences writing letters! Since you won't be able to respond to this link in Seesaw, you can leave me a comment here, or ask your family to help you send me an email at rohdem@aaps.k12.mi.us.

Library Lesson (Week of May 18): Writing Letters, Part 2

5/18/2020

Last week we talked about writing a friendly letter. This week, you're actually going to do it!

Usually when you begin writing a letter, teachers ask you to think about who you want to write to. This might be somebody you know, like your teacher or your grandmother, but you might remember in the story, Giraffe wrote a letter to whoever Pelican found first on the other side of the horizon. I am pretty sure the post office won't deliver a letter like that to a random person, but it's a fun idea!

The first thing I did was to draw myself some fun stationery on which to write my letter. In fact, I used the Poetry Border Doodles activity to make my stationery! You can also just decorate the edges of a piece of paper with crayons or lines. Whatever you do will make it a little more fancy.

If you're not sure what to write about, here are some ideas:

Tell about your day, from start to finish. I try to include at least one small moment to make my reader laugh. This morning my cat Newton got on my desk and tried to climb into a paper bag that was way, way too small for him.
Tell the person you're writing to what you appreciate about them. If I were writing to Mr. Humphrey, I would tell him how much I appreciate his calm smile and how friendly he is to everyone.
Tell about something you and the person you're writing to has in common. When I write to my dad, I always talk about board games and movies, but with my mom, I write about making art.
Ask the person a question. This is a great way to get them to write back!

Here's a video to show you the five parts of a friendly letter.

Next week we will think about how you could send your letter to the person you're writing to, and how you can make an envelope to put your letter into. If you want to do that part on your own, with the help of your family, go right ahead.

Library Lesson (Week of May 11): Writing Letters

5/14/2020

When I was younger, I used to write letters to my friends at school. We would fold the letters in a special way that made it easy to keep them closed and to tuck them into each other's lockers or desks. This was how we shared important secrets and asked questions before we had phones or iPads.

Another way we used to send letters was in the mail. I would write the letter, then put it in an envelope, stick a stamp on the front, and then carefully write the name, address, and zip code of the person I was writing to. Without the correct address, the letter would never get there, so that part was especially important.

In the book we're reading this week in library, Yours Sincerely, Giraffe, the main character Giraffe is really bored and lonely. You might understand how he's feeling right now! Giraffe hears about a new letter-delivery service, and he decides he's going to write a letter to... somebody... far away, on the other side of the horizon. He doesn't know who's going to get the letter, but he decides to do it anyway.

If you were going to write a letter to somebody far away, what would you want to tell them about what it's like at your house or in your town?

Library Lesson (Week of May 4): Words Sounds

5/7/2020

One of my favorite things in the world is words. I spend a lot of time laughing about how funny some words are. One particularly funny word describes a kind of word that sounds like a sound. I know that's complicated, but what I mean is words like pop or buzz that, when you say them, sound like the thing they're doing. "Pop" sounds like the sound of something popping. These kind of words are called onomotopoeia. Here's how you say it: ON-a--MOT-oh-PEE-ah. Yeah, I know, it makes me want to laugh, too.

I chose today's book, Roller Coaster, because Marla Frazee does an excellent job of explaining what it's like to go on a roller coaster. Even if you've never done that, by the end of the book, you'll know how it feels to wait in line, how to climb aboard, and the feeling of zipping and zooming through the air--even upside-down!

Exploring the sounds of words when you're reading is a great way to make a story you're reading or telling more exciting. The reader of today's story, Mr. Wil Turner, does a great job of saying the sound-words in an exciting way.

Try choosing one of the words in the story that make a sound, like ZOOM. Then draw a picture of the word in such a way that it feels like it's zooming. Or you can record yourself saying the word to make it really take off!

Library Lesson (Week of April 27): Concrete Poetry

4/27/2020

One of my favorite forms of poetry is called concrete poetry. It's poetry that looks like shapes, and the words are all about that shape. Sometimes the shape can tell a secret about the poem. Look at this famous concrete poem, Apple, by Reinhard Döhl. Can you see the worm in the apple?

I made a concrete poem this morning. The first thing I did was to find a picture of something that was easy to recognize. In this poetry book, The Proper Way To Meet A Hedgehog, there's a poem called "How to Tell A Camel." I decided I was going to make a concrete poem about the one-hump camel, also called a dromedary. With a pen and a piece of paper, I drew the outline of the camel. You can also just draw the outline of an animal or object, like the apple, without tracing it from anywhere, I just thought that would look nice.

The next thing I did was to make a list of body parts the camel has. I decided not to use some of the words later, and I added more. That's okay. Then I took the words and I filled in the shape of the camel until I had words in every part. Some of the words overlapped. You can make the words go up and down, and be different sizes, too.

Camels are funny animals, aren't they? Look how long their noses are! By the way, you might appreciate the little trick J. Patrick Lewis offers in his poem about how to tell the difference between a dromedary camel and a bactrian camel.

Watch in Seesaw this Thursday for a poetry activity from the library.

Library Lesson (Week of April 20): Poetry Border Doodles

4/20/2020

Poetry is, I think, best read aloud. My favorite thing to do with poetry is to read a poem with a friend, back and forth, with each person reading a line or two. Some famous plays are written in poetry, too.

This week I invite you to listen to lots of poetry and draw while you listen. You can do a drawing in the middle of your picture, but I'm going to suggest you do doodle around the outside of your paper with pencil or pen, so that you create a kind of border. Then, later, you can put something else in the middle of your doodle.

I listened to the poem "Air" by Michael Rosen. I turned off the image on the screen by clicking the eye, then I listened to it twice with my eyes closed. I chose to use a pen to doodle while listening to this poem.

Here's the doodle I made while listening (I had to listen twice to make it all the way around the outside of the paper! It was a short poem):

The Children's Poetry Archive is a web site with authors reading their poems aloud. The Poetry Foundation has famous people and actors reading other people's famous poems.

If you decide you'd rather not doodle while you listen, that's okay too. You can also recite a poem to me on Seesaw, if you prefer. On Thursday, watch for a Seesaw activity in which you can share your doodles.

How do librarians share books while in quarantine? With a book drop, of course!

4/20/2020

Library Lesson (Week of April 13): Wordless Books

4/13/2020

It's hard to believe we won't be going back to school this year! I miss all of you a lot, and so does Alouicious (did you see his wacky hair during Spirit Week?). Luckily, we'll both be here, on this blog and on Seesaw, to read and learn with you for the rest of the year.

Please keep in mind that all the activities I offer here are optional. That means you don't have to do them if you don't want to. Enjoy the stories, share on Seesaw if you want, and try not to stress out about any of it.

This week, I'm sharing a book with no words: Spencer's New Pet by Jessie Sima. It's written and illustrated by the same author who wrote Not Quite Narwhal. You might remember it from the book fair!

In this book, Spencer takes his pet for a walk and runs into lots of trouble. Your job is to read the book and write or tell your own story to go with the pictures. There's an activity on Seesaw where you can do that, or you can do it on paper, or using a different app. You can write words for as many pages as you want.

I look forward to sharing lots of great books with you. If you're reading a good book and you want to tell me about it, feel free to email me at rohdem@aaps.k12.mi.us.

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