First Grade Book Fair Shoppers and HS Helpers

Shopping is so much easier with our "Shopper's Assistants." Leadership Class students enjoy assisting the first graders and also enjoy reading to them when shopping is complete.

More photos from Book Fair

Fall Book Fair brings older and younger students together

The fall book fair offers a great opportunity for our older students to serve our younger students. Members of the high school Leadership Classes acted as "shoppers' aides" for our Kindergarten students at the book fair, then read to the students afterward.

More photos from the TRW luncheon

Wow!! Someone with imagination made the cupcakes that the winners had for dessert. But before dessert came that wonderful ziti - and that was reality - not imagination!

Teen Read Winners Dine in Style

(Left) Coach M. and Mrs. A. serve two of the Teen Read Week winners a delicious luncheon from Provino's.
Pictured far left are the other three winners. Each of the winners collected clues in the TRW Scavenger Hunt and on Friday put those clues together to come up with the answer - imagine. An imagination is definitely required to Read beyond reality @ your library (the TRW theme).

More photos from our author visit

Left: Mr. Hainds shows us the longleaf pine.

Right: Students see the Hodges Meteorite.

Author Roger Reid visits LSA!

Our 5th - 8th graders enjoyed a visit by author Roger Reid and his colleague Mark Hainds, from the Longleaf Alliance, on October 6. Mr. Reid told the students that he began saving all his writings in the sixth grade, and he shared with us about his research for his books Longleaf and Space, the writing process for his books, and excerpts from the books. Mr. Hainds told us about the longleaf pine and the longleaf ecoysystem. Mr. Reid also showed us a replica of the Hodges Meteorite and a real iron-nickel meteorite and fossil-containing rocks. We look forward to his next book about Jason and to finding our where it will be set! We know it will be in Alabama!

New Reading Club for High Schoolers Meets

At the organizational meeting of our high school book club, we decided to read Space by Roger Reid and It's Only Temporary by Sally Warner for our October discussion. All high school students are invited to read these and join us on Tuesday, October 13 for our second meeting. At that time we'll also make our final decision on what to read for November.

More Third Grade Book Recommendations

Mrs. Moore's class visited the library today and shared their book recommendations. Two students, E. and P., liked the Great Illustrated Classics, The Red Badge of Courage and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Animals were a popular topic - both in nonfiction and fiction books. R.J. recommended Slinky, Scaly Snakes. B. shared her book, Sea Snakes. Rattlesnakes was the book recommended by K. The Magic School Bus book, The Great Shark Escape, was pronounced "amazing" by M. Polars on the Path in the Animal Ark series was a favorite of R. Other students making recommendations were B#2 (Lake Superior), S. (Speedboats), C. (Ships and Submarines), and K#2 (The Starving Time from the My America Series). We hope you will take a look at some of these books and find one you will enjoy reading too.

Third Graders Make Book Recommendations

Today's third grade library students shared book recommendations with their class. Series books are popular: M. and T. recommend Carnival at Candlelight and Summer of the Sea Serpent and R. says that Day of the Dragon King is awesome - all three are Magic Tree House books. Geronimo Stilton is also popular. E. recommends The Phantom of the Subway, and A. says that A Cheese Colored Camper is great. The Magic School Bus book, Amazing Magnetism, is highly recommended by H. Security Dogs and Guide Dogs, two books in a nonfiction series about dogs as helpers are recommended by R. and A.L. For those who like scary stories, C. recommends In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories. A different H. and B. selected military books as their recommendations: The U.S. Army Special Operations and The U.S. Navy Seals. Maybelle in the Soup is the recommendation of another E., and J. says that Llama, Llama Mad at Mama is perfect for reading to a kindergarten book buddy.

So, if you are third grader or a parent of a third grader, here's your list of LSA's recommended books for third graders. Happy Reading!

Coming in October!!!

On Tuesday, Oct. 6, Alabama author Roger Reid will visit LSA and speak to our 5th -8th graders. His two books are Longleaf and Space. Space is one of our Alabama Emphasis on Reading books this year. Mrs. Story has read and enjoyed both books, and she highly recommends them. From the back of the book jacket for Longleaf we learn this about this story: "Longleaf is the action-packed story of two teenagers fleeing for their lives deep in the piney woods of Alabama's Conecuh Forest. Reid has created a real hero in fourteen-year-old Leah. As the mystery unfolds, Jason and Leah must pool their knowledge of the forest environment to escape their would-be captors. Longleaf is filled with humor and witty dialogue and infused with tidbits of wisdom from the natural world." Virginia Pounds Brown.

Stop by the LSA library and check out Longleaf for a really good read.

Welcome Back!

Library classes have begun! Students have checked out books - 7th and 8th graders are on their way to their 600 pages for English class, and elementary students are visiting the library beginning today.

We have a full calendar of events for the library this year. Check out our Library Web Page to see the calendar. We'll be participating in Alabama Emphasis on Reading and the AISA Reading Contest. Our first big event is our author visit in October. Roger Reid, author of Longleaf and Space, will be here for our students in grades 5 - 8. Students in those grades are encouraged to read both books before his visit. Teen Read Week is also an October event.

Be sure to share your good reading "finds" with us in the library. We invite you to write some book reviews to share on this blog. Just see Mrs. Story for details.

Happy Reading!!

Ideas for summer activities

Here's a web site with ideas for parents and teachers to help keep their students learning through the summer. Who knows? There's probably something there to keep your summer from being borrrrring. There are reading suggestions on the site too. We hope you are having a great summer! Just don't forget to read!!


TeachersFirst.com, a teacher-reviewed web service, has announced the publication of a list of "Summer Sparklers," dozens of websites that students and parents can use to keep the learning going, even during vacation.

TeachersFirst editors reviewed thousands of candidates before selecting the sites on the list, available free at www.teachersfirst.com/content/spectopics/summersparklers.cfm. They cover all K-12 grades, and a wide range of subjects.

Through the Summer Sparklers, children and their parents have access to resources such as brain games, arts and crafts lessons, language tutorials, vocabulary builders, math exercises, a directory of summer camps, and even a dinosaur dictionary. Each entry also includes tips for optimum use in the home or classroom.

TeachersFirst is a service of The Source for Learning (www.sourceforlearning.org), a not-for-profit corporation providing enhanced learning through technology. The Source for Learning is also the creator of www.PreschoolFirst.com, www.TeachersAndFamilies.com, and the upcoming www.GrowUpLearning.com, slated to launch in 2009.

Source: TeachersFirst, www.teachersfirst.com

Happy Summer!!!

Summer is a great time to read some of those books you didn't have time to read during the year. If you rising 4th - 6th graders would like to get ahead reading the Alabama Emphasis on Reading book, here's the list: 42 Miles, The Dragon in the Sock Drawer, The Groundbreaking, Chance-Taking Life of George Washington Carver and the Science & Invention in America, Honda: The Boy Who Dreamed of Cars, Howard's Thurman's Great Hope, It's Only Temporary, My One Hundred Adventures, Skylar, Space (written by Roger Reid who will be visiting our school in October), The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail Book I.

For rising 2nd and 3rd graders the Emphasis on Reading list includes: Art from Her Heart: Folk Artist Clementine Hunter; Buffalo Music,;For the Love of Autumn; Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig; The Moon Over Star; Please Don't Wake the Animals; Puppy Power; The Queen of Style; The Wolves Are Back; You Can't Do That, Amelia!You may want to read these during the summer so you can tell us about them when school starts.

Parents, why not select Emphasis on Reading books to read to your rising kindergartners and first graders. The list follows: A Visitor for Bear; Fanny; I'm Really Not Tired; Kitchen Dance; Mary Had a Little Lamp; One is a Feast for a Mouse:A Thanksgiving Tale; Our Library; Priscilla and the Great Santa Search; Two Bobbies; Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator.

LSA now has World Book Online

The library has subscribed to World Book Online for our school and students. You may use it from school or from home. The website is www.worldbookonline.com Come by or call the library to get the login and password to use from home. There is much more than just one encyclopedia in our subscription! There are three World Book Encyclopedias in English, two in Spanish, one in French, one Discover Encyclopedia which will translate articles to other languages, Living Green, Early Peoples, a citation builder, dictionary, atlas, primary sources, and other resources as well. Give this resource a try!

Alabama Emphasis on Reading Winners

And the winners are.......Statewide winners in the Alabama Emphasis on Reading for 2008-2009 are Llama Llama Mad at Mama for Grades K-1; Pssst! for Grades 2-3; and Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam for grades 4 -6. All these are available in our LSA library.

In Llama Llama... a young llama wants to play but must go shopping with his mother instead. He isn't happy about that, but the story does end on a happy note. Pssst! describes the unusual requests the animals at the zoo have for a little girl who goes to visit there. The ending is a surprise! Cracker tells the story of one of the U.S. Army's most valuable weapons: a German shepherd trained to sniff out bombs, traps, and the enemy. The fate of entire platoons rests on her keen sense of smell.

We already have the list of books for next year's Alabama Emphasis on Reading program. If you'd like to get a head start on reading them over the summer, stop by the library for a copy of the list!

World Almania 2009

Stormi Pitman, captain, along with teammates Kinsey Rankin and Calvin Downs claimed the 5th Grade World Almania championship title today. Representing Mrs. Zellner's class, they came from behind by correctly answering the Ultimania question in the final round of the tournament. Elizabeth Clardy, Diana Ridley, and Mitchell Lewis - representing Mrs. Hodges' class - won second place, followed very closely by the third place team (Mrs. Smith's class) of Bailey Martin, Natalie Ledbetter, and Byron Bruce. These three teams had previously won their class titles in order to advance to the finals. All 5th grade students were winners in learning how to use an almanac to find information and answer questions as we worked through our almanac unit over the past few weeks. We all had a lot of fun and learned a lot! Pictures will follow soon.

Author-Illustrators

We've learned about Ezra Jack Keats and read his books. Now we are making collage illustrations for our stories.

Read Across America 2009

This year each elementary class read 2 or 3 books about or set in a specific U.S. state or territory or authored by a native or resident of the state. As books were read, students came to the library media center to color in their class's states. Classes also made posters about their books. The posters will be on display in the cafetorium. We learned about geography and about special things about each of our states and territories.

Thanks!!

While we didn't quite reach our goal, we did have a good magazine sales drive to help our library. Thanks to all of you who purchased subscriptions, sold subscriptions, and helped in other ways. The grand finale to the sales drive was our annual Pig Race with the two top-selling classes from each turn-in day urging their pigs on in the competition. An eleventh grade home room managed to coax its pig across the finish line first. The students in that class will receive a "pig out pizza party."