STAAR Ready Video 2017

Ms. A. Velasquez & I had the best time making a video to get our kids excited for STAAR! Check out this video we made for the Writing Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

Forest North Comic Book Club Convention

We had the best time in Comic Book Club today learning from industry professionals! Mrs. Rapé, our Forest North Office Specialist, used to be a comic book inker! Mrs. Lajaunie, who used to work at Forest North, now owns local comic shop Titan Moon! They gave us all kinds of interesting information! Check out the video on my tweet.

4th Grade Writing Olympics Opening Ceremonies

What an exciting morning- I got to participate again this year in the Writing Olympics Opening Ceremonies! Check out their shirts! I was so excited to help kick things off for students as they focus intensely on their writing this week. I'll be in their rooms in the next few mornings as they draft, revise, edit and publish pieces, helping them out and cheering them on. I can't wait!

Combining Sentences in 4th Grade

4th grade is doing a special lesson today on combining sentences.  How can you take two different thoughts and most effectively put them into one larger sentence?  Good readers like varied sentence lengths in their texts, and good writers know how to revise multiple similar thoughts into one sentence.

First, we'll generate nouns and verbs to make our own sentences about ourselves, and make some sentences about us.  We'll practice by combining them.

Then, we'll hop on to this quiz page and try combining these sentences!

5th Grade Declares Independence!

5th grade declared their independence from something in their life this week in the library. We reviewed the purpose and context of the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson and signed by the Continental Congress.  Then we read what the Declaration of Independence says in modern English.  Then we wrote our own declarations! Students liberated themselves with lots of good reasons on why they should not have to babysit younger siblings, limit their video game time, move to another school, or eat foods they don't like.  One student even wrote her declaration from her dog's perspective!

Comic Book Club

Comic Book Club has zoomed by the past few weeks, and we already find ourselves at our last meeting.  It has truly been a joy to work with these awesome kids.  Comics unites the coolest kiddos!  I hope when we do a spring session, we have more kids involved in it.  At yesterday's meeting, we made our own comic books.  Check out the geniuses at work below.  

We also have developed an awesome roll call system where one of our members announced our special secret superhero names, and then we say our catchphrase.  I am Library Girl (secret's out!) and my catchphrase is "Check it out!"  

Next week, at our last meeting, we have a special secret guest who works at Forest North but also has prior experience coloring comics professionally!  I can't wait to hear her stories & experiences!

Our comic book club members hard at work creating their own comics.

Z Man's comic.  I love this!

Comic Book Club

We had an awesome first meeting of the Comic Book Club yesterday!  Mr. H. and I were so impressed by how great our kids were- we made up our own super hero names, and then started looking at some comics.  They were so engaged in the comic books, I couldn't believe it when ten minutes in, it was completely silent in the library- not a common occurrence in here! We already got started writing scripts so we can do some book talks for comics!  I can't wait for our next meeting- stay tuned for our Book Talks!

Thanks again to the super generous Titan Moon Comics for donating comics to our club!  We really appreciate it!

Comic Book Club Starts Tomorrow!

While this session of Comic Book Club is only open to 3rd-5th graders, our marketing blitz on KEGL apparently is working - check out this video of a mini Library Girl, first grader Katie!  We'll see you at our first meeting 2:45-3:45 tomorrow, readers- feel free to bring a friend!

A very special thanks to Titan Moon Comics in Cedar Park for donating many comic books for our readers to choose - how lucky are we?  Thanks, Titan Moon!

Comic Book Club Starts 11/10/15!

I am so excited to announce the start of Comic Book Club tomorrow at the Forest North Library!  We're going to read comic books, make movies about them, and even try making our own comic books!  Mr. Hashbarger and I will meet in the library with any interested 3rd-5th graders on the next 5 Tuesdays.  Join us - just turn in an application to the library!  The deadline has passed, but for now, we still have space- check out this video for more information.

Announcing Comic Book Club!

Mr. Hashbarger and I are so excited to start Comic Book Club at Forest North, with comics generously donated by Titan Moon Comics. Check out this box of comics I went to pick up!  Check out information at the left, and an application will be posted in another upcoming blog entry.

Weston writes his favorite author!

Weston, a 1st grader here at Forest North, has had a special connection to his favorite author since the beginning of Kindergarten. That author is named Scott E. Sutton and he writes a series of books about a hierarchy of mythological creatures.

Weston and Mrs. Fournier got Scott E. Sutton's address and spent weeks drafting a letter to write him. During the weeks when the letter was drafted, Mrs. Fournier happen to notice that Scott Sutton was going to be a featured author at the Texas Book Festival here in Austin. Weston and his mom went and met Scott E. Sutton!

In his letter, Weston told Mr. Sutton a little about himself, why he liked his books the best, and gave lots of great details. He even reminded Scott E. Sutton that they met at the Book Festival, and asked if he remembered him. The letter took a bunch of hard work, and as Weston licked the envelope and Mrs. Fournier put on the stamp, they really hoped that they'd get a reply.

Within a few weeks, their wish came true! Weston got a letter mailed to him here at school, and inside was a letter from Scott E. Sutton! It was a great day. Weston shared the reply with his entire class and Mrs. Fournier got it on tape. Weston read the entire letter aloud by himself! What great reading and writing we have going on at school!

Niah's Concrete Poetry

Niah, a 5th grader here at Forest North, has been hard at work! She got inspired after a library lesson on concrete poems. We watched a few videos, and Niah made her own concrete poems. One is about fish, and one is about hamburgers. They were a hilarious, detailed step-by-step how you cook fish or construct a hamburger. We matted and framed them up in the library! Stop by to see them, for as long as Niah can be parted from them, and check out these videos to see what inspired Niah:

Dan Yaccarino

Mrs. Fournier was kindly invited by some of her fellow librarians last night as they took to dinner the esteemed author and illustrator and Bluebonnet Book Award Nominee Dan Yaccarino of The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau! It was so interesting to hear him talk all about the hard work it's taken him to become an author and illustrator, and to ask him about his cool graphic, retro illustrative style we all love. He also told Mrs. Fournier what he's working on now and what he has plans to do in the future. Mrs. Fournier was so excited to meet him, she asked if he'd pose for a photo so she could show all of her dedicated Bluebonnet nominee readers! He was happy to do so for all of his awesome fans at Forest North! Keep reading, Eagles.

Top 10 Books Read at Forest North 2009-2010

Here is a Wordle of the Top 10 Books read at Forest North in the 2009-2010 school year. How many of them did you read? Click the image to see a bigger version of it. The bigger the font of a title, the more people that checked it out this year. The top book at Forest North this year was Frogs by Nic Bishop, and so that's why it's the biggest in the Wordle. Make your own Wordle here!

Mrs. James' class loves to write!

Mrs. James class read a special book last week that they checked out from the library called Max's Words. Youngest brother Max doesn't collect stamps or coins like his brothers- he collects words like "slithered" or "pancakes." One word leads to another until he has a whole story to tell!

Mrs. James' class was so inspired by Max's collection of words, they found their own interesting words in magazines, cut them out, and made complete sentences with them. Check out some of their masterpieces!