The librarians from the West Hartford Public Library visited on May 16th to present the summer reading show, Dream Big. It was a great show with ‘angry birds’, music, mystery, dancing, and most importantly the promotion of READING. Students will be receiving their summer reading logs in June. Please return their reading records on the first day of school! It’s a great start to a new year! Happy reading this summer!!
Summer Reading Assembly
Parent volunteers help at the spring book fair
Be ready for summer reading and visit the spring book fair in the library. We are open the following hours:
Monday – 8:30 – 4:00
Tuesday 8:30 – 4:00
Wednesday 8:30 – 2:00
Thursday 8:30 -4:00 and 6:00 – 7:00
Friday 8:30 – 12 Noon
Thank you to all of the volunteers who have helped this week and especially to Laura Faga, chair of the event.
All proceeds will help the library to buy materials including books and to have an author visit. We will also be buying a picnic table so staff can enjoy lunch outside in good weather.
We accept credit cards, checks made out to Norfeldt School.
New to all of the school libraries in West Hartford is a library management tool called Destiny. Because it is internet based students, staff, and parents can access it from anywhere and locate books in their own school as well as others. It not only provides the ability to search for books but websites as well. You can find it at http://destiny.whps.org/. Have fun exploring!
Another important new website is called www.stopbullying.gov where you and your children can explore topics including what bullying is, cyberbullying, who is at risk, preventing bullying, responding to bullying, getting help and web videos for kids. Start the conversation NOW!
The library has been full of activity for the month of March. We kicked off the month with a Read Across America Day on March 2nd to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday. The Cat in the Hat (aka Mrs. Billings) and the Lorax (aka Mr. Altomare) appeared at an assembly in which Mary Sheridan read The Lorax with illustrations from the book projected on a large screen.
Kindergarten: We tied into the grade level art theme with the ABC’s of art and played the I Spy Game in the hallway by finding objects in paintings on display. Colors and shapes were other themes with stories and projects. We also celebrated the first day of spring when pussywillow pictures were made using thumb prints.
Grade 1: While the classroom was visiting Africa and learning about Kenya, we read stories (both fiction and non-fiction)and became storytellers after we created storytelling hats using the book, A Story A Story about Anansi who collected all of the stories of the world. Students also read facts about the rhinoceros and in groups sorted their facts into a web organized by questions. After reading Honey, Honey, Lion by Jan Brett we watched a video on her website (janbrett.com) about a safari she went on while visiting Botswana and saw all of the animals from the story.
Grade 2: We continued collecting information about their famous person for their biography project by using Encyclopedia Britannica. In addition, we worked on a fairy tale project where students worked in partners reading a fairy tale and finding unique elements found in these stories. Finally, we read The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and retold the story by creating an ‘accordian’ book. with the major events included. 
Grade 3: Students worked on their birds of prey research project for most of the month. Skills such as using a non-fiction book, taking notes, finding websites using Nettrekker, creating a works cited list and finally putting it all together were used in this project. Nettrekker is a valuable search engine allowing students to find websites that have been pre-approved by teachers and librarians and organized by reading level and ratings. Take a look at it and compare it to Google. You will find it on Kidlinks located on the Norfeldt website.
Grade 4: After taking CMTs we took a little break and played book charades, a challenging but fun activity. We also explored different genres and students were asked to sort piles of books into the correct genre. We then used websites and Encyclopedia Britannica to collect information about the Vikings and played several games located on KidLinks. Each student was asked to write 4 questions based on their reading and the unit ended with a Viking game in which teams answered questions based on those the students wrote.
Grade 5: Book charades was also a big hit in this grade as well as sorting genres. Using Cyber Compass students were also introduced to internet safety where they had to find 10 facts about keeping safe while using the internet. Take a look at Cyber Compass on line at http://www.cybercompass.org/ where you will find information for parents and kids.
Dr. Seuss Video – Learn About Dr. Seuss and His Books 
We celebrated Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss’ birthday on March 2nd in the library and with a school wide assembly planned by the “Green Team” to promote the book, The Lorax and a fundraiser in which students from Norfeldt can view the new movie, The Lorax at Blue Back Square. In kindergarten we read a few of Dr. Seuss’ rhyming books and then created hats with their own rhyming words. In first grade, every student created a birthday card to Dr. Seuss written in rhyme. Some were very funny!
Mary Sheridan gave a dramatic reading of The Lorax with the use of the document camera to project the images on a large screen. There was an appearance of THE Cat in the Hat and the Lorax himself!! (aka Mrs. Billings and Mr. Altomare). Mrs. Thomson, the leader of the Green Team, explained the fundraiser and a few of the initiatives of the Green Team. Here are a few quotes from Dr. Seuss:
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
The focus across all grade levels this month has been Black History Month, Valentine’s Day, and the American Presidents. A few of the highlights are listed below:
Grade 5 – We read As Good As Anybody by Richard Michelson. In this story, Martin Luther King, Jr. is compared to Abraham Joshua Heschel, a Jewish man who escaped Nazi Germany and moved to the United States where he helped Dr. King, Jr. in their common pursuit of equality for all. Using a venn diagram we compared and contrasted their lives. We also watched a powerful documentary created by high school students in Simsbury, Ct. where Dr. King lived for 2 summers working in the tobacco fields. This documentary is listed below – it is well worth watching. We learned about “primary documents” so that we understood how we know these events are factual.
http://www.mlkinct.com/the-documentary.html
We also continue to read picture books where we can find excellent examples of writing and share our thoughts in “double talk” where partners discuss their thoughts about characters, problems, language, text to self connections and many other skills. We read Albert by Donna Jo Napoli in which we meet Albert, an unusual character who makes many changes in his life and we used our inference skills to figure out and read “between the lines”. We talk about the “evidence” in the story to determine what we know.
We also learned about the Newbery Award given for the best writing in children’s books and shared first lines to look at why these books received the award and how we can improve our writing by using figurative language including similes, metaphors, good word choice and good ‘hooks’ to begin a story.
Grade 4 – We have been working on a variety of skills related to the CMT test. After reading an article about the author, Beverly Cleary students were asked to find the main idea and supporting details as well as the author’s purpose in writing this. We also explored the Newbery Award and read tall tales finding examples of figurative language including similes, humor, problem, word choice and examples of super human abilities. Watch the video below to see the lesson “in action”.
Grade 3 – We have been reading a variety of literature beginning with Whale in the Sky by Anne Siberell. This is a folktale from the Northwest Indian tribe and students were asked to retell the story using the totem pole as a reminder of characters and events in the story. For Valentine’s Day we read Somebody Loves Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli and we used inference skills to make predictions about the character. 
Grade 2: The highlight of the month was when Mayor Slifka came to visit in response to letters that we wrote in the library after we had read, Thank You Sarah - The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving by Laurie Halse Anderson. We learned from this story the power to make changes through perseverance and hard work. Students wrote questions which we asked the Mayor when he visited. We were all amazed to know that he has another ‘real’ job working at Legos as an attorney. He has a very busy and long day. In addition, we have been working on locating books in the library by learning the “address” of a book.
Grade 1 - We read about the Presidents including a very funny book called Washington’s Teeth by Deborah Chandra. We talked about fact and opinion and were all surprised that this story is true!
Kindergarten - We read Abe Lincoln’s Hat byMartha Brenner and learned that Abe would keep his important papers inside his hat and after reading the book wrote facts we learned about him.
The goal in library is to create students who are “information literate” and have fun along the way. Here is a site if you are interested in learning more about this important, life-long skill.
http://www.libraryinstruction.com/parents.html
The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
The 2012 winner is Dead End in Norveldt by Jack Gantos 
For other runner up winners go to http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberymedal
The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.
The 2012 Caldecott Medal winner is A Ball for Daisy, written and illustrated by Chris Raschka 
To see other runner up winners for the Caldecott go to http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottmedal
Connecticut students in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades voted for Stolen Children as their favorite book of the year with Deep, Dark and Dangerous a close second. The final votes are:
Stolen Children- 5,568 votes
Winner of the 2012 Nutmeg Award
Deep, Dark and Dangerous – 5,514
Dying to Meet You – 3,059
Gollywhopper Games – 2,408
Norfeldt students voted Stolen Children as their favorite Nutmeg book.
The 2013 Nutmeg nominees have been announced so go to www.nutmegaward.org
to find the list of new books and check one out from your library!
January has been a busy month in the library!
Kindergarten: After finishing up our snow people project we moved on to Mother Goose rhymes to supplement the classroom work on Mother Goose. We worked on projects including Hickory Dickory Dock, The Little Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe and The Three Little Kittens. We then moved on to a winter picnic after reading The Winter Picnic by Robert Welber.
Grade 1: Bears and penguins have been the theme this month and we read Cordurory by Don Freeman and created short stories about the character. We read Tacky Goes to Camp by Helen Lester and we talked about ‘character traits” and then wrote describing words about Tacky.
Grade 2: The focus this month has been learning about biographies and we read Martin Luther King, Jr. by Peter and Connie Roop. After learning about what is included in a biography the children used Kidspiration, a program used to create a ‘web’ of facts about themselves. We also read about Harry Houdini and finally read Marvelous Mattie ,a story about a young girl in the 1800’s who invented a flat bottom paper bag. We practiced retelling the story by using dates and events and shaking them up in a paper bag and then putting them in order.
Grade 3: We started the month by reading about Martin Luther King, Jr. using booklets from the Reading A to Z website and finding examples of cause and effect in the text. We continued learning about African Americans while reading Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles and students were asked to make their own text to self connections based on events in the story. In addition, we watched a movie on BrainPop to learn more about Dr. King’s life.
Grade 4: After taking notes using the Brain Pop movie and Fact Monster on Martin Luther King, Jr. students created a timeline of important events in Dr. King’s life. They made a poster using those dates and found images online to include on their timeline. Finally, we learned how to use the Almanac and played a team game finding answers using the table of contents and index.
Grade 5: The Connecticut Colony project continued with students creating posters about 1 aspect of the colony. After taking notes students created a poster about a topic of their choice. Some of their topics including a comparison between the Native Americans and the colonists, the schools, food, Nathan Hale, and maps.
