Lewis and Clark Learns

It was the day of the homecoming parade. My friends and I made a float to enter into the contest. I knew that nothing would get in the way of me going. And then I collapsed. When I woke up I was at home. My mom walked into the room. Took my temperature and told me I had a fever. I was going to have to have to miss the parade and take a trip to the doctor. The doctor drew some blood and gave me the worst news of my life. I had Polio! Polio is a disease that has no cure. I was paralyzed from the neck down. I was put thorough a series of treatments. Read the book to hear more of the most dreadful time of my life.

April is National Poetry Month! Each day during the month of April, I will post a poem written by a Lewis and Clark student. If you would like to submit a poem for possible blog publication, turn in a written copy to Mrs. Rosheim. Check back each day to read and enjoy each poem. Check out this great website to create your own original poems... http://www.magpo.com/kidspoetry/ Once you get to the site click PLAY to get started! Good Poems! Good Times!

Kids who attended the Literature Festival in Warrensburg, please respond to the following questions... 1. Did the Literature Festival encourage you to read? Why? 2. Did the Literature Festival trip motivate you to write more and/or better? Why? 3. Who was your favorite author? Why?

Wow! Lewis and Clark did a fantastic job researching landmarks this year. We tied for fourth place among 31 other teams! We correctly answered 19 of the 31 landmarks. The first place teams correctly answered 22 landmarks so we were close behind. 4th and 5th graders who participated, please blog about the research skills you learned as a result of the Landmark Game.

It is time for our annual A to Z Mystery Series Reading Challenge . All third graders are invited to join in this challenge! All you have to do is read 25 A to Z mysteries written by Ron Roy (I will read the Absent Author to you) and complete a comprehension question about each book between March 30th and May 8th. If you complete the challenge, you will be invited to a Mystery Reading Celebration. Learn more about the author, Ron Roy at his website... http://ronroy.com/

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is 4o years old! Happy Birthday! Visit the library this week to check out a great book by Eric Carle and pick up a Very Hungry Caterpillar bookmark. I would love to hear about your favorite Eric Carle book.

It all started when dad sent me the birthday card a month early(like always). Those 10 words I will never forget...What are you going to do for your big day?... This thrilling ride through the Big One-Oh roller coaster has its ups, it has its downs, but you never get off until the big day! Charley Maplewood is turning 10,when he finally meets his crazy neighbor Garry Quarky. He learns that he was a retired effects man, and that inspires Charley to have a house of horror birthday with all the wrong people. The two school bullies, three girly girls that care more about nails than themselves, and more party goer's! Can Charley pull this off without the grownups finding out? Read The Big One-Oh by Dean Pitchford and find out!

Mrs. Foust, myself, and 14 fifth graders traveled to Warrensburg, Missouri to attend the University of Central Missouri Children's Literature Festival. Each year we take our fifth grade readers who have made it into the MT Challenge Cycle. A big thank you goes out to our fifth grade teachers for supporting the MT program and our PTA for supporting the trip financially! We saw four great authors and learned something about writing from each one. Roland Smith shared his usual fabulous presentation focusing on the fact that anyone can be a writer...you have to be passionate about your topic and you have to up for a lot of revisions. He also talked about his new series, IQ. Many of the kids have read the first book in this series (Independence Hall) and were thrilled to hear the second book should be out next spring. To learn more about Roland Smith and the books he writes, visit his website at http://www.rolandsmith.com/ Lea Wait was the next author we visited. She talked briefly ab...

The Lewis and Clark Library... The Ultimate Reading Nook!

Galileo's Leaning Tower Experiment by Wendy Macdonald The farm boy Massimo was just a regular farm boy. Massimo's daily job was to drop a wheel of cheese and a loaf of bread to his uncle as he went under the bridge in his boat. One day a man named Galileo came up beside him and asked what he was doing. Massimo explained and Galileo made a connection to a man who made history...Aristotle. Galileo wondered if Aristotle's theory could be wrong. Read this book to find out what is discovered...do objects fall to the ground at different speeds? Does it depend on weight or height? I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

I reviewed Nancy Drew-Sleight of Dan . The authors are Stefean Petrucha and Sarah Kinney. This is the first GRAPHIC NOVEL that I have ever read. Tina is missing! Dan does a magic trick on Tina that makes her disappear. Dan tries to get Tina back, but can't. You have to read the book to find more clues to help you solve where Tina went. I would rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars because the book is a mystery and I like mysteries. I think this book is for third and fourth graders.

"April Fools!" Wagner is having a bad day. He was late for school and forgot it was April Fool's Day. Pearl on the other hand is having a great day. To find out if Wagner's day will end better than it stared, you need to read Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day by Kate McMullan. I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars because I liked the story and I could relate to what the characters were feeling.

The Anne Frank Case: Simon Wiesenthal's Search for the Truth by Susan Goldman Rubin In October 1958 there was a play about a girl named Anne Frank. The night the play went on, a bunch of teenagers decided to crash the play and say that Anne Frank did not ever live. A man named Simon struggled to find out if she lived. Did she or did she not...? I am sorry to say I did not like this book because I don't like the whole talk of Nazis, Jews, and the World War thing. But some people may like those things so they may like this book. Overall it was an okay book.

Our fourth and fifth grade students vote annually for their very favorite book from the current year's nominees. This year, our kiddos voted The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan as the 2008-2009 winning book. We will wait with much anticipation for the announcement of the state wide winner! A big THANK YOU goes out to the fourth and fifth grade teachers for supporting this reading program each year and for encouraging your kids to reach reading goals!

I just read Bubble Home and Fish Farts. It is a book about how different fish and animals use bubbles. Some animals use it for...well you just have to read it.

Lights,Camera,Birds.... I think you will love this book Birds , by Kevin Henkes. I think this book is for 1st and 2nd graders because it is a really nice, short book. I like this book because it makes you really understand what is going on with and how birds like to sing, how they fly, and what they look like. I know you will like this book because it is all about what birds do. If you like birds, get this book. So go out there and shoot for the moon because even if you miss you will land among this book!!!!

MONEY MONEY MONEY!!! Money Madness is about the history of money. The book teaches us about bartering, coins, paper bills, and even digital money. It's mostly for 2nd graders, but it is also an easy read for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. I recommend this book to anyone who LOVES money!

In Ray and Me , by Dan Gutman, Stosh goes back on another exciting adventure to 1920! There he meets some famous people like Babe Ruth, Tris Speaker, and even Harry Houdini. His mission is to save Ray Chapman, the only person in major league baseball to die in a game. Stosh's head stings a little bit (and that might be exaggerating) after he gets hit with a ball in the head. He brings his own batting helmet along for the ride.( Helmets hadn't been invented yet). But Tris Speaker laughed his head off when Stosh showed Ray the helmet and busted it up! Now what will Stosh do? Read Ray and Me by Dan Gutman to find out!

The third graders at Lewis and clark voted Drooling and Dangerous as their favorite 2008-2009 KC3 Nominee. Once again we broke a record...never before has every class voted the very same book to be the winner! We will wait with much anticipation for the announcement of the state wide winner. Way to read third graders! A HUGE thank you to my third grade staff for supporting this great award program, I couldn't do it without you.

Lewis and Clark students don't just read for fun, we read for information as well. Each year we participate in a challenging game called Landmark. Each team involved picks one landmark anywhere in the world and writes 9 clues to help all of the other teams research and figure out their landmark. We play with teams from all over the world and at all grade levels. As a teacher librarian, I love the research and problem solving skills used in this game as well as fostering teamwork, perseverance, and thinking outside the box. The students become so engaged that they even ask to search for landmarks at home! What more can you ask for, students begging to learn outside the school day! Find out more about this fabulous game at: http://www.kidlink.net/kidspace/start.php?HoldNode=26742&HoldNav=1430

Fourth graders at Lewis and Clark S pend M inutes I n L iterary E njoyment! Each month a different genre focus helps us learn literary techniques or a writing craft. The month of March finds my fourth graders immersing themselves in magazines to work on writing a quality summary. Students often find one magazine they love and check out the same magazine title over and over. One of our goals with this genre is to expose the kids to new magazines they have never even looked at such as Dig, Ask, KidZone, New Moon, Click, Cousteau Kids and so many others. It was amazing to watch them delve into the magazines and find out what they have been missing. When we talked about magazines in depth, they realized they found magazines where students can publish their own stories, poetry, and pictures. They also realized that some magazines are all about one topic while others have a variety of topics. They really seemed to be drawn to those magazines that stay on topic. The summary writing came very ...

A Penguin Story, by Antoinette Portis is about a penguin that looks for something that is not white, not blue, or black. So the penguin, Edna goes off looking for something else. She finds something big and orange. You have to read the rest of the story to find out what Edna finds. I love this book, it is sooooo cute. It has fantastic pictures. It is a little easy but fun!

I just read Bird, Butterfly, Eel by James Prosek. It was a good book because it had great pictures. It was about a bird, butterfly, and an eel all through the seasons spring, summer, fall and winter. They go on an amazing journey. It had awesome illustrations.

Need a Job? I have just the one for you! Each month our library receives a stack of new books for our collection. I am looking for students to read these books, write a review of the book, and post it to our Lewis and Clark Reads Blog . If you are interested in "working" for the library, stop in and see Mrs. Rosheim. I will accept the first 13 interested students this month. You will get to pick the book you read and review and you will be "paid" in extra book checkouts.