RES Library Media Center News

As part of their unit on Calecott Award-winning books, RES second graders have been looking at the colors illustrators use in their pictures. We've been asking the questions: how do the colors in the illustrations connect to the words in the texts? Why might an illustrator choose to use the colors he does? from Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes

A heartfelt thank you from RES to all our volunteers and guest teachers! RES library volunteers donate over 20 hours a week of their time helping students find books, checking out materials, setting up displays, and reshelving the hundreds of books our students and teachers read and return every week. They also put in many extra hours at the beginning of every school year when students return several thousand summer library books. Many thanks to these dedicated people who keep the library welcoming, attractive, and organized for our students: Lisa Brownell Cathy Clark Gayla Cross Heather Drury Berta Dumas Sherri Gouse Meghann Greenough Danielle Hall Mary Morin Renee Slattery Melissa Wolaver Kathryn Wysockey-Johnson

Every year RES fourth graders have the opportunity to participate in the DCF (Dorothy Canfield Fisher) reading program. This voluntary reading program challenges Vermont fourth through eighth graders to read at least five books from a preselected book list, and then vote on a statewide winner. Twenty-seven RES fourth graders met the DCF reading challenge this year. Together they read or listened to over 13,000 pages of DCF books! On Monday May 13 the DCF readers were treated to a pizza party with celebrity servers including their classroom teachers, their school librarian, and their principal. Please join us in congratulating them! More information on the DCF reading program is available at the DCF website .

What do these books have in common? Second graders have started learning about Caldecott Medal books in their library classes. Today they learned that every year a group of adults chooses one winner (gold medal) book and one or more honor (silver medal) books. They also learned that this award is for the illustrations in a book. We shared the 1970 Caldecott winner, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig. We asked the questions: Why would Mr. Steig choose to make the pebble red? Why do illustrators make certain choices in their pictures? cover image from childrensbookalmanac.com

 What do we already know about mythology? RES third graders have begun a unit on mythology in their library classes. They started this week by brainstorming what they already knew about myths and mythology. Many of the scholars were already familiar with Greek mythology from their classrooms, the Percy Jackson movie and books, and their own reading. Then they compared a myth about Thor, the Norse god of thunder to a myth about Zeus, the Greek god of lightning. We asked the question: why do different cultures explain the same things differently?   For the next few weeks we will continue to share more myths about Thor, Odin, Loki and the other gods and goddesses of the Vikings from the book Thor: The Thunder God by Lise Lunge-Larsen. Ask your third grader which days of the week are named after Norse gods! The scholars also had a chance to explore the mythology section of the library. cover image from www.liselungelarsen.com