Fourth Grade Book Club reads Bunnicula

Our fourth grade book club has spent the past month reading Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe.  We met once a week, at lunch time, to discuss our reading.  We enjoyed the creepy tale of a vampire bunny, and we also found the antics of Chester and Harold humorous.  The kids had a lot of fun making predictions each week and then discovering whether or not they were correct as they finished each week's reading.  Here are our book club members:

Brianna, Laina, Avery, Trezser, Phillip, David, Gabriel, Carolyn

After we finished the book, the book club divided up into groups and wrote book reviews in the hopes of getting other readers interested in Bunnicula.  Here are our reviews!

Bunnicula bunny vampire or not?

by Gabriel, Brianna, and Avery

Bunnicula is a cute little a vampire to the people. Or is it the vampire looking rabbit going to destroy the world!  If all the clues point to Bunnicula being a vampire starting with the white vegetables, could it be true that Bunnicula is a bunny vampire ready to destroy at any minute? Chester the cat has a huge theory about the nature of being a vampire.  Harold the logic-based dog or so to say does not agree until the one that she will start appearing.  Is Bunnicula a vampire?  Do the humans suspect anything? What do you think About Chester's theory-is it true or not?  Harold's logic breakthrough to convince Chester to come to his senses about Bunnicula’s vampires behavior. What do you think about the new killer is he a vampire or not? Could he be the most vicious being in the in Harold and Chester's household? Read and you'll find out if Harold and Chester will break through to have an exciting story !Have your sights set on Harold Chester and Bunnicula!

Bunnicula Review

by Trezser and David

Have you ever heard about a vampire bunny story?  In Bunnicula, Harold and Chester were on a hunt to see if Bunnicula was a vampire .

Bunnicula Review

by Phillip, Carolyn, and Laina

Bunnicula is a story about a bunny that turns veggies white.  A bunny that might take over the world?  What do you think he will do to the world! doom …doom to the world!  And Chester the cat and Harold the dog try to stop him with garlic.  And it works untill...Harold  decides that Bunnicula is innocent or is he…!!dun dun dun!! The world may never know...

Author Visit

This week, Smithville Elementary was fortunate to have a special visitor on campus.  Thanks to a grant from the Smithville Public Library, our students were treated to an engaging presentation by author and illustrator, Ros Hill.

Mr. Hill read his book Shamoo to the students and walked them through the process of illustrating a children's book.

He also taught the students to draw their own illustrations and involved them in several interactive activities.  Here are a few photos of the day's events:

Bluebonnet Books

Last week in the library, we were introduced to some of this year's Bluebonnet Books.  Students who read at least five of these are eligible to vote for their favorite next year!

Click on the blue dot on any of the book covers below to watch a book trailer about that book.

 

This Week in the Library...

(and a little bit about what we did last week, too!)

Last week in the library, we learned more about how our library books are organized.  Third graders learned about alphabetizing fiction books by their authors' last names.  After the lesson, the students figured out what the call number for a book they had written would be and found where it would belong on the shelf.  Maybe some day I'll be able to put an actual book by one of these authors on our shelves!

I've also enjoyed catchings several of our kiddos reading throughout the day.  Here's Angelo reading at lunch:

And Mitchell reading during class:

I love that they are finding time to "read in the spaces," as Donalyn Miller would say!

This week, all of our grade levels will be introduced to this year's Bluebonnet Books.  Any student who reads at least five of these books can vote for their favorite in January.  You can read more about the Bluebonnet Books here.

This week, our fifth graders will hear from Zane and the Hurricane.

Our fourth graders will listen to The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus.

And our third graders will read Emily's Blue Period.

Have a great week!

Dot Day 2015

Smithville Elementary celebrated Dot Day this year by reading Peter H. Reynolds' The Dot and by designing our own dots for a display in the library.  Here are our kiddos hard at work:

And the finished product...

I love seeing everyone's dot on display, and I'm so glad we have these reminders to make our mark!  Happy Dot Day!