Fourth Grade Visits the Storytelling Festival

Fourth graders visited the Frisco Storytelling Festival last week. Storytellers Bill Lepp and Bill Harley amazed us with their wonderful stories. If you would like to be a student storyteller for next year, tell me and I'll let you know about the audition process in the spring.

Dallas Stars Reading Rally

This year Taylor Elementary is participating school-wide in the Stick With Reading program. This program is sponsored by the Dallas Stars. Last week, three players from the Stars visited our school for a reading rally. They introduced the program, and got our students really excited about reading! Here is player Toby Petersen in the library before the Rally.

Every class made a poster to celebrate reading and the Dallas Stars.

Here the players, Steve Ott, Adam Pardy, and Toby Petersen answer questions and share about their favorite books.

Here is Joseph with Celena Rae, the Dallas Stars announcer and singer. She was also the emcee of our program.

Here Ms. Vargas and I pose with the players and Steve Ott's four year old daughter. She is holding the book Utterly, Otterly Day by Mary Casanova. Steve Ott read this book to our students and shared that his nickname is "Otter."

Bluebonnet Book Club

The Bluebonnet Book Club is having a lot of fun meeting on Monday mornings. Here is a photo from our most recent meeting. The Bluebonnet Book Club is made up of kids in third through fifth grades who wanted to listen to me read some great Bluebonnet books.

Kate Klise Visits Taylor

We were very excited to have Kate Klise visit our school last week. She was an amazing presenter and the kids loved her. Here are some pictures from the day:

Formula for writing a story: one character, one problem, one journey.

Autographing books in the library between sessions.

If you were in this session you remember the haircut story!

Ms. Klise talking with kids after the first session.

Mrs. Fowler Speaks to Third Grade

Mrs. Catherine Fowler visited our school this week and spoke to our third graders about the history of Frisco. She is an amazing presenter and the students were captivated by her stories of pioneers, Native Americans, cowboys, and early residents of Frisco. Here some girls are showing off their new dolls. These are the types of dolls the pioneer girls may have played with.

Here Mrs. Fowler helps the students to create a living timeline. You can see the Native American, Pilgrims, George Washington, and a pioneer.

Two boys demonstrating for us how long the horns of longhorns actually are. Can you imagine trying to herd these huge beasts?

Students playing Old Horse, a game in which they guess the number of beans held in their friend's hand hand.

Stand Straight, Ella Kate

In library we have been reading Stand Straight, Ella Kate in preparation for Kate Klise's visit. Here the students are measuring themselves to see how they measured up to Ella Kate. She was a real life giantess who was 8 foot 4 inches tall.

Author: Kate Klise

Call Number: E KLI

A fictionalized biography of Ella Kate Ewing, born in 1872, who was eight feet tall by the age of seventeen and who became financially independent by traveling the country for nearly twenty years appearing at museums, exhibitions, and in circus shows.

Native American Research

Fourth grade spent last week in the library doing research on Texas Native American tribes. They learned about the Karankawa, Caddo, Comanche, and Jumano tribes. I can't wait to see the reports they are creating using their research notes!

Escaping the Giant Wave

Author: Peg Kehret
Call Number: F KEH

When an earthquake creates a tsunami when thirteen-year-old Kyle is babysitting his sister during a family vacation at a Pacific coast resort, he tries to save himself, his sister, and a boy who has bullied him for years.

Our Newest Library Users

Our kindergarten students are doing a great job in the library! They have been learning about how to take care of library books and how to look for library books on the shelves using shelf markers. You can ask your kindergartener what types of things make Mr. Wiggle sad. You can also ask them to sing the shelf marker song for you.

Genre Sorting

Students have been learning about genres in the classroom. In library, we are practicing sorting books into their correct genres. Some of the books I have given them are very tricky, but the students are doing a great job! They work together in groups to decide what genre a book belongs to. Genres they have learned to identify include realistic fiction, fantasy, expository non fiction, folktale, legend, myth, poetry, biography, and more!