Flashlight reading is one of our favorite things about the library! It only happens twice a year and it's so much fun! Students check out quickly and then find a place to read quietly. When everyone's ready we turn the lights off and the flashlights and music on!
It was another successful Book Swap! Yesterday at the Book Swap 984 books were swapped for "new" books. The students were so excited to be able to come and choose their books. I want to say a special "thank you" to the Student Council for all of their help in organizing, advertising, and running the Book Swap!
This week in library fourth grade students are learning how to do quick book reviews. They come and sit at the tables where there are book review forms along with a stack of fiction books. They are practicing looking at a book's front cover, and quickly reading the book's back cover or inside flap to see if the book interests them. Then they jot down the book's title, author, and call number, along with a couple of notes on their form and give the book a 1-5 rating. Each student has the chance to review five or six books. At the end of the lesson the students are able to check out any of the books that they would like to. There are many books that multiple students wish to check out, and all dilemmas are solved with a rock-paper-scissors war. Students take their forms with them so that they can refer to them at a later date to help them find the books that they liked. 
Author: Sarah Weeks
We repurposed the Book Fair robots to make a fun robot book display for the library. Come by the library to check out one today!
Mrs. Tarpley's Classroom Bee
Every year at Taylor the third grade students make pumpkins based on book characters. I am fortunate to be able to display them in the library. There are some amazing pumpkins and I am so impressed by the creativity the students show! 
The Book Fair is here!! We will be open for business next week, October 24 - 28. On Monday through Thursday our shopping hours will be 7:30 - 3:20. We are also having "Lunch With a Loved One" on these days. On Friday we will be open for shopping from 7:30 - 12:00. On Monday night the Book Fair will be open from 6:30 - 8:00 for our family night. There will also be a third grade performance that night as well as Dippin' Dots ice cream! The Book Fair is full of amazing titles this fall and we can't wait to have you visit!!
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.
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."
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. 
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. 
Author: Kate Klise
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! 
Author: Peg Kehret
