Mogie, the Heart of the House

This week we are reading Mogie, the Heart of the House, by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal.  It is one of the nominees for the Surrey Schools' Picture Book of the Year. Students enjoyed drawing their own pictures of Mogie and building a special house out of Lego.

Students are welcome to come in and check out our collection of dog books and
enjoy a few of the dog jokes on the book display!

Can you spot the Lego dog?  How about the tree house?

Can you imagine sitting by the warm fire?  And check out that swimming pool!

SPL Storytime and Lego Saturdays

The Surrey Public Library staff will be at Katzie Elementary on the 3rd Saturday of the month (except March) from 9:30-11:30 for families to come and share stories and build together with Lego.

Dates: January 16th
            February 20th
            April 16th
            May 14th
            June 18th

Time:  9:30-11:30 a.m.

Bring:  Your family and your enthusiasm!

Meanwhile, in the Library Learning Commons...

Students have been busy building some very creative structures! I'm doing a read aloud of
 A Creepy Case of Vampires, by Canadian author Kenneth Oppel, getting in the mood for the spookiest day of the year coming up at the end of this month! After sharing part of the book today, students invented "bat detectors", and explained how it worked. There are some very imaginative kids at Katzie!

Keeping with the spooky theme, Grade 2's heard a Winnie the Witch story, written and illustrated by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul. These stories are such fun! Winnie is hilarious and I love her cat Wilbur. Here are some creations inspired by the story, Winnie's Dinosaur Day.

Look what's happening on the weekend!

You know where to go! The Katzie Library Learning Commons is the place to be for a drop in storytime and Lego club on the Saturdays listed on the poster! Come and meet the staff from the Surrey Public Library and enjoy this fun morning with your family.  (You have to bring your parents to join in on the fun!)  Please note:  There have been changes in the dates.  The November 21st session has been moved to November 28th and December 19th has been cancelled.  

Lego City

Check out the Lego city being built in our library learning commons! This has been a collaborative effort  by students from various classes throughout the week.  A few students from Division 15 had the idea and it has turned out to be a favourite activity with many students!
The Surrey Museum has a LEGO display on right now!  It's called LEGO: A Fraser Valley Odyssey.
The display is open June 2nd and runs through September 19th.  And it's FREE!!  Lego lovers will want to check it out!

Monkey Traps and More!

This week the Kindergarten and Grade 1 classes are enjoying the book, Warning: Do Not Open This Book!, written by Adam Lehrhaupt and illustrated by Matthew Forsythe.  How would you catch a monkey? Well, with a trap, of course! Students created monkey traps out of Lego, Tinkertoys or Jenga blocks and then explained how their trap worked while I projected it on the Apple TV with my iPad. Take a look at some of the traps! And then check out the author's website.  There's a great book trailer for you to watch!

The Grade 2 and 3 students are loving Marsupial Sue and the Runaway Pancake, written and read by John Lithgow and illustrated by Jack E. Davis.  After listening to the cd of John Lithgow reading the story (very funny!), we talked about what kind of animal Marsupial Sue is and where we would find books on mammals in our library. We looked at a nonfiction book on kangaroos and discovered that mammals are found in 599. This led to our activity of sorting the animal pictures onto the "shelf" they would be found on. I had 4 students hold up the Dewey number cards (see the photo), and then each student was given a card with an animal on it. They had to decide which shelf they would be found on and stand behind that Dewey number.  Many students chose animal books to sign out! 

A fun way to learn about Dewey!

Library Learning Commons turned into a Makerspace!

This week we are reading Going Places by Peter and Paul Reynolds.  It is one of the Surrey Picture Book of the Year Nominees.  After reading and discussing the story, students worked collaboratively with a partner to build something that moves! We saw cars, planes, spaceships, submarines and even a horse and a pogo stick! Katzie kids are sure a creative bunch! Read the book, watch the book trailer, and get inspired!

Deck the Halls!

Our school is beginning to look very festive and the Library Learning Commons is getting in the spirit of the season! Check out one of our Christmas books! Or try making a Christmas tree out of Lego!

Are you getting ready for Christmas? 

Amazing Mazes!

                                              I made these photo collages with an app called Pic Collage on the ipad.