What Is OBOB?

Oregon Battle of the Books is a fun and competitive way to engage young readers into different types of literature.  MRA has participated in OBOB for the past six years.   The competition is open to students in grades third through eighth with the 3rd-5th grade being one division and 6th-8th the other division.  

 Students are divided into teams of 4 or 5 and then expected to read at least eight of the sixteen books from the selected list.  At this time we are encouraging all students who may be interested, to be reading as many of the books from their grade list as possible.  In November, we begin meeting and discussing the books.  These meetings will happen during lunch.  In January, our school battles begin. Students compete in a tournament somewhat like Jeopardy, in which students earn points by answering questions about the books.

In our library classes we have been doing books talks on these books and discussing.  The enthusiasm is high.  Please continue to encourage your child to check out these books.  

3rd-5th Grade Book List:

*  3rd-5th will not be reading George by Alex Gino

Book Nooks

 Finding the right book and the perfect place to immerse yourself in the book to an important part of learning how to become strong readers.

This week our Trillium and Huckleberry classes continued to practice finding the "right-fit" book to check out and we read a fun story titled, Do Not Bring Your Dragon To The Library.

                                                              

In Clarkia classes we had a fun discussion about the different types of bridges they are discovering.  We talked about the upcoming Portland Bridge Tour and came to find out that many of us did not know what an Ariel tram was.  I am anxious to hear what they found out after Monday's field trip. We read an informative book on the life of a drawbridge operator.  

Books We Read This Week

  

Some of the great books we read this week during library classes.  

 This is a great story to introduce students to what a library is and what the job of a librarian is.  With fun pictures it keeps all well entertained.

This book is a great way to teach library check out procedures and etiquette while rhyming.  Ms. Blythe helped compose a complete rhythmic chant for our library classes.  The students all love to clap along to our beat and learn quickly how to follow our library procedures through this lovely book.




Weslandia is a story of a boy who develops his own civilization.  Through his creative designs from the ground up he realizes the importance of community and what it takes to make it successful.  The Clarkia classes enjoyed, Wesley's creative way he created his own clothes, food, and sports.  

New Titles!!

We have eased back into our library routine in the Mountain Meadow.  We have reacquainted ourselves with our library routines and expectations.  In the Huckleberry classes we have learned how even a lion in the library can follow the behaviors leading to successful library community.

The Clarkia classes have jumped in with review our Shelf Elf slogans on book care.  Here are some of our favorites:  

Turn the pages with great care, leave them whole without a tear.
Keep your books clean and neat, Away from all you drink and eat.
Return your books when they are due, So others can enjoy them too.
Keep books safe and out of view, from little ones and pets that chew.  

Please remember to help your child to bring back their library book on their library days!

Trillium:  Monday

 Huckleberry North:  Tuesday

Clarkia Classes:  Wednesday

Huckleberry South:  Friday

Here are some new titles to our library:  

Welcome to 2018-19 School Year

Dear MRA Families,

I would like to welcome you and your students to a new school year!  It was exciting to see how many student participated in our scholastic summer reading program.  We have read for a combined 27,666 minutes! I am looking forward to creating an environment for a passion and love for books and resources.   I encourage you to come and wander around our media center. We’ve been busy adding new books to our library collection.

I am excited to see that our library collection has grown and is growing.  With that in mind I want to make sure that we continue to respect the gifts of books we have been given.  The students will be challenged to understand that our media center is a special collection of resources and requires care from all users.  We will be focusing on how to locate and access many different digital/print resources. They will be using the information they gather in their classroom and personal projects.   I hope you will partner with me in helping our students become responsible learners.

The students (K-8thth) will have a media center time each week and will be allowed to check out 1-4 books depending on age and responsibility shown.   They have two weeks to read and enjoy their books. After that time if they have not returned their overdue books they will not be able to check out another until those are returned.  If a book becomes lost or damaged (accidents happen) please let me know. Then a fee will be issued to replace the book unless we can come to another agreement.

I am looking forward to a great year and thank you for your support.  Let me know if you have any questions. iquinlan@mra-k8.com

Happy Reading!

Summer Reading Program

Summer is good time to instill lifetime habbits. One of those all important habits is keeping your child invested in reading.  It has been researched and proven that children who read during the summer have a head start over others when fall rolls around and school begins. Take time to check out our local library, join summer reading clubs, and find a fun book to read together. This is such a valuable asset to our community of learning at MRA.  

Your child should come home this week with their Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge packet. It includes a letter explaining the program and your child's username and password to keep track of minutes read this summer. They have the opportunity to unlock prizes and other activities.

The Alder and Cedars have compiled a list of their favorite books. Along with some teacher recommendations we are encouraging them to read five or more books this summer. We would love your help in encouraging our young adults to continue to read.

Update On Library Classes

Trillium have been learning the difference between fiction and nonfiction texts.  We are discovering that a proper definition of a fiction book is more then "not real".  Fiction stories are ideas that come from an author's imagination.  Nonfiction books are books that give us information and facts about a subject we may want to learn more about.  Our purpose to read fiction books is for entertainment and our purpose to read nonfiction is to learn.  We have been reading books about chickens, eggs, elephants, and more and putting them into the correct genre. Including this delightful story about an unlikely friendship built between elephant and dog.

The Huckleberry classes have been reading the folktales of Stone Soup.  We have learned that this fun tale came first from France and then has spread across the world in it's many different versions.  We have planted our very own stone soup garden in the school garden and can't wait to try our hand at creating our own stone soup recipe.

       

The Clarkia have been looking into Native American heroes under the biography genre.  We have read some heart-touching stories of real Native American's that have overcome great odds to make a difference in our world.  "Saltypie" is a story told by a Choctaw woman's grandson on how she overcame being different not only by skin color but blindness.  Her determination to never give up inspired the story Tim Tingle wrote.  We also read a few stories about the residence boarding schools that many of Native American children were sent to and how these children tried to hold on to the memories of their tribes and traditions.