Monthly Blog Archive

Take a look back at the fun we had during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years!

September 2018

Welcome to the first-ever Meyer Library monthly blog post! The 2018-19 school year is off to a fantastic start, and all our students have been busy getting acquainted with the exciting things we can do in the library.

We started the school year with something special- the Scholastic Book Fair! The students visited during the school day and made "wish lists" on SeeSaw, and families got to visit during Back To School Night. Thank you to everyone that purchased books and came to see us!

Every class has had the chance to check out books at least once already. The students get to pick their books completely independently- I hope you've been enjoying their selections together at home!

Mrs. Yom's class learned all about yoga by following along with the book You Are A Lion: And Other Fun Yoga Poses by Taeeun Yoo. Check out their poses!

One of our Pre-K classes visited our Lego walls and made awesome creations, including some color patterns!

Several of the kindergarten classes came in to do an activity that corresponded with their apple unit. First, we read the book The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall, and talked about what apple trees look like throughout the seasons. Then, students worked in pairs to make apple trees using only a toilet paper roll, popsicle sticks, and pom poms. They had to use their communication skills to talk about how to build the trees without using any glue or tape, and then they counted their apple pom poms to find out how many they could balance on top of the popsicle stick branches!

Check back next month to see what we get up to during the Halloween season!

October 2018

October was a busy month in the library! We started off with the kindergarteners participating in the Global Cardboard Challenge for the first time ever! All the kindergarten classes visited the library twice in the first 2 weeks of the month- first, to learn about the cardboard challenge, get some inspiration from the book Not A Box by Antoinette Portis, and draw the plans for their own cardboard creations. On their second visit the following week, the students used the cardboard they brought to school to make what they had planned! All the kids had fun being creative with their recycled materials, and we saw them exhibit a lot of independence and problem solving skills during the process. Thank you to all the parents that helped out during the second week!

During the second half of October, we had some Halloween fun with pumpkins and ghosts! Mrs. Yom's class made chenille stem pumpkins for each of their fingers on one hand and performed the rhyme "Five Little Pumpkins"- they showed off some great fine motor skills and memorization! Mrs. Yom, Ms. Yawanis, and Ms. Dickinson's classes made colorful play-doh pumpkins after listening to a read-aloud of the book The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by by Joe Troiano, which is all about a pumpkin patch full of pumpkins of different shapes and colors. We loved celebrating the diversity of our pumpkin patches while reviewing shapes and colors! Finally, Ms. Kessler's class celebrated in the library on Halloween by listening to the book The Ghost Dinner by Jacques Duquennoy. The students practiced their writing skills by finishing the sentence "The ghost ate..." and decorating their ghost as the food of their choice.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween month!

November 2018

This November, we were thankful for all the special things we had to celebrate throughout the month! We started off the month by honoring Friendship Week with the pre-k classes. We read the book The Adventures of Beekle the Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat, and then used play-doh and other craft supplies to make our own imaginary friends- we even gave them names!

We are always thankful for the fantastic Skokie Public Library, but we were especially thankful for their visit to our library this month! Two of the children's librarians brought a spectacular puppet show to us, featuring 2 different takes on the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood. The kindergarteners were great listeners, and absolutely loved the puppet shows!

Thanksgiving time always makes us reflect on what we are thankful for, and also gives us a chance to have a little fun! Ms. Kessler's class was thankful for their family, and showcased that by making family trees with each leaf dedicated to a different member of their family.

Mrs. Kelly and Mrs. Yom's classes had some fun thinking of creative disguises for a turkey inspired by the book Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano! They also used their writing skills to finish the sentence "I am not a turkey, I am a _______."

Check back next month to see what we get up to in December before our winter break!

December 2018

We were busy this month getting in the mood for winter and making connections to the kindergarten curriculum! The kindergarteners are working on the beginning and ending sounds of words. Mrs. Yom's class came in to listen to the book K Is For Kissing A Cool Kangaroo by Giles Andrae, and then used picture necklaces to find the other students that matched their beginning sound, then the table with their sound on it, and finished by writing their sounds on chalkboards! Ms. Yawanis' class came to the library for an ending sound scavenger hunt that had all the students excited!

On December 10th, the Skokie Public Library hosted our Meyer School Story Night. The children's section was packed with families that got to listen to Dr. Gordon, Ms. Dickinson, Mrs. Nahhas, Mrs. Bhurya, and me read some winter books and then enjoy some cookies afterwards. We always enjoy partnering with our fantastic public library!

Mrs. Yom's class got treated to a special parent visitor who read them the book Snowballs by Lois Ehlert, and brought tote bags for all of them to decorate with the very own snow people. "Totes" adorable!

Ms. Kessler's class came to the library to listen to the book Snowmen At Night by Caralyn and Mark Buehner and get started on their creative writing activity to go along with it. The students all thought of what their snowman might do at night so they could write a sentence about it after making their snowman out of tissue paper pieces.

Ms. Banser's preschool class is doing a unit on gingerbread right now, and they made their own gingerbread people with the help of some shape stickers after listening to a different version of the classic story, The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Ernst.

Mrs. Kelly's class has been working on retelling stories lately, and they took their retelling up a notch with the library's new green screen! The students split into 2 groups to make sure that everyone got a chance to participate in the retelling of The Mitten by Jan Brett. Enjoy and have a wonderful winter break- we'll be back at it in 2019!

January 2019

Happy 2019! Thanks to the the combination of planned days off and interesting weather, January turned into quite a short month of school for us at Meyer! We were still able to pack in some fun and special events, though.

I collaborated with Mrs. Gammeri, the McCracken Library, to bring her Social Justice Club to Meyer to celebrate World Read Aloud Day. I visited their first meeting of 2019 to talk them about "the art of the read aloud" and help them choose some appropriate books to read to Meyer students.

Fast forward to the end of the month when the students actually visited Meyer to read their books aloud to our Pre-K and Kindergarten classes, and there are just too many amazing pictures to post them all! The McCracken students were excellent readers and role models, and the Meyer students loved having the "big kids" visit! It was such a success that we're hoping to make it a yearly tradition!

The Pre-K classes learned all about winter and animals that hibernate this month. They came into the library to do a special project about animal dens. First we read the book Mama Dug A Little Den by Jennifer Ward, and talked about what kinds of dens are best for hibernating animals. Then the students got to make their own dens out of marshmallows and toothpicks for their winter animal toys. They did a fantastic job constructing safe, warm places for their animals!

January also marks the beginning of a very exciting time for books in Illinois- January, February, and March are Monarch Award season. 20 picture books are nominated for the Monarch Award every year, and Illinois students in grades K-3 get to vote for the winner! We're very excited for Meyer kindergarten students to be taking part in the voting process this year. All throughout January and February, we will be reading the nominated books in the library. At the end of February, each kindergarten student will cast their vote for their favorite book, and the state will announce the winner in March!

We're ready to keep reading more Monarch-nominated books in February, and do more exciting projects in the library as always!

February 2019

February was all about the Monarch Award-nominated books in the Meyer Library! We read over half of the nominated books with every kindergarten class, and did some fun extension activities inspired by a few of the books!

One of the early favorites was Creepy Pair of Underwear by Aaron Reynolds. After reading about Jasper Rabbit's creepy underwear, students got a chance to design their own creepy pairs of underwear!

Claymates by Dev Petty is a fun story about 2 hunks of clay that get into lots of interesting situations when their creator is away from the studio. After reading, students used colorful clay to create their very own claymates!

The Night Gardener by the Fan Brothers taught us all a new vocabulary word- topiary! The students learned all about what a topiary is and how they're made, then they used their imaginations to draw their own ideas for original topiary designs.

After reading all those nominated books, it was time to vote! Every kindergartener got a chance to vote for their one favorite book out of the bunch, and even got a special Monarch-themed "I voted today" sticker to show for it! The Meyer votes have been officially submitted to the state, and the winner will be announced in mid-March!

Ms. Dickinson's class did a unit on the book The Koala Who Could by Rachel Bright, and I was lucky enough to be with her class when they wrapped up the unit by doing a BreakoutEDU box all about the book! The students had so much fun helping Kevin the Koala teach his friends how to share, and were very excited to do their first breakout box.

We wrapped up our February with a very special event- we were lucky enough to win the Amber Brown Grant from the SCBWI, which awarded us an author visit from Rachel Ruiz, several copies of her books, and some extra funds for a special lunchtime pizza party that day! Rachel read her picture book When Penny Met POTUS, shared the story of how she became an author, and answered questions from some students. We had a great time, and it was a very memorable day for all students and staff!

Finally, this will be the last blog entry for the 2018-19 school year. I will be on maternity leave for the remainder of the year. We have a fabulous sub in place for March-May, and I'll be back with the monthly blog in September for the 2019-20 school year! Thanks for following along with our library adventures!

September 2019

Welcome to the 2019-20 school year! I'm so excited to be back from maternity leave and with our new group of Meyer students. The year is already off to a fantastic start- our Scholastic Book Fair was a great success. Pete the Cat even visited to help us kick it off in style! Special thanks to everyone that purchased books, volunteered, donated books from staff wish lists, and donated their change to our school!

All the preschool and kindergarten classrooms have now visited the library at least once to check out books. Everyone did a great job learning how to check out in our library- I hope you've been enjoying the books that your child has picked!

Some preschool and kindergarten classes have also come in for read alouds and other activities- Mrs. Sanfilippo's preschool class helped me read If You Take A Mouse To School by Laura Numeroff by putting pieces from the story on a felt board. Mrs. Yom's kindergarten class learned some animal yoga by reading and watching the books You Are A Lion and Other Fun Yoga Poses by Taeeun Yoo and Zoo Zen by Kristen Fischer.

We ended this month with a visit from the Emily Oaks Nature Center, who put on a fantastic puppet show for the kindergarten classes called "Robin and the Recyclables." We loved learning about recycling from them!

October 2019

It was a fall fiesta in the library this month- all things apples, pumpkins, and Halloween! The Pre-K classes participated in some STEAM-themed apple centers- the students rotated through 5 different centers, each with a different apple-themed challenge that required some creative problem-solving and teamwork!

Some of the kindergarten classes got spooky with a story called The Ghost's Dinner by Jacques Duquennoy. After hearing the story about ghosts that change colors based on the foods they eat, they practiced writing a food word, and then decorated their ghost to match!

One of my favorite Halloween books is The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano. All the kindergarten classes heard this story, and did one of two different projects related to Spookley and his diverse pumpkin patch! Some of the classes made their own colorful and creatively-shaped pumpkins out of play-doh, and some of the classes completed a pumpkin challenge by creating a pumpkin out of a pipe cleaner and Apple Jacks cereal pieces.

Mrs. Kelly's class came into the library for a Halloween-themed Breakout EDU. It's like an educational escape room in a box! They had to work together and use their academic knowledge to solve riddles, find the answers to some puzzles, and obtain the codes to open the locks on the box. They successfully "broke out" and had lots of Halloween fun in the process!

November 2019

We were thankful for friends, family, and fun activities in the library this month! Pre-K and K classes came together one afternoon for some buddy building with all different kinds of blocks. A great time was had by all, and the kindergarteners were great role models!

The kindergarten students learned what an engineer does by reading Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty. Then they got to become engineers themselves by building houses out of recycled materials for some of the book character stuffed animals that live in the library!

Some of the kindergarten classes came in to make family trees as a decoration for their Meyer Feast table. To get into a thankful state of mind, we read the book Thanks For Thanksgiving by Julie Markes.

Finally, some kindergarteners got ready for Thanksgiving by completing the Run, Turkey, Run Breakout EDU, based on the book by Diane Mayr. They solved puzzles in groups to break out of their boxes and discover a yummy snack that the farmer might want instead of turkey! Gobble Gobble!

December 2019

We had lots of festive fun in the library this month! The kindergarteners used the engineering skills they had learned to solve a problem for the gingerbread man. Instead of getting eaten by the fox, they used recycled materials to make boats for him to sail across the water! First they tested different materials in water and made a plan, then they built the boats, tested them in the water, and changed their designs if needed. It was such an exciting experience, and the boats turned out fantastic!

The Pre-K classes have been learning all about community helpers, and they turned into budding architects after listening to the story If I Built A House by Chris Van Dusen. They drew up blueprints for their dream houses, and they had great ideas for some very inventive houses!

Mrs. Kelly's class did a mini-unit on the classic story The Mitten by Jan Brett here in the library! First we read the story and practiced re-telling it, then we made videos of the re-telling using a green screen, and we finished the unit off by solving some puzzles and finding Nicki's mitten in our Breakout EDU box!

Ms. Kessler's class got in a wintry mood by listening to one of my favorite stories, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. Then they used puffy "snow" to re-create a scene from the book, complete with Peter in his red snowsuit!

See you for more library adventures in 2020!

January 2020

Happy New Year! 2020 is off to a great start here in the Meyer library! We started things off by wrapping up the Pre-K Eric Carle author study with a special project. The students worked in pairs to use play-doh and see how tall they could make their own very hungry caterpillar. The partners took turns rolling play-doh pieces into balls and stacking them up, making sure to be careful that their caterpillar didn't fall over!

We also had a special nighttime event in January at the Skokie Public Library- a Meyer Community Storytime. 5 staff members read some of their favorite books to the families that attended. We love visiting the library and seeing Meyer families. Thank you to all the families that attended, and all the staff members that read books!

Speaking of read alouds, the new year means that it's time to read a new round of Monarch Award-nominated books in kindergarten! After reading 10 picture books that are nominated for Illinois' Monarch Award, all the kindergarteners will get to vote for their favorite. Student votes from all K-3rd graders in the state will be tallied in March and the winner will be announced!

Ms. Yawanis' kindergarten class came in this month to use their engineering expertise for a science project. They've been learning all about sun and shade, and used their knowledge build a sandbox covering that would shade it from sun and water. Our engineers-in-training just keep getting better and better at following the engineering steps!

Ms. Kessler's class has been learning all about penguins and other arctic animals. After reading Five Little Penguins Slipping on the Ice by Steve Metzger, they each made their own penguins doing a winter activity featured in the book. Some of them were skiing, some were sledding, and some were ice skating!

Stay warm, and check back here at the end of next month to see the February library happenings!

February 2020

February was a busy month in the library! There were so many special celebrations- the 100th day of school, Valentine's Day, and my favorite: World Read Aloud Day! The McCracken Social Justice Club came to visit us at Meyer and read picture books to all of the classrooms at the same time to celebrate. Students young and younger alike had a great time getting to know each other!

We also had some special visitors from the Skokie Public Library this month- they put on 2 puppet shows, Strega Nona and Dragons Eat Noodles On Tuesdays, and also read a book aloud to all the kindergarten students. We always love a visit from Skokie Public Library!

The kindergarten students were introduced to the concept of coding this month, and will be doing different coding activities in the library for the rest of the school year! First, they listened to the book How to Code A Sandcastle by Josh Funk and learned how to play the coding board game Robot Turtles. After playing the game in small groups, our new coders are off to a great start!

The Pre-K students are wrapping up a unit about fairy tales, and the Big Bad (hair dryer) Wolf paid a visit to the library! After reading the story of The Three Little Pigs, preschool students worked together using everything from play-doh and popsicle sticks to marshmallows and gumdrops to build a house that would not get blown over by the big bad wolf! Some of the houses got blown across the table, but none of them fell down!

We are continuing to read the Monarch Award-nominated books in kindergarten, and soon the students will be casting their votes for their favorite. Check back here in March to find out which book is the lucky winner of the Monarch Award!

March 2020

February feels like quite a long time ago! Unfortunately, we were only able to be together at school for a couple weeks in March before we had to close due to coronavirus concerns. We are now jumping into the world of e-learning!

We were able to have some fun together before all of that happened, though! Kindergarten students got to try out their coding skills on the Dash robots! They used something called Puzzlets for Dash, which are special pieces that have commands on them. Once they put some in the tray along with the green "go" piece, they got to watch Dash do exactly what they told him to.

Kindergarten students were also able to place their votes for the Monarch Award! After reading 10 of the nominated books together, every kindergarten student chose their favorite, placed their vote, and got an "I Voted Today" sticker to show everyone that their voice had been heard! And the winner was...Do Not Lick This Book by Idan Ben-Barak and Julian Frost! It's a nonfiction book about germs, which seems very appropriate for the times! Head to the e-learning section of this website to see a video of me reading it aloud.

I hope you are all staying safe and healthy during this interesting time- I miss you all, and I hope to see you soon!

April, May, and June 2020

I think we had all been hoping we would be able to end the school year in person together, but that is unfortunately not the case. E-learning will continue for the next few weeks until the end of our school year. Please click on the e-learning page of this website to see videos of me doing read-alouds, find some links for online resources, and see ideas for STEAM projects to complete at home. I miss all the Meyer Stars, their families, and our staff! I hope we can start out a new year in the fall with everyone happy and healthy. Please reach out if you want to say hi, or let me know if you're enjoying the library e-learning. Stay safe and have a happy spring and summer!