Monthly Blog

Take a look back at the fun we had during the 2022-23 school year!

September 2022

This school year got off to a busy start in the library, as we welcomed the Scholastic Book Fair during the first full week of school! 

It was so wonderful to welcome all the Meyer students into the library to explore the books, bean bags, Lego walls, and more! They are all doing a wonderful job of learning new things, including how to check out books.

Once a month, the kindergarten students will be doing doing a STEAM-based activity instead of checking out books. For their first activity, the students worked in pairs to build an apple tree out of toilet paper rolls, popsicle sticks, and pom poms- no tape or glue! They had to think and use their teamwork skills to become engineers and decide how to make a tree that looked just like the one in the book we read that day, The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree. 

We will be getting up to more fall fun in October! 

October 2022

We kicked off the month by celebrating Global Read Aloud Day at Meyer! The featured author this year was Christian Robinson- I visited every classroom on October 3rd and read his book You Matter. I loved getting to visit each classroom and read a book by one of my favorite authors/illustrators!

Students in Ms. Huynh's class got in the fall mood and strengthened their fine motor skills by putting colorful fall leaf stickers on trees after listening to the book Patty's Pumpkin Patch! 

For our October kindergarten STEAM activity, we read the book Five Little Pumpkins, and then students worked in groups on their engineering steps. First, they worked together to plan and draw what they would use to build a gate for 5 little pumpkins to sit on and how it would look. Then they used the materials they selected to build a gate and see if their 5 little pumpkins would fit on top. Some groups were even able to take on an extra challenge and try to build a different gate for 1 large pumpkin! The students are getting better and better at working together and creatively flexing their problem solving muscles! 

November 2022

We had a fun-filled November in the Meyer library! The kindergarten classes got to experience a Breakout EDU, which is like an educational escape room for kids! They completed "The Perfect Pumpkin Hunt" by solving puzzles in small groups and using the answers to unlock real locks and get into the "pumpkin patch" to "pick pumpkins". All the students got pumpkin erasers as their prize at the end. Everyone had such a great time, and the students did a fantastic job working together and using their problem solving skills to find the answers to the puzzles! Thank you to all the parent volunteers that were able to come and help us out!

The preschool classes wrapped up their community helpers unit by becoming construction workers for a day in the library! They worked in groups to look at pictures of buildings in Skokie and try to recreate them with different types of building materials. All the students used their creativity and teamwork skills at every building center!

December 2022

The end of 2022 flew by in a flurry of activity! 

December was all about gingerbread in the kindergarten classrooms! We read several different versions of the classic gingerbread man story, did lots of comparing and contrasting, and had some fun discussions about what was the same or different across all the gingerbread books that the students had read both here in the library as well as in their classrooms. We also got to do some fun gingerbread projects- after we read the book Ginger Bear, the students came up with their own ideas about what happened after the end of the book by drawing an answer to the question "What does the ginger bear do at night?" Students also had a chance to decorate an outline of a gingerbread cookie in their own way- we have so many talented kindergarten artists this year!

The Pre-K classes were busy with a unit on author/illustrator Mo Willems. At the end of their unit, we read the Elephant & Piggie book I Love My New Toy and the students used craft materials to create their own "new toys." They are currently on display in the glass cases outside of the library! 

Before our winter break, Mrs. Nahhas' class came into the library for another fun Breakout EDU experience, this time all about the Jan Brett book The Mitten. The students worked together to solve puzzles and gather clues to help the main character from the book, Nicky, find his lost mitten! 

See you all in 2023! 

January 2023

Happy new year! We cozied up in the library during this cold and snowy month, reading lots of books about winter with the Pre-K classes! 

In kindergarten, we began learning about how to be coders by playing a Very Hungry Caterpillar game! After reviewing the story, students worked together in groups to "code" a caterpillar game piece and tell it where to go on the board to eat all the food in the same order as in the story. It was a challenge, but the students persevered and successfully made it all the way through! We will learn another coding game next month! 

February 2023

What a special month for the library jam-packed with exciting events and activities! February is National Library Lover's Month AND we celebrated Literacy Month in District 73.5! Everything got kicked off with World Read Aloud Day, and a special visit from the McCracken Social Justice Club. The "big kids," as our Meyer students called them, were guest readers in every classroom. We were so excited to be able to celebrate in person this year after several years of virtual read-alouds! 

In kindergarten, we continued reading Monarch Award-nominated books all month long. Students will be voting for their favorites next month! One of the books we read was Saturday by Oge Mora, all about a girl and her mother who love to spend time together on Saturdays. After hearing the story, students drew pictures about what they like to do with their family on the weekends. 

Preschool visited the library on Valentine's Day, and many students were feeling the love by checking out Valentine's Day-themed books! 

Families had a chance to get in on the Literacy Month fun during Meyer Story Night! Everyone came to school dressed in their coziest pjs and heard staff members read aloud books about friendship and kindness. Thanks to everyone who participated! 

As promised, kindergarten students learned a new coding game this month, Robot Turtles! They did a great job "coding" their robot turtle game pieces all the way to the middle of the board where they collected a gem that matched their turtle's color. Thank you to all the parent volunteers that were able to come and help with our game! 

Pre-K wrapped up their fairytale unit by building bridges that would fit 3 billy goats gruff on top and a troll underneath! There was lots of great teamwork and creative thinking taking place, and of course lots of trip-trapping across the bridges! 

We finished off Literacy Month by celebrating Read Across America Week with special theme days district-wide! Day 1 was Kind Books Day, and everyone showed their kindness in a big way by donating gently used books for use in our community's Little Free Libraries. We are overwhelmed by the generosity! Day 2 was D.E.A.R. Day and classes all over Meyer could be seen Dropping Everything And Reading throughout the day! Stay tuned for the March blog post to read about the exciting conclusion of Read Across America Week and the final 3 theme days! 

March 2023

We started off the month of March by finishing out Read Across America Week! Wednesday was guest reader day, and Dr. Wei was our guest reader at Meyer. She read to every class during her morning announcement video- thank you, Dr. Wei! Thursday was Dress Like Your Favorite Book Character Day, and students & staff went all out with their costumes! Friday was Surprise Day- every student was surprised with a free book to take home courtesy of Scholastic and the District 73.5 Administration Team. What a special way to end our week of celebrating Read Across America- I hope everyone has been enjoying their gift books!

Before spring break, Pre-K students listened to the book The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires, and used different building materials to work together and make their own magnificent things! Their creativity and teamwork really shone through! 

Kindergarteners were busy during the month of March! First, they finished hearing all the books read aloud that were nominated for the Illinois Reader's Choice Monarch Award, and got to vote for their favorite book. They even got their own "I voted today" stickers! The results came in right before spring break began, and I was able to let all the classes know that Are You  A Cheeseburger? was the winning book this year! Clearly it was popular all across the state, and it also got the most votes here at Meyer!

The kindergarteners also got to use the coding skills they've been learning since January on real robots! They were split into small groups and got to take turns using special tools called Puzzlets to code the Dash robots. Everyone had so much fun, and did a great job working with the robots! 

April 2023

Spring is officially here! I can't believe that we're already approaching the end of the school year. We got up to lots of exciting things in the library this month!

Pre-K students experienced their first-ever Breakout EDU activity, which is like an educational escape room for kids! They solved the mystery of "Lucy's Lost Spots" by completing springtime-themed puzzles and helping Lucy the Ladybug find her lost spots. All the students did a fantastic job working together, using their problem-solving skills, and and thinking critically to solve the puzzles. Thank you to all the family members that were able to come in and help with the activity! 

Kindergarten students continued their coding journey by spending some more time working with the Dash robots! This time, they used the "Go" app and explored on their own what all the different features made the robots do. They're very fast learners!

We had a special visit from the mayor of Skokie and some of his team members on Arbor Day. The mayor read a tree-themed book aloud to the pre-k students before planting trees outside with the kindergarten students. The mayor also donated 6 tree books to the library, what a treat! Thank you to the mayor and his team for the visit and the gift. 

Speaking of book donations, a big thank you is also owed to the District 73.5 Caring Hearts Grant Committee for choosing to fund the grant to get the Meyer Library more Vox books for the students to check out. These audiobooks-within-a-book are a huge hit with the kids! 

See you back here next month for the final blog post of the school year! 

May 2023

May was an exciting whirlwind of special events as we wrapped up this school year! First, we welcomed back former Meyer kindergarten teacher and children's book author Mandy Namjou Yom for an author visit! She read her book Nami's New Friend to all our students, and did some fun activities with them. We loved having Mrs. Yom back in the building! 

We also got to enjoy another special visit, one from the Skokie Public Library Bookmobile! The librarians introduced all our students to their Summer Reading Program and read aloud one of the featured books. We always love hearing from the Skokie Public Library! 

We also got the chance to host a second Scholastic Book Fair this year during our Meyer Showcase. It was so busy that only one picture was taken to capture it before the crowd descended! Thank you to everyone that visited and supported our library by purchasing and donating books! 

In the midst of all of these events, we of course continued to have fun in the library during class times! The Pre-K students continued their butterfly unit by hearing all the caterpillar/butterfly books by Ross Burach: The Very Impatient Caterpillar, The Little Butterfly That Could, Goodnight Butterfly, and Make Way For Butterfly. They even got to decorate the main butterfly character themselves and choose their own designs to draw on the wings! 

Kindergarten students got one more chance to code with the Dash robots this month. This time they used a more advanced app, the "Path" app- everyone got to take turns drawing paths for Dash to travel along. All the kindergarteners learned so much about how to control the robots this spring! 

We also finished up book checkout across the school, what a busy month! 

Finally, our District 73.5 Summer Reading Kickoff was the perfect way to end the year. We had so many exciting special guests: local authors Alex Willan, Jarrett Dapier, and Aimee Ellis, Evanston bookstore Booked, and the Skokie Public Library Book Bike! Most importantly, we had a fantastic turnout from our District 73.5 Community, especially our Little Free Library owners and student artists! Don't forget to visit and check in to all 16 district Little Free Libraries this summer so you can participate in the scavenger hunt. As you can see, the Meyer Little Free Library is ready! I hope everyone has a wonderful summer- for those that are moving on to Middleton, we will miss you here at Meyer!