2014 Texas 2x2 Reading List

For the past two weeks I have been introducing the 2014 Texas 2x2 Reading List books to the children during their class story time. Each child had the opportunity to select one of the new books to check out the day they came for story time. The children have been very excited to listen to and read these new books. Each class has started a reading log to show which of the twenty titles has been read and the children should have brought home their very own Texas 2x2 Reading List log to color. If you did not see one come home, you can print one here.

When you and your child have read all twenty of the titles on the 2014 Texas 2x2 Reading List and colored in all of the spaces, please send the reading log back to school with your child's name and teacher's name written on it, as well as your child's favorite book from the list. We will take a picture of your child and put it up on our Texas 2x2 Wall of Fame. I will also ask your child to tell me about the book they chose as their favorite. I will record these book talks and we will have them available for students to listen to in order to help them select a book to check out.

Tonight during Family Night @ the Library we read the following books:

• The Black Rabbit by Philippa Leathers
• Bug Patrol by Denise Dowling Mortensen
• Fraidyzoo by Thyra Heder
• Nat the Cat's Sunny Smile by Jez Alborough
• The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli

Here are some activities you can do at home in order to extend the fun we had in story time.

The Black Rabbit

• Shadow Puppets - create and play with your own shadow puppets after watching this video on Peep and the Big Wide World
• Shadow Tricks - learn about shadows and how they are made.

Bug Patrol

• Bugs Matching Game - select the theme: bugs; and the difficulty level then find all the matching pairs of cards.
• Coloring pages and Activities from Orkin

Fraidyzoo

• Online game - Alphabet Zoo - match the lowercase letter to the capital letter in this interactive game.
• A Trip to the Zoo - an online sotry about a visit to the zoo.
• Zebra Shape Paper Hat / Hat template - make your own zebra shaped paper hat

Nat the Cat's Sunny Smile

• Coloring pages - use the great pictures of the characters to retell the story, or create your own story with Nat the Cat, Hugo the Hare, and Billy the Goat.
• Watch and listen - as the author, Jez Alborough, reads the book aloud.

The Watermelon Seed

• Sock Seeds - try this cool experiment to see what you can grow at home!
• The Great Plant Escape - try to discover how a see grows into a plant.

We had a great turn out tonight for Family Night @ the Library and Story Time. Thank you to all of the parents who took the time to bring your children to the library. I hope you and your children had a great time. I know I did!

2013 Texas 2x2 Reading List Story Time

The 2x2 Committee's charge is to produce a list of 20 recommended books for children, age two to grade two. The 2x2 Reading List is a project of the Children's Round Table, a unit of the Texas Library Association. The Texas Library Association sponsors the 2x2 Reading List solely to encourage free voluntary reading.

Mrs. Betts holds the Texas 2x2 Reading List very near and dear to her heart. She was selected for the committee in 2008, serving as a member for two years and chair of the committee for two years. She was instrumental in selecting the books for the 2009, 2010, 2011, & 2012 Texas 2x2 Reading Lists.

During the classes scheduled story time, I have been introducing the 2014 Texas 2x2 Reading List Books. In order to make parents aware of this wonderful list of books, which has been compiled each year since 2000, I wanted to share a few of the great titles from last year's list. Of the twenty titles (the entire list can be found here), we read the following books during Family Night @ the Library Story Time: 

• Fire! Fuego! Brave Bomberos by Susan Middleton Elya, illustrated by Dan Santat
• Horsefly and Honeybee by Randy Cecil
• This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen
• Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky

The Texas 2x2 Reading List website has a number of great activities you can do with your child after reading the books (English / Spanish). You can also color in the titles of the books on the 2013 Texas 2x2 Boot. 

This year's reading log is in the shape of Texas. When you read one of the books from the reading list, simply color in the space where the title appears. Once you have all of the books on the 2014 list, return the reading log with your child's name, teacher's name, and the title of your child's favorite book from the 2014 Texas 2x2 Reading List. Each child to bring back the completed reading log will get their picture up on our Wall of Fame. I will also be asking your child to record a booktalk telling me and their peers about their favorite book.

If you would like to check out any of the Texas 2x2 Reading List books from previous years (2000-2013), they are located in the blue, pink, and yellow carts in the library. Please feel free to ask Mrs. Betts or Mrs. Wilson if you have any questions about the Texas 2x2 Reading List. 

Home Story Time

Family Night @ the Library on Thursday, October 9th focused on Home.

These are the books we read during Story Time:

• A House is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman
• The House That Jack Built by Simms Taback
• Jack's House by Karen Magnuson Beil

Activities you can do at home with your child based on our theme and the books we read.

• Create your very own book based on A House is a House for Me, by using the same format -
• A ________ is a house for a _________. But a house is a house for me. Have your child illustrate their book by adding as many different homes as you can brainstorm.
• Have your child use art supplies, crayons, markers, paint, etc. to create their own house. Your child can write This is the house that ____________ built.

Story Time Goes On

Mrs. Wilson reading Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin.

Family Night @ the Library for Thursday, October 2nd, was cancelled due to inclement weather. We had a number of parents arriving at the school who had missed their children at the bus stop and children who had not been picked up seeking shelter in the building. In order to keep the children calm while the parents watched the weather Mrs. Wilson began reading to the children.

There was little damage on campus, playground items blown around and tree limbs down, and for that we are very grateful. Everyone was safe during the storm and the children had a great time listening to the stories Mrs. Wilson shared.

Family

Family Night @ the Library on Thursday, September 25th focused on Family.

Here are the books we read during Story Time:

• Always by Emma Dodd
• Saturday with Daddy by Dan Andreasen
• Who's in My Family? All About Our Families by Robie H. Harris, illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott  - Activity
• You Are Special, Little One by Nancy Tafuri

At home activities:

Handprint Family Tree - This art project for the entire family can be a little messy, but the final product will be a treasured keepsake.

Handprint Family Craft - This is a less messy version of the Handprint Family Tree above, but will still be a fun reminder of special family times.

My Family Tree - Teach your children the names of their extended family members. You can branch out even further to introduce your children to their great-grandparents and beyond.

Story Time with Mrs. Betts

Happy Reading. We will see you @ the Library.

I Am Special

Family Night @ the Library for Thursday, September 18th centered around the theme "I Am Special".

We read the following books:

• From Head to Toe by Eric Carle  - Activity
• I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem by Jamie Lee Curtis, illustrated by Laura Cornell  - Activity
• Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood  - Activity
• Veloz como un grillo by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood

I have included links next to the books above so you can extend the reading of these stories at home. All three of the activities linked above are writing activities you and your children can do at home in order to improve their literacy skills and creativity.

We sang the following songs:

• "I Like Me" by Thomas Moore
• "I Am Special" by Thomas Moore

Happy Readidng and We will see you @ the Library!

Dot Day

During Family Night @ the Library on Thursday, September 11th, we celebrated Dot Day. Families were encouraged to make their mark on a large poster to show they attended the celebration. We also had the Colar Mix Dot Day coloring sheet for everyone to create their own augmented reality dot. You can read more about this amazing 3D app here.

Our Story Time theme for the first Family Night @ the Library was Dots, Spots, and Speckles. We had fun reading the following books.

• The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds  - Activity
• Dot by Patricia Intriago - Activity
• Lots of Dots by Craig Frazier -   Activity
• Five Little Speckled Frogs adapted by Kath Mellentin and illustrated by Fran Thatcher  - Activity

We sang the song "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" as Mrs. Betts used this cool prop she discovered on Pinterest. She made copies of the song and the five frogs so the families could take them home and make their own tube story. You can sing along with Mother Goose Club Playhouse in this video.

Happy Reading and we'll see you @ the Library.

Welcome to the 2014-15 School Year

It has been quite some time since I have posted information about our library for our blog. I apologize. Last year was a difficult year for me healthwise. I am happy to say I am back at Kinkeade Library feeling better than ever.

I will be posting information very soon about our first two Family Night @ the Library events - Dot Day and I Am Special.

Favorite Thing About Family Night @ the Library

As the school year is winding down and our last Family Night @ the Library is quickly approaching I wanted to get some feedback from the children their favorite part of our Thursday evenings together.

Here are a few of the pictures drawn by the children and their families about their favorite part of Family Night @ the Library.

Her favorite part of Family Night @ the Library was reading books.

Her favorite part of Family Night @ the Library was coloring and doing the activities.

Her favorite part of Family Night @ the Library was knowing and being able to look at many beautiful books.

His favorite part of Family Night @ the Library was when Mrs. Betts would take his picture and he could post it to Instagram & Twitter on her iPad.

She has many favorite things from this year's Family Night @ the Library ~ looking at books, making play dough, and getting a new book.

I did not draw a picture this evening, but if I had it would show my favorite part of Family Night @ the Library ~ all of the parents bringing their children to the library because they know the importance of books, reading, and family!

Thank you to all of the parents who have taken the time to spend Thursday evenings with us at the Kinkeade Library for Family Night @ the Library.

With much love, Mrs. Betts

World Book Night

The Kinkeade Library celebrated World Book Night during Family Night @ the Library on Thursday, April 25th.

Mrs. Betts was away at the Texas Library Association Conference in Fort Worth, but the library was in excellent hands with Mr. and Mrs. Ashworth and Mrs. Baker. FREE books were given to all and not only included titles from World Book Night.org, but also from some great publishers, ABDO, Capstone, and Scholastic.

The official event day for World Book Night was Tuesday, April 23rd. The purpose of this celebration is to spread the love of reading, person to person. This year the book we gave away was Lisa Scottoline's Look Again.

I love Lisa Scottoline's writing. I have read a number of her books, but this one, as a mother, really touched me. Most people get chills just by reading the single question on the front cover of the book, "What would you do if the face in a missing child photo was your son?" This is the story of an adoptive mother who comes home to find a white card with a missing child's photo. The picture has a striking resemblance to her young son. The story tells how this mother takes on the challenge of finding out the truth about her son's life and to see if this child truly is the missing child on the card. 

If you were not able to get a copy of this great book during World Book Night, check the public library or local book book store. I highly recommend this great book.

Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping

Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping
by Melanie Watt

I had the wonderful opportunity to read Melanie Watt's new book Scaredy Squirrel Goes to Camp today. I have to say like all of her books, Ms. Watt captures your attention from the first page when the reader is warned to "check your zipper before reading this book." Scaredy Squirrels is always prepared and when it comes to camping he has all of his bases covered, down to the oatmeal for the three bears he may come across in the forest.

Young lovers of Scaredy Squirrel will love this new adventure in the woods. There are great maps, charts, and instructions to read throughout. It is not just a story book to be read, but a wonderful opportunity to share how to read each of this informational text.

I highly recommend this new addition to the fun and always entertaining collection of Scaredy Squirrel titles.

Making and Playing with Play Dough

During Family Night @ the Library on Thursday, April 18th, we had some messy fun. We made Skin Therapy Play Dough (Thanks to Bethany for posting this recipe to her blog). Ms. Marge found the recipe on Pinterest and knew it would be a great activity for Family Night. I think all of the children would agree. They had a great time. Here is the recipe for the play dough. I only did 1/4 of the recipe during Family Night so the children could mix everything in the zip baggies. When you make the full recipe you will have a lot more to play with at home.

Here are some of the photos I posted to Instagram during the evening. All of the pictures will be in an album titled "4/18 - Making and Playing with Play Dough".

Mosaic Photo Frames

During Family Night @ the Library on Thursday, April 11th, the children and their parents made a mosaic photo frame. The children could choose a background (either black or white) and then the create their own design around the frame using the colored squares. Some of the children chose to apply the patterning skills they worked with during last week's Family Night - Playing with Patterns to create their design. Others made a design with some of their favorite colors. Mrs. Betts took pictures using her iPad and then printed directly from the iPad to the color printer in the library (she was giddy all evening because of the new app which allowed her to print from her iPad - Print N Share). The children had fun creating their photo frames and loved having their pictures taken with the finished product!

You can see more photos from this evening, go to the Kinkeade Library Instagram site, or the Kinkeade ECS Facebook page. I had to add a story to this blog post. One of my regular Family Night @ the Library friends was asked if he wanted to have his picture taken for the frame project while he was in the library looking for books to check out. He replied, "No, I want to check out my books first!" I was so happy by this comment, I had to take a picture of him getting his books checked out. It helps us to remember we have to take care of our priorities first. I am so please this friend has made books and reading a priority in his young life.

Playing with Patterns

During Family Night @ the Library the children and their parents had fun create their own patterns and playing pattern games.

Creating patterns with large colorful shapes.

Creating a unique pattern and then recording it on a pattern train.

Everyone loves the iPad. Playing the Patterns Game.