Team 3 Visiting Author: MJ Auch

We are SO luck to have the 2011 Hills Bank Community Reading Month Visiting Author: MJ Auch.  Her husband/illustrator, Herm will be co-presenting to Team 3 on Friday, 10/21/1

Stale blogs are the worst!

Nothing is as bad as a stale Media blog!  I apologize for not posting, so many new things have been happening at Weber!

• Have you seen the new Weber Website?  It looks great and I am really proud of it!  Make sure to look to see if you are in any of the photos at the top!
• Have you noticed all of the new projectors being installed in Teams 3 and 4?  Your teacher will soon be using them!
• So many great book!  Iowa Children's Choice titles will be on display soon! 
• Team 3 has a visiting author coming next month!  MJ Auch will be presenting to all 3rd and 4th graders in Iowa City!  Exciting!!

I hope you are reading, reading, reading!!

Mrs. Dickson

How do I make a biblio, biba, bibliography?!?

Our Team 4 students are gearing up for research projects! With research comes the requirement of making a bibliography.  What is that??  A bibliography is an alphabetical listing of the books, online resources and any other materials that were used as resources for the creation of your research paper.  Why, you ask?  Well, a bibliography tells the reader (or teacher) that you did not simply make up the information presented in your work.  Visit the links on the right for bibliographic assistance!

Robert San Souci!

What a wonderful author visit we had this month, when Robert San Souci came to Weber School!  He was very impressed with our students!  Thanks to the Weber PTA for sponsoring this event!

Award winners, get your award winners here!

The 2011 Caldecott Medal winner is...
A Sick Day for Amos McGee, illustrated by Erin E. Stead, written by Philip C. Stead.
In this tender tale of reciprocity and friendship, zookeeper Amos McGee gets the sniffles and receives a surprise visit from his caring animal friends. Erin Stead’s delicate woodblock prints and fine pencil work complement Philip Stead’s understated, spare and humorous text to create a well-paced, gentle and satisfying book, perfect for sharing with friends.

The 2011 Newbery Medal winner is...
Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool, published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
The town of Manifest is based on Frontenac, Kan., the home of debut author Clare Vanderpool’s maternal grandparents. Vanderpool was inspired to write about what the idea of “home” might look like to a girl who had grown up riding the rails. She lives in Wichita with her husband and four children.

2011 Caldecott Honor Books
Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Laban Carrick Hill.  Collier’s arrestingly beautiful artistic interpretation of Hill’s poetic text reveals Dave the potter’s artistic process while also conveying the dignified triumph of his humanity in the face of oppression. Lush, earth-toned, multimedia collages are illuminated in soft, ethereal light that focuses the eye on the subject of each spread.
Interrupting Chicken, written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein.
Stein’s hilarious story presents Little Chicken and her long-suffering Papa, who just wants to get through a bedtime story without his daughter’s metafictive disruptions. Exuberant artwork shifts media and style, taking readers into three fairy tales, culminating in Little Chicken’s “Bedtime for Papa,” but truly delivering a story for all.


2011 Newberry Honor Books
Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm.  Sassy eleven-year-old Turtle finds her life turned on end when she is sent to live with her aunt in Depression-era Key West. With vivid details, witty dialogue and outrageous escapades, Jennifer Holm successfully explores the meaning of family and home… and lost treasures found.
Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus, published by Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams.
Shipwrecks, whaling, a search for home and a delightful exploration of cultures create a swashbuckling adventure. This historical novel is based on the true story of Manjiro (later John Mung), the young fisherman believed to be the first Japanese person to visit America, who against all odds, becomes a samurai.
Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen.  Welcoming her readers into the “wild, enchanted park” that is the night, Joyce Sidman has elegantly crafted twelve poems rich in content and varied in format. Companion prose pieces about nocturnal flora and fauna are as tuneful and graceful as the poems.
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia.  The voices of sisters Delphine, Vonetta and Fern sing in three-part harmony in this wonderfully nuanced, humorous novel set in 1968 Oakland, Calif. One crazy summer, the three girls find adventure when they are sent to meet their estranged poet-mother Cecile, who prints flyers for the Black Panthers.