Cactus Ranch Library

Clubs in the CRE library

The library is THE place to be! Have you heard about all the clubs that are going on after school in the library?

Math Pentathlon on Mondays
Chess Club on Tuesdays
Robotics on Thursdays and Fridays

Add comment Tagged: chess club, math pentathlon, robotics September 20, 2009

Read It Forward – 3 days til launch

What is Read It Forward? It’s the new reading program I’m going to reveal to 4th and 5th graders on Wednesday, September 23rd. I hope everybody’s ready, because this is going to blow your mind!

1 comment Tagged: 4th, 5th, Read It Forward September 20, 2009

Hey, Kiddos. I’m in the process of planning some great projects for y’all this year! For 3rd grade, Mrs. Peak and Mrs. Carson and I are working on a virtual field trip with Space Center Houston. We want to do a program called Journey Through the Solar System. It’s really cool – each class will get to to interact with an educator from the Space Center in Houston, TX. Here’s the description:

“Climb aboard NASA’s various space crafts and probes to experience our Solar System in a whole new light. Live from NASA’s first satellite, Explorer 1, students will explore each of the nine planets through the eyes of NASA’s space probes. Through this exciting, interactive experience, your students will calculate the distance between each planet; explore the differences and similarities of each planet, and discover how gravity plays an important role in the solar system” (http://www.spacecenter.org/distancelearning.html).

We’re really excited, and we hope to also be able to get a class set of webcams so that after you learn everthing there is to learn about the solar system, your final product can be recorded.

Add comment Tagged: 3rd grade, project, research, Space Center Houston, webcam August 12, 2009

3 Weeks of Summer Left!

Hey, Longhorns! Well, there are 3 glorious weeks of summer left before you get to come back to Cactus Ranch. I hope you read some great books (or graphic novels or magazines) while you were on vacation. I tried to read all of the Bluebonnet books so I’d be prepared and could book talk them with you. I think I’ve almost made it through all 20 of them, and let me tell you…this year’s group of books is AMAZING! If you’re interested in finding out more about the BB books before school starts, then click on the picture below to go to the official website.

Add comment Tagged: Bluebonnet, Book Talk, school August 5, 2009

Bluebonnet 2009-2010

Hey, Longhorns! I’m busy this summer getting some fun things ready for next year. I’m reading all of next year’s bluebonnet nominees, and get ready because there are some really great books! Some of my early favorites are Alvin Ho: Allerigic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things and Savvy. Check out my Goodreads widget for my reviews.

Add comment Tagged: Alvin Ho, Bluebonnet, Read, Savvy June 19, 2009

Thank you, Longhorns, for such a great year in the library

The 2008-2009 school year is over, and I wanted to thank all of you for being such great readers. I enjoyed every story time and every project I got to spend with you. Have a great summer, and keep reading!

Mrs. Jones

Add comment Tagged: summer June 3, 2009

AR 100 point party for my “Reading Rockstars”

The AR 100 point party is tomorrow, and our theme is Reading Rockstars! This means you should come in your rockstar gear (following school dress code, of course). We’re going to have popsicles, free books and posters, photos, tattoos, Wii sports, and ….drum roll please…rock band! I know Mr. Heard has challenged a few of you, so come to the party ready to rock.

Congratulations to all of you who made it to 100 and beyond – you worked hard! And if you didn’t quite make it this year, you always have next year. P.S. The parties are getting better every year!

Mrs. Jones

Add comment Tagged: AR, party, Reading Rockstar May 28, 2009

15 Schools in 15 Days with 15,000 hits!

Hey, Longhorns. Cactus Ranch 3rd graders were lucky enough to get to go to a writing camp with author Phil Bildner on Monday. He talked a lot about his books and what it takes for him to get a story published, from making corrections based on feedback from his editor to planning the pictures with his illustrators. Campers got a chance to do some Writing Snapshots based on the baseball cards of characters from his Sluggers series.

Phil challenged the 3rd graders to do 2 things:

Turn their Snapshot notes into a story. Then we’ll email them all to Phil, and he said he’d post them on his author website!
Get as many people as possible to watch his Sluggers book trailer on YouTube. If his book trailer can get 15,000 hits by the time he finished visiting 15 schools in 15 days, then the CRE Library will get an autographed set of his books AND the READ poster from illustrator Loren Long.

So how can you help? Watch the Sluggers trailer (either go to YouTube – with your parent’s permission! – and use the search term “Phil Bildner” OR you can just click on the video further down in this blog!)

Add comment Tagged: Phil Bildner, Sluggers, snapshot, trailer, writing camp May 5, 2009

Book fair is coming in 3 weeks!

Hey Longhorns! The book fair is coming back to Cactus Ranch in about 3 weeks. This fair’s theme is Hollywood – imagine the costumes and decorations from the 1st grade Author Tea, but just put them in the library around the books! We’re going to have a red carpet, and Mrs. Sharp and I are thinking of dressing up in evening gowns with feather boas. Who knows? I’m always looking for an excuse to dress up

If you want to get a preview of what books will be available at the book fair, all you have to do is visit the Cactus Ranch Book Fair web site, which is linked on the regular library page, or you can click on the link below:

http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bookfairs/cptoolkit/publish/cactusranchelementary