A new addition to the Library - a Little Free Library Bench

The Susan Snyder Little Free Library Bench has found a home here in the Sprague Library. A cozy spot to sit and enjoy a book, this bench was a gift to the school in honor of Ms. Snyder's retirement at the end of the 2018-2019 school year. 

Here you can see one of our most avid 5th grade readers being the first to give the new bench a test drive. 

Seems to be working pretty well, I'd say!

Caught Reading on the Train

One of our Sprague students sent in their Caught Reading picture and said it was okay for me to post it here on my blog.  

So here is Caught Reading on a train!

I read on a train this summer.

How about you?

Did you read on a train, in a car, on a boat, in a plane?

Read On!

Ms. J.

Ms. J. is Caught Reading in Washington State!

There is a giant Radio Flyer wagon (the handle is a slide!) in downtown Spokane, Washington.

As soon as I heard about that, I knew I needed to get Caught Reading there!

The Town of Sprague, Washington

My family and I were driving west from Spokane to Seattle when we ran across this little town in the middle of endless rolling wheat fields called Sprague.  

Now that sounds like a great spot to get Caught Reading!

Reading by the lake

Ms. J. Caught Reading at Kickstand Cafe

Here I am at Kickstand Cafe in Arlington, MA checking out the New York Times Book Review for suggestions of good beach reads.

I hope you are getting a chance to read some great books this summer!

Read On!

Ms. J.

Ms. J. Caught Reading at the beach!

I love the beach!
I love to read!

What a great combo.

Read On!

Ms. J.

Caught Reading at a Paw Sox game (they won!)

The final score: Paw Sox 3, Indianapolis Indians 0. 
Very good baseball, great seats and such a beautiful evening.

Read On!
Ms. J.

Ms. J. 1st Caught Reading of the Summer

I already have received some Caught Reading pictures from Sprague students. So exciting!

Here's my first Caught Reading of this summer.

Read On!

Ms. J.

Sprague 2nd Graders Write Stories

I know school is over for the summer (for students anyway), but I promised I would post a few of my 2nd graders' stories. 

You see we read this book in library:

And then we decided to follow Rocket's example and go on a word hunt - outside!
 

Then we wrote stories using the words we "found" as inspiration or a jumping off point.

Here are a couple of the resulting amazing 2nd grade stories:

by Maeve:

One day the sun was shining brightly. Owen the owl was playing in the sprinkler. Meanwhile, Rocky the robin was playing basketball. Suddenly both of them saw a golden brick. They rushed toward it, the crashed straight into each other. 

Owen said, "Do you want to play in the sprinkler with me?"

Rocky said, "Do you want to play in basketball with me?"

They both nodded in agreement.

"Sprinkler Basketball!" they shouted.

So they played and played and played until their moms came and they had a surprise, worm and gummies!

So they ate and had a great time.

The end.

by James:
Once upon a  time, there was a chicken that liked bees, but they did not like him. Every day the chicken named Alfred went to the beehive and he would get stung.  So the next day Alfred did not go to the beehive, but Alfred went to the flower where they go to get pollen. The bees did not think that the day could get any better. There was a rock in front of their flower and then the king bee flew right into the rock and now he is in a better place and the other bees were praying for the king bee. Alfred jumped out of nowhere and said, "I will keep doing this if you will not be my friends." But the new king bee said, "No!" So Alfred's friends put a tracking device on the king bee and the next day Alfred raced to the beehive.

Thanks for reading!
Have a great summer,
-Ms. J.

The Morgan Library and J. R. R. Tolkien

Ms. J. with her daughters at the J. R. R. Tolkien exhibit at the Morgan Library.

I felt very lucky to be able to go to New York last week to catch the J. R. R. Tolkien exhibit that was about to wrap up at the Morgan Library and Museum.  It was amazing! I'm a huge fan of Tolkien's books (and the Lord of the Rings movies too, I'll admit it).

The exhibit had so much original art work, letters and maps by the author. It was so exciting to see them in person and to see a little bit of his creative process and how his original ideas evolved into the stories I am so fond of.

 Also, the Morgan library is so cool. I was geeking out about being there and seeing one of their three Gutenberg bibles and their first edition Don Quixote and their collection of cuneiform tablets and seals. What an amazing place! I highly recommend a visit anytime you are in New York.

Read On!
Ms. J.

A-CAT-emy Awards at Sprague gets covered in the news!

Check out the full article and see all the photos in the Wellesley Townsman: link to article

Women's History Month and Sophie Germain

Today in 2nd Grade library we read about French Mathematician Sophie Germain and her incredible perseverance with developing a mathematical formula to predict the shapes created by vibrations.  She worked on this math problem for an amazing 6 years and was turned down by the Academy of Sciences twice before finally winning the prize.

Below is a video of a similar experiment to the one that Sophia saw in the early 1800s in Paris that inspired her work.

Award Winning Books!

 This year's Newbery Medal and Caldecott Medal (along with a host of other Youth Media Awards) were announced at the ALA's Midwinter Convention in Seattle, WA on January 28th.

We were thrilled to find out that many of the books we had selected for our Sprague library, read and recommended to students were recognized.

Ms. Gradwohl put together this display to highlight these great books that happen to also be award winners!

Comfy Cozy Day for All!

We did it!

We read more than 85,000 minutes over Winter Break. (Final tally: 88,588!)

Nice Reading Sprague.

And now today is a Comfy Cozy Day for All.

We are rocking our PJs and slippers in the library.