Cardinal Chirps

Storytubes winner!

2010-04-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

One of our second graders won the national Storytubes contest Audience favorite winner. Her video was a look at Katie Kazoo: Love Stinks! Overall, our school had nine of the twenty five finalists in this category. The kids were thrilled to be there!

Still time to rate and comment

2009-11-14T15:14:00.000-08:00

The EInstruction contest is still going on. Finalists will be named Tuesday. My wife and I both have videos in and would love five stars and your comments. NOTE: our contest address changed. Use these:

WE USE TECHNOLOGY

SWEET DREAMS (of technology)

New video contest

2009-10-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

Our school has entered a video into the eInstruction video contest. we are trying to win $30,000 in technology. Right now the contest is in the "look and comment" phase. If we make the finals November 10th, people can vote on our video as a favorite. We think its pretty good and the kids are fabulous. To register, comment, and give us five stars, go to: einstruction contest. Here is the video in a higher quality than the contest site. Please spread the word!

A New Year

2009-09-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's a new year at McKillop and things are well underway. Every day we are producing the morning announcements on video. Since Star Trek is our theme this year, we are broadcasting from the "Bridge." Besides Captain G we have seen Ensign Murphy, Mr. Mouth, and Robotto. Student Council elections have just ended and soon the winners will be joining our morning news team.

A Tapestry of Heroes

2009-02-21T14:35:00.000-08:00

On Friday we celebrated Black History Month with a multicultural presentation called "A Tapestry of Heroes." Several students from all grade levels particiapted in the making of our "Press conference" with several famous heroes from history. There was even a section for our McKillop Heroes. The video was presented to the school as a part of our morning huddle. The festivities continue this month as we are creating a giant penny out of regular pennies as part of our "Lincolns for Lincoln" fund drive.

Awards, Awards!

2009-01-24T08:23:00.000-08:00

The third and fourth grade voted on their choices for the Texas Bluebonnet Award on Thursday. We had a total of 64 eligible voters which I think was a great total for our first year. It was a close contest, but How to Steal a Dog won by two votes. The votes were passed on to the state for the grand total count.

We will be holding celebration parties for the classes that won the 'Heroic Effort" contest last semester. Those parties will take place next week! Congratulations to Ms. Swadley's first grade class who won the overall competition!

Second grade got a visit from a friend named "Danny" via our Long Ago and Far Away machine. Danny helped read The Three Bears only Danny's version was The FOUR Bears. The second grade still managed to follow along and had a great time with the story!

Welcome back!

2009-01-13T18:45:00.000-08:00

School has started again and all the Cardinals are back in the nest. I've had several people turn in their Hot Dog book reviews. Keep them coming! Second grade is getting a special visit from Danny via the Long ago and Far away machine. Kindergarten and first grade are learning about Martin Luther King to celebrate his birthday. Look for "Martin's Big Words" on the library window.

Holiday Program

2008-12-28T11:27:00.001-08:00

Everyone had a great time at the Holiday program. Each grade level was represented. I played the Grinch in the 3rd and 4th grade part of the program. Have a Grinchy holiday! See you in 2009.

Book Fair success!

2008-12-13T09:35:00.000-08:00

The first McKillop book fair went off without a hitch. We grossed over $5,000 in our 4 1/2 day run. Popular books included The Book of World Records, Space Atlas, Diary of a Wimpy Kid do-it-yourself, and a lot of the Magic Treehouse titles. We want to thank all of you who came by and bought something. The money we make will buy supplies for the library for the rest of the year.

Book Fair Time

2008-12-04T19:34:00.001-08:00

Next week is our first book fair at McKillop. Classes will come the first part of the week to make out wish lists and the second part of the week is for buying although we won't turn down money at any time during the week! Southwest Books has brought a great variety of titles and we are hoping for a big turnout from students and teachers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T15:48:00.000-08:00

I hope you are all having a happy Thanksgiving. Remember the week back is a checkout week so get those books ready. The Book Fair will be the week after. I am meeting with the reps next week so if there is something you think should be represented at the sale, let me know. This book sale will put the focus on books and not so much the "peripheral" sale stuff.

How DO you cook a turkey?

2008-11-20T18:53:00.000-08:00

That's the question the 3rd and 4th grade are asking this week. After our lesson on recipes and cookbooks they are having to write their own recipes for cooking a turkey for thanksgiving. some of the "better" recipes will be posted on the website and in the library for those brave enough to give them a try! There have been some very interesting ingredients such as salami, "turkish", and cilantro. Cooking times have varied between 30 minutes and 8 hours. Only time will tell if a real recipe emerges!

Have you seen a missing Turkey?

2008-11-19T19:07:00.001-08:00

The Kindergartners and 1st graders heard the story "The Night Before Thanksgiving" and then designed turkeys in disguise. They hoped to keep from getting eaten on Thanksgiving. Look for the Turkeys on McNuggets farm in the front window and see if they did a good job of camouflaging them. The week after Thanksgiving we will be posting the 3rd and 4th graders ideas of "How to cook a turkey."

Kindergarten Show

2008-11-18T16:04:00.000-08:00

Thursday is our Kindergarten Thanksgiving show. We filmed some of the Kindergarteners saying what they are thankful for and we will show it as part of the presentation. Come out and see our youngest ones perform for the first time!

Book Fair coming!

2008-11-17T19:19:00.001-08:00

Once we all get back from a well deserved Thanksgiving break we will be having our first book fair of the year. It will run December 8-12 in the library. Be sure to save up those pennies now so you can shop for some great book bargains!

Hot Dog book reviews

2008-11-16T19:44:00.000-08:00

You all know about the Hot Dogs. Every week we choose a student from each class to help check out books, get their picture taken for the Hot Dog board, and receive a coupon for an extra book checkout. The 3rd and 4th grade Hot Dogs also get to review a book for us. They write their own review, draw a self portrait, come up with a code name, animate a character and we add it to our Hot Dog review page. You can watch the reviews here:
Hot Dog Reviews
To be the library Hot Dog you need to follow our three rules. Take care of your books. Take care of yourself. Take care of others. Good Luck!

Welcome to McKillop

2008-11-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

Hello all!
Welcome to the McKillop Library blog. I hope to keep everyone informed about what's going on in our library throughout the year. Opening a new library this year has been exciting for all of us. We have a beautiful room and a great selection of books. Right now McKillop has 8,000 volumes. We have just ordered over 300 new books due in by Christmas. This week is a lesson week and we will be working on a Thanksgiving theme. The 3rd and 4th grade will be looking at following recipe instructions and then come up with their own "How to cook a Turkey" guide. The 2nd grade will work on their online catalog skills. Kindergarten and 1st grade will hear the story "'Twas the Night before Thanksgiving" and then help some turkeys hide by camouflaging them as other things. Be sure to get any books in that are due this week. We want to have a clean slate going into the Thanksgiving holiday.