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May 2010 Wooddale is excited to host author Peter Kujawinski on Friday, May 28th at 9:30 A.M. in the cafeteria for 2nd - 5th graders. He co-authored Dormia, the first book in a new series. Check out [] for more information. Thank you to HIllside for sharing this author with us. If you would like to order a book at a discount, Peter will be happy to autograph it, please use this and return to the media center before Thursday, May 27th.

April 13, 2010 Congratulations to Wooddale for collecting $190 worth of pennies for Pennies for Peace! We had a wonderful Literacy Tea on March 31st and much work went into the table decorations. Pictures will be posted soon. Thanks to the March was a success. We are now into April which, in the library world, means Poetry Month. Scholastic has a fun website called Poetry Idea Engine Another fun website to celebrate National Library Week is Storyline Online which is a program of the Screen Actors Guild and celebrities read stories online. Enjoy.

March 17, 2010 5th grade Word Masters

March is Reading Month Wooddale is celebrating March is Reading month focusing on Greg Mortenson ’s book, __Listen to the Wind__. From School Library Journal, “ After getting lost while climbing the world's second tallest mountain, the K2 in the Baltistan region of Pakistan, Mortenson, a nurse, stumbled into a small village and learned of the dire circumstances in which local people lived. While recovering, Dr. Greg met the children of Korphe, who were eager to learn but were forced to write their lessons with sticks on the ground. Wanting to do something special for the village, he was encouraged by wise man Haji Ali to "listen to the wind." Dr. Greg listened, heard the eager voices of students at their lessons, and promised to return to build a school. The remarkable account of this quest, which involved constructing a bridge and manually carrying supplies to the building site, is magnificently enhanced by Susan Roth's colorful collages. “A Korphe Scrapbook" follows the story, displaying photographs of the events, the village's inhabitants, and the librarian who helped to fill this school and the 57 more schools that have since been built in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Readers are informed that it is easy to make a difference by donating pennies to support education in impoverished countries.” Wooddale will be collecting Pennies for Peace throughout the month of March. Please see Mrs. Rizzi or Mrs. Salowich if you have any questions.

March 2010 Wooddale will host Barbara O'Connor for our Book Parade author assembly, March 22nd at 9:45 A.M. We welcome Flanders students who will be joining us in the cafeteria. All Book Parade parent volunteers are welcome to attend.

February 2010

Book parade 2010 survey for 4th & 5th graders only please

Mo Willems

January 2010. Happy New Year. Wow, time is flying by, book parade starts this Thursday. Second and third graders have been listening to stories that were nominated for this year's Great Lakes Book Award. Our students voted for __Grace for President__ but __When the Wolves Returned__ by Dorothy Hinshaw was the winner. It was a fun process reading the books and voting.

November 2, 2009 Michael Monroe gave 2 exciting presentations to the students at Wooddale. He talked about growing up knowing he wanted to be an artist with influences from his parents, his mother was a school teacher with a love for nature and a father who was an architect. He showed a video explaining his work, showing the various art shows, book signings and school presentations. Due to the popularity of the Author In Autumn program, book orders will be collected through Friday, November 13th and I will pick them up at his last school, the week of the 15th. Thanks to the PTA for sponsoring this wonderful program.



October 20, 2009 Our 2009 “Author In Autumn,” Michael Glenn Monroe, will be visiting Wooddale on Monday, Nov. 2, 2009. 3rd-5th graders at 9:30 A.M., K-2nd graders at 10:15 A.M. In the cafeteria. For more information visit: [] This is not a fundraiser. Thank you to the PTA for sponsoring this event!

October 15, 2009 Read for the Record was a success, Jumpstart reached their goal of 1 million readers on one day! Wooddale is proud to be part of that. Above is Mrs. Brinker's class after reading!

October 6, 2009

This Thursday, Wooddale will participate in Jumpstart's Read for the record. Mrs Salowich, Mrs. Rizzi and Mrs. Neubrand will be reading Eric Carle's __The Very Hungry Caterpillar__ to every student at Wooddale (except 5th graders who are heading off to camp.)

September 2009 Welcome back to a new school year! We are hosting wildlife illustrator Michael Glenn Monroe for our annual Author in Autumn in November. I will post more details as they become available. I am currently in need of Media Center volunteers to help check out books with classes and shelf books. I am looking for Monday and Friday afternoon, please email me if you are interested.

May 20, 2009 I am at a Technology Camp hosted by Longacre Elementary School in Farmington Hills. This session is featuring Audacity. Here is my first attempt, click on the icon!

March 23, 2009 Wow, MACUL and MRA in one week! I made it through and want to share my experience with you. MRA was in Grand Rapids this year over the weekend of March 13th. The first session I attended was Eloise Greenfield and Jan Spivey Gilchrist sharing their work together as poet and illustrator of over 30 books. Katherine Paterson gave an inspiring keynote speech sharing her experiences, I went home and reread __The Great Gilly Hopkins.__ Janie Lynne Panagopoulos hosted a session Google Earth to "Bridge the Miles." It is a teacher toolkit if you use her books in the classroom. Click [|here] for more information. This session was very exciting and I look forward to showing it to my 3rd-5th grade teacher that have read her books and teach MI history. Cyd Moore had a session to promote her new book __Willow__ that Denise Brennan-Nelson wrote and she illustrated, I do plan to purchase __Willow__ in my next book order! Leslie Helakoski struggled in her session, her room wasn't equipped and then she tried to use an overhead. She was frustrated and didn't recover. However, my colleague saw her and was impressed and is even suggesting her for Author in Autumn. The last sesson I attended Saturday was hosted by Nancy Osborne, a veteran teacher in Taylor with ideas for reading and writing workshop. Her website is [] Saturday evening was enjoyable with Ruth McNally-Barshaw joining a group of us for dinner and then we all went to the Gerald Ford Museum for a special event for our conference.



Finally, I went to see Beth Newingham presenting her reader/writer workshop session. She does a fabulous job, her website is [|here]

March 12th Ruth Mcnally-Barshaw was here for our Book Parade author assembly. The students and staff loved her!

February 13, 2009 Book Parade was a huge success!

On March 12th, 109 of our 4th & 5th graders will see [|Ruth McNally Barshaw] at Wooddale. Parents that volunteered with Book Parade are invited to this special presentation. We celebrated with a parade on Friday, February 13th. The 4th and 5th grade classes made floats for each book in book parade. We had a special banner to thank our volunteers and even a real live Marley! We even made the Farmington Observer. Book parade participants, please take [|this survey] only once.

November 25, 2008 [|Kevin Kammeraad] was here for our annual Author In Autumn Program. The students loves his presentations. The students in Kindergarten - 2nd grade were presented with the Tomato Collection and the 3rd - 5th graders were presented with the Curious Glimpse of Michigan program. Book order forms were sent home and orders are due December 5th.

November 24, 2008 Special thanks to Sue Audet and Lori Sawyer for running another successful Book Fair. The media center has 52 new books and some money to spare for another book order this winter. Thanks to all the volunteers for giving their time to Wooddale.

The Media Center has taken on a new look! The computers have been arranged to make teaching and learning technology easier for the teachers and students. Thank you Mrs. Boyd.