Shadow Puppetry Magic

We have been having such an exciting time preparing for this year's shadow puppet shows, a collaboration between the library and Ms. Loveless' 6th grade class.  This year's theme is Chinese folklore.  They promise to be some tremendously elaborate and enchanting performances scheduled to delight classmates and the community toward the end of school.  Amazing what can happen with a little paper, light and imagination!

Curious George College

Kindergarten is busy working on their dissertations for Curious George College, a culmination of our author study of the great H.A. Rey and his mischievous monkey and our exploration of stories that celebrate monkey business!  We also used it as an occasion to discuss the difference between fiction and non-fiction.  And did you know Curious George is not really a monkey?  He's an ape, he has no tail.  We decided he is probably a chimpanzee.

Our own original Curious George adventures would not be possible without the help of our middle school friends who stopped by to patiently take dictation.  Thank you, big kids!

7th Annual Parade of Books!

Hooray, it's time for our 7th Annual Parade of Books! Can you believe it?  Times flies when we're having fun! This year's parade, in which children dress up as their favorite book characters and carry the book to match, or create wearable book covers, will be held on Friday, May 19th and grades K through 3 will be participating. (Hints for homemade costumes here.) In past, we have had the parade in the fall, but we are switching it up a little and have fingers crossed for spring sunshine!

You are welcome to watch the parade outside on the Stone playground at 2:00 (in case of rain, the parade will be held inside the school). Bring little brothers and sisters to cheer, and don't forget the camera! This is a great opportunity for us to celebrate Stone as a community of readers, and to create home-school connections.  We still are asking if at all possible costumes should be book related, and that each student carry a book related to the costume they are wearing. Chefs can carry cookbooks, Cleopatra can carry a book about ancient Egypt, baseball players can carry sport biographies, for just a few examples...and for more inspiration, check out some costumes from parades past here, or some ambitious online costume leads here!

So! Checklist for K-3 parents on May 19th:
* Please send your child to school with the book-related costume (or poster) in a bag, to be changed into (or carried) in the afternoon. Please keep it simple. Mark all belongings with name and room number.
* Please send your child to school with the corresponding book to carry in the parade.
* Cheer and take pictures on the school playground at 2:00, if you are available. If you are not available, we love you just the same, and we'll take pictures.

Again, a gentle reminder:  This should not be a recycling of scary or licensed character-inspired Halloween costumes. Children should not wear masks (which also present a safety challenge when small children march), any horror themes involving blood (zombies or vampires), or television characters/video game characters that were cartoons before they were books.  The rule is that the character should have been in a book before a television show or movie!  As far as books to carry, there are some resources available in our school library and your child's classroom library, but this is also a perfect opportunity to visit the Chicago Public Library.

Additionally, We ask that this year parents please do not follow children back into the school after the parade, as this presents security issues. Thank you for your support and cooperation!  Can't wait to see what our creative community comes up with this year...every year has been so full of amazing surprises!

Illustration from Lily's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes.
Ms. Demonte sporting stripes a la A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon.

Follow up:
The Parade of Books never disappoints!  Thanks to all the families who offered so much support, whether helping to create costumes, volunteering in classrooms or cheering!  Thanks also to teachers and, of course, our Stone Booklovers, for bringing such energy to our community of readers!  Here is just a teeny, tiny sampling of our hundreds of marchers...please keep sharing the photos!