2024 Parade of Books!

 

P is for PARADE!
Hooray, it's time for our 10th Annual 
Parade of Books!

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 Wednesday, May 22th at 2:00 p.m. and grades K through 3 will be participating.  All students in these grade levels are expected to participate.  

Families 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 are asking that 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. 

So! Checklist for K-3 parents on May 22:
* 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.

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 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!

Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing, using household items to make a fun costume in less than an hour!

• Cut "ears" out of construction paper, leaving a little extra length at the bottom of each ear.  Fold a flap at the bottom of the ear and tape to a plastic headband.  Great for bears, pigs, cats, etc.!

• Examples of easy costumes:
mouse ears + pink tutu + pink ribbon + eyebrow pencil whiskers = Angelina Ballerina by Helen Craig

mouse ears + blue overalls  + a bag of chocolate chip cookies  + eyebrow pencil whiskers = If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff

Straw hat + black ribbon + red coat + white socks + black shoes = Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

bear ears + overalls with one strap undone = Corduroy by Don Freeman
red material + basket = Little Red Riding Hood

Floppy hat decorated with tissue paper flowers + apron = Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish

• Paper bags can be magical!  Design a gown from one like The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch, or cut out a cowboy vest and don a cowboy hat like Pecos Bill by Steven Kellogg!

• You can make googly eyes for Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel or Lyle, Lyle Crocodile by  Bernard Waber from egg cartons!  Attach two egg receptacles to a half-paper plate colored green, to be tied around the forehead!  Wear a green turtleneck, pants or tights!  Add green felt spikes for dinosaur or dragon characters!

• Fairy tale costumes are fun and easy!  Construction paper crowns sparkling with glitter or aluminum foil for kings and queens...scarf capes for princes...construction paper rolled into cone-shapes with a scarf at the top for princesses, or decorated with silver moons for wizards...aluminum foil stars on foil-covered sticks for wands...wicked witches are storybook characters that can be recycled for Halloween!

• Beauty secret!  Pippi Longstocking's braids stick out with the help of pipe cleaners!

• An alternative to a disguise is to make a placard!  Take two pieces of poster board, punch two holes at the top of each piece and tie yard to attach the boards, leaving about 3-5 inches of "give" on the yarn, so your child can slip the boards over the head, carrying the boards on the shoulders.  Your child can then decorate the poster board like a favorite book!  A walking advertisement!

• There are so many classic characters from classic books:  Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, King Arthur, Oliver Twist, Curious George...which was your favorite as a child?  Now is a great time to read it aloud!

• And don't forget, readers of non-fiction are real readers, too!  How about an alien costume if your child loves a book about outer space?  A chef carrying a cookbook?  A famous person carrying his or her biography?  A favorite animal carrying a book featuring that animal?  

For some more ambitious costume inspiration, click here! 

The goal is not expense, but I-M-A-G-I-N-A-T-I-O-N!

Ms. Demonte sporting stripes a la A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon.

Here are some examples of costumes from years past!  

Can't wait to see our creativity and love of reading SHINE!

Happy Summer, Stone Bookworms!

Check out summer reading recommendations at

https://tinyurl.com/stonesummerread2023

See you in the fall!

Artwork by Richard Scarry.  

Parade of Books 2023!

                           

Hooray, it's time for our 9th Annual Parade of Books, our first parade since COVID-19! 

How exciting and wonderful!  

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.)  All students in these grade levels are expected to participate.  

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 that 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 and 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.

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 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!

Ms. Demonte sporting stripes a la A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon.

Here are some examples of costumes from years past!  

Can't wait to see our creativity and love of reading SHINE!

Author Visit with Akim Aliu!

On Friday, February 10th Our middle schoolers will enjoy an author visit with author and NHL star Akim Aliu and co-author Greg Anderson Elysee!

 

Akim Aliu — also known as "Dreamer" —

is a Nigerian born, Ukrainian Canadian professional hockey player whose career took him all around the world and who experienced systemic racism at everyone turn. This graphic novel tells Akim's incredible story, from being the only black child in his Ukrainian school, to having his teeth bashed in by a racist teammate in the Ontario junior league. A gut-wrenching and riveting graphic novel memoir that reminds us to never stop dreaming and working toward our goals no matter what obstacles we encounter.

This visit is brought to us through the generous support of our friends at The Book Stall. Independent booksellers support Stone Academy...let's support our wonderful independent booksellers!

Family Reading Night, November 17!

 Please join us for 

FAMILY READING NIGHT 

on Thursday, November 17 at 6 pm as we celebrate the

*** MAGIC OF READING! ***

Special Guest: Walter King Jr., THE SPELLBINDER!

Plus, reader's theater play starring all your favorite primary teachers!

Read-aloud with Ms. Nestler and Ms. Wynne!

Book Fair in the Library!

Wand-erful crafts!  And so much more!

Do not miss this delightful evening in which we come together as a community of readers!

And don't forget, we have the Scholastic Book Fair happening the whole week of November 14th. Thank you for sending your child with funds when possible.  Your support goes to programming at our school! 

Haunted House Museum is a Ghostly GO!

 

Yes, yes, yes, we WILL be having a Haunted House Museum in the library again this year!  But we need your participation to make it happen!

How-to:  Take a cardboard box and cut holes in it for windows. Paint or otherwise cover the box with a seasonal color like orange, black, green or purple. Decorate the outside of your house with ghosts, trick-or-treaters, rotting trees…you don’t have to make it a house. It can be a haunted apartment building, or a haunted castle, or a haunted theater, or a haunted sports event, or a haunted library, or a haunted beauty salon, or a haunted store, or…whatever idea you have! Use your imagination! 

If you don’t celebrate Halloween, that’s fine! You can still participate.  We welcome fall houses and autumn scenes as well.

Rules:

• No blood or gore, dismembered parts or headless dolls, sorry! We are celebrating imagination and folklore, not horror.
• Please do not attach any real food to your creation. Cockroaches are even scarier than ghosts.
• Please do not include or attach anything valuable to your creation. 
• Yes, you can work with a friend or friends or family...just please stay COVID-safe!
• You can light it inside with a flashlight or battery-operated lights! 
• Please ask for a grown-up’s help for cutting out windows or when using new or messy craft materials. 
• This is not an assignment for a grade. This is for FUN and open to all grade levels! 
• Remember to put the name and room number of all creators clearly on your creation.

Houses will be accepted in the library before or right after morning announcements starting on Monday, October 24, though Friday, October 28 and students should pick up houses at the end of the day on  Halloween Monday for a treat. Sorry, the library cannot be responsible for houses left in November.  

Can't wait to see the children's monsterpieces masterpieces!

Welcome to our 2022-23 School Year!

Welcome to a bright, shiny new school year at Stone Academy!  I am Ms. Esmé, your lucky school teacher-librarian. I'm lucky because I get to teach the best kids in Chicago! 

I'm also lucky because over the summer the library has enjoyed a glow-up, a last hurrah from former principal Jay Brandon who budgeted for a new floor, new tables, a new desk, new cabinets and a couple of new multimedia screens!  Within the first couple of weeks of school, Donors Choose grants for the library have also been fulfilled, resulting in a new train table, a lego wall and educational toys for our primary Bookworms to promote cooperation and imagination. Don't worry, our old friends Dusty the Dragon and Grabby Bunny are still here, too! We ended last year with a great author visit by Newbery winner Tae Keller with help from our community partner The Book Stall.  The library is the happy heart of our school!  Thanks to everyone who lends their support, including our new administration, Dr. Nestler and Ms. Wynne.

I am also lucky because at the start of summer I completed my second master's degree in Learning and Technology with a focus on Instructional Design from Western Governor's University.  Woo-hoo, if I do say so myself!  Stone students deserve the best and I am glad to be prepared to deliver it.  Looking forward to a year of great read-alouds, research skills, project-based learning, discussions and discoveries.  Stone supports the freedom to read and lifelong learning.  

Parents, please check out the "school stuff" tab above to learn more about our library program. For the past couple years of pandemic pandemonium, library news has been in the Google classrooms.  Glad to be returning here to our Stone Bookworms website...please check here for the latest news and celebrations!  Please also stop by the library table on Curriculum Night, September 15, to meet our local branch librarian and learn how to get a Chicago Public Library Card.  Hope to see you soon!

Welcome Back, Bookworms!

Art by Sabina Hahn

Happy return to school, Stone Families!

Welcome back to the school library whose magic can only be rivaled by Hogwarts!  Though COVID-19 and remote teaching and learning was challenging, we can't mask our love of books!  I am so, so deeply proud of the learning and reading that was accomplished during that time, much of it the kind of growth that is a testament to the strength of character of out students.

In our return this fall, we can look forward to another year of marvelous stories, puppet fun, crafts galore, author and illustrator connections, as well as explorations into award-winning literature, genre, research skills, citation skills and media literacy.  We can also look forward to lots of new books, thanks to multiple grants from the Department of Libraries, including plenty of graphic novels that our kids have been clamoring for!  Special thanks to Ms. Egger and Ms. Cancel for their assistance in setting up the room after our long hiatus!

Parents!  Special Supply Request!  To facilitate library crafts (and work in other Essential classes), besides what is on the request list provided by your child's classroom teacher, to ensure limited sharing and virus-free full participation, please make a traveling case or zip lock bag marked with you child's name and room number, containing the following supplies:

Markers

Crayons

Child scissors

3 glue sticks

Also appreciated are baby wipes (just perfect for cleaning up smudgy and sticky craft hands!) and Clorox wipes (can't have enough for library, a room used by friends throughout the school).  We will have new protocols to keep everyone safe, including book quarantines, and they will be detailed in library class.  Please remember, all children are expected to be masked above the nostrils and below the mouth at all times in the interest of everyone's safety.  For your information, I am fully vaccinated.  

Book check-out starts midway through second grade and continues through eighth grade.  Additionally, all Stone students are expected to have a Chicago Public Library card and give it a work-out!  Be sure to say hello to Ms. Amy at our local Northtown Branch and tell her you are Stone family for the royal treatment!  

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns, or just to say hello.  More to come, please check back soon in Google Classroom!  In the meantime, please check out this excellent comic strip created by a student in our library program last year. 

Happy reading, everyone!

Sunny Days Ahead! Summer Reading 2021

Dear Stone Families,

How wonderful and amazing that the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted and hopefully we can look forward to a full return in the fall!  Meanwhile, we have many sunny days to enjoy the luxuries of free choice summer reading!  The dynamic digital libraries that we have been enjoying all year will continue to be available through June, July and August:   

Grabby's Garden: Stone Digital Library K - 3 

Stone Digital Library 4 - 8 

Please click on the shining sun icon on either digital library home page for summer reading recommendations and for details about the Chicago Public Library Summer Learning Challenge.  This summer's theme is "Start with Art," so our creative Stone Bookworms should do very well! If you are in the neighborhood, please be sure to say hi to Ms. Amy, our local Northtown Branch children's librarian, she will be very happy to see you. Remember, Chicago Public Library programs are completely free and accessible through any Chicago Public Library!  

Incoming 5th through 7th graders are also invited to continue their reading logs and earn fun badges and library credit through the Beanstack Level-Up Challenge.  Please also check out the incredible ComicsPlus database linked from the digital library, where you will find tons of graphic novels for grades 4 and up at your fingertips, perfect for summer reading fun!  

Keep those pages turning, Stone Bookworms!  I am truly so, so proud of you and all you have achieved over this difficult year.  You are the hero of this story!  Can't wait to see you in the fall, and until then....stay safe and happy reading!