It's Not a Stick!

K-2 DCG students read Not a Stick! by Antoinette Portis. It is one of our Goldfish-nominated books for 2011-2012.

We really wanted students to see that the book is all about celebrating kids' imagination. In the book a pig finds a stick. It is quickly followed by an uncreative, literal voice telling the pig to be careful with that stick. The pig spends the book showing the voice all of the different things he imagines the stick to be.

The original sheet

After reading this fun book, the kids had a chance to use their imaginations and show us that "It's Not a Stick"....it's a ____________ by creating their own pictures. You can access the handout HERE.

Check out some of their artwork below!

Kailey 1st grade

Olivia 2nd Grade

Audrey 1st grade

Jacob 1st grade

Katie 1st grade

Laura 1st grade

Jacob 2nd grade, Nolan 1st grade

Emma 1st grade

Max 2nd grade

Paige 2nd grade

Madi 2nd grade

Taylor 2nd grade, Skylar 2nd grade

Elle 1st grade

Let's Do Nothing! At South Prairie

The K-2 students read the Goldfinch Award nominee- Let's Do Nothing! Like Mrs. Ellis's kids, we tried various ways to pretend to do nothing!
Check out the kindergarten and first graders in this animoto video...doing nothing!



The Second Graders played a board game called The Game of Nothing. The person who came in last, won! Here are some second graders from Mrs. Coveney's class playing the game.

Let's Do Nothing!

Students in one of Mrs. Ellis's kindergarten sections practiced doing "nothing" as Frankie and Sal do in Tony Fucile's Goldfinch Award-nominated book Let's Do Nothing. Just like Frankie and Sal, students tried being trees and doing nothing. It was much harder than they suspected!

To watch a YouTube trailer for the book, see below:

Using the Blog

Fifth grade students spent time in the computer lab exploring the author links and interactive reading links from the blog, as well as updating their Destiny Quest accounts. Many students found author Jeff Kinney's website to be especially entertaining; also, Dr. Seuss' website was a popular option.

Destiny Quest App

Here is Mrs. White showing off her new App- Destiny Quest! Destiny Quest can now be accessed through this free app!

Go beyond the walls of our library with the Destiny Quest Mobile App! With this new app, you can search our library catalog anytime! No more waiting for library day! Not only that, but you can check your account, add to your virtual bookshelf, place holds, and view top books in the library. It is a free download. For more information and some screen shots of this new app, click here.

When you download the app, it will ask for your district's web address. Here is the one that you need: http://destiny.dc-grimes.k12.ia.us.

Here are two tutorials to help you get started:

We Give Books. Please.

DCG families,

We Give Books is a great opportunity to combine reading with giving. It is an opportunity to inspire and teach your kids to not only be lifelong readers, but lifelong givers as well. We Give Books makes it easy to experience the power of giving and reading with your child.

We Give Books has 150 titles for kids to choose from and read!

What is it?

We Give Books is a free website that allows those of us with access to the Internet to put books in the hands of children who don’t have them, simply by reading online.

When you go to the website, you choose the charity you want to donate books to and then select the books you want to read. For each book you read online, We Give Books will donate a book to a leading literacy group on your behalf. There are many very worthy charities on there to choose from.

Who is behind it?

Penguin Group and the Pearson Foundation. The Penguin Group is one of the world’s premier global consumer trade book publishers. Pearson Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Pearson. They are aiming to donate one million books in the first year.

The more you read, the more they give.

Click here to go to their website.

The Book Fair is Out of this World!

The book fair at South Prairie was a success! We were so impressed with the Out of this World theme and decorations!Thank you to all of the parents and students for supporting reading and our school!