"This is the happiest day of my life"...

Photo courtesy of Ms. Yanish

That adorable sentiment came from a second grader passing by the library moments after watching the space shuttle Endeavor fly over Pasadena and St. Philips. As you can see from the video, the entire school waited in the heat to live a truly historic moment in all our lives. While the very young may hardly know about the space shuttles they still loved every moment spent this morning waiting in anticipation to see something truly cool!

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Raold Dahl Day

There are many times when I am thankful for the fact that I have started using Twitter. When I first started tweeting it was with my personal account. It was just...ok! It wasn't until I started using it for the Falcon's Fables as a way to connect with my fellow teacher librarians that I starting realizing its full potential.

Case in point, I logged into Twitter today and immediately noticed many tweets with the #roalddahlday. After reading them and investigating I realized that today is the anniversary of Roald Dahls birthday. Now really, who isn't a Roald Dahl fan? There is at least one book out there by him that you have read and really enjoyed. I'm not the biggest Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  fan (blasphemy, I know!) but I simply adore Matilda! I had to get in on the Roald Dahl Day action. I did a quick scan of my lesson plans and realized that I had left KA open for a free day, perfect! I quickly went about the room pulling all our Roald Dahl books off the shelf. I took a quick instagram photo to tweet and post on Facebook and then decided how I would introduce The Man to the children.

Roald Dahl

Thankfully, our only biography on Roald Dahl is Roald Dahl: A Life of Imagination  by Jennifer Boothroyd. This series of biographies is written especially for young children. After introducing them to Roald Dahl, I asked if they had ever heard of him. I got a lot of blank stares. Ok, I know young children don't always pay attention to the authors of their favorite books. Next I mentioned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  which of course brought on shouts of "I love that movie" or "oh yeah I saw that one on tv". Ok good, so they do know The Man even if they don't know it yet.

Next we read The Enormous Crocodile. This story is about an incredibly hungry and not very nice crocodile. His favorite meal is a plump juicy little child. On his journey to gobble up as many children as he can, the crocodile encounters different animals who find him to be greedy, mean and disgusting. Thankfully, those same animals manage to foil the crocodiles secret plans and clever tricks. I've never witnessed a group of kindergarteners so enthralled with a book. Hardly anyone fidgeted and everyone payed close attention. Truly Roald Dahl does have a way with the imagination.

My favorite moment of the morning was when one of the children looked over to my book display carefully investigating every Roald Dahl book. At last his eyes rested on The Roald Dahl Treasury with its cover of various characters reading different book. He carefully raised his hand with excitement and when called upon exclaimed, "I love The BFG! Do you know The BFG because I know him and love him." Then turning to his classmates our little kindergartener said "Do you know the best thing about The BFG? If Ms. Natalie were to stand next to him she would be teeny tiny".

The BFG

Yes I know The Big Friendly Giant as well as many other famous Roald Dahl characters. They are all special to me and many children young and old. Happy birthday Mr. Dahl, you're The Man!

Mary

Today we crowned Mary in our celebration mass with Grandparents and Special Friends. This beautiful tradition at St. Philip the Apostle school is held every May and combines sharing our school with special people and honoring the Mother of our Lord, the Virgin Mary. From singing songs in mass to partaking in the 7th grade bake sale, to watching our grown up 8th graders process down the aisle amidst roses for Mary, the day is lovely and special.

I had the privilege of reading the 8th grade Mary essays and voting on the best one. All the faculty helps choose by reading the anonymous essays. It is always difficult to choose from essays that are personal as well as special. Each student really understands Mary and her remarkable life. But, it was hearing the two chosen essay read aloud before Mass that really moved me. We have such incredible, compassionate and poised 8th graders! St. Philips has been blessed these past nine years to have them as part of our community.

My intention for today's blog entry was to provide information on Mary and Grandparents and Special Friends Day but you all know about both already. Our religious education is strong and each student from Kinder to 8th grade has a firm grasp on who Mary is and her importance in our lives. So, instead I find myself reflecting on the day. I'm watching children walk by the library hand in hand with their grandparent or friend. They are excited and happy to share their school, their classroom, and lives with these special people. Isn't it wonderful?

Saint Philip's Feast Day

Today St. Philip the Apostle School is celebrating the feast day of Saint Philip. This tradition finds the St. Philip school community gathered in Holy Angel Hall, eating pan dolce and hearing about our patron saint. This year there is a little more of a surprise in store for the students. The teachers are going to put on some skits that help remind us all what it means to be a St. Philip student.

Saint Philip is one of those saints that not too much is known about. I tried searching for him on our various databases and didn't have much luck. I did find him in the World Book Encyclopedia and Wikipedia. Have I ever mentioned that encyclopedias are my favorite reference tools? They rarely fail me. There is also an entry on him in the Dictionary of Saints by John J. Delaney.

According to World Book, Philip of Bethsaida was one of the 12 Apostles and can be found many times in the Gospel of John. Present at the miracle of the loaves and fishes (John 6:5-7) it is also assumed that Philip was Greek since he was able to communicate with a group of Greeks in John 12:20-22. Philip was present at the Last Supper and was the apostle that asked Jesus if he could see the father (John 14:8-9). According to Richard Edward, the author of the World Book Encyclopedia article, "This special interest in Philip indicates that he was highly regarded by the author of the Gospel of John".

Lastly, the library does have a dictionary of saints and it has an entry on Saint Philip. I am happy to say that the book confirms the accounts of Philip in the bible according to World Book. Although rest assured, I did also look them up in the bible. The book of Saints tells how Philip is not mentioned further in the New Testament other than being a part of the 12 apostles waiting for the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:13. According to the book tradition dictates that Philip "preached in Greece and was crucified upside down at Hierapolis under Emperor Domitian".

And that is really all there is to know about Saint Philip. Wikipedia does make some other references and I did find a listing on http://saints.sqpn.com that mentions his character and says he is the patron saint of hatters. But I was not able to confirm this information elsewhere. I also was unable to discover why he is the patron saint of hatter. 

Citation:  

1. Edwards, Richard A. "Philip of Bethsaida, Saint." World Book Student. World Book, 2012. Web. 3 May 2012. Delaney, John J. 
2. Delaney, John J. Dictionary of Saints. Doubleday, New York  1982

Open House

Open house is always such a fun time. When I was a St. Philip's student I remember it being a very exciting day full of anticipation and fun. I see that same excitement on the children's faces today. This is not the same excitement that occurs on the first day of school. Instead of wondering what their classroom will look like and how they will get along with their teacher, open house provides them with the opportunity to show off their classroom. It is now a space that belongs to them and is no longer unfamiliar territory.

I love seeing prospective parents come through the library. I am quite proud of our little space and the wealth of knowledge provided to the students. Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of open house is listening to the 8th graders give tours. I can hear them approaching the library saying things like, "and this is our new library", this always gives me a chuckle and I wonder when we cease to be "new".  In they walk with prospective parents in tow and I become very proud of our students. They speak about the various aspects of the library with confidence. These little tidbits help me see the library from their perspective. I begin to understand what they value and what they are most proud of.

Open house is also a wonderful opportunity to show off what library classes do. I had one very proud 5th grader bring her family to the library. She walk right over to where we store her folder for the year long research project. She probably spent about 5 minutes explaining the project and showing off what she had learned so far. It felt rewarding to know the children are proud of their work. Earlier in the week the kindergarten classes read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff. We discussed the plot of a story and cause and effect. They then wrote their own version of the story and drew illustrations. I told them to stop by during open house to see their work displayed. It was fun to watch them show off their work, read the story to their parents, and point out their illustration.

If you get a chance stop by to read If You Give a Snake a Popsicle and If You Give A Dog an Egg by the kindergarten classes. 

The Little Prince

This past weekend the Drama Club had their fall production of The Little Prince. This is a book for all ages. Perhaps the youngest of us may not understand the philosophical reasoning behind the story or maybe, just maybe they are the ones that will understand it the most. After all the main theme of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's story is narrow mindedness and it is characterized by the adults. That doesn't mean the Little Prince is immune. He mistakes mountain echo's for the voices of men and declares them to have no imagination, repeating whatever you say.

Sadly, our library does not have this book in it's collection, something I plan to remedy immediately. This is not a book to be looked over. It asks you to think. I have heard many wonderful things about Drama Clubs performance but the comments I like the most are the ones where people question the meaning behind the story. Adults and children alike want to know what is means and are talking about it. How exciting!

If you would like to see some pictures from Saturday nights performance they are posted on the drama club blog.

Drama Club: Are you ready for a photo bomb?!: Thank you Mr. Bury for these wonderful pictures. Here are some highlights from Saturday night. Becoming Fox Becoming Snake This...

Library Lion

One of my all time favorite picture books is Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen. It is a very sweet tale of a lion that wanders into a library and quickly gains a love for story time. Being an animal lover and book lover I immediately take to these types of books and there are plenty out there. For Example...

Another all time favorite is of course Dewey. While the other books are make believe, Dewey was a real life library cat. Abandoned at birth and left for dead in a library book drop, the small town librarians took pity on the tiny kitten. He was nursed back to health and adopted by the town who in turn named him Dewey.

Oh how I wish and dream of such a thing happening in our library. While I know we couldn't keep a kitten or really, any animal in our library I still find joy in the book.  I find joy in all the books that contain libraries and animals. They are charming and after my own heart. While I try to read a diverse selection of books to the children I find that every year I pull Library Lion off the shelf to read. Good thing the children like it also.


So that brings me full circle, back to the original intent of this post. Last Monday I walked into the library, logged into the computer, worked on my lesson plans, checked in some books, drank my coffee, checked my email. I did not go into the the other room where the book shelves are. At 8:30 2A walked in for their class. We gathered in the other room and I began to let them know what their assignment was for the day. Mid explanation I glanced up and gasped. I don't think I finished saying whatever it was I was saying because there, on top of the bookshelves was our very own library lion. I started laughing, only slightly hysterically, while the 2nd graders became more and more perplexed, unsure if I had lost my mind. After gaining control of myself I let them in on the joke. I pointed to the top shelves and they all laughed in relief that no, Mrs. Natalie had not lost her mind after all.

So now we have our very own library lion. I am happy to say that it came from the book fair. I noticed him there. Of course I loved him and even thought how cool would it be if he were in our library. It would be just like the book. Ahaha little did I know! Thank you to whoever decided the lion needed a home in our library. He warms my heart and brightens up our stacks.

He needs a name! What should we name him?

Thank You!

Well another book fair has come and gone. It is probably one of my favorite events. I just adore seeing children and parents getting excited over books. As part of the St. Philip's book fair tradition parents are given the opportunity to purchase books for the classrooms and library. I thought I would give a shout out to the people who donated to the library. So here goes....

Donated by Alisa Balian

Donated by Alexander Balian

Donated by The Norton Family

Donated by Roxanne Key

Thank you for the wonderful books!

Some websites with inspirational paper crane's from around the world...

Paper Cranes in Hiroshima's Peace Park

How to fold paper cranes and an inspirational project!

Paper Cranes for Japan from Students Rebuild .Org

"This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world" A Thousand Paper Cranes

There once lived a little girl named Sadako Sasaki. She called Hiroshima, Japan home. She was two years old in 1945 when the atomic bomb was dropped to end World War Two. It took an instant to destroy the city and kill 140,000 citizens. A mile away, Sadako, her mother and father managed to survive. But they could not help breathing in the dust; the radiation that settled on the former city.

Sadako and her family rebuilt their lives and tried to put the horrific past behind them. Sadako was thoughtful, energetic, athletic; her mother's favorite child. When she was eleven she discovered lumps on her neck and  purple splotches on her legs. She was diagnosed with leukemia or as her mother called it, atomic bomb disease. She was dying.

In Japanese tradition, when you have a fervent wish you fold one thousand paper cranes and the gods will grant your wish. Sadako hoped to get better and survive deadly leukemia. She also dreamed of a day where there wouldn't be war and suffering but instead peace for humanity. Some people say Sadako folded the thousand cranes. Others say that she was not able to complete her task before dying and her classmates folded the rest of the cranes in her honor. Either way, Sadako is an inspiration of hope, of love, of strength.

The world, our world, is full of tragedy, of grief and sorrow. How do you move on? How do we remember to love one another when faced with pain? September 11th changed our world as much as the atomic bomb changed Sadako's. On this tenth anniversary we must find a way to continue to learn and heal from such tragedy.

Children's Peace Monument located in Peace Memorial Park Hiroshima, Japan.
Build in honor of Sadako by her classmates. 

Although Sadako's paper cranes could not save her life they have flown to greater heights, becoming a symbol of hope for peace.  Her story, her legend lives on bringing understanding and hope to all who know her.

St. Philip School and Parish has decided to follow her example and fold one thousand paper cranes to commemorate September 11th. The cranes will be on the alter for Sunday masses. The Jr. High students have heard the story of Sadako and in art class will contribute to the paper crane folding. Other classes are learning about the importance of promoting world peace. All this is a beautiful example of how awareness and love for all humans can bring about change. Just as long as hope never dies.

Thank you Sadako Sasaki. You are an inspirations. Your kind heart and dedication has achieved something great!

To read a fictional account of Sadako's story check out
 Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr

Things Have Been Busy and Cinderella!

First let me apologize for the lack of posts lately. Now that I work part time I find  my other library duties make it difficult to find time to blog. On top of that Drama Club is preparing for our spring musical, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. I am knee deep in costumes, sets and props. Not to mention singing and dancing.

Second, as usual my daily life has inspired me in the library. We all know the Disney version of Cinderella and some of us may recognize that the Brother's Grimm version is slightly different. But the tale of Cinderella has a rich history that translates to different societies with many versions of the same basic story.

Cinderella is probably one of the most well known folk tales.  The characteristics of folklore include stories that are common among a group of people and are often past down from generation to generation. There are around 1000 different versions of Cinderella, the earliest coming from China. Tuan Ch'eng-shih wrote down the Chinese tale sometime in the ninth century (850-860 CE) But that does not mean he created the story. He simply was the first to put the tale on paper. The Chinese people had been telling the story of a Yeh-Shen and her magical fish for as long as they could remember. The theme of the story is the same as the Cinderella story of today. Yeh-Shen is unappreciated and unloved. Her magical fish gives her the opportunity to meet the prince who recognizes her worth from her golden shoe.

The Disney version of Cinderella comes from the folktale written down by Charles Perrault. Written in 1697 Contes de ma Mere L'Oye introduces the Fairy Godmother, the pumpkin carriage, animal helpers and the glass slipper. In this version Cinderella and her kind heart takes pity on her step sisters and finds them husbands too.

Another famous version of Cinderella is interpreted by the Brothers Grimm. This German version also goes by the name Ash Girl and is dark in nature. There is no Fairy Godmother but instead a magical tree planted by Cinderella at her mother's grave. After Cinderella gets her prince the stepsisters eyes are pecked out by birds living in the tree as punishment for their cruelty toward Cinderella.

St. Philip's Drama Club is doing the Rodgers and Hammerstein Musical version of Cinderella. There is a Godmother and pumpkin coach but no true animal helpers. I hope you come out and see our production. If you are curious to read other Cinderella tales the library has a few different versions including

• Little Gold Star by Robert San Souci
• Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
• Grimm's Fairy Tales Abridged
• The Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo
• Cinderella's Rat by Susan Meddaugh
• Trollerella by Karen M. Bourgeios 

For more information on the history of Cinderella visit this site!
http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/forashs.html

Pie and Burger Day!

I thoroughly enjoy showing off the excellent resources our library has. I think I also have a secret passion for research in general. I am always encountering reasons to look up things. Whether it is the definition of a word, the life of a famous person, or obscure facts that strike my fancy I am always utilizing our library and the internet. Since today is Pie and Burger Day I started wondering where the Hamburger came from. It seems so very "All American" but is it really? Did the hamburger come from America or is it really a product of Hamburg, Germany as many rumors suggest?

First I turned to the encyclopedia. I figured this would be a great jumping off point. I pulled out the World Book Encyclopedia Volume H. A quick scan of the H encyclopedia revealed......nothing. But, as a smart researcher I realized that does not mean the encyclopedia doesn't contain information. I decided to pull out the Index, the last volume in the encyclopedia. It revealed that there is some information on Hamburgers under the food section in the article titled Interesting Facts About Food (F:329). Here is what I found. "Hamburger was orginally called Hamburg steak. It was named after Hamburg, Germany.

A-HA!!!! Well that answers my question but I am not satisfied. I want to know more. Like is Hamburg Steak the same as a hamburger or did the hamburger evolve from Hamburg Steak? If so, what exactly is Hamburg Steak. How did a "german" food become so All American?

I did a quick library catalog search to see if we had any other books on the subject. I didn't think we would have "The History of the Hamburger" but I like to cover all my bases. Next I figured while I was on Destiny Quest it would be easy to click the internet button and use Quest as an internet search and not just a library catalog search. I also know that I more likely to find child friendly websites. If need be I can always do a google search later. The Destiny search returned many websites. Some on farming and others on Hamburg, Germany. Best of all there was one titled History of Hamburgers: Topic American Cooking. http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/HamburgerHistory.htm

Here is what I learned:

• The idea of eating ground meat is not new. There is evidence that the Ancient Egyptians ate ground meat patties. Throughout history there has been mention of various cultures eating similar foods. 
• Hamburg Steak is a traditional German food that doesn't really resemble today's hamburger. It was brought to America in the 1850's by German sailors and immigrants as a food that would last through long sea voyages.  It was a form of salted and spiced meat that had to be chopped due to its tough consistency. Sometimes, it was served between two pieces of bread to immigrants arriving in American ports. 
• Ground meat did not originally have the same consistency it does today. Before the invention of meat choppers and grinders ground meat was really just roughly chopped and chunky.  
• Many people claim to have invented the hamburger as we know it today. 
• Some say it was Charlie Nagreen of Seymour, Wisconsin who invented the first modern hamburger. The story goes that he was selling meatballs at the Outagamie County Fair when he realized they were too hard to eat while walking around the fair. To make them easier to eat he flattened them and put them between two pieces of bread. 
• In a similar story the brothers Frank and Charles Menches from Akron, Ohio are said to have invented the first modern hamburger while traveling the county fair circuit. While in Hamburg, New York they invented the modern hamburger, naming it after the city. 
• Others say Oscar Weber Bilby was the true inventor of the modern hamburger because he put the ground meat between buns, not bread.  

    Well there you have it. The modern hamburger could be considered to be a product of Hamburg, Germany if only in the sense that Hamburg Steak is chopped of meat. While, that chopped up salty steak is definitely the inspiration for the ground meat, it does not taste the same.  The modern hamburger came about as an easy way to eat less salty ground meat. Whether it is served between bread or bun it is a yummy delight that Americans and the world enjoy on a daily basis.

Eat up all you Falcon's, its Pie and Burger Day!!!! Anyone care to research the history of the French Fry? 

Inspiration!

I am always inspired by the many events going on during the school day. This week the Jr. High Science Fair had me thinking about how useful our library is to the students when they have less literary assignments. I decided to pretend I was entering a science fair and see what I came up with.

The first stop is to choose an experiment. I already know the library is chalk full of experiment books. Here are a few...

               

Hmmmmm, I am hungry I think I will explore the book Try it With Food from Scholastic Books. There are many different types of experiments in this book but the one that catches my eye is Gelatin Optics (pun intended). "Get 'jiggly' with it in this experiment and make some colorful gelatin 'glasses.' Try them on to demonstrate the principles of magnification and refraction." 


It is a simple experiment that asks you to make various sizes of gelatin glasses using an assortment of small containers such as measuring cups, spoons and saucers. Once the gelatin has hardened you take it out of its molds and use the gelatin as lenses to look at objects, pictures, and the pages of books. I soon discover that the size of the lens affects the magnification. Who knew JELLO could be used as a magnifying lens. Pretty cool. But I still don't understand how it works. The book explains a bit, defining words like concave, convex and refract. But I want to dig deeper.

Call Number
535
STI

Does our library offer books to help me better understand these terms? It sure does!!!!!! Using our computer catalogue I searcher these key words: lenses, light, magnification, and refract. I found this book.

Manipulating Light: Reflection, Refraction and Absorption by Darlene R. Stille.  is part of the Exploring Science series. This series takes a quick look at everything from contemporary issues, such as the greenhouse effect and genetics, to core curriculum themes, such as atoms, molecules and plant cells.


OK, but did I, a decidedly unscientific person, learn anything?!


Well, YES!!!! I learned that the gelatin, in the shape of a curved surface, acts as a magnifying glass. A magnifying glass makes objects look larger than they are. This is because of refraction. A ray of light enters the curved surface and bends as it goes, spreading out, or refracting, on its way to your eye. If the light ray does not bend we would not see clear images. Instead everything would be blurry. Our eyes work the same way. They too, have lenses that refract light. This is why a magnifying glass helps make the image bigger. 


PHEW!!!!!!!!! All this scientific thinking has me H U N G R Y. I think I will do a quick search using Destiny Quest Online to see what sort of yummy goodness I can make using gelatin! 


Here is what I found!
Jello Cookies Recipe found at 
http://www.food.com/recipe/jello-cookies-13745 

I am off to bake!