Read-alouds and Presentations Week to Week by Grade Level

Week of October 12, 2020 - TK - Pumpkins

It's Pumpkin Time! by Zoe Hall
A brother and sister plant and tend their own pumpkin patch so they will have jack-o-lanterns for Halloween.
​How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow? by Wendell Minor
​With increasing absurdity as pumpkins grow bigger and bigger still, giant pumpkins decorate American landmarks.
Video Pumpkin: How Does It Grow?
Crafty Connection Various Halloween crafts for this age group, with supervision
Coloring sheet Pumpkins
Library Activity Pumpkin bead bracelet (if we were at school instead of distance learning)

Week of October 12, 2020 - Kindergarten - Pumpkins

Pumpkin Heads! by Wendell Minor
Pumpkin heads and jack-o-lanterns abound when Halloween rolls around.
Stumpkin, by Lucy Ruth Cummins
A stemless pumpkin that yearns to be a Halloween jack-o-lantern sees all of the other pumpkins in the shop chosen until he is the last one left without a home.
Video Pumpkin: How Does It Grow?
Crafty Connection Various Halloween crafts for this age group, with supervision
Coloring sheet Pumpkins

Week of October 12, 2020 - First Grade - Black Cats

Night's Nice, by Barbara and Ed Emberley
A little kitty (can you spot him?) explores the wonders of nighttime.
Moonlight the Halloween Cat, by Cynthia Rylant
One special night of the year for one special cat.
Max at Night, by Ed Vere
Unable to go to sleep without closing his nighttime ritual, Max the kitten embarks on a journey to find the moon and say goodnight.
​Crafty Connection Various Halloween crafts for this age group, with supervision
Coloring sheet A purr-fect Halloween

Week of October 12, 2020 - Second Grade - Scary Stories

A Not Scary Story About Big Scary Things, by C.K. Williams
This unusual monster story shows that confidence and courage can tame our fears.
I Want to Be in a Scary Story, by Sean Taylor
Monster wants to be the star of a scary story, but scary stories can be very scary...especially for their characters! 
Crafty Connection Make a haunted house
Coloring sheet A purr-fect Halloween

Week of October 12, 2020 - Third Grade - Reading for Information

Reading for Information Last week we learned about spiders, this week we meet the fly, and then wrap it up (pun intended) with Mary Howitt's wickedly delicious cautionary tale, written in 1829.
I, Fly the Buzz About Flies and How Awesome They Are, by Bridget Heos
Last week we learned about spiders and this week the humble fly gets equal time. Flies go through metamorphosis just like butterflies, and when flies eat solid food they throw up on it first!
The Spider and the Fly, by Mary Bothan Howitt
An illustrated version of the well-known poem and cautionary tale about a wily spider who preys on the vanity and innocence of a little fly.
Video Illustrator Tony DeTerlizzi reads The Spider and the Fly
Crafty Connection Bake a shoofly pie. It more accurately could be called molasses pie, but it's so sweet and sticky it earned the moniker shoofly pie because you have to keep shooing the flies away!

Week of October 12, 2020 - 4th and 5th Grade - Presidential Election

Video Election Day (Discovery Education, password protected) Introduces the process of Election Day in the United States and why it occurs when it does. It also explores how the Electoral College is determined, the difference between the Electoral College's vote and the popular vote, and how ballots are cast.
The Next President, by Kate Messner
An exploration of the presidents before they were presidents--as kids, adventurers, journalists, prospectors, gunslingers, television hosts, and more.