Hello Everyone:

I have not been on for awhile!  Way too busy with a teenager.  Well,  I sadly closed my preschool Little Scholars Academy last May.  However, a new opportunity became available that allowed me to open up an engineering preschool!  My new preschool is STEM Explorers!  STEM mean Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education!  My preschool will be ready to open in September of 2015!

Last summer's book club was great and we heard from the Bean Trees author.  We only have two more years of book club because the girls will all be off to college.  What a fabulous experience every summer for myself as well as the girls!  

Well, I will keep you all up-to-date on the preschool and look forward to this year's summer book club!

Summer Book Club 2014!!!!

Wow - I haven't been on here for awhile - been busy with my preschool and a teenager's schedule. Last summer we read The Hunger Games and The Great Gatsby!  Two great books and the we also played a mystery dinner game which was fun.  At the end of the summer we watched "The Great Gatsby" with Leonardo DiCaprio and the students loved it!  The summer was busy for us and some of the students because we had overseas trips planned. But we were still able to work in our summer reading as planned.  This summer we will read "The Bean Trees" and "The Secret Life of Bees".  Both great books!  We usually choose from the list of books that the girls will be reading for their summer reading assignments.  One of our visits will be the Arboretum to study bees:)  We start June 10th so we are anxious to get going.  Writing to the authors like we always do and hoping to hear back from them soon!  Blog soon...

Hunger Games -

 This summer the students voted on reading the Hunger Games!  We are very excited!  The girls just graduated from 8th grade and looking forward to High School.  I think this is the perfect time to read Hunger Games.  I will keep you posted on the activities and events we plan as our reading continues.  Book club starts today!  We have written to Ms. Collins and hoping to hear from her!  Have a wonderful week!

Hello All,

Well were are ending our book on Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and next week we planned a Murder Mystery Lunch during book club.  In between talking about the end of the book and solving a crime.  Of course there will be snacks and games to play - games they played in 1959?? Simultaneously, we will be starting our next book "The Line" by Teri Hall.  We have contacted Ms. Hall and she has written back!  We will keep Ms. Hall abreast of our reading and activities as we travel through the book and understand each character and discuss "What would we do if it happened to us?"  By the way nice curriculum Ms. Hall!!!  Have a great day!

Summer Book club 2012 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Hello

Well, the girls are loving Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and so am I!  I find the independence of this boy in the book, to keep exploring, is amazing.  I myself would leave the island as soon a I landed! Today we are painting some mini chests to represent the trunk where Jacob found the odd and vintage pictures.  We will also be writing our own mini-lite mystery story, (mini-lite) is a word Natalie made up to mean a paragraph or two mystery in which the mystery is also solved.  Challenging!!

Summer 2012 Bookclub

Hello Everyone!


The summer book club this year is:  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.  Wow the students are very intrigued so far!  We just had the our first meeting by reading about the author and reviewing the first Chapter!  I have made an attempt to contact Mr. Riggs to get some ideas for some events or activities for the students.  We will see.  That's all for now.  I know one activity they will probably do is sketching!  We also sketched when we reviewed "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" and the students loved it!  I may say they did a very nice job too!  I may post some sketches later...  Well that's all for now, we will talk later as the weeks go by...

New Summer Book club coming for 8th grade!  I will let you know what adventures are forthcoming!  Talk soon!  A Happy Birthday to my mom!

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well!   Natalie's school is doing a book donation for Children's Memorial (see attached flyer).  Also, please see Heritage Grove website for more info http://www.psd202.org/HeritageGr/index.php.  

Also, Little Scholars Academy, Inc. (my new preschool is doing well).  I think all of the parents are settled in  and are happy so far (for being a new preschool (35 students)).  

Thanks everyone, and if you don't have any thing at this time you would like to donate that's OK too!

Have a great holiday if i don't talk to you soon!

Marcia

Natalie said Hi!  7th grade do you believe it!

update of new preschool and summer bookclub!

Hello:

Well, end of school year is coming and that means summer bookclub! The new preschool is coming together nicely so far... We should be right on schedule to start-up! We have not decided on a book for summer bookclub, but the surrounding schools always suggest the Caudills! We shall see!

Talk soon!

Mrs. M!

update

Hello Everyone:

Long time no talk - My Holidays were wonderful and safe. We survived the blizzard in Chicago and I don't think I have ever seen so much of it! To continue, I am starting my own preschool in the fall of 2011-2012. I am very excited and we, (my co-teacher and I) are getting anxious to complete the paperwork. Lot's of it!! We have come across some wonderful family, friends, teachers and parents that have been very beneficial and supportive in this process. I will let you all know how is proceeds as we come into the stretch. It will only be academic including tutoring kindergarten through 2nd grade! Also, I really love following the authors my daughter and I have enjoyed in the past and looking forward to read some of the new books published this year!

Talk soon,

Mrs. McKee

Thank you Mrs. Pearsall! We loved your book! We are "All Shook Up"

update on All Shook Up Book Club

We are just finishing book this week, but I have some pictures I will post on the blog. Before that I had a fundraiser for one of my 5 years old students (cancer), in June so I am a little backed-up with my blog.

On July 29th across specific movie theaters, one day only they are showing a movie about Elvis's life! The book club is going to try to get together and go see the movie. Until then, our last day with the book is July 20th and we are watching an Elvis movie. I have not picked one out yet but I am going to blockbuster tomorrow. Any suggestions?

On a personal note, the preschool I teach at has been acquired by new owners and we have been trying to enrich the current curriculum and get it up and running by the fall! A lot of work but we are excited.

Some of the activities for the book have been listening to Elvis music. One of the dad's from the reading group made each girl a CD of Elvis's greatest hits. We made poems, movie posters a plaque and we are still going to do the coffee mugs at Color Me Mine. Originally when we were going to do the coffee mugs, there was a storm that night in Chicago and no one could go. So we had to reschedule.

One of the questions I would ask the girls throughout the book was; Do you feel the same way Josh does as he deals with school his dad and friends. It seems as the book moved on, there was always an opportunity for the girls

to have some kind of connection. These girls are going to middle school and there were a lot of connections throughout the book.

I am overwhelmed with the author's response to the book club!

Thank you Shelley for the teacher's guide for myself and Michelle Kuhn at the elementary school to use for the fall book club! I will also be working with the middle school so I will also need the guide for there book club.

Truly Shelley, It was so exciting to hear from you and the girls will be excited that you sent an e-mail!

A signed book and bookmarks would also be an awesome contribution to the book club. We will try to call you so the girls can say hi and thank you! Talk soon! Mars. McKee

Well, our first book club went well. Two of the students have been to Graceland! They knew a lot about Elvis already. In fact, one of our student's father is a huge Elvis fan. I have a poster that was given to me from the last concert Elvis has performed but I am still looking for it...I'll try the attic. Well next week we will be creating our "slogans" and decorating our coffee mugs. We brainstormed a little to come up with some slogans. Interesting.... still working on them. Talk soon.

Summer Book Club - All Shook Up

Our summer book club this year will be All Shook Up, by Shelley Pearsall (Caudill). We are very excited. Also, there are exciting choices for teacher resources. We are definitely getting an Elvis impersonator. How fun is that! We may have to watch some old Elvis movie's too just to get the students to see who Elvis really was! What is your favorite Elvis movie?

Well, the book club starts on June 8th so watch for updates and pictures of our favorite journeys throughout our readings!

Talk soon,

Mrs. McKee

My daughter's book A Person Named Whoville

My daughter's new book, A Person Named Whoville is about a boy who lives in Australia and wanted to build a house for his family. Along the way his mom get's mugged and they look for the mugger throughout the book. Also, Whoville comes up with this elaborate house that has a bowling alley, bouncy house and slides to name a few... I am so proud of her!

Mrs. McKee

Naked Mole Rat Letters Book Project

Naked Mole Rat Letters

Well,

My daughter just finished the Naked Mole Rat Letters and loved it! The book was about a young girl named Frankie who discovered through email a relationship her dad was developing with another woman, Ayana! Although Frankie's parents were divorced, she did not want her mom to be replaced. The relationship grows through email but takes interesting avenues through the emails.

Natalie will be going to middle school next fall so the choices for the upcoming summer session book club will be given from the school. We are excited to find out which books will be assigned!

Talk soon.

Mrs. M!

update on Frame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia

Well, the book was fantastic and since the book surrounds a spelling bee we are planning on creating a "team" in the near future. Probably, second and third graders. This should be fun.

Talk soon,

Mrs. M.

Fall book club

Our new book club this fall is the books written from the author Barbara O'Connor i.e. "How To Steal a Dog" and "Greetings From Nowhere". The students are excited and we will try to go through her whole series by the end of the year!

Talk soon!

Ending Tom Sawyer

Well, we finished on August 18th and watched the movie, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". What a great movie. A least the kids understood the dialect after reading the book. Jodie Foster was Becky Thatcher. Overall, the kids love the activities along with the reading and had a wonderful experience venturing through a literary classic! What an accomplishment. Congratulations to all my book club kids!