Grade 3

This week in the library, Second Grade finished reading the novel Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett. For the past few weeks, we’ve enjoyed meeting Minx, a nine-year-old witch who is forbidden to go to school, take a shower or play with friends. And Minx was not happy about these rules! One day she sneaks off to school and suddenly life gets more exciting not only for Minx, but for the students, the principal and her evil spell-casting witch mother, Madam Snickasnee.

Little Witch is an example of an older book, written in the 1950s, that presents themes and characters that students today can relate to. All students want to feel loved and accepted and this novel uses humor and folkloric archetypes as a springboard for social commentary.

Happy Reading!

Third Graders have spent part of the fall term reading and enjoying Kathryn Lasky’s popular fantasy novel, The Capture. Two years ago, this vivid and compelling novel was adapted for the big screen by BCD parent, John Orloff. Today, John was generous to come to the library to share his experiences about adapting the first three books in this series to create the film, Guardians of Ga’Hoole. Students learned about the film-making process by viewing portions of John’s original scripts, seeing top-secret artist renderings of the characters as they went through stages of editing and development, and by viewing segments of the pre-production animation. We also viewed the first scene of the film which left us all wanting more!

As a thanks to John, the third grade presented a book of their owl writings.

Thank you to John Orloff for sharing your experience with us. We really appreciate your time today. And thanks to Mrs. Romano for being so flexible with the schedule to allow the entire third grade to come together for this special workshop!