Vista Del Mar K-8 - Students Corner

Elementary

Seussville: The official home of Dr. Seuss on the Web - is the place for children of all ages to play and learn with Dr. Seuss's wonderfully whimsical books and classic characters.

Starfall Reading Games: A fun place to read and play reading related games.

BrainPOP Jr.: This is an amazing place to play reading and writing games. You'll need login information from your teacher to be able to play at home.

Kids.usa.gov: A kids' portal to the U.S. government, this site was developed and is maintained by the Federal Citizen Information Center. It provides links to Federal kids' sites along with kids sites from other organizations all grouped by subject.

Ticket To Read: a fun online environment where kids can practice reading skills and compete with students from around the world!

Fern's Poetry Club on PBS KIDS: Writing poems can be fun when you juggle all the words and the rhythms together to make them exciting. Here's an explanation of some of Fern's favorite styles of poetry.

How to Write Poetry: Listen to U.S. Children's Poet Laureate Jack Prelutsky, and others, read their poems then follow their tips and techniques to have some fun with poetry writing!

Kahn Academy

Studio Code: A fun place for kids ages 4 to 18 to play and learn about coding!

Discovery Education: Get homework help in science, social studies and more. Get help with Math using their step by step WebMath.

POET TREE

Is your poem on the library's Poet Tree yet?

There are beautiful cinquain and acrostic poems up on the tree now! Several of the authors have been featured on the library's homepage. Check them out here (on the left side of the page).

What are cinquain and acrostic poems?

Cinquain Poems

A cinquain poem is a 5 line poem that follows certain rules about the type of words in each line. You'll need to use nouns, adjectives and verbs to compose your cinquain poem!

Line 1: 1 word subject (noun)

Line 2: 2 words describing your subject (adjectives)

Line 3: 3 action words (verbs) that describe something your subject does

Line 4: a short phrase that describes something about your subject

Line 5: a synonym for your subject

Here are a few examples of cinquain poems:

penguin

black, white

waddling, swimming, leaping

a tuxedo in cold water

emperor

apple

pink, speckled

baking, tasting, munching

have one for lunch

Gala

puppy

soft, loud

playing, biting, jumping

a ball of energy

poodle

Acrostic Poems

An acrostic poem is created when the first letter of each line spell out a word or phrase.

Here are some examples of acrostic poems:

Makes me use my brain

Arithmetic is fun

Takes time to learn

Hurray for math!

Winter wonderland

Icy

Nothing is hot

Trees covered in snow

Everyone is sledding

Really cold

Students Corner

This is the place for Vista del Mar Makos to fish for fun and facts on your very own webpage!

On this student page you will find books, games, links to fun websites and tools to help you read and learn.

Have a fin-tastic time exploring!

LLAMA LLAMA MISSES MAMA

Click the picture below to watch Author Anna Dewdney Read Her Book "Llama Llama Misses Mama":

THE LORAX BY DR. SEUSS

The Lorax is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss and first published in 1971. It chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax, who speaks for the trees against the greedy Once-ler.

The Lorax was Dr. Seuss' personal favorite of his books.

Listen to The Lorax being read.

HOW TO FIND INFORMATION FOR YOUR REPORT

Are you writing a report about US Presidents, a California Mission or the life cycle of a butterfly? There are many possible sources of information for every topic you can imagine. Look at the following list and decide which are the best for your project.

LIBRARY BOOKS
Use your keywords to search the Vista Del Mar Library catalog on our computers or use the Dewey Decimal System to find books about a particular subject. Books provide in-depth coverage of a topic.

LIBRARY REFERENCE BOOKS

Reference books like subject encyclopedias, almanacs, atlases, and primary source collections are great resources.

QUALITY ONLINE RESOURCES
Remember that anyone can publish anything on the Web so you must evaluate anything you find using a search engine.

Popular Search Engines for kids:

KidzSearch

KidRex

Kiddle

How Can I Evaluate a Website?

The Five Ws of Website Evaluation

WHO

Who wrote the pages and are they an expert?

Is a biography of the author included?

How can I find out more about the author?

WHAT

What does the author say is the purpose of the site?

What else might the author have in mind for the site?

What information is included and does this information differ from other sites?

WHEN

When was the site created?

When was the site last updated?

WHERE

Where does the information come from?

Where can I look to find out more about the sponsor of the site?

WHY

Why is this information useful for my purpose?

Why should I use this information?

Why is this page better than another?

BOOK REVIEWS

Check out the library's homepage for reviews of some cool books you might not have read yet!

SPACE LINKS

If Mrs. Mundl didn't work in the library, her other dream job would be to work for NASA or JPL! Books about space exploration, rockets and rovers are some of her favorites!

Here are some links to help you explore space!

Want do see the International Space Station zoom overhead? This link takes you to NASA's list of dates and times the ISS is visible from San Clemente.

NASA's rover named "Curiosity" is still roaming the Red Planet, years after they thought he would stop working! This brave rover continues to explore Mars and send back amazing photos to us on Earth. You can learn more about Curiosity on NASA's website HERE.

This is my favorite book about Curiosity:

THE DEWEY DECIMAL SYSTEM

The Dewey Decimal System puts nonfiction books into groups and gives each book a number depending on what the book is about. The books are then put on the shelf in order in the library so that all the books that are about the same thing are next to each other. This makes it easier for you to find the things you are looking for! If you want a book about sharks, you will find all the books about sharks in the same area.

The picture below shows how some books are grouped and the numbers that they are assigned. We have these sheets in the non-fiction section of our library too, to help you find the book you're looking for!

What Is a Dewey Decimal Number?
A Dewey Decimal Number always has three numbers to the left of the decimal point. There is no limit to how many numbers can be after the decimal point. The more numbers that are added after the decimal, the more specific the subject. So a book with the number 567.9 will be about dinosaurs in general, but a book with 567.91290228 is about a specific dinosaur.

Why Is It Called the Dewey Decimal System?
Melvil Dewey was a librarian who lived from 1851 to 1931. He was so unhappy with the way the books were NOT organized in his library that he created the Dewey Decimal System. This system is still used today in libraries everywhere and is what the Vista Del Mar Elementary School Library uses.