Three Great Take A BOOK on Vacation Pictures!!

Sonny with a great Fly Guy book.

I was so happy to see that I got pictures from Sonny, an incoming first grader, and Vick, an incoming fifth grader.  These boys are huge readers!  I was even happier to see that I got a picture from their little brother Charlie, who is an incoming Kindergartner. 

Vick is reading one of my favorites!

The boys and their huge extended family went down to Carolina Beach in North Carolina, which is about 373 miles away from Hollywood Elementary School.  Vick, Sonny, Charlie and the rest of their family stayed in a huge house called Bella Casa.  

Charlie finishing a good book.

While they were there, they spent time catching waves on the beach, they visited the North Carolina Aquarium in Fort Fisher and even visited the USS North Carolina.  With everything that they were doing, they even manged to fit in some reading time.

There is still time to send in your Take a BOOK on Vacation pictures.

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda

Another Take A BOOK On Vacation Picture!!

I get so excited each time I open my email and find another Take A BOOK On Vacation picture.  This time got to see Thomas taking a break from his awesome vacation in Ocean City.  When I was younger I would go to Ocean City a lot for different conventions, but I haven't been back for a while.  I think that I need to fix that!  Ocean City is about 185 miles away from Hollywood Elementary School.  It looks like Thomas is reading a great nonfiction book.  


Keep those pictures coming!  Also keep checking back because I've got more pictures that I will be posting!

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda

First Staff Take A BOOK On Vacation Pictures!!

Harper

Well, Mrs. Reyno isn't in these pictures.  She is the one who took them, but they were too cute not to share.  Mrs. Reyno is loving staying at home and spending time with her twins, Harper and Hudson. She also knows how important it is to expose children to books.  Harper is looking at the book The Crunching Munching Caterpillar.  Hudson is looking at the book You Are My Sunshine.  

Hudson

There is still time to send in your Take A BOOK On Vacation pictures if you haven't yet!  I've got more that I will be posting in a few days.  I'll also be posting some books about San Francisco that are available at the public library and some that are available from the HES library.

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda

More Take a BOOK on Vacation Pictures!!

I was so excited to get these pictures from Anabel, Eliza, and Leo.  The kids and their family made their annual trip to Maine.  In Maine the stayed in Weld, which is 667 miles away from Hollywood Elementary School.  While in Weld, the kids participated in the summer reading program sponsored by the public library.  Here is Leo and Eliza outside the library with some of the books that they checked out.

Eliza and her book.

During their visit, they had lots of rain which made for lots of reading!  My favorite type of vacation!!  Anabel, Eliza, Leo and their family also stayed in Rumford Maine.  I've actually been to Rumford Maine when I was visiting friends in New Hampshire a few years ago.  While Anabel, Eliza, and Leo were in Rumford, they made sure they visited the public library.  Leo picked a great book, Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup to read.  Eliza picked one of my favorites, I Like Me by Nancy Carlson to read.  Anabel picked a really great nonfiction book to read.  This summer I'm trying to read more nonfiction books, because they are not always my first choice.  

Leo and his book.

Anabel and her nonfiction book.

Keep checking back because I've got three more posts coming up with some great pictures.  Also if you haven't sent in any pictures yet, there is still time!

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda

First Student Take A BOOK On Vacation Pictures

I was thrilled at the end of last week to get my first Take A BOOK On Vacation pictures from a student. These pictures come from Austin B., who is an incoming First Grade student.  Austin and his family traveled to Binghamton New York, which is 353 miles from Hollywood Elementary School. 






While in New York Austin and his family visited The Discovery Center of the Southern Tier.  Click here for a link to their website.  This looks like such a fun place to visit!  I'm going to have to add it to my list of places to visit whenever I make it to New York!






Austin is reading one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books, Horton Hatches The Egg. Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  If you haven't read this classic from Dr. Seuss, I recommend picking it up from the public library!




Thank you to Austin and his dad for participating in the Take A BOOK On Vacation program.  Keep checking back during this week, because I will be posting more student pictures and a two special pictures from a staff member!

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda

Books About Yosemite and More

There are some great books if you want to learn more about Yosemite, the surrounding areas, and the people who helped create these National Parks.  

The first book, is one that was on all grade levels summer reading suggestions, The Camping Trip That Changed America by Barabra Rosenstack.  Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  I can't say enough about this book, I just love it so much!  I loved learning all about Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir's camping trip.  And how this lead to these wonderful breath-taking places being protected and able to be enjoyed for many generations.  


Watch the book trailer below. 

While my family and I were traveling in Yosemite National Park, I was thrilled to see a sign about the camping trip.  It was the site of one of their stops overnight.  I had to stop and get a picture of the sign and the field where they camped.

     sign about the camping trip

field where the two men camped

When we traveled up to Glacier Point I also read that they camped up there too.  Just seeing the views that we saw, I can only image what it looked like when they were there.

view of Half Dome from Glacier Point

To learn more about John Muir, I just recommend the book John Muir: America's First Environmentalist by Kathryn Lasky.  Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  There was so much that I learned about John Muir from this book.  It starts in Scotland, where John was a young boy.  The book talks a lot about his love on nature, but you also learn that he was an inventor.  My favorite invention of his an early-rising machine.  This was a clock that was attached to a bed.  When the "alarm" was set on the clock, a pulley system would set the bed on end so the person would have to get up.  Some days I could really use this!  The rest of the book takes you through his life and his journeys.  This book is a wealth of information about John Muir and a great introduction to him and his work.

Two really good books about Yosemite National Park are Letters Home From Our National Parks: Yosemite by Lisa Halvorsen (click here for a summary on Goodreads) and Welcome to Yosemite National Park by Pamela Dell (click here for a summary on Goodreads).  Both of these books provided lots of facts about the national park.  There are excellent photographs in each book. These are a great introduction to Yosemite, if you are not familiar with it.

my dad with some sequoia trees

For a great introduction to sequoia trees, read Giant Sequoia Trees by Ginger Wadsworth.  Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  This book has some great pictures and information about these giant trees.  Seeing them in pictures does not even come close to seeing them in person.  They are just so big and while you are walking among them I felt so small.  Each day that we hiked among them, I just couldn't believe my eyes!  One thing that I found very interesting was the bark in not hard like our trees.  The bark on the sequoia's is soft and squishy.  

All of these books are available through the public library.  Many of them you will have to put on hold as they are owned by libraries outside of St. Mary's County.  It doesn't take a lot of time for them to come to whatever library you request.  Visit the public library site by clicking here.  Would love to hear if anyone checks out any of these books.

Since this post ended up being a long one, I'll talk about books about San Francisco in another post.

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda

Miss Hazuda's "Take a BOOK on Vacation" Pictures

I had the best time on my vacation to Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia National Parks and San Francisco. It was an amazing trip.  If you get a chance I would highly recommend visiting these National Parks and many others. There are so many wonderful things to see in our country.

Well, my vacation got off to a bit of a rocky start.  We got stuck in Chicago, on the tarmac for just about two hours.  Then when we got to the San Francisco Airport, we had to wait another two hours in line for our rental car! So we were four hours late getting started on our journey to Yosemite National Park.  It was a LONG drive to our first stop.  It took most of the time at Yosemite to recover.  So I didn't get a lot of reading done.

Here I am at Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park.  Behind me are two Sequoia Trees called Twin Sisters because they are connected. I'm reading all about the hike we are about to start, so we can see the General Grant Tree, which is the second largest tree in the world.  When walking though all those tall trees, you just feel SO small!  They are just amazing, you can't hardly believe your eyes.




In this picture I'm at the entrance to Sequoia National Park.  I'm reading all about all the wonderful hikes that my family and I are going to be going on. We found some helpful books about the three National Parks. The sights that we saw in Sequoia were just incredible and beautiful!  




Once we left Sequoia National Park, we went back to the airport and turned in our car.  We got a shuttle that took us to our hotel in San Francisco. We did a lot of tours in San Francisco.  One of the tours was to the Alcatraz Island. The tour of the prison was very interesting.  While there I picked up the book Al Capone Does My Shirt by Gennifer Choldenko.  Click here for a summary on Goodreads. I started reading it while I was waiting for the ferry to take us back.  

Monday I'll be posting some kid books about the National Parks and San Francisco for the students in case they want to learn more.  There will be a mixture of fiction/nonfiction and chapter books and picture books.

Looking forward to seeing some "Take a BOOK on Vacation" pictures from our HES students and staff!

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda

How Is It July Already?

I can't believe it is already July 13th!  I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I was on vacation in California.  I was going to post before I left, but my departure date came quicker than I thought it would.  I had a truly fabulous time visiting Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks.  Then we spent five days in San Francisco.  I'll be posting some really good books about all of these places in a few days.  I'll also be posting my "Take A BOOK on Vacation" pictures.  Don't forget to send me any pictures of our HES students reading over the summer.  Click here for all the information.

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda