BES Library Notes
A Learning Space for Everyone
What are you thankful for?
Every day I'm thankful for the time I get to spend with our students, for the privilege of introducing them to some of their favorite characters and series, and for the magic of reading.
I hope that, as we head into the holiday season, you and your family are able to take the time to reflect on the books that have made an impact on your life. What was your favorite nursery rhyme or bedtime story as a child? What was the series you read voraciously in school? Maybe Babysitters Club, Goosebumps, The Boxcar Children, or even the Saddle Club books, like me. If you've grown out of the habit of reading as an adult, I challenge you to make that a goal in the new year. Set aside some time for you to fall in love with reading as an adult and set an amazing example for our kids at the same time.
Let your kids see you reading for your own enjoyment and interest and you'll do wonders for creating a culture of literacy in your home.
This newsletter will be for the months of November & December. As some have said, this time period often feels like the last lap in a Mario Kart game, so buckle your seatbelts!
What will we be doing in the library this month?
Our PreK students will soon begin checking out books! We will learn about book care and making good book choices. PreK library books will remain in the classroom instead of coming home each week.
Our kindergarten, first, and second grade students will be beginning our first author/illustrator studies of the year! We will discuss the roles of an author and an illustrator, how to find out who the author or illustrator of a book is, and we will discuss how our picture books are organized by the author's last name. Kindergarteners will be focusing on the work of Mo Willems, 1st grade will focus on Christian Robinson, and 2nd grade will focus on Dan Santat.
Our 3rd graders will be starting our first genre study of the year. Our fiction books are organized by genre and it is important for students to know the characteristics of each of these categories. Our fiction collection genres include Adventure, Animal Stories, Fantasy, Imagination Stories, Historical Fiction, Humor, Mystery, Realistic Fiction, Scary Stories, and Sports Stories. After an overview of each genre, students will be tasked with using our Destiny system to create a genre infographic to share with others.
Our 4th graders are finally wrapping up their National Parks projects! We are studying America's National Parks as part of the National Park Service's "Every Kid Outdoors" program. Students selected a National Park of their choice and completed a graphic organizer with information that they collected from the official NPS website. We're also learning about the importance of citations and students will be required to include at least once citation on their organizer. Once the graphic organizer is complete, students have the option of creating a Powerpoint to share their findings. I've challenged them to explore our CCPS databases to find additional resources and images for their presentation and to approach with a marketing mindset; how could they convince someone to visit their chosen park? I'm excited to see what they come up with! See our graphic organizer at this link.
5th graders have begun a research project on Native American cultures, history, and traditions using our PebbleGo Next database. We will also be reading picture books written about and by Native authors and illustrators. Students are working on their research, using a rubric provided in class, and will assemble their information on a Powerpoint that will be submitted via Schoology. Images and supplemental information can be gathered via other CCPS databases such as Britannica and TrueFlix. Students are required to include at least three relevant images and one citation, See the rubric at this link.
Book Checkout
All of our students are encouraged to check out books at each library visit. Students are not required to check out a book unless needed for a classroom teacher assigned project, but if they're opting out, they will have to suffer through my very persistent encouragement and book recommendations. 😁 Although each grade level is allowed to check out a different number of books at one time, all students have an account maximum of five books. Once they have checked out five books, they will not be allowed to check out more until some of the previous books have been returned. When an account is approaching five books, we try to print out notices to let families know that we're approaching that max.
Pre-K students will soon be checking out their first library books from our paperback area! PreK check outs will remain in the classroom instead of coming home each week.
Our kindergarteners have been checking out from our paperback everybody books and our early nonfiction sections. They have also started checking out hardback everybody books from a few specific easy-to-access locations in the library. This keeps our check out time reasonable and makes the choice a little less daunting. Talk to your student about choosing a safe library book space in your home.
1st graders can also check out one book during each library class. Depending on individual class needs, students have begun practicing using browsing sticks to help keep our check out times from looking like a tornado aftermath. Once we're proficient and responsible with the browsing sticks, 1st graders will have access to the everybody books and nonfiction/informational books.
2nd through 5th grade students have access to the whole library! We work hard to help students make good checkout choices. Remind your student to choose "good fit" books; good fit books are the right fit for your reading level, your interests, and what you and your family feel are appropriate.
2nd graders can check out two books, 3rd graders three books, and so on.
Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Books
Every year, our school participates in the Maryland Black-Eyed Susan book awards.
Named after our state flower, the Black-Eyed Susan award is decided by students in the state of Maryland. While we will read the picture book nominees in library class, your student may want to get a head start on reading the nominated grades 3-5 chapter books or grades 3-5 graphic novels! See the link below to find out more about this year's nominees.
All of the elementary nominees ae now available in our school library and are also available at the public library and in bookstores.
Fall Scholastic Book Fair
Our fall bookfair was a huge success! Thank you to all of our students, staff, and families for your enthusiasm, support, and flexibility with the disruption to our usual routine. Remember, any leftover e-wallet funds can be used at Scholastic online or saved for our next book fair. When you go to set up an e-wallet for the next fair, Scholastic will prompt you to roll over left over funds into the new e-wallet.
Thank you to the many families who donated to our BES Student Fund and who "rounded up" their total to help us purchase books for students in need.
I'd like to extend an especially huge thank you to all of our parent and family volunteers because the fair would not be possible without your help. Several of our volunteers spent much of the week with us, going far over and above to help set up, take down, fill in the gaps, and keep things moving, including Joanie Kilmon, Erin Johnson, Miranda Kelly, Melanie Loveless, Alissa Powell, and Leslie Humphreys. Another shout out to BES's newest instructional assistant, Mrs. Perise, who jumped right into the book fair as a sort of trial by fire.
Thank you to very single person for your help with this huge project and your support of our library program. We hope to hold another book fair in the spring, most likely sometime in late May.
Pumpkin Jack
Our Pumpkin Jack is well on his way to decomposition! We're observing the changes in our pumpkin to learn more about the pumpkin life cycle. Jack has been sealed in this jar since Friday, October 27th.
Library Fish
Since our library is "the reef" it's only fitting for us to have a fish! Our fish made his debut during the week before Thanksgiving. We'll soon be voting on his name. Students can check in on our fish in the library as well as through the windows in the main hallway.
Library Special Visitors
Mrs. Grenier had a few special visitors in the school before Thanksgiving! Did you see these two little people in the building? Her niece and nephew from Melbourne, Australia, Florence and Freddie, popped in to see the new library while visiting for the holiday. Their mom is Mrs. Grenier's sister and she also attended Beach Elementary.
Upcoming Library Events
Fun Reading Event
Last year, we had our Reader's Campout in the library. Our new library has quite a bit more sunlight! I'm not sure if we'll have the same sort of campout, but we will plan on holding a fun winter library event in mid-January. Stay tuned!