Check It Out!
Stinson MS Library Newsletter November 2023
Gobble Up a Good Book this Month!
A huge thank you for supporting our book fair last month! As a campus we raised over $1,000 to use for student activities like last month's Creepy Cafe and our monthly maker spaces, as well as student incentives and prizes all year long!
~Mrs. Fosmire
Library Skill of the Month
Election Day - Understanding our Civic Duty
Junior Scholastic: Election Day Countdown
Ballotpedia
Resources on this non-partisan site include:
A preview ballot based on address
(put in the school’s address instead of student’s personal info)
Information about seats open for election in Congress (including the impact of the 2020 Census), State legislatures, Texas governor, and local elections
iCivics Simulation Games
In Cast Your Vote you can simulate the voting experience and learn about local elections, see (fictitious) political candidates discuss important issues in Town Hall debates, and identify issues that matter to you and rate candidate responses.
Native American Heritage Month
Veteran's Day Virtual Field Trips
Take a virtual field trip to visit some of the historic battlefields of past wars. Click on the pictures below to experience each battle field.
Gettysburg Virtual Tour
Normandy Battlefield Tours
Virtual American Revolution
Gratitude Challenge
After watching the videos, what do you think are the benefits of expressing gratitude? Remember, the long-term benefits of expressing gratitude are only felt if we make expressing gratitude a habit. I am going to invite you to participate in one (or several) gratitude habits this month.
- Gratitude Journal: Each day, journal about what you are grateful for over the previous 24 hours, and why you are grateful for that event, person, object, etc.
- 3 Gratitudes: Share three things you are grateful for each day. You can do this at the dinner table each night and make a habit of going around the table and each person sharing three things they are grateful for that day.
- Random Act of Kindness: Each day spend two minutes writing an e-mail, telling someone in person, or making a phone call praising or thanking someone for something they have done (texting not allowed). You may choose a friend, family member, teacher – anyone deserving of your praise or thanks.
October Recap
The library clubs all got off to a great start with the first meetings of our Book Club, Maker Space Club and Coding Club. Book Club students enjoyed a preview of the first chapter of Scritch Scratch and made ghost lollipops. Our genre of the month was horror and students are free to read any horror book of their choosing to discuss at our next meeting. In Maker Space Club students were introduced to all of our different maker activities - we have over 20 stations for them to choose from! It is definitely a favorite library club of all students! Our Coding Club members were introduced to the basics of coding using Bitsbox and are looking forward to coding scrolling messages on our Micro Bits this month.
In addition to our regularly scheduled ELA classes, Spanish teachers brought their classes in to do a Hispanic Heritage Month activity where we made Mexican paper flowers and luminarias and played Loteria. 7th grade math students also visited the library this month and had a great time using our break out boxes as they sharpened their math skills. Our Emerging Bilingual classes took part in exploration stations where they got to go on virtual field trips to many places around the world and ignite their curiosity through book stations and interesting pictures from the New York Times student section. AVID students also learned a bit about coding as Mrs. Fosmire provided them with a mini lesson on coding our Micro Bits. Throughout the month students were also able to participate in our library activities like Monster Match, the Hispanic Heritage Month Who Am I? contest and making a ghost lollipop. We loved seeing all the participation in these activities!!
We ended the month with Book Fair and Creepy Cafe, and it was a wonderful success. All of the money raised at Book Fair goes back to our students in the form of activities like Creepy Cafe and purchasing prizes for our monthly promotions. Over 150 students wrote original creepy stories in order to earn a ticket to Creepy Cafe - we were blown away by their creativity and all who participated had an amazing time!!
Stinson Middle School Library
Email: Paige.Fosmire@nisd.net
Website: stinsonlib.weebly.com
Location: 13200 Skyhawk Drive, San Antonio, TX, USA
Phone: (210) 397-3634
Twitter: @NISDStinsonLib