The Labels List and Directions

Here is the list of labels to add to your blog. Choose the one that best fits your post and add it.

activities

lesson plans

Halloween
Christmas
Thanksgiving...etc.

public library collaboration
Book Reviews

To view all posts on the same topic (same label) click on the label underneath the post.


My posts will generally be labeled Information.

Adding Pictures to Your Posts

Some of you have been asking for directions on adding pictures to your posts; first click on the picture that looks like a painting in the tool bar that is just above the window where you type your post, then click on choose files, click the folder where you have saved your picture, click on the picture file, then click choose. This will insert your picture into your post. Click on the picture itself to resize and position.

Hope this helps!

~Barb

Award Winning Books for 2011 - Bella Vista Elementary

The Caldecott and Newbery awards are the most prestigious awards given annually by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, to American authors' books in the United States of America. Once the winning books are announced, book stores have a difficult time keeping their shelves stocked with these quality children books.

The Caldecott Medal for 2011 goes to A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead, Illustrated by Erin Stead.

This book is about friends and how they take care of each other. The story is unpredictable and the illustrations are delightful. My favorite picture is when the animals are riding the bus. I highly recommend this book for all elementary students and their parents to enjoy reading. Though in the Media Center, we read it to the students from Kindergarten through Third Grade.

Read to 4th-6th Grade: pages 1-4 and 8-10

The Newbery Medal for 2011 goes to Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool.

Abilene Tucker is the 12 year old daughter of Gideon Tucker. She loves to hear his stories of a town he lived in 18 years before called, Manifest. Abilene describes her father's stories about Manifest like "...sucking on butterscotch. Smooth and sweet...." The students savored butterscotch drops while we read this flavorful metaphor in chapter one.

Continuing with an introduction to the story, Gideon gets a job in Iowa with the railroad and sends his Abilene to this town of Manifest. She arrives on a train scheduled to meet Pastor Howard whom Gideon arranged for her to stay with. "Abilene's Manifest" is much different than the smooth and sweet stories Gideon told her about. The pastor she meets is an interim pastor who has been waiting 14 years for the real pastor to show up. His name is Shady and, yes, he is a bit shady. She makes friends when she goes to her first day of school which is the last day of school before summer break.

She comes upon some old Manifest Herald newspapers and reads them in hopes of finding information about Gideon's time in Manifest, She also discovers an old cigar box hidden under a board on her bedroom floor that is filled with trinkets, a map, and letters about suspicions of spies in Manifest during World War I. As Abilene and her friends begin to investigate the past, someone warns them to stop their investigation by inconspicuously posting a note to their treehouse. The adventure of past(1918) and present (1936) becomes too irresistible for the girls to leave alone!

Hello from the Tyler Library in Midvale!

Howdy Library Assistants!

My name is Daniel Sorenson and I am the Youth Services Librarian at the Tyler Library in Midvale. I just wanted to introduce myself. Barbara has graciously allowed me to post on your blog for when I have a question or two about upcoming events at your schools. I am closest to the Midvale, East Midvale, Midvalley and Copperview Elementary Schools.

I will try not to post often, and am excited to collaborate in any way that I can. If any of the above schools know of any upcoming big projects, or reading assignments, please reply to this post. I will try to have additional materials available for the kids to use for their assignments.

Thanks so much, Daniel :-)

StoryWalk at Butler Elementary

Hi! Butler Elementary would like to share our StoryWalk! StoryWalk is a great way for students and families to read a fun picture book while getting some exercise. We laminated each page of a book and then posted them around the school playground. It's so fun to see the children running from page to page at recess reading the story. Our students love it and we hope to change it monthly. The original StoryWalk project was created in Vermont and has since spread to 22 states.


Check out all our fun library after school programs and other activities at our school library website:

Butler Elementary School Library Website

Ali Duff and Debbie Tyler
Butler Elementary Library Assistants

Sprucewood's Summer Reading Program

We two at Sprucewood Elementary created a Summer Reading Blog that was quite successful.  The district set us up with a website that the children who had been reading during the summer could email us with what they had read.  We asked them to then review the book and let us know how they liked it and if they might recommend it to a friend.  The children who participated really had a great time and we sent them a book or a bookmark through the mail.  We would copy their email review, add a picture of the book and post it on our blog.  We also updated the blog once a week with  new books that we thought they might be interested in reading.  We hope to continue the blog through the school year, and into the summer months again next year.  We even had one of our teachers submit a blog entry.  Below is a sample of one of the student's posts.

If you would like to visit our blog the address is:
http://www.sprucewoodbookmark.blogspot.com/

Tom Trueheart has 6 older brothers, they are adventurers who go on dangerous quests in the Land of Stories. Tom stays at home with their mother. Tom's brother are famous for the exciting endings they discover for the tales the Story Bureau Assigns to them.  But when his brothers fail to return from their adventures in time to celebrate Tom's twelfth birthday, a letter from the Story Bureau arrives....addressed to Tom. It is up to Tom to find out why his brothers haven't completed their missions. The Secret History of Tom Trueheart by Ian Beck is an adventure into the fairy tales we've all grown up hearing at bedtime.  I liked it and I'm sure you will too.

-Sean-