Snowmen all Month

This month at Sprucewood we decided to read as many snowmen books that we could to our classes.  We loved, All You Need for a Snowman, by Alice Shertle,  had fun looking for hidden pictures in, Snowmen at Christmas, by Carolyn Buehner a local author, and enjoyed the interesting medium of the illustrations in Snowball, by Lois Ehlert.  As part of our snowman celebration we have added a Makerspace to our Media Center.  The first week of December when the students came to the library we directed them to our station and let them have some hands on learning time.  After the students had checked out his/her books and were reading at their tables we invited the quiet readers, by fours, to come to the Makerspace and add snowflakes to a snowman. We had just read, All You Need for a Snowman, so the students knew exactly what was needed. 

We spent the next week adding more snowflakes to our snowman body and he began to take shape.  Our snowmen were a bit slimmer and trimmer than most but the students had a wonderful time.  After the snowman body was complete we added a head, a scarf, a Merry Christmas Greeting from the Media Center and of course we couldn’t forget the carrot nose.  Each Snowman was then filled with a Christmas treat and returned to each classroom for the students to enjoy. 

 We are hoping to use our Makerspace for several more hands on learning experiences in the coming months.  Just thinking of the science experiments, nature wonders or introduction to architecture or music is getting us very excited. We hope your holidays are filled with

lots of good reading time.

 Janette and Karen   

Bella Vista Goes to Extremes!

 Bella Vista goes to extremes to encourage students to read a variety of books.  Mrs. Wing's fourth grade class just completed their team projects on extreme weather. Their posters are now hanging up in the library media center with a variety of extreme weather books for students to check out. Teachers were notified via email about this new display in the library and the students are made aware during class visits.

Edgemont Honors Nelson Mandela

When our Follett book order arrived just a few weeks ago we were especially impressed with one of the books we had ordered, Nelson Mandela, by Kadir Nelson.  The book is filled with gorgeous paintings and a powerful telling of his life story.  We put the book in our back room and planned on sharing it with classes later in the year.  But, when we heard of Nelson Mandela's death last week we thought it would be appropriate to share the book now.  We read it only to the 4th and 5th grade classes and were amazed at how many of the students had never heard of Nelson Mandela.  It provided a great teaching opportunity and the discussion following the book was very active.  There were many questions asked and every student was eagerly involved. 

Before reading the book we showed them where to find South Africa on a globe and showed pictures of the beautiful country.

 

Then we talked about some of the words that might not be familiar to them that they would hear during the book.  This created silent and interested listeners with every reading.

We finally shared this beautiful book and then answered the many questions they had.  It was a successful learning experience for our Edgemont students!

Oakdale Elementary

Caught You Reading!

Butler Elementary celebrates Holidays Around the World

This month Butler Elementary is celebrating "Holidays Around the World". We had an amazing World Night last night sponsored by the PTA. It was well attended despite the crazy storm.

In the library we hosted the Gingerbread House Contest and had over 80 entries. Amazing. Here are a few of the entries.

Merry Christmas from Butler Elementary!

Native American Habitats

 One of our Fifth grade classes made displays for their study of Native American Habitats.  They were excited to bring them to the library to exhibit.  Along side their exhibits we placed non-fiction, fiction and story books that highlight their particular tribe.  We found these books that are usually an "invisible" part of our collection became immediately popular as the visual brought them to the shelf and then the corresponding books were near by.