Bella Vista Elementary Welcomes you to our Library

Every year Bella Vista has a Beehive Book Club.  Mrs. Allison and Mrs. Coombs encourage the students to read Beehive Books throughout the school year.  The students vote on the books they read.  At the end of the year we will have a Beehive Book Club beach party during class visits.  Rewards are given to top readers and the winning books are announced.

This year's theme for the Beehive Book Club is "Catch a Wave of Adventure Read Beehive Books."   To become a member of the Beehive Book Club, each student colored and signed a surfboard. 

We also have in our library a Meet the Author program where each month we spotlight an Author during class visits.  We introduce the author, their books and read an excerpt from one of their books.  Many authors have excellent websites  that we take advantage of exploring during class visits.  Some of the authors we have highlighted are:  Nic Bishop, Cynthia Rylant, Rick Riordan, Grace Lin, Brandon Mull, Carolyn Buehner, and C.S. Lewis to name a few.

As part of our Meet the Author program, we do a spotlight wall just outside the library.  A handout with a brief biography and information on the author's books is also sent home.

To learn more about what goes on in the Bella Vista library visit our blog at: www.bvbooklovers.blogspot.com

Igloo Building at Butler Elementary

This week we added a new reading area in the library- the igloo!  So much fun.   It took 450 milk jugs, 2 high heat hot glue guns, lots of glue sticks and time (about 10-12 hours of gluing).  It seats 4 large or 6 small students comfortably.  The students have loved being a part of this process.  We spent 2 months collecting milk jugs and then cleaned them all with bleach water.  The kids helped with counting, carrying and putting lids on.  It took about 1 week to glue it all together.  We are reading books on igloos, the Inuit people and arctic animals.  We will also use it to talk about recycling and Earth Day in April.  The students (and teachers and parents!) have been so excited and involved.  They stopped by the library a lot to check on the progress.  What a great school library activity!  

Ali & Debbie

Butler Elementary

In conjunction with election year we decided our yearly theme would be "ELECT TO READ" and "VOTE FOR BOOKS." We decorated in red, white and blue and used stars and balloons cutouts around the room. We gave each grade a poster that said, "Elect to Read," on it and asked the kids to sign their names and write how many books they planned to read during the year. We hung these posters on the bulletin board.

We wanted the kids to have the experience of voting for something so we had a bookmark contest. We had over a hundred entries, so we, the librarians, narrowed the choices down to about 15 possibilities, then the children got to cast their vote for best bookmark. We had the kids vote for one from the younger grades 1-3, and one from grades 4-6. After the winners were chosen we had the bookmarks printed on bright cardstock to pass out in the library. The winners all got a gift bag which included a new book and other fun items. The kids really enjoyed making the bookmarks and voting on them.

We did the bookmark contest the same week in November as election week. We also gave the kids a sticker that said, "We Love Books," after they had voted, just like their parents got after they voted.  The ballot box we used is now used for the Beehive nominee book voting and we keep encouraging the kids to vote, vote, vote.

During that week we read election books, the older students, Grace for President,  by Kelly DiPucchio, and Duck for President, by Doreen Cronin to the younger students.

Bell View Elementary

Bella Vista Elementary: First Complete Digital Public Library

Bella Vista Elementary's Educational Technology Specialist, Sallie Warnecke sent this link via email, perhaps others have received it too.  The article is worth reading.  It sure got the wheels turning in my head.  Ebooks are changing how we read books and the future of libraries' offerings. In my opinion, ebooks are the trend and have their place but I hope they will not completely replace physical books.  There is something bonding and identifying with a book when holding it and turning its pages as it is read.

What is your opinion? It would be interesting to hear other Media Specialists opinions on ebooks and the future of libraries, feel free to comment if you would like.

From Sally Warnecke:

Is this the library of our kids' future?

http://www.springwise.com/government/texas-county-plans-launch-digital-public-library/

Texas set to open the first completely digital public library later this month!  I find this to be very thought-provoking…and look, they're all macs!  :)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year from Oakdale!

Check out our display of books about China!

Chinese New Year starts Sunday, February 10.

This is the Year of the Snake!

Module 7 Lesson 3 Assignment 4

We are having a promotion at Oakdale! Every student will collect a card which is divided into nine sections.

These are the Dewey Decimal sections by hundreds, except we combined the 000's and the 100's .

For every non-fiction book they check out and read they get a stamp on their card in the appropriate box.

When they have completed their card,or read a book from every section, they earn a prize!

ART and BOOKS in the library at OAKDALE

At Oakdale in the sixth grade, our curriculum includes Ancient Egypt.
In this display we have informative and fun books ready for check out!
This art work includes the creations of some of our great 6th graders.
The art that is displayed here are stone coffins used for mummy's.

 The correct name for this coffin is called a "sarcophagus".

 

This year at Draper Elementary Media Center.  Our theme is Catch A Good Book.  We are taking four series a month and talking about the books and the author and the main character. We are doing book displays and activities about the books with the students.