A Helping of Gingerbread

This year the Gingerbread Book Sale was held during Conference Days. Previously, it had been part of the Holiday Fair, but that event wasn't available this year and we did not want to lose this fundraiser to help community families during the holidays.
It also gave a few 4th graders the opportunity to work as "clerks" to handle book sales (everything was $1.00 each!), organize books, and help with advertising by making signs. Ethan, in the picture below, even volunteered to drum up business by walking down the hallway in his "sandwich board" attire!

 Since the official sale on the 10th and 11th, we've relied on Charlestown Staff members to increase the amount by buying a few books, or just donating money. This afternoon, two 4th Grade Library Helpers, Chris and Ethan (a different Ethan!) counted our total so far. You can see their math work on the photo and also see that so far we have over $146 to contribute. Tomorrow is our last day and I'll add an update to show the final total.

Book Fair Beats Sandy!

Even a hurricane could not stop all the families, staff and kids from coming to the Book Fair and making our fundraiser a real success. Not only did you shop, but so many people helped in so many ways. Many thanks to PTO members, other family members, staff & teachers - we did it despite losing 3 days to Sandy!

Our total sales and profit surpassed last year - 

Total sales came to $ 4,570.15 for a total profit of $1,146.18!!! 
All that money went into the Charlestown School Library SAF account and will be used to buy books and many other resources for our school. 
Thanks to all of you, we did it!

Research

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The latest addition to our Wonder Table came from two 4th grade boys who must have been "wondering" about this wood they found on the Nature Trail near our school. They knew it was from a tree that had been eaten by insects. We wondered about what insect was responsible for the unique, almost geometric, holes.

We did not have any library books that helped so I turned to the Internet. However, my Google search wasn't giving me a conclusive answer. What I really needed was a way to show the photo to an expert so I took a picture. I thought of some URI researchers but realized the fastest way for me to get an answer was to email a local pest control fellow who has a column in a local paper. The photo below shows my email plus his answer - the main culprits were Carpenter Ants but other wood-boring insects were involved also. My appreciation to Mr. David Jones and his prompt, expert answer (also to Nancy Ferri, Library Clerk, who did a Google search and figured it was Carpenter Ants.

My biggest appreciation goes to the two 4th graders, James and Ethan, who brought in this interesting specimen for us to wonder about and examine - thanks, guys!

Flexibility

 

One tremendous part of being a teacher librarian is having a little flexibility during Library Classes. Just today I began a lesson on the SMART Board when a kindergarten student in Mrs. Terluk's class remarked on the homepage of that computer. I showed them the link to this blog and they were excited to see students they know in some of the posts.

When I explained about this blog, they wanted their picture on it. I decided this could be a different tech lesson so they sat down for a photo. The photo, taken with my phone, was then sent to my email and we knew when it "swooshed" that the photo had arrived in my email Inbox. Next step, download, then viewing the photo which is now the picture for this blog post.

Teachers love these "teachable moments" - I don't expect students to recall about how pictures to take longer than words because they have more data. They don't need to know about the Library blog. I do hope our actions engage their enthusiasm and love of learning  and hope they keep it their entire lives.

Hurricane changes to Book Fair

First, I hope your family made it through Sandy safely and without severe impacts. It was difficult to come back to "normal" today, especially when the Book Fair was set-up and ready to go. However, students are excited so we worked to extend it  - not so easy since Scholastics main office is closed without power in NJ. But, here's what we plan:

Sat. 9-12
Mon regular hours 9-4
Tuesday Election Day, 10-2 o'clock

See the website for details:http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/charlestownschoollibrary

Our Friday Family Event on 10/26 had sales over $950 -thanks!

Book Fair News!

Breaking News! Today we decided to add another Family Event to this year's book fair schedule:

Saturday, November 3rd from 9 a.m. - 12 noon.

Tomorrow, look for the yellow paper with the latest news, including a reminder about our kick-off 

Family Event this Friday, October 26th from 4:30-6:15. We'll close up the Book Fair in time to let families attend the Magic Show and the very popular Pumpkin Glow.

 The Scholastic boxes and cases of books were delivered yesterday and two of our 3rd grade students,  C and M,  helped me publicize our upcoming Book Fair. Here's a link for more info:http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/charlestownschoollibrary

Book Fair is Coming!

Did you see the pink sheet among yesterday's (10-11) backpack stack? If not, be sure to look for it to learn about our upcoming Scholastic Book Fair. The important information includes:

• A special Family Event on Friday, October 26th, from 4:30-6:15 p.m. This kickoff to our book fair will precede the Magic Show and Pumpkin Glow for a complete family night.

Regular Book Fair hours, 9-4 p.m., the following week,  
October 29th - November 2nd. Friday, Nov. 2nd will feature a  "Last Chance to Shop" on  until 5 p.m.

• Children in Grades 1-4 are able to shop during their scheduled library classes, so if you want to send money, they'll need it on their library day. Kindergarten students don't shop during library class and we encourage families to come to our Family Event or during other times we are open.

Danielle Reardon has been helping me as Co-Chair and I look forward to seeing other parents and family members as volunteers, shoppers, or browsers. 

Speaking of volunteers -

If you want to volunteer, fill out and return the bottom of that pink sheet or email, call, or send a note to me. 

For more information, you can follow the link below to our Charlestown School Book Fair homepage on the Scholastic website:

http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/charlestownschoollibrary

They Love to Read!

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This photo was taken today with part of Mrs. Truppi's 2nd grade class. Because they needed to go directly from Library to the Hearing Screening, I was with these avid readers until Mrs. Truppi joined us a couple of minutes later. Before going down the hallway, we discussed how they could read silently as they waited outside the screening room. The students in the photo had finished their screening and were waiting until their classmates were done. I was so impressed, I just had to take a picture - sorry I didn't get everyone because they were all busy readers!

 Another reminder  - Book Fair is coming soon - 

October 26-Nov. 2 with a special Family Event

 Friday, October 26th from 4-5:30 p.m.

before the Pumpkin Glow & show (6 p.m.)

All Around the School

Last week as I walked down the hallway I heard the enchanting sounds of young students singing. I peeked into Mrs. Healy's 1st grade class and was invited to listen and enjoy for a few minutes. They were singing a song based on a Maurice Sendak book and it was simply charming. The students were so experienced with the song that Mrs. Healy was having young Riley lead the group!

I've been heard to say I have the best job in the world - I get to work with books and kids!
Here are some of the many wonderful "perks" of being a school librarian:

• spending time with each and every student in the school
• seeing children grow and mature from Kindergarten to 4th grade. Sometimes they even come back from CMS or CHS during Open House or Book Fair and I get to see "alums"
• meeting many parents and caregivers 
• working with all staff members - Believe me, we've got an awesome group of educators!
• being able to look at "the big picture" of our school and community; again - awesome!

If you were able to visit during Open House, I hope I was able to see you then. If not, feel free to contact me with any comments or questions about our library program. 

BTW, our annual Scholastic Book Fair is scheduled for October 29th-November 3rd. 

More later!

Summer!

 

The picture says it all - Happy Summer and 

Be a Smartie - Keep Reading!

See you in August . . .

Cindy Reiser-Jones

Scenes from Field Day in the Library

 The Library had several centers for students to choose. A map on the SMART Board showed what each center offered. Activities changed with each grade level.

 The Play and Coloring areas were very popular. Volunteers were invaluable.

 A group of 1st graders managed to finish the floor puzzle. Great!

 Some 4th graders enjoyed the yearbooks. Also, note the boys in the back where the Reading Corner offered, "Be a Librarian".

 Lots of fun in the Play area.

Finally, I loved watching the children who chose the center, "Be A Librarian".

A fun day for all!

More "Wonder"!

The latest items for the Wonder Table were all connected to whales. Mrs. Rathbone let us borrow some of her treasures and this photo shows the jars of krill along with information from resources. In many Library classes we looked at some books after students had a chance to do hands-on examination of the jars. In some classes we were later able to listen to whale songs and look at a video clip of gray whales migrating.

The Wonder Table was a new idea for this year and I think I've loved it as much as the kids and teachers. The world is full of so many wonderful things and we all like to touch, look, and wonder. That curiosity and wonder continues after the "answer" appears on the Wonder Table. For example, even though I learned the jars contain krill and that it is a major food of baleen whales, I still wonder how the enormous whales can eat enough tiny creatures to stay alive. It's a wonder!

Library Classes

This photo, "kids reading on the beanbag chairs", is yet another of my favorite image. In fact, you may notice that a similar one graces the top of this blog. That young man was in Kindergarten; I think he's in high school now! The children in today's posting were in Mrs. Healy's 1st grade Library Class when they came earlier this spring. In fact, I think it must have been Table 3's turn for beanbags that day as you can tell by the happy faces!

Soon this scene, my favorite,  will be gone until September. Although students continue to come to Library Classes, class checkouts will end Friday, May 25th. It takes at least 3 weeks to get everything back and begin getting the Library in shape for the summer. As I been telling the kids, if there is a book you've been wanting, get it now!

Internet Safety

These 3rd graders from Mrs. Rathbone's class are working in pairs at the computers doing an online Internet Safety Quiz. It's a fun activity that reviews and reinforces the ideas we've discussed during some of our Library classes. This online quiz is used as a self-assessment; then they will have a test to demonstrate their knowledge. As I tell them, it's mostly common sense.

A student once asked me why we were covering Internet Safety in Library classes. Not only is it part of our curriculum and standards, but I think all of us know it doesn't hurt to hear the messages about keeping yourself safe in many different places. Believe me, the students in 3rd and 4th grade always have plenty of questions and comments!

We keep it simple and do not go into horror stories they may have heard on the news. The main talking points come from these "FBI Internet Safety Tips" (c2003):

#1 Never give out personal information
#2 Never write to someone who makes you feel uncomfortable, even if you know who they are.
#3 Never meet someone or have them visit you without your parent's permission.
#4 Tell a trusted adult right away if you read or see anything on the Internet that makes you feel uncomfortable.
#5 Remember that people online may not be who they say they are.

Don't we all hope our students grow up to make good, common-sense decisions about being online?

Reading Week Photos

Reading Week 2012 is over so enjoy these last few photos.

More Guest Readers included Mrs. Nancy Ferri, our Library Clerk plus Office Staff Mrs. Haney and Mrs. Barber. Thanks to all who shared their time and talents with our students in the Library.


Finally, the week ended this afternoon with an all-school silent reading session in the hallways. This is always a favorite event of mine and it was as good as usual. Keep Reading!

More Reading Week Fun

More scenes from Reading Week:

Monday found student teacher Jessica Fournier playing the part of Goldilocks - I hear she even had the 3 bears in Mrs. Healy's class! This photo of Ms. Fournier and Mrs. Katie Wright, Reading Coordinator, was taken outside my favorite place, the Library. Tuesday's Parade of Books was popular as usual with favorite books lining the hallways.

Today, Wednesday, featured a visit by local author and illustrator, Leslie Tryon. Ms. Tryon favored us with three assemblies, Grades 1&2, Grades 3&4 and then Kindergarten. Students in the youngest group came to the Library and enjoyed hearing a story plus seeing the model that Ms. Tryon created for a story. A fun time was had by all - thanks, PTO!

Great Start to Reading Week!

Reading Week began with a Monday visit from Superintendent Barry Ricci who was a Guest Reader in the Library with Mrs. Hershman's Kindergarten class. Looking at the photos, it's hard to say who's enjoying it more - Mr. Ricci or the kids!

Tuesday will feature a Parade of Books in the hallway; students may share a favorite book. Tomorrow will also find Assistant Superintendent Carol Blanchette as a Guest Reader in the Library.

Wednesday - our school will enjoy a visit from local author and illustrator Leslie Tryon. Thanks, PTO!

On Thursday, classes will display letters they have written as class projects.

The end of the day of Friday will culminate in our annual Reading in the Hallway.


It's all part of our weeklong celebration of reading at Charlestown School. Of course, in the Library every week is Reading Week.

Stay tuned for more scenes from Reading Week!

I Wonder - Clues

This week's I Wonder was truly a wonder and it had both students and teachers guessing. We had clues on the Morning Announcements for three days. Here are some of the clues:

• It is from an animal that is a carnivore.
• This animal has no teeth when it is an adult.
• This animal lives in the ocean.
• It came from an animal that is also called "broadbill".

Today, Friday, the announcement was made that it was the bill of a swordfish. I borrowed it from my best friend who knew kids would love it. Did you know that the bill is really the upper jaw of a swordfish? Well, I've learned that fact and others this week. Quite a few kids guessed what it was - even without the clues!

The Wonder Table has been such fun this year as we share and learn more about our world. If you look at the background of the photo, you'll see the next items for the Wonder Table. The nests were saved by Carol Driver who is a former librarian at Charlestown School. She brought the nests to our school and Mrs. Truppi knew exactly the best spot for displaying them. Thanks to Mrs. Driver and Mrs. Truppi for our next Wonder Table. Thanks to friend Karen for the swordfish bill!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I had to grab my phone and get this picture today when I realized how many different student activities were taking place at one time in the Library. If you count, you'll see 9 students (plus two at other tables). You'll also see Mrs. Renner, paraprofessional, who was helping Mrs. McGill and working with some of the students.

What made the scene so interesting to me was that it encompassed three totally independent student activities. One group of students was working on a special project. Another group was taking the STAR Reading assessment. The last two were taking Accelerated Reading Practice (AR) quizzes.

The library isn't always quite as busy as this, but keep in mind that this was going on in an "empty" block - no library classes scheduled. During this "empty" block, I was working with 5 students, Mrs. Renner with 4, and another 2 children came independently to do AR quizzes

Teachers take advantage of the sign-up sheet to reserve the library, or they are encouraged to use our resources and space if it doesn't interfere with library classes. The library is often a "hotbed of activity" and I love it!

OPAC

Do you know what the OPAC might be? Well, the official term is Online Public Access Catalog but OPAC is much easier to remember. If you use that term in a library, they will know you mean their catalog of what they own. Our 3rd and 4th graders know that if they go on the Charlestown School Destiny Quest OPAC they can look up books, get the call number, and find the book. If the book is "out", they write their name on a Hold list so they'll be in line for when it is returned.

When we went to Destiny Quest in September, it enabled us to make our OPAC web-based to allow searching outside our school. I've been wanting to add a link to our school library OPAC and hope I'm finally getting it done. That means I hope you will go to our Destiny Quest OPAC if you click the link below:

http://opac/quest/servlet/presentquestform.do?site=202&alreadyValidated=true

Destiny is the trade name for our Follett Software which is much more visual than the previous OPAC; kids like seeing the cover of the book. Of course, Destiny is the system that crashed for over a month and we're still repairing portions of it. That means, if you look at the Destiny Quest homepage for any Chariho elementary school you will see some lists for Richmond School, namely "4th Grade Battle for the Books" and "Playaways" (we have Playaways, but that list is for Richmond). I met with other district librarians last night and we're still trying to fix those problems! Meanwhile, I will be encourage students to use Destiny Quest from home.

Trying to Keep Up

The photo above shows three of the new pieces of audio equipment now available in the Library. It's part of an attempt to upgrade available resources and try to keep up with technology. With budget money we purchased one iPod/iPhone portable boombox and two stereo systems that play iPods/iPhones + CDs +AM/FM tuner. They are barcoded so teachers may check them out for use in their classroom. I expect they will be popular and hope that next year we can upgrade to furnish classrooms with newer equipment.

I expect some parents wonder why they see old, "antique" AV equipment in our school. Well, we still have audiocassettes that have wonderful read-along stories and songs. We can't just discard everything and much of it is still useful. Until we manage to equip every classroom with the newer digital resources, we need equipment that can play a variety of formats.

If you look at the photo, you'll notice VHS tapes that are part of the library collection. These have been gradually discarded for many years, but some titles reflect resources that are either not available or too expensive to replace quickly. It may be embarrassing, but it's a fact of life in most schools. We hope to get videostreaming in our budget next year and that will enable us to move away from VHS and DVDs.

And these examples just represent some of the AV issues - let's not even talk about computers! Just rest assured that everyone is trying to do a little catching up as fast as possible
I do hope everyone recognizes that keeping up with technology is virtually impossible these days. It's not easy at home or business and even more difficult in education. Have you heard of Moore's Law? Try looking it up. I'll blog a little about it next week.

C. Reiser-Jones
P.S. When I came to Charlestown in 1998, the first big task was weeding and discarding hundreds of filmstrips!

Dr. Seuss 2012

"Go Green!"


This is not a good photo with the glare from hallway overhead lights. However, it does give a good idea of our 2012 celebration for Dr. Seuss' birthday.

This year our theme was "Go Green" in honor of The Lorax book (and movie). The hallways were full of Truffala trees and children's work with ideas on how to help save our environment. My library display focused on our Lorax pencils that came from recycled newspapers. All students received a pencil; these are pretty neat because when they are sharpened, it's obvious they came from old newspapers!

Mrs. Wright arranged getting seeds to send home with each child and we hope "Go Green" results in some beautiful flowers or delicious vegetables in Charlestown School family homes this summer.

The spirit of the day even extended to our Office when Mrs. Haney came up with the idea that perhaps yummy truffles came from Truffala trees. Wouldn't we all like to pick chocolate truffles off trees in our yards? Happy Dr. Seuss Day to one and all!

We're Back! - February version

This week has brought many reminders why we're all here - it's for the kids and all that they bring to our lives. These photos of two Kindergarten students with their "response to literature" pictures make me smile just to look at them. It can ban all those concerns about technology troubles, time constraints, and being pulled in too many directions - at least for a little while.

The mention of technology troubles came first because the last time I wrote a blog posting was back in November. I looked at the date today and realized the last posting was about a week before the big crash. When the district server went down, it meant we had no "OPAC", the online library programs that run our modern libraries. As many know, for over a month we were writing down barcodes to keep track of books. It was a day to celebrate when the Chariho Tech crew got us back and running right before the holiday vacation. We're still recuperating from losing all data between June and December 2011, but it could have been worse, and I'm thrilled to be back in normal routines.
So I hope this explains the lack of blogging and now I hope to get back to weekly postings.

If you're looking for something new to try for the beginning of February vacation, you might want to look at the link below for the Providence Children's Film Festival. It runs February 16-21 and features films, workshops and other famiy-friendly activities. The website has plenty of info regarding age suggestions for various films - have a look http://www.pcffri.org/

Gr. 4 survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7HDPX7C