Hope to See You at Open House!

Here's one of the fine looking classes that will have their photograph included in the PowerPoint that will be looping in the Library during Open House. Mrs. Rathbone's 3rd graders were all smiles when they had their first book checkout a couple of weeks ago.

So, if you're new to our school or we've met many times, I'll be happy to see you if you have time to stop in during Open House. If not, I hope to meet you another time. Keep reading!

Good Times in the Library

These guys look very happy to be taking turns on the beanbag chairs and reading their books during "booklook" time in Library Class. Considering that they are 4th grade boys, I'm thrilled to see them still enjoying these times - they've been coming since Kindergarten!

During Library Class, I feel that students deserve to find a "free-choice" book that they are happy to read. Studies have shown that reading what you want to read is a great incentive to do more reading - and that's so important to all of us. If a child is reading, then it does not have to be a chapter book or other challenging reading each time. I do want to see rigor that encourages them to challenge and grow their reading skills. Also, perhaps they may just discover a new chapter book that really gets them hooked on reading. But my feeling is that we all want some lighter reading sometimes and I hope the library helps our students find their interests.

Confession time - Although I love a good, challenging chapter book, I still love to pick up a magazine and enjoy some less-taxing reading. And . . . as an elementary student many years ago, my favorite reading was comic books. Who would have guessed I would become a librarian?!!!

The Green (or white) Sheet

Most students, except Kindergarten, began borrowing books this week. Our happy 1st grader in the picture is holding the "green sheet" that should have gone home with every student. Actually, a few of these were printed in white, but we didn't want to waste paper so you might get a white sheet.

Anyway, these Library Information sheets have important information about our library program. It contains a list of the many ways you can contact me - phone, notes, or email (best). Please read it and let me know if you have any questions.

The paper also states "Please stop in during Open House" - I'd love to see you in the Library!

Back in the Library!

It's September and we're back into the swing of things. The library is staying almost-cool because of the air conditioner to that keeps our "mini-computer lab" in good running order.

Students Grade 1-4 will begin borrowing books next week. Later, in October, our Kindergarten students will bring home a library book. Everyone will have a paper with library facts; please read it so you know important information.

I hope to have weekly blog posts and will be mentioning this blog every chance I get. Since the Internet is part of our lives, this is the best way to get out information and news.

Here's one bit of important news. We have a new
Library Clerk, Nancy Ferri, who will be working at Charlestown on Wednesdays and Fridays. She is at Richmond School Library the other three days. Welcome, Mrs. Ferri!

Almost Summer!

We're just 23 hours from our official summer vacation and "miles to go before I sleep." So, I want to get this one more blog done for school year 2009-10. The last few weeks have had our heads spinning and it's hard to imagine that tomorrow will give me any more time to do a quick blog.

This year found me writing a blog entry nearly every week and it's been fun. Next year I hope to expand on using this digital communication to broadcast news from our library. Right now Twitter isn't in my future and this will serve me well. I hope readers have enjoyed it.

On Monday the librarians from Cross Mills and Clark Memorial Library spoke to students during lunch about the fantastic Summer Reading Programs they offer. This year the theme is
"Make a Splash - Read!" and I hope the summer finds lots of Charlestown children splashing away. Even if you can't make it to the libraries, be sure to provide your family with a "print-rich" environment so they can keep working on those reading skills. Comics, magazines, whatever ---
Be a SMARTIE - Keep Reading!

Have a wonderful summer!

Learning About Bees

Bees

Bees

Bees

Bees

Bees


Bees


Today we had a special event in the library with the 2nd grade classrooms who have been learning about insects. Some of the students did extra research on "BEES" and presented their work this morning. After they showed their PowerPoint slides to their classmates and guests, we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Tom Meade, local beekeeper. Mr. Meade brought some of his protective garb and a display hive with bees. There were plenty of questions for the Grade 2 researchers and for Mr. Meade. We had plenty to learn - did you know that when honeybees are angry they smell like old bananas?

This afternoon Mrs. Pearce made a special delivery of letters written by her students to thank Tom Meade for coming. More letters from Mrs. Rhodes class joined them and I'll be delivering the letters to Mr. Meade at the Richmond Farmers' Market next Saturday. If you're interested in knowing more, check out his website by searching for Daughters of the Queen. I want to thank Mr. Meade, Mrs. Pearce, Mrs. Rhodes, Mrs. Manchester and all the 2nd graders for making this a great day!

Active Families

wwwCharlestownFit

Yesterday morning, Dr. Cathy Moffitt and I were looking at the forms returned from students who did our new program, wwwCharlestownFit. At that time we had 34 returns and I know that more came back today. We were happy to see the level of involvement that families had in trying alternate activities. Personally I was pleasantly surprised that so many families kept up with the month-long recording.

I wondered if a month was too long since our previous May program had just run for one week. However, it's obvious that many of you enjoyed the chance to log the times when you engaged in activities to promote Wellness, Wholeness, and Wisdom. After seeing the results, we discussed how real change doesn't come in just a week. We hope the month-long program might lead some of us to making changes in some of our "couch potato" habits. As results are compiled we will know more how to revise the program for next May to make it even more engaging.

It was announced today that students will be recognized "at a later date". Obviously, that later date will be in the next two weeks! If your child brought in their form by today (the last day for returns) they'll be hearing from us shortly. Only 10 days left!