"For the Love of Books"

The patch shows a bear reading a book!

Last night I had the pleasure of hosting local Brownie Troop 498 in our library!  Troop leader Mrs. Barbato asked if the girls could come in so they could earn a Brownie Try-it award named "For the Love of Books".  And because I demonstrated that I know to good care of books, I ended up earning one of the awards, too!  The patch is absolutely adorable and I plan to proudly display it in the library!

The girls started off browsing damaged books that live in the "Sad Bag".  (You can find a blog post all about the Sad Bag by clicking here.)   I spread the books out on the library tables and gave them time to look through them.  Then we sat in a group on the rug and discussed what happened to each one and how to keep something like that from happening to one of their library books.  The girls were very good detectives!  By examining the clues, they figured out all sorts of dangers that need to be avoided: rain, juice, dogs, very young children, and plain old carelessness were at the top of the list. 

Eeek! A dog-earred page!

Scissors got this one!

What might cause THAT?

Finally, the girls started designing bookmarks with a positive message about taking care of books.  They each made one to keep and they also took home a few more to decorate and donate to the Ashaway Free Library.  The time really flew by, but I am happy to announce that all of the girls earned a patch and will receive it at their next awards ceremony.  Congratulations!

 

4th Grade Puppet Performances!

Our fourth grade students just wrapped up a research project about animal adaptations. Each student selected an animal to learn about and started the note taking process in the library. They recorded note facts about the animal's behavioral adaptations (what the animal does that helps it to survive, like migration) and physical adaptations (parts of the animal's anatomy that helps it to survive, like fur or claws). Along with creating a labelled diagram of their animals, the students also wrote a report to synthesize (or pull together) all of their information. As a culminating activity, the fourth grade teachers put the students into pairs, and these pairs each wrote a skit to share what they learned. The students wrote their dialog using a "frame", or outline of the basics, but they were free to add their own creative details. They practiced reading the scripts aloud to improve their fluency, which is a skill we expect effective readers to possess; for example, they should use a voice that shows expression and sounds natural. Practicing with "google eyes" I also held a voluntary puppetry workshop after school to demonstrate methods of making their puppets appear more lifelike and gave each participant a pair of "google eyes" to practice at home. As you might imagine, the students had loads of fun and were enthusiastically engaged in their learning! One of our third grade teachers, Mrs. Allen, actually had a gorgeous puppet theater that her husband had made for her and she was happy to let us borrow it. The students loved using it, and that added touch really gave their performances a polished look. I hope you enjoy their work! Mrs. Ornburn's Class Mrs. Young's Class One group doing a "dress rehearsal" in front of the class.

Bad News, Good News, and Great News!

As you may have heard, the program that runs our library circulation program is not working.  Our technology department is trying to get the system back online, but in the meantime I can’t sign any books out to the students.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that students are still selecting a book to bring home this week...I’m allowing the students to choose from a collection of donated books.  The great news is that students may return these books for others to borrow or they may keep them as a gift from us!  As you might guess, the students have been extremely excited about taking a book from the library that they don't have to return!

A few of our happy third graders!

If you find any library materials at home that have a library barcode sticker on the front, they should be returned to school as soon as possible. We’ll have a lot of work to do when the system is working again, and having all our books, magazines and Playaways back will be a big help!  Thank you!!