When Technology Slows Down . . .

We love technology but sometimes the internet slows down and we have to be patient. This happened to a fourth grade class last week and it was lucky that everyone had a library book handy to read while the page was loading!

Book Breakfast 2014

The arrival of new books in the library is a cause for celebration! Before I lend the new books to students I like to host a book breakfast where staff can preview the books.  It's always a fun, joyful occasion for our school community. I started lending out the new books to students the same day as the breakfast and the books were soon gone from the displays! You can see the new books in our library catalog. Just click this link to see the books - there are many new books so remember to scroll through the pages.

Book Breakfast 2014 on PhotoPeach

Read Across America

We began our reading journey across America on March 7th and we're traveling quickly through all 50 states! Every Wednesday we have a special event to celebrate our participation in this fun reading incentive program. So far we've had Pajama Day and Wear Red and White Day. Still to come are Wear a Readable T-shirt Day and Mystery Reader Day. We are aiming to read across all 50 states by April 11th when we will have a celebratory closing assembly - with a surprise performance!
Here is a slide show of our activities so far . . .

Read Across America 2014 on PhotoPeach

News from the Library

Welcome to the Mobile Library!

I attended a school librarians conference a couple of years ago when students from Binghamton University came into the conference hall and surprised a local elementary school librarian with their gift of a beautifully refurbished van. The van was a "bookmobile" filled with bookshelves and was a temporary replacement for the school library destroyed by Hurricane Irene. We were all moved by the students’ generosity and the tangible demonstration of their high regard for school libraries. The students’ donation also reminded me of the "bookmobile" that intermittently drove into our English village years earlier before the new library was built. I remembered as a five-year-old climbing the steep steps into the bookmobile and being awed by what seemed to be a mountain of books lining the interior from floor to roof.

In the 21st century, the term, "mobile library" conjures up different images for eager readers and information gatherers. Nowadays, all libraries are effectively "mobile" because they can travel with you wherever you go; not only can you visit a physical library facility filled with bookshelves, computer stations, meeting rooms and cosy nooks, you can also visit the "virtual" online library to browse databases, download ebooks and audio books, and view videos of library events. It is my goal to make this blog a true "mobile" library, which you can visit to find out what's going in our school library, discover great books, find useful resources, and above all have fun learning. 

Better Late Than Never: Kindles and Library E-Books

I have owned a Kindle for a year and have been very frustrated that up until now Amazon has not let me borrow e-books from the public library on my Kindle. I looked enviously at those who had the Nook from Barnes and Noble and other e-readers that enable you to download library e-books. Plus, to make things even worse, my friends who have Kindles in England have been able to download e-books from their public libraries onto their Kindles for a while! Well, this is going to change soon because Amazon has finally created Kindle Library Lending using Overdrive, which is already used by public libraries for e-audio books and e-books. Here is an article that explains it all. Fantastic!

One World, Many Stories

 SUMMER READING AT THE PUBLIC LIBRARY

 Are you wondering what to do with your time this summer? Would you like to travel around the world? Do you like games and puzzles? Do you like hearing or reading a good story? You will find lots to do at your local public library where the theme of the summer reading program is One World, Many Stories. During the summer, public libraries will be offering exciting free programs and events based around this theme. You will be able to sign up for the program online or in person at your local public library.

The New York State Summer Reading Web site has links to lots of games, puzzles, booklists, arts and crafts, coloring pages and other fun stuff. When I was exploring the site, I found this colorful elephant jigsaw puzzle  on the games page and this origami fortune teller and animation game on the arts and crafts page. When you explore the fun and games on the New York State Summer Reading site, you can play for free; you don't have to buy any of the books.

Battle of the Books 2011

Do you love reading? Do you like to remember facts and trivia? Do you enjoy participating in competitions? Are you entering grades 6-9 in Fall 2011? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions then you'll have a lot of fun joining fellow book enthusiasts in a Battle of the Books that will take place during the summer and fall at your local public library. The Battle of the Books is a nationally recognized literature contest where you answer trivia questions based on specific books you've read.
I am excited to announce that this year I will be helping to run the Battle of the Books program at Adriance Memorial Library in Poughkeepsie during the summer and I am hoping that some you will participate in this fun competition. Let me know if you are interested participating in the program and I will give you more information about it.

Battle of the Books Booklist
Peeled by Joan Bauer
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson
Peak by Roland Smith
Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Colonial Life

Here are some useful resources for students who are learning about daily life in Colonial America.

Street Scene in Colonial Williamsburg. Photograph taken by Steve Canipe (Pics4Learning).


Colonial Williamsburg
This is a fun interactive Web site about daily life in Colonial America. There are fun interactive activities such as learning to write with a quill pen, growing a garden, and trying out for the drum corps. You can also see slide shows about different types of jobs, create a colonial postcard and send it to friends, and solve the daily jigsaw puzzle.
From PBS:
Daily Life in the Colonies
Colonial House - Interactive History
On this interactive site you can tour typical colonial houses, watch videos where different types of people in costume talk about their daily lives during colonial times, and play interactive games that introduce you to more information about colonial communities.
A Colonial Family and Community
How would you like to go back in time and become a history detective? On this Web site you can collect clues and answer questions about daily life in a community of farms.

Photographs for Multimedia Presentations

 Boatbuilding on Manhattan Island from Clipart Etc (Florida Center for Instructional Technology)

There are many Web sites that allow schools to use photographs and artwork for educational purposes without asking for fees or permissions. Here are some useful Web sites and links where you can go to find photographs for Glogs and other multimedia presentations:
Pics4Learning: Colonial History 
ClipArt Etc.: Colonial America
Flickr Creative Commons: Colonial America photographs

These are a collection of photographs that you can use for your school reports and presentations as long as you say who took the photograph and/or the Web site you used. Sometimes it is hard to know when you can use an image (photograph or picture) that you find on the Internet. Please contact me if you need help with this. You can also use the links in the Copyright-Friendly Resources list on the right-hand panel of this blog.

Ancient Greece

Photograph of the Parthenon taken by Amanda Holtschlag, from Pics4Learning

I have created an Ancient Greece pathfinder on the school Google Library Site where you will find links to online encyclopedias, E books, and databases. You can also use the resources I gathered on this blog, including Web sites and books, in an earlier posting about Ancient Greece.Don't forget to explore Discovery Education Streaming Plus (DE)  for videos and other multimedia about Ancient Greece. If you forget your user name and password to use DE please contact me via email.