encouraging students to become competent 21st Century learners
Welcome back everyone. I am so excited to start this school year and I'm sure you can guess why. In thinking about what to write for this first blog post I kept remember all the changes I have seen at St. Philip's. If you didn't know I am a former student and have always felt... Continue Reading →
Hoooorawr for Kindergarten!! The kindergarteners participated in library tradition by being introduced to the Library Lion. They listened to the story, Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen, and talked about how they should act in a library based on what they learned from the book. Each of them took a ferociously adorable picture with the lion, as well as... Continue Reading →
Last year I had quite a few students telling me that they were going to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. This year I haven't heard from anyone that they are going! If you are going come by and tell me. I'd love to hear what authors you plan on seeing! If you were... Continue Reading →
Because I teach K-5 library classes I focus on the Caldecott Medal and mention the Newberry to my older students. It's not that the other awards aren't for my students it's just that it is easy to hold a Mock Caldecott for all the ages that go through my library. The day I can figure... Continue Reading →
The results are in! St. Philip's students have spent the past month voting for the Mock Caldecott. You can read about the books they read and critiqued here. All in all I'd say we had a lot of fun. This is the second year we have held a Mock Caldecott and I am starting to... Continue Reading →
It's really cool when you think about how a book is illustrated. Sometimes the illustrator is the author of the book but other times an author writes a book, submits it to their publisher who then matches them up with an illustrator. The Illustrator is chosen because their work fits with the mood and theme... Continue Reading →
It is time for our now Annual Mock Caldecott! We had so much fun last year that we are doing it again. I'm still a teeny bit sad Mr. Tiger Goes Wild didn't win last year but have started to appreciate Locomotive's merits and can see why the Caldecott committee chose it. This year we have... Continue Reading →
The School Library Journal came out with their list of best books from 2014. They look at Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult and Nonfiction book that have received stared reviews and narrow it down from there. In the end they selected 70 books out of the 250 stared books. "These 70 books distinguish themselves... Continue Reading →
We are trying our very hardest to get all the new books processes. It is taking longer than expected but as each new book is entered, labeled, covered and protected we put it on the shelf for you! Many of the books have been checkout right away. I suggest logging into your accounts and putting... Continue Reading →
Some of you may not realize that when we host Mrs. Nelson's Book Fair a percentage of the earnings go directly back into the library. The library is in a bit of a transition period at the moment. Not only are we looking at opening a learning commons but we are still transitioning to genre-tizing... Continue Reading →
If you are looking for a way to help explain 9/11 to your children this might be just what you want. This short animation from BrainPOP does a pretty good job of explaining what happened and why. I showed it to my 5th grade class today and they found it very helpful.
There are lots of exciting things happening in the library this year including the building of the new Learning Commons. Until that happens it is business as usual. I have plans to be here to support the teachers with all their Common Core needs. We continue to relabel the Fiction section, organizing the chapter books... Continue Reading →
The Falcon's Fables 