TEACHER FAVORITES

The votes are in! I have officially heard from almost all of the teachers and staff about their favorite books, and that means a fun new display in the library! When you walk into the library, you will now see a Teacher Favorites display (below).

Each of the books has a post-it on the front with the name of the teacher who chose that book as their favorite (one of mine is shown as an example below). The kids can then check out these books. Kids are already excited to be reading books their teachers love, and the books are flying off the shelves!

I was thrilled with the variety of books that were mentioned by all of the teachers. We had Charlotte's Web (thanks, Mr. Wygal!) and Little Women (Mrs. Meza!), which are such classics, and then we had newer books such as the bear books by Karma Wilson, recommended by Mrs. McFarland, and the Percy Jackson series. For the rest of this week, I am getting pictures of the teachers and staff with their favorite books for use in a digital picture frame in the library and for a bulletin board in the school. Fun things on the horizon!

FEBRUARY DISPLAYS

February means exciting displays in the library! Currently, the display as you walk into the library is for Valentine's Day! This includes nonfiction, picture, and chapter books for all grades.

There is also a display for Black History Month, and we have LOTS of new books for this topic. You could pick up Claudette Colvin, a Newbery award-winning book with moving illustrations for the older grades about fifteen year old Claudette who refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus nine months before Rosa Parks. Consider grabbing Fifty Cents And A Dream, a beautifully illustrated look at Booker T. Washington as a young man. Or maybe you'll pick up Before John Was A Jazz Giant about John Coltrane and his love of music. We have books on Oprah, Rosa Parks, basketball stars, leaders of the political realm, inventors, musicians. We have modern stories and older ones. Come check out our selection!

And last but not least, the library now has three sections for books that are new to the library. One section is for new picture books, one is for new fiction chapter books, and one is for new nonfiction books. These new sections are labeled with large blue "NEW" signs, so keep an eye out for them! The nonfiction ones may be helpful in some of your lessons, and I am listing them below. Enjoy!

Citizen Scientists: Be A Part of Scientific Discovery From Your Own Backyard
590.72 BUR

Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle
551.46 NIV

Trash Origami: 25 Paper Folding Projects Reusing Everyday Materials
736.98 LAF

Island: A Story of the Galapagos
508.86 CHI

Harlem's Little Blackbird
782.42 WAT

Over and Under the Snow
591.43 MES

STORIES ONLINE

One of the items on my always-growing "To-Do" list is to update the Sycamore Park Library's home page. I have started the process, and one of the new additions is going to be a section of links to websites that have online stories for kids. I have found a few websites that are particularly kid-friendly and high-quality, and they are listed below with a short description.

Between The Lions - Stories

This website, by PBS Kids, has stories that children can watch and listen to in a variety of categories, from Folktales and Fables to Art and Music. The story is read aloud along with an entertaining video. Also, one plus of this website is that the words of the story run along the screen and are highlighted when they are spoken.

Storyline Online

This website is sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild. It has actors and actresses reading the stories, and the stories are accompanied by a video. Fun for adults, too! However, the story selection is limited.

Barnes & Noble Online Storytime

Barnes & Noble has videos that you can access of authors reading their books. This is one of my favorites because it features several stories that are so popular with the kids, such as Pinkalicious, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, The Polar Express, Fancy Nancy, and many more. It's entertaining to hear the author him or herself reading the book.

Scholastic Listen & Read

This website features 54 nonfiction read-along books in categories such as American History, Animals, Science, Social Studies, and more. This website tells stories through words, images, and sound. A plus is that it reviews difficult words at the end of the story!

I hope you enjoy these resources! More will be posted on the library homepage, found here, soon!

STUDENT BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

As part of the library unit focusing on the Virginia Reader's Choice Awards, students in grades 3 through 5 have been writing their own book recommendations. I encouraged them to think of their favorite book, why they love that book, and why they would tell other students to read the book. Students are always coming into the library looking for book recommendations, and I love recommending books for them. However, I think it would be even more helpful if they could get recommendations from their peers.

I am in the process of typing up their book recommendations and putting them in a packet by grade. Then, these laminated packets will be available in the library for other students looking for book recommendations!

Although there were a LOT of book recommendations for Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants, and that's fine, there were lots of students that recommended different books as well. Their use of advanced vocabulary was impressive, and their descriptions were as well. Also, they recommended a nice blend of nonfiction and fiction books. All of the students did a GREAT job, and I put some examples below. Enjoy!

George Washington
By Lenny Hort
This book is fascinating, inspiring, and the author inspires me to read about history.

The Book of Elsewhere
By Jacqueline West
It is full of magic and suspense with jumping through paintings and talking cats and evil dead witches. This book will have you clinging to your seat.

Redwall
By Brian Jacques
It is packed with adventure and action with funny characters. It is full of suspense and is a long book series. There are many different settings. There are cool characters, cool weapons, and awesome fortresses.

11 Birthdays
By Wendy Mass
It's entertaining, fun, and sometimes very mysterious.

The complete packets of recommendations will be available, sorted by grade, by the end of the week.

VIRGINIA READERS' CHOICE AWARDS

They're BACK! It's time for the Virginia Readers' Choice Awards! In case you've never heard of them, the Virginia Readers' Choice Awards give student readers an opportunity to become better acquainted with a broad range of contemporary literature while voicing their opinions about said literature. The students are given a list of popular books, and they can vote on the books they like the best. A winning book is then determined from the list. Students are empowered by their active role in this process. Our library at Sycamore Park currently does not have all of the books on this list, but that will soon change.

Over the next few weeks, all of the grades will be introduced to all of the nominees and will have the opportunity to vote for the book they think deserves to win. I will be reading all of the book nominees to the K-2 grades, and I will be reading excerpts from the book nominees to grades 3-5.

As a part of this unit, I will be asking grades 3-5 to write their own book recommendations so that a packet of these recommendations can be created for use in the library. That way, students can get book recommendations not only from me but also from their peers if they are looking for something great to read. I will also be asking teachers about their favorite children's books, and I am hoping to display pictures in the library of teachers holding their favorite children's books! Exciting things on the horizon.

Here are the nominees for grades K-2:

Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner
Tiny Little Fly by Michael Rosen
These Hands by Margaret H. Mason
A Zeal of Zebras: An Alphabet of Collective Nouns by Woop Studios
Pumpkin Trouble by Jan Thomas
Stuck by Oliver Jeffers
Swirl by Swirl Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman
Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett
Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton
The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray

And the nominees for grades 3-5:

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
8 Class Pets + 1 Squirrel divided by 1 Dog = Chaos by Vivian Vande Velde
The Lemonade Crime by Jacqueline Davies

Star in the Forest by Laura Resau

My Invisible Sister by Beatrice Colin and Sara Pinto

Waiting for the Magic by Patricia McLachlan

Fractions = Trouble! by Claudia Mills

Ghost Buddy: Zero to Hero by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver

Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the True Story of an American Feud by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain

Hound Dog True by Linda Urban

More info can be found on the website for the Virginia State Reading Association. 

MLK DAY ONLINE RESOURCES

I was looking for good online resources for MLK Day, but honestly the most powerful online resource I could find was the actual video of Martin Luther King's famous "I Have A Dream" speech. Not only are his words powerful, inspirational, and beautiful, but he is an excellent example for our students of how to give a speech. I guess he is just a great example all around. If you are looking for the famous "I Have A Dream" part of the speech and don't have time to listen to the whole thing, that part starts at around 12:20. NOTE: The video may be blocked on the school computers.

Here is a quiz to test your students' (and your own) knowledge of MLK.
QUIZ LINK

And The History Channel has lots of good videos about MLK and the Civil Rights Movement. This video is very kid-friendly and gives some background to the MLK "I Have A Dream" speech in under 3 minutes. There are lots of other videos as well.
VIDEO

The Seattle Times has a nice website about MLK, including some student-written essays about MLK. Here is the link to the essays, but you can find the rest of the website's content by using the drop down menus. They have some great photo galleries as well.
ESSAYS

CURRENT DISPLAY

As most of you know, this month we are celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. To prepare for this holiday on the 20th, the current book display as you enter the library contains books relating to Martin Luther King, Jr! All teachers and students are welcome to check these books out.

Every month, and during certain special weeks throughout the year, I plan on having a relevant display on the bookshelves as you enter the library. For example, in December we had a holiday display. In early January, we had a winter display. Now, we have a Martin Luther King display. After that, it will be a Valentine's Day/Love display. If you ever have any ideas or requests for a display, please let me know!

Also, I wanted to let everyone know that we have some great new titles centered around diversity that have just been added to the collection (thanks to Mrs. Jones for ordering the titles before she left). They are listed below. If you are interested in checking out any of the titles, please let me know and I can find them for you!

Diversity Titles

A Rainbow of Friends
By P.K. Hallinan

Who Is In Your Family?: A Celebration In Diversity
By Susan Bowman

I Am The World
By Charles Smith

Gorp's Dream: A Tale of Diversity, Tolerance, And Love...
By Sherri Chessen

It's Ok To Be Different
By Todd Parr

Can You Say Peace?
By Karen Katz