Youth Media Awards Announced Feb. 12th

On Feb. 12, 2018 this year's Youth Media Awards were announced.  Check out this video (from Booklist)  for a quick look at the winners.  We have many on display in the Lower School Library.  We are in the process of purchasing the ones we don't have.  Enjoy!

 You can find the full list of titles here.

Top Books for the Month of February

Here are the books we are highlighting for the month of February! All of these titles are brand new!

Mid Year Library Reflection

Each year, as a library department, we reflect on the first half of the year to see what impact our programs have on student learning and to ensure that we are responsive to the needs of our community.  We spent the first semester specifically focusing on " inquiry, search and research, project based learning, working collaboratively when we can (or in solo effort)" across all three divisions in an effort to further student centered learning.  Take a look at our Mid Year Reflection SY 17/18 to see examples of projects and student work. 

Mock Caldecott

Every year the second grade classes participate in a Mock Caldecott. The Caldecott Award is given every year to the best picture book published in the preceding year. Librarians around the world are selected to be on a committee that selects one winner and three to four runners up. The second grade students have become a committee. They have spent the months of December and January reading approximately sixteen to twenty books.
Next week the second graders will select their winner and two runners up. Then we will wait patiently for the Youth Media Awards to be announced on February twelfth. The actual Caldecott winner will be announced on that date. It will be fun for students to compare their mock winners to the actual winners.
Check out this libguide to look at past winners and our Mock Caldecott book list. The winners for this year will be posted on the libguide on February twelfth.

4th Grade Fun with FlipGrid

Ms. O'Hara's class was kind enough to be the guinea pig for trying out FlipGrid.  FlipGrid is a fun video tool that we decided to use as a way for kids to keep track of the books they read for the Battle of the Books.  Each child creates a one minute video that includes a brief summary and their opinions about the book.  After they post their completed video, their classmates  can record a video comment.  The kids are having so much fun.    They look forward to showing their work to their parents on Wheeler Day. 

Welcome Back!

For most people the start of the New Year represents a new beginning, a fresh start or the opportunity to try something new. In the Prescott Lower School Library the New Year represents something different. Students, faculty and staff come back energized and ready to take on the second half of the school year. The New Year for us is more like the last quarter of a Superbowl game.

The Librarians are gearing up for the Rooster Games in February and the Battle of the Books in April. Additionally a lot of new research is beginning and major projects have to be completed all with the help of the library. Librarians; we are up for the challenge.  

As the year goes on we will share class highlights, major events and of course new books that have been added to the collection.

Happy New Year from all of us here in the Lower School Library.

Give The Gift of Reading

We have just published our annual department winter reading list. We have included the list here and 2 quick videos of the titles Charlene and I recommended for the list. Enjoy!

What's New in Children's Literature

I was so fortunate to attend What’s New In Children’s Literature presented by Deborah Ford on Tuesday, November 14.  I look forward to this workshop every year.  I always come away with ideas to use in the library and to share will Lower School Wheeler/Hamilton teachers.  Here are a few takeaways.

Refugee by Alan Gratz

I cannot wait to read the book Refugee by Alan Gratz.
There has been a lot of buzz about this on some of the listservs I am on. Deborah also raved about it.

The book follows the story of 3 characters. Josef is a Jewish boy who lives in Germany just as WW II begins. He and his family must flee Germany for a new home. Isabel escapes Cuba on a raft in 1994 to try to find a new home in the United States. Mahmoud has to leave Syria in 2015, which is in the midst of a violent war, to find a safer place to live in Europe.

I will pass along these great links of books and resources from the presenter Deborah Ford to teachers. Watch the video to explore some of the resources Deborah shared.

Books

101 Mostly Free Online Resources

I will start using more book trailers to promote books as kids arrive for class in the library as a way to get them settled.  This trailer for the book Wishtree by Katherine Applegate is pretty outstanding! I shared this last week with a 5th grade class and it worked. The book now has a waiting list.

Top Three Books for November!

Accessing our Online Databases from Home

Hi everyone.  I have had a number of people ask me how to access our online databases from home.  I made this quick screencast.  Hopefully it helps.  Please let me know if you have any questions!

Spotlight on Kindergarten

I am fortunate to have the job of being the Lower School Librarian for the primary grades. I feel a special connection to this year's  Kindergarten group. They were the Nursery class during my first year here at Wheeler, and my have they grown!

We kicked off the school year with the book The Not So Quiet Library by Zachariah OHora. The book serves as a testament to how much libraries have changed. It is no longer the quietest space in the Lower School. If you walk in on one of my Pre K classes, we are usually singing, making loud animal noises or listening to music on Pandora's Disney Channel. Zachariah leads the children into a library of mean grumpy monsters who want to eat the books. The job is left to the main characters, a boy and his friend who is a bear, to show the monsters the purpose of the books and how much fun books can be.The illustrations are bright, colorful and unique. It is the perfect book to open up our illustration unit and  look at the role of the illustrator, and that's exactly what Kindergarten students have spent the month of September and October doing. 

We have enjoyed the book Wolfie the Bunny, also illustrated by Zachariah OHora. Wolfie the Bunny's character is so surprising and unique; I knew the students would have a great time making their own. Many of them have made two and three drafts, and selected their best version. This week we have added color and worked to create frames for our final illustrations.

Next week their Wolfies will be on display in the story room down in the Lower School Library. If you have a chance, stop by and check out all of their hard work! 

Selina Alko and Sean Qualls Visit Last Friday.

We were so fortunate to have Selina Alko and Sean Qualls visit our school on Friday, October 13th.  They met with students in grades N-7.  There were so many wonderful moments during the day it's hard to choose just one to share, but here goes… My absolute favorite moment occurred during their visit with Nursery and Pre-K.  A child had asked them how they made the cover image of the book Why Am I Me?  Selina began explaining that she liked to think of the little girl as her when she was young and the little boy as Sean.  She then pointed to the place where the two circles intersected and began to say, “And when the circles come together you can see…”  At this point, she was interrupted by a Nursery student who exclaimed, “A sparkle!”   All the adults in the room stopped, considered the moment, and agreed that that was the perfect answer!

Thanks to everyone for making this such a successful visit.  Special thanks goes to the Parents’ Association for supporting our author visits annually and to Wendy D’Amico and Jacinta Tapalian who helped plan the day.    The authors commented on how smoothly everything went and were particularly impressed by what deep questions the students asked.  

Happy October!!

October is an exciting month for us down here in the Lower School Library!! We are preparing for our Annual Celebration of Reading!! Each year we celebrate reading by inviting one or two authors to come and meet with students in the lower school and middle school here at Wheeler. 

We are fortunate enough to welcome Selina Alko and Sean Qualls; both are illustrators and Selina Alko is also a writer. They are husband and wife, who have recently collaborated on non fiction picture books. They are from Brooklyn, New York.

We are excited to welcome them to the Wheeler campus, where they will share the process of illustrating and writing books! Below you can find links to their bios and a few of their books. Students are encouraged to post questions on our interactive board in the library

https://www.selinaalko.com/about

http://www.seanqualls.com/