4th Graders Rock

The library was pleased to host a special reception honoring our winning 4th grade talking book report videos. 4th graders, teachers, and several parents attended this special showing of the top reports. The fun was topped off with a giant cake declaring "4th Graders Rock" which they do.

Book Recommendations

Just so you know: We are always seeking recommendations for new books. If you have a book, an author, or a series that would be a good addition to our libray, feel free to email me at shellymain@evansvillechristian.org.

Heroes Among Us Celebration

We are looking forward with eager anticipation to our upcoming National Children's Book Week/Veteran's Day Assembly on Friday, Nov. 11. The program will begin with a parade through the hallways and into the sanctuary at 12:45 p.m. and will include a tribute to our veterans as well as our top talking book reports and video book reports. It should be a day full of excitement to cap off our National Children's Book Week that runs Nov. 7-11.

Project Completions

Several learning projects have come to a close this week in media/library classes. Second graders finished up a nutrition unit where they learned about healthy foods. Today, they enjoyed a special healthy snack treat that contained three of the major food groups. Fourth graders completed their energy unit by videoing their Energy Game Shows today, and third graders (shown)finished up a human timeline of the history of Evansville. It is, indeed, a teacher's dream to be able to incorporate technology, print materials, and project based learning all while having a laugh or two with the students along the way.

Nooks Have Arrived

We have just added five new Nook ereaders to our technology section of the media center. We are in the process of loading books on them and sending home letters to 4-8th grade parents. The ereaders will be available for checkout. We will begin by allowing 4-8th graders to check them out with parent permission. If things go well, we will move down to 2nd graders eventually. However with 2nd and 3rd graders, parent will have to come to the media center to check them out with the child. Last year, we adopted a school policy regarding ereaders that they may be brought to school and used during AR reading time. This addition will allow some students who might otherwise never have that chance to do so.

New Library Shirts

New library shirt order form is up in the mail room at ECS. You can select from short or long sleeves as well as brown or blue. The shirts are a great way to promote our school library and reading.

Book Fair Coming Soon!!

The Scholastic Book Fair is coming to ECS's East and North campuses September 20-23. Check out the Fair Webpage for a sneak peak: http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/ecslibrary11. See you there! Shelly

New Computers and Science Resources

We are grateful in the library for the addition of seven new all-in-one computers. These computers will be a tremendous resource in research as well as A.R. testing. In addition, I want to remind you of the new science/literacy kits for grades 1-3. These kits (pictured above) combine fiction and non-fiction leveled readers as well as audio resources to align with common science themes. They come packaged in large, handled zip bags that make them easy to transport.

New Teacher Resources

New additions to our professional section of the library: Bill Nye Science Video Set--50 new videos to enhance your science curriculum on everything from volcanoes to probability recommended for students in 3-8th grades; a ten set collection of videos on ancient civilizations recommended for 4-8th grades; Reading Powerworks kits to support your new science curriculum; these sets contain fiction and non-fiction partner works as well as companion audio books--there are levels for below, on-level, and above level readers: topics include Animal Life Cycles (grades 1-3); Circling the Sun (grades 1-3); Earth's Changing Surface (grades 1-3); How Animals Survive (grades 1-3); Matter is Everything (grades 1-3); Our Natural Resources (grades 1-3); and Predicting the Weather (grades 1-3). Additionally, we have the Mandrill Mountain Math series and Sherlock Bones Looks at Physical Science. Hope you take advantage of all these new resources available in the professional section of the library.

Hello Again!

Well, here we are just a few short weeks until the start of a new school year. Part of my time this summer has been spent developing a research wiki-space. This site includes the Big 6 steps in research as well as links to research sites for projects in grades 2-8. I hope that each of you will visit the site, get familiar with it, and use it as a part of your lesson planning when teaching research. It is very important that we are consistent and purposeful in this and all areas. The site is located at http://ecsresearch.wikispaces.com/. See you soon. Shelly

Family Literacy Night

What an exciting night it was at Evansville Christian School on Thursday, April 21 as we celebrated Family Literacy Night. The evening was full of food and fun. Parents and students enjoyed carnival snacks (popcorn, snow cones, and cotton candy), puppet shows, story times, face painting, taking A.R. tests, and browsing the book fair. Thanks to all the wonderful volunteers who helped make the book fair and the literacy night such a success. Our book fair proceeds will be used to begin replacing our current desk tops with new all-in-one units for A.R. and research usage.

Glogster.com

7th and 8th graders have been working in Glogster.com to develop online projects: 8th graders on poetry; and 7th graders on The Great Depression. Check out this great glog by 7th graders Laynie W. and Kyle W. at:
http://smmw6wf.edu.glogster.com/the-great-depression/
This tool is extremely easy for kids to use and makes project development interactive as well as fun.

Book Fair's Coming!!

Just around the corner is our spring Scholastic Book Fair. The fair will take place
April 19-21 with the evening of the 21st being a very special carnival-themed Family Literacy Night. Come and enjoy carnival themed treats like snowcones, cotton candy, and popcorn. In addition, see puppet shows, visit with Geronimo Stilton and Clifford the Big Red Dog, and enjoy facepainting, all while browsing the book fair and taking A.R. tests. To preview what will be available at the book fair, click on this link: http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/ecslibrary10. Hope to see you there!

What's New and What's Coming Up

We are blessed in our media center to have added quite a lot of new technology pieces within the last year. The PTF generously provided funding for six new DVD units to allow our emerging readers to read and hear their favorite stories at the same time. These units are available for check out by teachers for short term or long term use. In addition, we have added 10 netbooks to bring our computer total to 16 in the media center. These were added through our book fair profits. The netbooks are allowing us to explore a lot of cutting edge technology such as wiki-spaces, glogster, and blogspot in our media classes. I would encourage teachers to check out these sites; they are simple tools that will really enhance your teaching. Find them at: www.wikispaces.com; www.glogster.com; and www.blogspot.com. Both 7th and 8th graders are in the beginning stages of projects on glogster; when they are finished, I will be posting samples.

Look for information coming soon about our spring book fair; the book fair will run from April 20-22 and will include a special family night. The picture above is from our fall literacy night.

2nd Graders Enjoy Asian Art

Today, we finished our special studies to align with the 2nd grade unit on the Chinese New Year. 2nd graders have spent library time hearing stories from Asia, exploring web sites about China, and creating hong bao for their Chinese New Year coins. We concluded today with a visit from Mrs. Green and one of her friends from Japan. Our guests helped second graders create origami birds to align with the story "The Origami Master." See photos above of the exciting learning experience.

New Projects in the Works

We are busy in the media center with several new research and technology projects. First of all, 3rd graders are finishing up a research unit on U.S. regions. Currently, they are placing the information they have researched into a newspaper format. These should be complete within a couple of weeks.

4th graders have been busy with digital storybook projects. They have created their own stories with themselves as the main characters. The illustrations are still shots of them that will align with the story. A couple of great pics are show above.

8th graders have been busy meshing critical thinking skills and deepening their Biblical worldview by doing comparison and contrast research of the major world religions. From the questions that they have raised, I have no doubt that this has been an amazing learning experience. I appreciate all Miss Rudolph's effort in setting up this project. It is quite amazing for me to work alongside someone that I previously taught. Makes me know it is all worth it.