We Want Mr. Bagert Back!

Our preK teacher told me this morning that one of her preK students told her he wanted to "see Mr. Bagert again." That's probably true of all the CAC students who saw Mr. Bagert in action.

We had three dynamic days of presentations by Brod Bagert, during which he met with all the ES grade levels and 6th and 7th grade. He is an energetic performer and he kept us all wildly entertained during each of his assemblies.

As a teacher-librarian, I appreciated the humor in his presentations, his focus on writing from a child's perspective, and especially his tips on adding expression to your voice when performing: first make your face reflect the emotion you want to express, move your body to reflect that emotion, and then speak. When you do, your voice will express the feelings you want, without you having to think about how to do it. Your face does it for you!

But of all his advice, the best was certainly to "first, do your worst!" When sitting down to write, one should try to write as badly as possible. This means not paying attention to grammar, spelling, punctuation at first. Rewriting is very important because it is in rewriting again and again that we can make a piece better. He told us that he might rewrite a poem 50 times, each time looking for ways to make it a better poem. One of the fourth graders sitting near me, nodded his head, saying, "That makes sense." It makes great sense to me too, and I know we teachers will be reminding students of this important message for the rest of the year.

Here are some pictures from the presentations. They are taken from my very old phone, so they might not be very good photos, but they capture moments that were precious and filled with fun.

Compassion at the ES Library

We have a table display full of books on compassion this month to go with our ES school wide core value focus. Well, I should say now half-full because the titles have been in great demand and many are checked out at every check out session.

How do we show compassion in the library?

• We take good care of our books
• We recommend our favorite books to our friends, so they too, can enjoy them
• We respect the book choices of others
• When we read fiction, we try to understand how characters feel
• We make connections between text and our world, other books and ourselves

To see a full list of titles on compassion on our library catalog, you can visit the Visual Tab.

1. Go to the library catalog, library.cacegypt.org. 
2. Choose the elementary school library. 
3. Click on the Visual Tab
4. Navigate to the Core Values button
5. Click on the compassion icon - or any other of interest.

Here are a few of my favorite picture books on the compassion books list. 

PIC Seuss	We all know the story of the lovable elephant who stands up for invisible people on a speck of dust. Horton shows compassion and integrity in protecting all of the little Whos even though he cannot see them and can barely hear them. All he knows is that they're people and therefore worthy of respect. With The Seussical musical on this year, it's a great time to reconnect with Dr. Seuss.
PIC Stead	Winner of the Caldecott Medal in 2011, this is the sweet story of Amos McGee, a patient and loving zookeeper. When he stays home sick with a cold, his animal charges come to take care of him in return. Compassion all around goes around.
PIC Knudsen	One of my favorite books, Library Lion, by Michelle Knudsen, is super fun to read aloud because of the different voices and because of the lovable lion. In this story, librarian Mr. McGee forgets the importance of compassion for all library patrons, and the rule-abiding lion gently reminds him by example.
PIC dePaola	Another favorite. In this story, little Tomie teaches his grandfather to walk again after his stroke, just like his grandfather taught him to walk as a baby. This is a beautiful story of love and compassion between generations.
PIC Polacco	Patricia Polacco draws on a family story in the book about a Jewish family who helps their Christian neighbors one year when Christmas was in danger of not coming to town because of a bad scarlet fever epidemic. There are three books by Patricia Polacco on this list and I bet I could find several more to fit. All of her books are gorgeously illustrated and heart-felt.

Since December is a short month, we will continue to focus on compassion until the break. That's fitting because the world needs a lot of compassion right now. 

Character Dress Up Day 2015

We had a such a great morning today for our Character Dress Up Day! Thanks to all!

First we had a read aloud by Sarah Gauch, who shared a few pages of her new book, The Tomb Robber and King Tut. Ms. Gauch visited the grade 3 Egypt Culture classes today, as they devote a unit to the study of Tutankhamen and his fabulous treasure trove. The ES library has two copies of the new book, as well as 3 copies of her previous book, Voyage to the Pharos.

After Ms. Gauch's short presentation, we had our character parade and oh, so many wonderful costumes of classic literature characters. I hope students had as much fun coming up with their costumes as we had seeing how clever they were.

My favorite costumes were the simplest:  (although the amazing Rapunzel in the tower costume was amazing precisely because it was not simple! Sadly, I don't have a photo of it. If you do, please email me!!) Here are only a few of the many, many great costumes that we saw today.

The rabbit from Alice in Wonderland

Judy Moody from Judy Moody Saves the World

The Old Man and the C -- ha ha!

The Lorax

Splat the Cat

The Man in the Yellow Hat

Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket

The Phantom Tollbooth

Treasure Island - not a character, the whole book!

Judy Moody

Amber Brown

I was so busy with the assembly, I didn't have a chance to take more photos myself. I am looking forward to seeing the undoubtedly wonderful photos our school photographers will take for the yearbook!

The audience behavior of our elementary students today was exemplary. Well done, ES! Even though we were so excited with the parade and the author and the bookmark competition announcements, all the elementary students were attentive and respectful when it was time to listen. We're very proud and we hope this is a trend that will continue to improve.

Here is a short movie by our tech integrators from the parade. Thanks, Ms. Hebba and Ms. Ingy!

We Loved the Poetry Open Mic Today!

Congratulations and thanks to the 31 students who signed up to read their poems at the first ever Poetry Open Mic at today's family picnic. These 31 students showed courage and responsibility in selecting a poem - or writing one - and practicing the delivery on their own to perform today.

The parent picnic is a great CAC tradition and it is always wonderful to see families coming together on our ES lawn. Today's picnic had an even better attendance than ever. Thanks for coming, parents!

Here are some photos of our poetry performers. Please let us know if you have comments or suggestions. I hope there will be a next time and we want to make it an even better event.

Librarians and teachers: This was very easy to set up. I opened up a sign up sheet a week in advance and students had to read their poem to me first. This was to make sure that the poem was appropriate and to give each child a little coaching. I had poetry books available and I made copies of each poem, although every student was told that he/she was responsible over his/her poem. Most did come with their poems, but having the flat copies on a music stand made it easier for students to read while holding a microphone. Each student had to say his/her name, the title of the poem and the author.

Poets, authors and character dress ups

November is turning out to be pretty busy in the library. Not only are we reading for the Million Minutes Challenge and researching for non-fiction and social studies units in almost all of the grade levels, but we also have several big dates coming up.

November 11 - Poetry Open Mic at the Parent Picnic

Students in grades 2 to 5 are invited to sign up to read a poem aloud at the Parent Picnic this week. There is a sign up sheet in the library and I'm asking all students to show me the poem they're going to read and read it to me. This is to give them a little rehearsal before they "go on stage." On the Parent Picnic, we will have a microphone set up and students who have signed up can come up to perform their poems. Poems can be chosen out of our many poetry books or be self-written.

November 17 - Character Dress Up Day & Library Assembly

All students, teachers and parents are invited to dress up as a favorite character from the classics, to celebrate reading and CAC's 70th anniversary. Click here to visit my Character Dress Up Pinterest board. Store bought costumes are okay, but it really is more fun to create your own. 

We will be parading at the library assembly on November 17, but please be reminded that the focus of the assembly is not the character costumes. Rather, it is a celebration of literacy at our school and therefore we have other items to perform in addition to a short parade. Ms. Sarah Gauch, author of Voyage to the Pharos, will perform a few pages of her new book, The Tomb Robber and King Tut. Ms. Gauch visited CAC two years ago when her first children's book came out and we are delighted to have her join us again. In addition to read aloud at the assembly, she will be working with the grade 3 Egypt Culture classes that day. 

November 29 to December 3 - PTO Annual Book Fair

Although not strictly a library event, we are happy to support the PTO Annual Book Fair. This year, the PTO have invited four different vendors, so we are sure to have a good variety of books. Please consider volunteering with the PTO to help students navigate the vendors. We will not have a schedule of class visits for another week or so, so do sign up to come help any student and then come with your own children at a separate time. 

December 1 to 3 - Author Visit by poet Brod Bagert

Poet Brod Bagert will visit CAC the first week of December. He will be working with ES and MS students, and will be autographing copies of his books which will be on sale at the book fair. Visit Mr. Bagert's website here:  www.brodbagert.com.

Solar System Resources for Grade 2

Grade 2 is currently studying the solar system. Their essential questions for the unit are:

• How do we know about our place in space?
• What is our solar system and where do we fit in it?

The library has lots of resources, both print and digital, to help answer these questions. They are, as usual, gathered together on the library catalog's Visual Tab.

Print - We refreshed our astronomy print collection last year. The average year of publication for that particular section of the library was 1994. By weeding books that were older than 10 years, and purchasing lots of recent publications, we brought up that average to 2007. 

Grade 2 students learned how to browse the shelves, using the information on book spines to locate titles of interest. They also reviewed how to use the shelf markers to return books to the correct place. 

Click here for a list of solar system books that are good for grade 2 students. Most of the titles can be found in the 520s bookshelves in the non-fiction section of the library. The list itself is posted on the Visual Tab page for this unit.

Digital - We have many digital resources for grade 2, all accessible from the library catalog.

Visit the Visual Tab to see the collection of resources.

To get to the Visual Tab, visit the library catalog, http://library.cacegypt.org. Choose the elementary school library link, and click on the tab marked Visual above the main search field. 

PebbleGo is a particularly good resource. The content has been developed specifically for young researchers, and includes topics in science and social studies, including the solar system. The link from the Visual Tab takes you directly to the solar system section, but you'll have to first log in. Grade 2 students can refer to their catalog login credential cards in their take home folders. All other CAC patrons can log in to the library catalog using the Quick Login to see the full list of databases we subscribe to, as well as the usernames and passwords for each.

Another excellent resource is BrainPop and BrainPop Jr. BrainPop has engaging animated video clips featuring a robot called Toby. In BP Jr., a little girl called Annie accompanies him. One of the buttons on the Visual Tab, called "Space", is a shortcut to various movies about bodies of the solar system. The other button is a movie on gravity. Interested, and advanced students, could also go to BrainPop, the older version and do a search for solar system. Both BrainPop and BrainPop Jr. will require username and password. As above, refer to the login credential card or log in to the library catalog using the Quick Login.

Other sites on the Visual Tab page for the solar system include links to several NASA (the US space agency) sites and ESA (the European Union space agency.) Also useful should be the link to the National Geographic Kids videos. These do not require logging in.

Last, but not least, the Blendspace button has a collection of links to videos that the students have used in class.

Million Minutes of Reading 2015

Meet the challenge!

Join the CAC elementary and middle schools as we collectively read one million minutes this year!

How are we going to do this?

All students, parents, and teachers at CAC's ES and MS are invited to log the time they spend reading on this Google form, which will be posted on the CAC Dashboard as well as on ES blogs, including this one. You will need to log in to the CAC website with your CAC Single Sign On.

http://goo.gl/forms/wQsTRxOrhv

Why are we doing this?

The goals of the Million Minutes of Reading Challenge are to:

• build community by working towards a common goal
• help our students build reading stamina
• provide motivation for our reluctant students
• highlight the importance of teachers and parents as reading models

Also, we will have a celebration when we reach our goal. ;-)

When do we start?

Tuesday, October 26. There will be an announcement on CACN. The form will be available before that for practice, but it will be cleared at 7:30 am on October 26, and set fresh to start the counting. 

How will we know how far along we are?

There will be an electronic progress indicator on the CAC dashboard, and we will also have a paper indicator on the CAC campus.

What counts as reading?

Any type of sustained reading counts: reading for homework, ebooks, audiobooks, graphic novels, listening to a read-aloud in class or at home. As long as you are reading for a sustained amount of time and you are making meaning of what you read (i.e., you understand), that counts. 

Can we read in languages other than English?

We want you to read in any of the languages that you know and can understand, so reading in your mother tongue or in another language in which you can read and comprehend counts too. We have a large collection of books in Arabic in the library, and we also have books in many of the languages our community speaks.

How much time will each of us have to read?

Most students in the elementary school already have 20 minutes of reading for homework. Log those and any other reading you do.

How long will this take us?

We've calculated that if only the 313 elementary students join the challenge, each would have to read 53 hours. Since every student reads 20 minutes for homework a day, and there's at least 20 minutes of reading at school, that comes out to about 2 months and a half - not counting weekends. But, teachers, parents and the middle school will be joining us, so we're hoping we'll be done much sooner.

What about parents?

Parents, we're counting on you reading too. Be sure to count the time you spend reading aloud to your children at home. That counts double: the parent can log in the time they spend reading out loud and the children can log in the time they spend listening to the read aloud. To log in minutes as a parent, find the homeroom or advisory of one of your children. It will be added to the total for that homeroom or advisory. If you have more than one child, you may want to alternate. 

What if I'm not a student, teacher or parent, but I still want to join the challenge?

Log your numbers under library in the homeroom/advisory list.

Any other questions? 

Leave them in the comments and I'll add the answers to this list of FAQs. 

This Week in the ES Library

We will have several collaboration classes this week and our library assistants will have training from Dr. Purcell, who will be demonstrating "interactive read-alouds," a technique that is used by our ES teachers to help students deepen their understanding of texts. Here's a summary of the week by grade level.

PreK. Ms. Wafaa read Construction, by Sally Sutton, a New Zealand award winning author. Construction takes readers through the process of building a library. It features many different types of machines and lots of fun construction sounds.

Kg. Ms. Wafaa read Silly Billy, by Anthony Browne. This is the story of Billy, who always worried about lots and lots of things. He was such a worrier that he could never sleep well. One day he went to spend the night at his grandmother's house and she gave him some worry dolls to tell his worries too. He slept great that night and the next, but then he started to feel worried again. Our library lesson focused on noticing the picture clues the author illustrator gives about Billy's feelings, and empathizing with his worries. Don't be surprised if your kindergartener wants to make worry dolls this week! Here's a link to a page for making worry dolls out of pipe cleaners. 

Grade 1. Dr. Purcell will be reading Love and Roast Chicken, by Barbara Knudson. This will be a training opportunity for our library assistants, who this year are taking on the responsibility of teaching one grade level's lessons. Dr. Purcell and the assistants met last week to plan the read-aloud and she will be leading the first session with grade 1 to demonstrate for the assistants, after which Ms. Enas will be repeating with the second class of first graders. Dr. Purcell and the assistants will meet again to debrief the lesson.

Grade 2. As grade 2 is currently studying the solar system, Mrs. Fitzgerald will be reading Comets, Stars, the Moon and Mars, by Douglas Florian. This is a collection of poems on celestial bodies. We will be having a poet visit CAC the first week of December, and this is a good time to hook students onto poetry. We will be having an open mic poetry reading at the parent picnic on November 11, and I'm hoping some of our second grade students will be inspired to read poems from this book then.

Grade 4. We will be reviewing the Big6 research process this week with grade 4 and creating a map that will be the base for their unit on Native Americans. (Grades 3 to 6 use the Big6 to help them go through the process of research.) As with other social studies and science units, grade 4 has a page on the Visual Tab full of links and book lists for this unit.

Grade 5. We will be having a very short tour of the library resources on poetry for grade 5's writing unit. The tour will include the resources on the Visual Tab's poetry page as well as our print collection. Grade 5 students will be helping us to select the best poetry books to keep as we prepare to weed our poetry book collection, as it is quite large but is aging. They are also invited to look at the links we have for Brod Bagert, the poet who will be visiting CAC in December, thanks to a generous grant by the PTO.

(Did you notice that we have not listed grade 3? That's because we are not currently collaborating with them for a particular project, but stay tuned, as we soon will be.)

Grade 5 Book Talk - Characterization

Grade 5 is starting a reading unit on characterization. I will be presenting a book talk tomorrow to give them some titles and authors that will help them explore how authors develop characters.

See the slide show here. All images from TitlePeek, through our library catalog.

Here are a few of the books that I will present tomorrow. I hope our grade 5 students will recommend their favorites as well.

Rules, by Cynthia Lord
Realistic fiction - Scholastic Press, 2006
Newbery Honor, 2007

12-year-old Catherine has an autistic brother. He loves rules and videos, but doesn't like loud noises or anything wet on his body. He is a source of annoyance and embarrassment to Catherine, who wishes she had a normal family. She would love to have a friend in the neighborhood, but when a new girl moves in next door, she isn't quite what Catherine expects. In the meantime, she meets Jason, a disabled 12-year-old who cannot talk and communicates through cards, and against her expectations becomes friends with him. Themes of friendship, family and perceptions of disability.

Love that Dog, by Sharon Creech
Realistic fiction, novel in verse - Joanna Cotler Books, 2004

Love that book. It's a wonderful novel in verse about a boy who doesn't think he likes poetry and who thinks he certainly can write poetry, but turns out to have a fine poetic voice. His poems are addressed to his teacher and little by little we learn more about him and the dog he loves. The ending is sad but this will endear the book even more to its readers. Themes of love, pets, and belief in one's abilities. The sequel Hate that Cat is perhaps even better, but I have a soft spot for dogs so I like this first one better.

The Whipping Boy, by Sid Fleischman
Fantasy - Greenwillow Books, 1986
Newbery Award, 1987

It is illegal to hit a prince, so Prince Brat has a whipping boy to take his punishment. Prince Brat is well named by his people. He's thoroughly spoiled. When he gets in his head to run away because he's bored, he demands his whipping boy comes with him. The adventures that follow are pure slapstick, with incompetent highwaymen and dancing bears, but in the end, the prince becomes wiser. The story is enjoyable and the character development is obvious, making it a good title for this unit.

A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park
Historical fiction - Clarion Books, 2001
Newbery Award, 2002

Wonderful historical fiction novel set in Korea in the 12th century. The protagonist, Tree Ear, is a homeless orphan who lives under a bridge with an older crippled man. Their village is home to many master potters, who made precious objects of celadon clay. Tree Ear is fascinated by the process and manages to get himself hired by Master Min, who is as talented as he is grumpy. Tree Ear's life as an apprentice is hard and uncertain, but he proves himself time and again. This novel offers opportunities for lots of discussion on the customs of 12th century Korea and celadon pottery, the plight of orphans, and the ethical questions that Tree Ear poses to his crippled guardian.

Note to CAC community: Sign in to the library catalog using your single sign on username and password, and then click on any of these titles. You will be taken to the record for each book where you can place a hold on the title. Here is a fuller list of books that fit with this grade 5 unit. 

Responsibility in the library

This month, the elementary school will be focusing on the CAC core value of responsibility. We have a display of library books that illustrate this value. Students are encouraged to read them and check them out this month.

How do you show responsibility in the library?

• You return your books on time and always bring a bag
• You take good care of the library materials that you take home
• You always remember that we share the library with everyone else in the school
• You cite the sources you have found when doing school work
• You clean up after yourself 

We are very proud of KgS and 1T because every single student in those classes showed responsibility last week by bringing in their books and bags! We are so happy that they are becoming so independent and responsible, and as a great reward for their responsibility, they all got to take books home to share with parents and family members. We hope they will keep that up all year long and that their example will inspire all the other homerooms too!

Respect in the ES library

This month of September, the entire elementary school will be focusing on the CAC Core Value of respect. It is a good value to keep in mind as we start the school year.

At the ES library, we have lots of books that fit the theme of respect. Please visit the Visual Tab of the library catalog, http://library.cacegypt.org, and follow the picture clues to each of the core values.

There is a link to the catalog on the navigation menu of all the ES blogs, and also on the CAC website.

Our preK to grade 2 classes this week will focus on the core value of respect.


PreK and kg classes will be reading the book, I Am (Not) Small, by Anna Kang. In this book, two bear-like cartoon characters disagree about their respective sizes until another creature appears and proves that it's all relative. This humorous tale is a good vehicle to talk about respecting our differences and honoring our similarities. (Prek and kg have also been talking about how to show respect to books in the library: carrying them home and back in their library bags, and turning the pages from the corners.)




Grade 1 classes will be reading the non-fiction book, I Am Respectful, by Sarah Schuette. Through colorful photographs and simple text, this book illustrates many scenarios in which children show respect. It should spark a discussion on what respect looks like in the library.

What does respect look like in the library? Respectful library users:

• carefully handle library materials
• say please and thank you to the library staff
• listen attentively to each other when discussing books
• never make fun of anyone's reading choices
• remember that we share the library with everyone else at the school

Grade 2 classes will be reading Ryan Respects, by Virginia Kroll. In this early reader, Ryan makes fun of a slower classmate until he himself is the butt of his older brother's unkind teasing for having a teddy bear. Discussion will be centered on what students would do in similar situations, building on last year's guidance lessons on preventing bullying.


Do you have any favorite books that would tie well with this core value? Let us know in the comments.

Library Bags

Every ES student at CAC is asked to bring his or her own library bag when they come to the library with their class. Cloth bags with CAC logos can be purchased at the CAC school store, but students can choose to bring a cloth bag from home. All bags should have the student's name clearly marked on the top.

Why do we insist on a library bag? Library bags can serve many purposes. They help

• to keep our books protected from damage
• to transport library items home and back
• to keep library books organized and gathered together
• to organize their materials at school and at home
• to protect DVDs in case the case opens and the disk falls out

We encourage our students to take books home in their library bags, enjoy and share the book at home, and then return the book to the library bag right away so that it is ready for re-reading or return. 

Please note that students can return and checkout books on any day of the week, not just their library day. Students are welcome to come in on their own to the library before and after school, during lunch and afternoon recess. Provided they have no overdue books and that they are within their 10 book limit, they are welcome to check out at those times. Our library is also open on most Saturdays from 10 to 2. See the CAC detailed calendar or the ES library calendar widget on the sidebar to see the Saturday dates it is open. (It's open this weekend, Aug. 29!)

If students do not bring a library bag, we limit their checkout to 1 book and no DVDs, as it is easier to keep track of just one book. 

We thank all students and parents for supporting the library collection by embracing the library bag rule. 

First Day 2015-2016

Welcome to CAC! We are excited to be starting the 2015-2016 new year. We hope everyone has had a restful summer and is ready to start with great energy and enthusiasm.

 What's new at the CAC ES library this year?

• this blog (be sure to subscribe to keep up with all the latest news and information)
• more space in front of our Egyptian tent as we've moved the circulation desk
• Ms. Wafaa and Ms. Enas will be teaching the prek/kg and g1 library lessons respectively, under my guidance. I will be teaching the grade 2 classes.
• new books - LOTS!!!!

Here's a little reminder of our library circulation procedures.

• Students come to the library for a scheduled lesson (prek-g2) or checkout period (g3-5) every week. 
• Students can have up to 10 books checked out, but we strongly encourage them to only take 3 or 4 at a time. 
• Students with overdue books will only be allowed to check out one book until the account is cleared. This might be overruled if books are long overdue. 
• All students must have a library bag to transport their books home and back to school. 
• Choose books before DVDs.

Students are welcome to the library before school, after school and during lunch recess. We ask that students do not come to the library during the first recess as other classes are scheduled at that time. 

Let's have a great year of reading, everyone!

Getting ready!

With the 2015-2016 school year just around the corner, we're getting the library ready for a full year of reading and information seeking.

We just removed the dust covers off our bookcases and we're going to be adding lots and lots of new books, especially in the non-fiction section. Thanks to Youssef, an ex-fifth grader, who helped Ms. Wafaa remove and store the plastic covers.

We are told our new books are coming today. They are already at CAC, stored in the basement, but there's so many of them that it will take a while to bring them all in! Can't wait to see all the new books!!! There's nothing better than opening a brand new book and jumping in to a world of information and imagination.

Please remember to return all of your summer checkout library books on the first day of school. We are expecting quite a few books to return and the sooner they all come back in, the sooner we can get started with fresh reading this year!

What a year!

The library is silent, wrapped in plastic to protect it from dust and well-meaning janitors. It's having a well deserved rest and dreaming of the new books, new students, new activity it will have in the 2015-2016 school year.

Here's a quick calendar tour of the CAC ES library this year.

August - back to school

September - planting potatoes inspired by John Coy book

October - storyteller visit by Giles Abbot

November - Character Dress Up Day

December - Author visit by John Coy and PTO Book Fair

January - lots of classroom-library collaboration

February - harvest potatoes

March - New Book Open House

April - DEAR time assembly

May - used book sale

June - farewell to Mr. Ibrahim

And this is just one highlight per month! You can bet there was a lot more accomplished this year. We definitely deserve these summer vacations!