Library Bags Build Responsibility Skills

All elementary students at CAC are required to bring a back to school to transport the library books and materials they check out each week.

Please be sure that your child’s library bag:

• Is sturdy and made of cloth
• Is large enough to transport at least 2 books
• Is labeled with his/her name

We recommend that each child has his/her own bag. CAC logo bags are for sale at the Booster Club’s Spirit Store on the ground floor of the ES building. However, you can use any cloth bag you have at home, provided they follow the guidelines above.

We also recommend that when library materials are home, they stay in the library bag when you are not using them. Place the bag in the same place every night, perhaps by the door, so your child knows where it is and can pick it up on his/her day to go to the library. (This is a lesson I learned the hard way when my family lived in China. The ayee (housekeeper) would tidy up the books but, since she could not speak or read English, she'd put everything on the bookcases. The night before "library day" for my children would be a mad scramble looking for the library books on the shelves. As you can imagine, as a librarian, my house library is pretty large so it really was looking for needles in a haystack.)

We have some library bags that can be checked out, but only as a temporary measure when someone forgets their library bag and needs to carry a delicate book. We do not have enough bags to check one out to every child that forgets his or her bag.

Last but not least, please please please keep library bags away from swim bags and water bottles. We do not access late fines, but books that are water damaged will have to be paid for by the student.

Welcome to the 2017-2018 school year

Hello there! Welcome to a new school year at CAC. I hope you had a lot of time to read during the summer vacation. I did, although I did most of my reading with my ears because crochet is now my new favorite thing to do. Take a look at these gorgeous dolls that I made.

This was the first I made and I gave it to a little friend of mine in the US. 

This one I had to make when I found out that my little friend in the US had a sister!

This guy is an alien. You can't tell here, but I sewed his legs on backwards. That's the way they walk on his planet. 

While I worked on the dolls, I listened to audiobooks on Overdrive. It was very relaxing. Want to learn how to listen to audiobooks on Overdrive? Come ask me at the library. I'm always happy to show people how to use the library's resources. 

Here's a screenshot of my history on the Overdrive app that shows you a few of the books I read:

Looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday. Stop by the library and tell us what you read. We have a little prize for you if you do. It doesn't count if you come with your class though!

Remember that all summer check outs are due back on the first day of school. Don't wait to find out when your library day is. Bring those books back so you can check out more!

If you are new to our school, note that all elementary school students must bring a cloth bag to transport their books to and from school. This bag will protect the books from harm and will help you stay organized. You can use a cloth bag that you already have as long as it is big enough. The new and improved Spirit Store sells cloth bags. Just remember to label your bag and to keep it very far away from your swim bag!

See you on Wednesday!

Welcome to the 2016-2017 School Year

We are very excited to be starting school again and seeing all the smiling faces of our ES students! I hope you all had a great summer holiday and are ready for a super new year of learning and reading.

Here are some reminders for our students:

We share the library with everyone at CAC

This is our golden rule, and every behavior expectation follows from it:

• We use quiet voices in the library because other people are working, reading or playing here
• We return our library books promptly because other people want to read them too
• We walk in the library so we don't disturb other people
• We clean up after ourselves so that the library is neat and clean for others

You get the idea. We share the library with everyone, so we have to act like we would like others to act. 

Share what you read!

We hope you did a lot of reading this summer. Stop by the library and fill out a summer reading form. You'll be entered into a lucky drawing and could win a prize to reward your efforts. Of course, the best reward of reading was the enjoyment you got out of it so don't worry if you don't get a prize. 

Library bags

Remember to bring your library bag to library every week. Your library bag helps you:

• by helping you carry your books from the library and back
• by protecting your books from dust and damage
• by giving you a place to keep your books when you are not reading them at home

Library bags can be purchased from the school store. The school store bags are the perfect size for our library books. 

If a student has forgotten his/her library bag, we have a small number of bags that can be checked out. Once those run out, students without bags may only take one library book home. 

Summer checkouts

All library materials checked out for the summer need to be returned by Wednesday, August 17, or on the first day students return to CAC. Students with overdue summer checkout books will not be allowed to take books home. 

Tips for parents

Parents, visit this link for tips on how to help your students grow as super readers. 

Ways a Parent Can Help a Child with Reading

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!