We had a quiet but purposeful start to our day this morning as we all Dropped Everything and Read at our first DEAR assembly of the 2017-2018 school year.
That's what starting the day reading with the ES school feels like. It's going to be a productive day because we had that great shared start.
Do you wish you were more of a reader? Here is a handy infographic by Jennifer LaGarde. It was designed for teachers, but can apply to all adults. Click on it to zoom in.
Want to get social about reading with me? Join me on Goodreads. I'm fitziane. I've been a member since 2005 and I really enjoy keeping track of my books. I also love setting myself reading challenges. This year, for the fifth year in a row, I want to read 365 books. I'm a little behind but will catch up soon!
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!
It's been two weeks since my last blog post inviting CAC students to join our ES Library Council. The council is now established and it has been very busy!!
That first meeting involved "a LOT of talking" in the words of one slightly disappointed council member, but the next 2 meetings made up for it.
In the 2 meetings we have had so far, we have:
read new picture books, classified them by CAC Core Value and awarded a "Library Council Recommended" sticker each to a new picture book
added letter shelf markers to the DVD collection
moved the back issues of magazines to a highly visible display rack at the front of the library
We will be announcing the next library visitor, origami instructor Lidia Coronado from Venezuela, at tomorrow's assembly. Preparing announcements for assembly is a very popular activity among the library council members. Be sure to come to assemblies for a chance to seeing them shine!
Grade 5 is focusing on author studies for their reading workshop unit. Each has to choose one author and read at least 2 books by that author. Ms. Kasal, the grade 5 team leader, asked me for a book talk to help students choose a great author to concentrate on.
Last year, I presented a traditional book talk, where I showed a dozen books and gave rapid-fire highlights for each author. At the end of the 20 minutes, students were to choose a book to start their author study. I was disappointed when many of the students found excuses for not choosing any of the authors or titles I had presented. I was determined to do a better job of hooking them.
With the goal of 100% engagement in mind, I decided this year to structure the book talk in a speed dating format. This way, instead of listening to me speak for 20 minutes, each student previewed books by different authors. At the end of 30 minutes, each had checked out at least one book from an author and had previewed 5 books from 5 different authors.
Authors were set up as stations with a poster (created on Canva) and a selection of chapter books. The authors I presented were: Avi, Sharon Creech, Andrew Clements, Sid Fleischman, Patricia Reilly Giff, Patricia Maclachlan, Gary Paulsen, Linda Sue Park, Louis Sachar and Jerry Spinelli.
A sample of the author posters I created for this speed book dating. I used Canva.com.
These authors were chosen because they have a large and varied collection of books - and we have many of them in our library - and because they are great writers who will challenge students to think deeply about their reading.
Students had 30 seconds to choose an author and then 2 minutes to preview a book by that author. They each had a sheet for notes on the book. They wrote down notes to themselves about the book they were previewing and rated the books on the sheet on their desire to read them. Find the sheet here. (At the bottom of the sheet is a link to a programmable online timer.)
Each student checked out at least one book at the end of the session. The sheet also gave students the chance to indicate they wanted a hold on a particular title.
All in all, it went very well. Our fifth grade students were very vocal by the mention of dating, but thrilled to be considered grown up enough. Even the reluctant readers were engaged and all left with a book to try. They also have a short list of 4 other books to try if the title they checked out at the end of the speed dating didn't suit.
The next time I try speed book dating, I'll include time at the end for students to compare notes. That could increase their exposure to authors and titles they might not have had time to look at. I would also like to include more diverse authors and perhaps picture books, as many of the authors above also write picture books. Last but not least, I'll create a resource list so that I can track the circulation of the books included in the book talk.
You may have heard of Flat Stanley, the main character in the book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. It was published in 1964 and has been a second grade favorite ever since. Many second grade classes take on Flat Stanley projects and send a paper visitor off to the world. Receiving updates from the Flat Stanley from around the world, the second graders learn about geography and world cultures.
We were happy to host a Flat Stanley of our own, sent by Ms. Fallon's class in Massachussetts. The paper doll's name is Flat Lily and she is a girl. Luckily for all of us, she arrived just in time for the Egypt Festival.
Flat Lily arrived the afternoon before our Egypt Festival. Just in time for all the cultural activities and performances!
Egypt Festival is a day long celebration of Egypt and is ably organized by our Arabic teachers. We have performances and activities that take advantage of the richness of our host country's culture, and the whole elementary school (ES) participates. We started the day with an assembly where different grade levels presented numbers they prepared in their Arabic and Egypt Culture classes. There were dances, songs and skits all related to Egypt past and present.
Our favorite was grade 2's number, when they listed facts about Egypt in Arabic and English.
(Did you notice the background tapestry in the theater? It was created by one of the Egypt Culture assistants and is absolutely stunning.)
On the day of Egypt Festival, we all dress up in traditional Egyptian dress. Egypt is a big country and there are many different styles of dress, but they are mostly a variation of a tunic, called "galabeya." Galabeyas are worn by both men and women. The men's galabeyas are usually more somber, with pinstripes and solid colors. The women's galabeyas are often decorated with bright and colorful embroidery. Here is a grade 2 class sitting in the Egyptian tent which houses CAC's Arabic language collection in the library. Most of them are wearing a galabeya, but see the boy in the green shirt? That's an Egyptian soccer player uniform. Egyptians love soccer so he chose to dress up in that instead of the more traditional galabeya.
On Egypt Festival, the whole school joins in the celebration, so the library had a big collection of books on Egypt on display.
Another part of Egypt Festival was listening to the hassabala martial band. Here Sharif poses with Flat Lily, and you can't see the band very well, but you sure could hear it on the day! It is lively music and we all loved being greeted by the band in the morning and being serenaded during our recess times.
Baladi bread is Egypt's flat bread. It is baked in a clay oven. CAC has its very own oven in the back of the ES building, and a band of bakers was hired for the day to make baladi bread for everyone. It is delicious straight from the oven!
It was very hot last weekend so we never got to the pyramids, but that's okay because Flat Lily got to pose with King Tut at the pyramid making station of Egypt Festival.
Every grade had a special activity for the day. The second graders made pencil cases and decorated them in the shape of Nubian houses. The Nubians live in the south of Egypt. Their homes are dome shaped to help keep the heat down. They are often colorfully decorated with tiles on the outside.
During library time on Tuesday, the second graders listened to a story called Pepi and the Secret Names, by Fiona French. This book tells the story of Pepi and his artist father who is in charge of painting the inside of the pharaoh's tomb. Pepi tricks the animals of the desert to pose for his father by calling them by their secret names. We loved this book because readers are challenged to figure out the secret names by deciphering hieroglyphs. (Ancient Egyptians wrote in hieroglyphs. Each hieroglyph represented a different idea.)
The day ended with color and music as we all went back to the theater to enjoy a tanoura dance show. Tanoura dancing came to Eygpt from Turkey. Dancers spin around and around, and their colorful skirts lift up and swirl around them. It's a beautiful dance!
As a farewell gift, the second graders created galabeyas for Flat Lily to take home with her. She will be mailed back to the US today to make sure she gets there in time for the end of the Massachussets school year. Mar salaama, Flat Lily. Go with peace.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
