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!
It has long been a dream of mine to have a tween advisory board for my elementary school library. There's a great article in American Libraries that served as inspiration. In my dream, I see industrious and responsible book- and library-loving students working hard to make their library an even better place to be. I see students come up with great ideas to make the library more efficient and more attractive to their peers. I see them helping out with literacy and/or fun stations for the younger students, and turning the maker space from guided crafts to real inquiry-based projects. The tween advisory board of my dreams is recognized by their peers and the community as a valuable human resource of, and for, the library. It's a beautiful dream.
Until now, it has only been a dream. This year, I have made it a professional goal to force myself to step up to the plate and get it going once and for all. Our first meeting will be on the first day back from our December break.
I've had invaluable help from Ronna Zigmand, super duper librarian at the Delhi Embassy School. She generously shared her application forms and meeting minutes with me and I unabashedly copy-and-pasted to create my own application form. (Click here for my finished version.)
I invited the grade 4 and 5 students to apply this week when they came for their scheduled weekly check out sessions. I explained that this tween advisory board, which I'm calling the CAC ES Library Council for now, will be helping me with library projects, that we'd be meeting weekly and that we needed responsible lovers of books and libraries to apply. I handed out application form and worried about getting enough applications by today's deadline. I want to cap the library council to 12 students to ensure we have enough students to carry out the work but not so many that it is not efficient.
There are 2 questions on the application:
1. Why would you be a good library council member?
2. What idea/s do you have for the library council?
I have received nine 13 applications so far. The best part are the ideas that these students have offered. They cover circulation, collection development, signage and customer service. I love all of them, even the ones I don't agree with, like leveling books because "now one can get confused." Here's an opportunity for patron education! Our students are too focused on the F&P level and don't seem to understand that that is a teaching tool and not the only selection criteria. I'd love to get the library council to spread that word, or to demonstrate choosing great books based on author, recommendations, interests, etc. We could make posters and movies and who knows what other cool things they'll come up with!
Gifted graphic designer and library assistant Lena Rezk came up with these 2 buttons. One will be worn by each council member and the other one is "Library Council Recommends..." to put on books.
Having the library council will be a great way to start 2017. Can't wait to see what they'll do!
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.
Here it is, the historic moment when we reached our goal!
In October 2015, we challenged the ES and MS to collectively read one million minutes. This weekend, we reached our goal. The Million Minutes of Reading committee thanks every one who logged his or her time spent reading. Now we get to celebrate with a ES/MS celebration on March 17, which will be planned by the ES Student Council with input from the MS Student Council. Details will be published in the Eagle Eyes newsletter.
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!
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.
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!
