Cool and Sweet as Summer Reading

CAC ES students were full of stories about all the books they read this summer. We were so happy to hear all about them!

Here's a little prize for those who read during the summer. Popsicles are cool and sweet like summer reading, so students who fill out a paper popsicle template will be treated by the ES library to a cool and sweet real popsicle on Thursday at dismissal.

Lots of new books for the new school year!

I spent a great hour today browsing through our many new books. Here are a few covers. Can't wait to read some more tomorrow and display them for our students to see on Wednesday!

Clicking on each cover should take you to the book's page on Goodreads.com. If you don't have a Goodreads account yet, you should! It's like Facebook but for readers. It has covers, summaries and reviews for every book published in English, and lots published in other languages as well. You invite your friends and they get to see what you are reading, as well as recommend books for you. One of my favorite features is the Goodreads challenge. Every year for the last 3 I have challenged myself to read 365 books. As I count picture books and children's literature in addition to the adult books I read, it's not that hard to reach that number, but right now I'm 28 books behind!! Good thing we have so many great new books.

2016 Reading Challenge

Mrs. Fitzgerald has read 198 books toward her goal of 365 books.

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198 of 365 (54%)

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Note: As I read more and more books, this widget may change. Right now there are 18 wonderful picture books but since CAC has a great book collection, it could change to include different. Moral of the story: Read the blog posts when they arrive!! :-)

Josianne Fitzgerald's favorite books »

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

Top 10 in Non-Fiction for 2105-2016

Yesterday we saw the top 10 fiction books for this school year. Here are the top 10 in non-fiction. These are the non-fiction books that were checked out the most.

#10, #9, #8, #7 - Garfield books. With about a dozen new Garfield comics this year, the fat cat of comics continues to be popular among students.

#6 - We added quite a few Minecraft manuals this year, and they have been continuously checked out. Will be adding more copies next year to keep up with demand!

#5 - Also new this year were many crafts books to refresh our crafts collection and to compliment the crafts we offered at recess times. 

#4 - So glad to see that the crafts books we purchased this year were in such demand. More crafts books for next year?

#3 - We had lots of interest in these "girls only" books this year. Girls rule!

#2 - The Guinness World Records books are always popular. We keep one copy of the newest book as a reference and circulate another copy. 

#1 - Girl power! Our fourth graders, boys and girls, were fascinated with this title. Will have to get at least one more title as it disappears from the circulation cart as soon as it is checked in!

Which non fiction books were your favorites this year? Let us know in the comments. 

Top 10 Books for the Year

As check outs for summer reading pick up, here's a list of the 10 ten titles checked out this year. 

#10 - The Diary of  Wimpy Kid books are always in demand. This one is number 4. 

#9 - Another Diary of a Wimpy Kid, this one is number 2 in the series.

#8 - This is the ninth title in the Captain Underpants series, and features a trip back in time to deal with a bully. 

#7 - All the titles of Pinkalicious big favorite with girls young and old!

#6 - In this title, Pinkalicious learns about the power that comes from staying true to herself. 

#5 - We have a large selection of Star Wars beginning readers and they're most often always checked out. This one is written like a non-fiction book. Interesting that it is about the bad guys. 

#4 - Another Captain Underpants title, this is the fourth in the series. 

#3 - In this title, Pinkalicious deals with the Tooth Fairy. 

#2 - The next to last book in the series. We received book 10 in December, so it did not make it on the list, but it's sure to feature in next year's list. 

#1 - Pinkalicious, by Victoria Kann, is the most checked out book of the year!

Online Summer Reading

The end of the year at a school is usually super busy. The ES library has been a hive of activity as well, and it's just kicking up into high gear as we race to collect all the library materials in time for the last day of school. Our school policy is to withhold report cards for students with overdue materials, and I always try my hardest to make sure that no child gets blocked. So far, in my eight years as a librarian, I haven't been able to accomplish that, but...there's still this year!

One of the things we do during the last weeks of school is promote our online reading materials. While students are allowed, and encouraged, to check out books for summer reading, we also know that in this day of ubiquitous Internet, online options are welcome, especially for our expat community. Summer means long travel times and ebooks pack light.

Here are a few options for online children's reading.

Online reading on the Visual Tab

The Visual Tab houses a treasure house of learning resources during the school year, and is available year round to students wherever there is an Internet connection. We have a page of online reading for children with links to our Overdrive collection (more on that later) and reading websites. 

The Current Events for Kids page has a collection of online news sites for children, from different countries and in different languages. As of the time of typing, I don't have a website for children in Arabic. If you know of one, please do let me know in the comments.

The Children's Online Books page has links to several websites offering online children's books, including our Overdrive collection.

The International Children's Digital Library has books in many different languages. Many of the books can be read for free. A free account allows users to upload books of their own.

Starfall is a literacy website for younger students. Many of our second and third graders welcomed it as a long lost friend, and spent a lot of the time in the lesson playing its educational games.

Storyline Online is sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild and the Entertainment Industry Foundation. It features famous US TV actors reading favorite picture books. This is a great mentor site for reading with expression.

Myths and Legends is a site that offers myths, legends and folktales from different countries. Most of the countries are Anglo-Saxon, with a sprinkling of stories from other cultures. The site also allows users to submit their own stories.

Lit2Go is a collection of stories, novels and poetry in mp3 format. It is sponsored by the University of South Florida. Download the mp3 and play through iTunes or an mp3 player app.

StoryNory offers stories in podcast episodes. Each episode can be downloaded individually or subscribed to through a podcast app.

YASync is a site that offers 2 free downloadable audiobooks per week of the summer. These are suitable for older students.

Overdrive eBook Collection

CAC has a large collection of ebooks available through Overdrive. Books can be read online or downloaded to a mobile device app. Instructions for using Overdrive can be found here. 

Although CAC has two separate collections for the elementary school and the middle-high schools, we cannot separate our ebooks separately, so parents are urged to supervise their elementary school students' ebook choices. 

To access the CAC Overdrive collection, patrons must log in with their single sign on username and password. 

A link to Overdrive is available via the Visual Tab's Children's Online Books, or by logging in to the library catalog. 

TumbleBooks

TumbleBooks is another collection of ebooks, featuring animated picture books, ebooks with a read aloud function, graphic novels, audiobooks, non-fiction videos and more. We actually have 2 different collections: the original TumbleBooks, for students up to grade 3 and TumbleBookCloud Junior, for students in grades 3 and above. However, after trying both out this week with grades 3 to 5, we all think that the original TumbleBooks has the better selection of ebooks. 

To access TumbleBooks, you will need to log in to the library catalog using the Quick Login or your single sign on. Scroll all the way down on the homepage and note the username and password for TumbleBooks.

Scholastic BookFlix and TrueFlix

BookFlix and TrueFlix are 2 other ebook collections. 

BookFlix was the original database. It pairs an animated video of a popular and/or award winning book with an ebook. It offers comprehension games, short author bios, and links to related websites. 

TrueFlix is for older students and links to social studies curriculum. It pairs a short documentary with an ebook. 

To access these, log in with the Quick Login or your single sign on to the library catalog, and scroll down to their links. Note the username and password listed for each. 

And there's more!

If you or your child is more interested in non-fiction material, explore the databases we provide. Find links and login credentials on the library catalog's homepage. (Access the homepage by logging in with the Quick Login or your CAC single sign on.)

Questions? Stop by the ES library for a demonstration. 

Do you have any favorite online reading sites for children that are not featured here? Please share them with us in the comments. 

Flat Lily Visits CAC ES

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.

And of course the library had several copies of the original Flat Stanley book, plus several of the new series including The Great Egyptian Robbery, by Sara Pennypacker. 

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.