Wescott LMC

There is A LOT going on in the library in the last 2 months of school! Please mark your calendars and alert me to any scheduling conflicts! Here is the schedule:

• Week of 4/29: Poetry Garden will happen during regular library time. Teachers are encouraged stay in the library during Poetry Garden. Thanks!
• May 13th: ALL REGULAR LIBRARY BOOKS DUE! (Book club books may be kept longer)
• May 13th: Bluestem celebration lunch for 3rd & 4th-grade students who have read all 20 books off of the list.
• May 13th: Visit from the Northbrook Public Library regarding the Summer Reading Program. Here is the tentative schedule. Please let me know if there are conflicts!

• 1:00 – 1:15 – 4th grade
• 1:20 – 1:35 – 2nd grade
• 1:40 – 1:55 – 3rd grade
• 2:00 – 2:15 – 5th grade
• 2:35 – 2:50 – 1st grade – UPDATED

• May 14th: Library closed at 1:30 for Environmental Committee Meeting
• May 20th: Ozobot Open House for 4E, 4Mu & 3rd graders from 2-3 pm.
• Week of 5/27: Library closed for our end-of-year activity! We have done Camp Read-a-Lot and Books on the Beach in previous years, but we have something new planned this year! Please note: Due to the shortened school year, we will be building the environment in regular library leading up to the event. Classes will come for a 1/2 hour reading period in their tents. Students will come during their regular library time.

Announcing a new maker space for April … Poetry Garden! Students will be making different projects to decorate the library for Poetry Cafe.

Students in grades 3-5 will be making tissue paper flowers for the garden. Students in grades 1-2 will be making butterflies and bees.

The maker space is a fairly quick activity, so, please send kids down in groups of 2 for 15-minute intervals.

Mark your calendars – Poetry Cafe will be the week of 4/22. Poetry cafe will take place during your regular library time that week.

Students and staff are invited to the library during Poetry Cafe to read a favorite poem or two. The library is decorated like a cafe, complete with jazz music (sometimes live jazz music by Mr. Brown)! Teachers are encouraged to stay in the library with their class during Poetry Cafe. Students can read poems they have written for you for class, or let me know if you’d like me to help them select poems.

Spring break is the perfect time to catch up on some reading, either at home or on your travels! Check out this Spring Break Reading Bingo form from Capstone and challenge yourself during the break! Click here to download.

This is a reminder that the author Jason Henry will be visiting Wescott 3rd & 4th graders on Friday 3/22 (moved from 3/15).

The assembly will take place in the library – 4th at 9 am and 3rd at 10 am so no one misses specials! Jason is the uncle of Wescott students Atticus and Micah Kim!

Jason will read his nonfiction picture book Up and Away!, sign copies, and talk about the history, science, and adventure behind the invention of the world’s first flying machine. He will also talk about the nonfiction writing process.

We have a new maker space in the library for March – Kindness Kites! Using the pattern provided, students will make a colorful kite and write a message of kindness on it!

Please note:

• Only students with an official Maker Space pass can be in the maker space.
• Please let students know when they have to return to class. (There is a spot on the pass to indicate this!)
• Please remind students to clean up after themselves. (I will remind them too.)

Grades 1-2

The nominations are in and the brackets have been set by me and Mrs. Wolf. Voting for Book Madness Round 1 for grades 1-2 opens today! Let the tournament begin!

Grades 3-5

Results from Round 1 of Book Madness are posted on the bulletin board or can be found here. Round 2 voting closes at the end of the day on Friday!

New this year! We are doing a mini-version of Book Madness for grades 1-2. Lisa Wolf is partnering with me on this new adventure! It will be run through the Book Madness Website I built for grades 1-2

Students will nominate books for the tournament next week during library, then Lisa and I will set the brackets and voting will take place the following week. The brackets will be in the hall near the 2nd-grade classrooms. Please send the students with their iPads every week until spring break!

Back by popular demand – Book Madness!!

The Book Madness nominations are in and the brackets will be decided today! The tournament opens next week for voting in grades 3rd-5th. The kids will be voting once a week until Spring Break. We will leave for break without the final vote so that students can read the two finalists over break if they choose.

Check the Book Madness Website for the brackets and voting results or the physical bracket outside the library. Help get your students excited about reading by encouraging them to participate.

I am VERY excited to announce that we have some new modules in PebbleGo & PebbleGo Next that you AND your students are SURE to love! PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next are great resources for nonfiction reading!

• We all know that one student who just LOVES dinosaurs!!! Have them check out the new Dinosaur Module in PebbleGo!
• Our younger students have used the biography module in PebbleGo A LOT, but now your higher readers can log into PebbleGo Next biographies! They are adding new higher-level biographiesto this module all of the time!
• We added an entire Social Studies module to PebbleGo Next, which includes: Culture, Economics, Fields of Study, Geography, Technology & the United States! There are SO MANY subtopics under each of these, so be sure to check it out!