Library News
Digital Citizenship and Commenting
Oct 24th
This fall we are concentrating our intermediate library lessons on the themes of digital citizenship. In 2007 the International Society of Technology Educators (ISTE) published their National Educational Technology Standards for Students.
These are basic rules for using technology appropriately (Etiquette), communicating effectively (Communication), and protecting student safety (Rights and Responsibilities).
We watched a video published by CommonSenseMedia about the importance of person’s digital footprint. The vital lesson to be learned is that a person’s digital footprint LASTS! It’s important to be thoughtful when writing anything online or posting pictures because they could be permanent.
Some rights reserved by kyteacher
Our next lesson is going to focus on YAPPY and commenting. These are elements of communicating, connecting with others, and student safety.
What is YAPPY you ask?
This acronym is a trick to remember what to NEVER post online.
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Y = Your full name
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A = Address P
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P = Phone number
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P = Passwords
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Y = Your plans
All of these apply to commenting as well. We never use our full name or personal information in comments. In addition, we follow basic rules in our comments. Comments are written in a letter writing format.
- Start off a comment with Dear __________,
- A compliment to the writer or acknowledge the writer in some way.
- Share an opinion or add to the conversation.
- Be polite and use the Golden Rule of Etiquette!
- Check your spelling.
- Adding a question at the end often invites more conversation.
- Close the letter From, _______
More details about the steps to writing a comment are listed in greater detail on our Writing Comments page. Often at the end of a post, the writer will include questions that give you commenting ideas. They are a jumping off point to get you started! Use them! That’s what they are there for.
The Techie Kids have written also written an awesome post about how to write comments on their blog. They have also included videos from some of our blogging friends around the world. Click on TechieKids blog to view.
Let’s Get Started!
We are going to use this post as a comment starter. Below you will see a photograph I have taken of a basket of books here in the library. Your job when you comment is to guess how many books are in the basket.
Make sure you use the letter writing format in your comment. You can also add the conversation in some creative way. Read over what others have written, so you don’t say the same thing as everyone else! Have fun!
Did I mention the prize? There will be a prize for the student/students who come closest to the correct answer. You might be tempted to just count the books in the basket in the library. However, I added bunches of extra books for the photograph, so counting won’t help! Take a guess and have fun!
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How many books do you think are in the basket?
Why do you think I put the lobstering book in the front?
What book would you put in my basket?
What do you think the prize will be?
Speaking of Halloween
Oct 20th
Halloween is less than two weeks away and in the Bulldog Library we are ready! There are two baskets full of Halloween books for check out, plus a couple new ones I just added to the collection!
Here are the new books I’ve added to our Halloween collection.
Now, just because something is new, it doesn’t mean it is better! I have three favorite Halloween books that have been around for a very long time. In fact one of them is now out of print, but it doesn’t keep me from reading it to my students.
In kindergarten, I like to read Hoodwinked by Arthur Howard. This is the story of a young witch who wants to find a new scary, creepy pet like all her relatives have. However, when something scratches at her door one night, she learns that maybe there are other choices!
My all-time favorite Halloween story is not a scary story at all! It’s actually one that will make you laugh out loud! Bring on Dav Pilkey, master of all books funny!
The book is told in three chapters, starring Dragon. Poor Dragon is not the sharpest tool in the shed and is having a hard time finding a pumpkin that’s as big as a house! When he only finds six little pumpkins, he’s very disappointed. However, things work out for Dragon in a very funny way! Look for Dragon’s Halloween in our library!
The book that is sadly out of print has the same title as one of the new books in our collection! I bought my book in 1996 a very long time ago! It stays in my special Halloween collection because I want to keep it to read to my classes each year!
For both stories, you need to know the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” to help you along! It’s a fun story to sing loud and crazy on Halloween! I’m sure the new version is just as great, I just don’t have as much experience with it!
On the fifth night of Halloween,
my goblin gave to me:
Five pounds of worms,
four cackling witches,
three jack-o’-lanterns,
two hairy toads,
and a spooky owl
in a gnarled tree.”
I hope you find a great Halloween book to read at home! We have a big collection to choose from.
In the meantime, I am working on my Halloween costume. No, Halloween is not just for kids! Adults like Halloween too – especially me! Each year I choose a book character for my costume. A few years ago I was …..
Another time I chose….
So which character will it be this year? I was torn between two choices! There are two very popular book series in our library this fall. I went to Destiny Quest, a kid friendly version of our library catalog, to get some information.
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Do you know who I will dress up as yet?
Take a guess and leave us a comment!
What book character would you choose?
Blog Action Day- Food
Oct 16th
Sunday, October 16th is Blog Action Day! Bloggers around the world blog about the same topic on the same day! The topic this year is FOOD, which coincides with World Food Day! The goal is to have bloggers around the world raise awareness of important topics.
Bloggers from over 80 countries are joining this worldwide event, including some of our blogging buddies. You can read about 2KM & 2KJ’s post about FOOD. One of their student’s Jarrod is also participating in the event. Go to Jarrod’s Awesome Blog and read how he is participating!
So, how does a library blog participate in a Blog Action Day on the topic of Food? That’s easy!
We can talk about international cooking!
Our students come from over 25 different countries. On any day, you can hear students or parents conversing in numerous languages from every continent in the world! We have students from Africa, Europe, Asia, South America, North America and Australia/Pacifica.
What do they have in common?
FOOD!
Where do they come for new recipes to cook at home?
The Library!
Look inside lunch boxes around our campus and you will find a huge variety of international style lunches! While one person might be having a peanut butter sandwich, the person sitting next to them might be eating a tortilla or using chopsticks to eat rice. Nobody thinks twice about the international flavor of our lunches here.
It’s also why our cooking section of the library is such a well-loved shelf!
Stop by sometime and check out our cookbooks!
And don’t forget, sometimes cooking is Out of This World!
Josa cooks with R2D2!
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Do you ever cook international food?
What do you think about being part of a worldwide event?
What kind of cookbook should we add to our collection?
Our Readers Meet Rick Riordan
Oct 11th
Some of our current and former Bulldog Readers had the opportunity of their lives on Sunday, when they met the author Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson and the new Heroes of Olympus series! He has over 30 million books in print and his books have been translated into over 37 languages in 36 countries.
- Elizabeth, Julia and Bridget attend the book signing event in Olympia.
“The gods may live on Mt. Olympus, but they vacation in Olympia,” declares the tagline of the winning proposal by the Tumwater Timberland Library.
Rick Riordan’s visit to Olympia was part of a week long tour promoting the second book, Son of Neptune, launch in the Heroes of Olympus series. He only made seven stops in the US and Canada on his book tour.
Hundreds of proposals were submitted to Disney Publishing Worldwide for the Olympia Week contest. The proposal title “Poseidon’s Fish Market” developed and written by Joella Peterson, was chosen for its creative ideas in planning activities to celebrate the series and love of reading.
Riordan arrived by yacht and then spoke to his audience before signing books. The audience members could participate in any of the activity booths available while they waited for their time to meet Mr. Riordan.
Rick Riordan's arrival to Olympia, WA.
Elizabeth, Julia and Bridget were able to make it down to Olympia to be part of this amazing day. They got their books signed and one for our library too!
It's book signing time! That one is going in the library!
On Monday, I had a chance to get Julia’s thoughts about here experience meeting Mr. Riordan.
How did you find out about Rick Riordan’s visit to Olympia?
How I found out about Rick Riordan’s visit to Olympia was from one of my best friends, Elizabeth. Her aunt, Linda, works at the Tumwater Timberlake Library; the library that sponsored this event. The event was held at the Port of Olympia and was called Poseidon’s Fish Market.
How did you get the tickets?
My mom and dad drove us to Tumwater Library a week ago where we got the tickets. I was kind of let down when I was told I was the 750th person to get their book, but at the event, I got my books signed within an hour!
What was it like? Tell us about the experience there? Lots of people? Did you listen to him talk?
The event was crowded. At first, I was one of about a hundred people. In the next 45 minutes, I was probably one of two thousand people. In was fun in the beginning though. Elizabeth was working at the Fish Facts and Barnacle Bubbles station and I helped her with the crosswords and word searches that kids got to fill out. The prizes for completing the word search was either a poster of The Son of Neptune or a golden drachma key chain. Other booths were about fishing, face-painting, and information about the sea’s environment. When Rick Riordan arrived by yacht, I got pictures of him coming off the boat, he and his family were waving from the boat. He got off, answered questions about his latest book and then went to his book-signing booth.
What were the best parts of the experience?
The best parts about “Poseidon’s Fish Market” were Rick Riordan arriving, because the crowd suddenly went quiet when they saw him and then the kids and parents started screaming their guts out. Also, finding out about the books he’s planning to write in the future. The third book in the Kane Chronicles is coming out in May 2012 and then Rick Riordan is planning to write a series about Norse mythology after he completes the Heroes of Olympus series.
Bridget also filmed Rick Riordan’s entire talk in Olympia! If you wish you had been there, but couldn’t go, here is the next best thing!
If you want to learn more about Rick Riordan and his books, visit his website www.rickriordan.com Many thanks to Bridget, Julia, and their parents, Elizabeth and to the Timberland Regional Library for sharing their photos, film, and background information for this blog post. ************
We now have two copies of Son of Neptune in our Bulldog Library. Stop by and put a reserve slip in to reserve your place in line to read it!Have you ever been to a book signing?
Who would you like to meet?
Please leave us a comment and let us know!
Our Amazing Transformation
Oct 9th
I’ve written about our move to a new space a few times this fall. Our school district is building the Bulldog Readers a new school! That meant that last spring we had to pack everything up and get moved to a new space.
I thought our readers would like to see what it looked like in the library in August! We had a team of volunteers who spent four hours on a Saturday turning our space from a place filled with hundreds of boxes into a very workable library.
After the August work day, it took a couple weeks to get the library completely ready with books, technology and decorations. The configuration of the space is different than our old library, but everything is working out just fine! Check out our Photosynth of the newly transformed Bulldog Reader Library!
Photosynth is a free downloadable Microsoft product that allows you to combine a group of photos and stitch them into a 3D panorama that you can embed into a website or share with anyone on the internet.
It began as a research project on Photo Tourism with the University of Washington and Microsoft research. You can visit the Photosynth site by clicking on this Photosynth link.
Here is another example of a Photosynth that is 100% synthy. That means that every photo could be stitched or “synthed” to another. This copyrighted photosynth of 300,000 King Penguins on South Georgia Island was made by Tony Ernst . He took 250 photos to create this incredible Photosynth of his experience.
If you like this photosynth, you can find more by this photographer and others on the Photosynth website. All you need is a digital camera, a computer and the free downloadable program! Have fun experimenting!
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What do you think about our library transformation?
Have you ever used Photosynth?
How could you use Photosynth in your class or school?
Read for the Record
Oct 8th
Jumpstart Read for the Record
On October 6th, some of our Bulldog Readers joined other schools across our district and nation by participating in the Read for the Record!
Jumpstart sponsored the Read for the Record and hopes to set a new world record for the number of children reading the same book during a single day, raising community awareness of the importance of early literacy. We read Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney.
Llama Llama Red Pajama is a charming story of a young llama who wants his mama to come back up to his room after he’s been put back to bed for the night. It’s a feel good story perfect for young children who need some reassurance at bedtime.
The Jumpstart organization is a national early education organization that helps these children develop the language and literacy they need for school, setting them on a path to close the achievement gap before it begins. Their goal is to work toward the day every child in America enters school prepared to succeed. You can read more about Jumpstart on their website- Jumpstart.org
The reading record day has passed, but you can still read the book online FREE anytime. Click on this link and start reading at home! Llama Llama Red Pajama online book.
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Did you participate in the world record reading contest?
What book should they use next year?
Look at our New Books!
Oct 5th
It’s Scholastic Bookfair Week!
Only one sales day left! Our doors close Thursday at 5pm!
I always buy books at the fair, and my stack is getting pretty high!
Look what's coming to the library!
The book that thrills me the most this week is Wonderstruck: A novel in words and pictures by Brian Selznick. Our readers might remember Selznick as the Caldecott award winning author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Selznick has a unique gift for telling stories with pencil drawings and text.
His new book, “Relates the stories of twelve-year-old Ben, who loses his mother and his hearing in a short time frame and decides to leave his Minnesota home in 1977 to seek the father he has never known in New York City; and Rose, who lives with her father but feels compelled to search for what is missing in her life. Ben’s story is told in words; Rose’s in pictures.” {Follett Library Services, 2011}
I think the book is brilliant because of the unique style of storytelling. I have never seen a story told in drawings and another interconnected one told in text. The book is about 600 pages long with 460 pages of black and white drawings. It’s completely original and is getting lots of positive press. It’s a bit spendy, but I think worthy of any book collection. I fully anticipate that this novel will garner many, many awards. I ordered extra copies, so stop by Thursday for our last day of the sale!
We have two copies of Wonderstruck, so if this is something you are interested in, stop by and ask for it! Due to the popularity of the book, I am taking reservations for check out.
Look what we have for the younger readers!
Books for the younger crowd!
Sometimes you just can’t beat a book about UNDERWEAR! When you add a picture of tighty-whitey’s on the front, it’s a winner in the kindergarten crowd. It’s a story of a bear who finds a backpack filled with different types of underwear–Big, small, frilly, itchy, striped or polka-dots! Bear and his animial friends try them all on and have a great underwear party! I read it this morning, and it was all thumbs up!
”We loved everyone wearing underwear!”
~Mrs. Flowers Kindergarten class
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And, last but not least, for our intermediate fantasy fiction fans…..
The wait is over! Heroes of Olympus book 2 is here!
Rick Riordan’s, Son of Neptune was released yesterday and continues the Heroes of Olympus series! No advertising is needed here! All I had to do this morning was hold up a copy, and away it went into a happy reader’s hands!
Look early next week for a guest post by two Bulldog Readers who are traveling to Olympia this weekend to meet Rick Riordan. Their mom drove them to Olympia last weekend to pick up the special tickets for this weekend’s event! I can’t wait to hear about their experience meeting this amazing author!
Wildwood is a new book to our library and a donation from Josa, our Summer Reading Contest winner! This was one of his favorite books from the summer. I’ve just started my copy at home, but it’s looking pretty great! I had a hard time putting it down last night.
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What book did you get at the bookfair?
What do you think about our stack of books?
Leave us a comment and let us know!
Vegemite from Down Under
Oct 2nd
Last week Miss Wyatt and Mr. Davo Devil brought us a tube of Vegemite! On Friday we had a big Vegemite eating experiment!
The big questions from the class were,
“What is Vegemite?”
“What does it look like?”
“What does it taste like?”
We learned that Vegemite is a dark brown food paste made from yeast extract. It is spread on crackers, biscuits or toast. According to Kraft Foods, the company that makes Vegemite, about 70% of Australian household have a jar of Vegemite in their homes!
It was invented in 1922 by a a chemist named Dr. Cyril Callister. It has been Australia’s most popular food spread for over 85 years! In fact, more than 22 million jars of Vegemite are made every year. That’s popular!
To give everyone a chance to try out Vegemite, I spread a thin layer of it on some crackers. A little goes a long way. This isn’t a spread that you put thickly on bread – a thin layer is best. After everything was ready, we all got a napkin and a Vegemite cracker!
Getting ready to try the Vegemite.
Then it was time for our taste test. On the count of , “One, Two, Three!” we had a bite at the same time! (Nobody was required to participate in this eating experience! Having a bite was strictly a personal choice!)
Getting ready to take a bite!
After we had a bite, we realized that it tastes very salty and nothing like most of us have ever tried before. Like all foods, some of us weren’t so hot about Vegemite, but others LOVED it! We even had requests for seconds and thirds!
- Thumbs UP for Vegemite!
One thing we did learn is that different people like to eat different things. We only had a few kids who LOVED Vegemite, but most kids in class love peanut butter! Yet, most kids in Australia would probably wonder why we like peanut butter! It’s all about what you are raised or become accustomed to eating. Nothing is better than the other, just a little bit different! Here’s to trying something new!
Yea for Vegemite!
If you want to learn more about Vegemite, you can go onto the Kraft Foods Vegemite website. Kraft even has a Vegemite channel on YouTube with Vegemite commercials, including a remake of the “Happy Little Vegemite” jungle and commercial. Take a look!
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What do you think about our eating experiment?
Have you ever tried Vegemite?
What’s your favorite way to eat Vegemite?
Mr. Davo Devil Visits the Library
Sep 25th
On Wednesday, we had a very special guest visit our Bulldog Library! Mr. Davo Devil visited with his friend, Miss Wyatt, from Tasmania, Australia. You can follow Miss Wyatt and her trip with Mr. Davo Devil on their blog.
Mr. Davo's Blog
In Tasmania, the island state south of Victoria, Australia, there are small animals called Tasmanian Devils, and Mr. Davo is a stuffed toy version of them! Miss Wyatt and Davo talked with Mrs. Flowers’ kindergarten class.
Miss Wyatt and Mr. Davo Devil visit the Bulldog Library
One of the kindergarten students was quite concerned that we were using the word, devil.
“Mrs. Hembree, Devil is a bad word!”
Luckily Mrs. Hembree had a book all about Tasmanian Devil animals, so the children understood that this version of devil, wasn’t the bad kind.
After we met with the kindergarten students, we took a quick tour around part of our school. Then we were back to the library to talk with Mrs. Adair’s 2/3 class.
Miss Wyatt and Mr. Davo answer questions about their trip.
We started off our discussion by looking at the world map to see exactly where Tasmania is located. To get to America, Miss Wyatt and Mr. Davo first flew to Melbourne, Australia. Then they got on a plane and flew for 14 hours to get to Los Angeles! Once they arrived in California, Miss Wyatt rented a car and started driving north. We are the second school they have visited on their trip.
- The two red dots show to location of Seattle and Tasmania.
Our presents from Miss Wyatt and Mr. Davo
Miss Wyatt shows everyone the tube of Vegemite she brought to us.
Davo
Willo
Billo
Then we realized that here in America, we often add “Y” to the end of names or words.
Davy
Willy
Billy
In the outback near Bourke, Australia. Used with
What did you learn from Miss Wyatt and Mr. Davo?
What questions do you still have?
Leave us a comment and let us know!
Learning About 9/11 Through Books
Sep 20th
Creative Commons Usage. Photo by Wally G.
The morning of September 11, 2001 started as a beautiful sunny day in New York City. By lunchtime, life as we knew it in America had changed completely. The attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, along with the crash of the 4th plane in Pennsylvania have since influenced adult lives in numerous ways.
Now it’s ten years later, and the children we have in elementary school have no memory of the events on 9/11/2001. They either weren’t born, or were too young to remember the day. How do you talk to children who have no connection to this piece in American history?
In the intermediate library classes, I decided our lessons would be about the events of 9/11.
this approach would give the students would have some factual knowledge about 9/11. I think history is a lot less scary when it’s talked about openly and honestly.
We started the 5th and 6th grade lessons with the basic question, what do you know about September 11, 2001?
“Two planes crashed…”
“Planes crashed into the Twin Towers and they fell down…”
“I don’t know”
“There was a terrorist attack…”
What question do you have about this day?
” I want more details about the day.”
“Why do terrorists do what they do?”
“What really happened on 9/11?”
“Why?”
After we collected these questions, the students heard the book, America Is Under Attack by Don Brown.
According the the book description:
When the book was over, the students then shared a thought, a word, a feeling or a sentence about a fact they had learned from hearing the book.
Their ideas were written on anonymous Post-in notes and placed on the front board.
“Sad, painful, angry, why?” were the typical responses.
One student wrote,
“I feel sad and mad for the people who lost their lives in the events that happened that day.”
I am hopeful that the students walked away with some new information that answered their previous questions.
The third graders read The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein.
This Caldecott Medal winner is about the tightrope walker, Philippe Petit, who walked on a tight rope between the Twin Towers on August 7, 1974 before the towers were finished being built. For almost an hour, Petit walked, danced, ran and knelt upon the wire. At one point he even lay down to rest on it! This book does reference that the towers are gone at the end, but the main emphasis of the story is on the performance Petit gave in 1974.
Students who are interested in learning more about this American event can check out:
14 Cows for America presents an illustrated tale of a gift of fourteen cows given by the Maasai people of Kenya to the U.S. as a gesture of comfort and friendship in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The 9-11 Tribute book tells the story of the attack on the Twin towers primarily through photographs and captions.
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What did you learn about 9/11 in class?
If you are a visitor,
what did you learn about 9/11 at your school?
