Library News
Mrs. Paulette Garza
November was
Native American Month. Along with posters of Native American pottery and
heritage on display in the library, were fiction books by Native American
authors and non-fiction books about Native American tribes, such as the Hopi,
Pueblo, Sioux and Cherokee tribes. Story time for kindergarten and first grade
included One Little, Two Little, Three
Little Pilgrims by B. G. Hennessy and This First Thanksgiving Day: A Counting
Story by by Laura Krauss Melmed.
Both books introduced students to the Wampanoags
(the Native American nation, made up of five tribes) that befriended the early pilgrims. First grade also participated in their first non-fiction research in
the library this month. First grade teachers and parents visited the library
with their respective classes to assist students in conducting a library
pilgrim research using map, listening, technology and critical thinking
skills.
November was
also the month of our Fall Scholastic Book Fair. As always, this event was a huge
success due to the students, parents and staff of Old Town Elementary. Thank
you all for coming out and supporting the Old Town Elementary Library. Twenty-five
percent of the sales is our book fair profit and goes towards buying books and
reading program materials, including incentives for the library. Julie Hudson,
our library assistant, and all our wonderful parent volunteers did a great job
setting up, creating the beautiful table top displays and assisting on preview
days and the day of the fair. New book arrivals will be on display soon.
December is
Holiday Cultural Awareness Month. Kindergarten storytime/read-aloud selections
will focus on winter holiday traditions around the world. Parents are invited
to assist in creating a cultural winter holiday display. First grade students
will be introduced to the first of ten RRISD Librarian’s Armadillo Readers
Choice (ARC) Award nominee book list for 2008-2009. Students will then vote for
their favorite ARC book in May. The ARC book for December will be Bean Thirteen by Matthew
McElligott. Math, science, social
studies, language arts and technology TEKS concepts have been incorporated into
ARC library lessons by the ARC district committee made up of our excellent
RRISD elementary librarians.
January is National Get Organized
Month and National Hobby Month. This month the display area will be dedicated
to both the library’s non-fiction organization (Dewey Decimal System) and to hobbies
and craft books. Students, parents, teachers and staff will be invited to
provide samples of their hobbies for the display area. Kindergarten students
will be introduced to the first book of twenty for the Mockingbird Book Program
this month and voting will occur later this Spring. First grade will continue
with their Armadillo Readers Choice nominee list and lessons. ARC books for
this month will be Strong Man: The Story
of Charles Atlas written and illustrated by Meghan McCarthy and Three Cabritos written by Eric Kimmel.
Old Town
Elementary Library Webpage:
http://teacherweb.com/TX/OldTownElementary/Library/index.html
AR titles
can be found on the Library Catalog page under Reading Programs (yellow tab).
Have
a Safe and Happy Holiday Break!