Body Trace Activity

The Body Trace activity was a great success. Seeing the parents and children working together was on this project was awesome! I loved walking around and listening to the interactions. I'm not sure who had more fun with this activity, the children or the parents. I can say that I have seen more dads coloring than I ever thought I would. and that is a great thing! I love seeing the dads involved. It is so important to have both parents involved in these types of activities because it is all about listening, learning, and loving. I was most excited hearing the comments made by some of the parents as I talked to them during the evening.

• "I'm so glad you have these activities for the children. We love coming up here together on Thursday Nights."
• "We came here to do the activities."
• "He wanted to do the activity. He wants to finish at home though because he wants to come in and check out books."
• "This is a fun family time."

A Book About Me

Family Night @ the Library was another huge success last night. We had families coming through the doors all evening. We added ten new families to our Star Family Wall, issued seven new library cards, and had a lot of books checked out to read during the coming weekend.

Next week we will be tracing the children on butcher paper. I know you and your child will have a great time with this activity, especially the decorating. If you have not had your picture taken for our Star Family Wall, come in so we can show the world you are a Star @ the Kinkeade Library.

International Dot Day

We had a wonderful turn out for our International Dot Day Celebration. During the morning and afternoon announcements, Mrs. Betts read the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds to the students. Ms. Elizabeth read El Punto the Spanish version. I hope all of the families who attended had a great time. 

A family "making their mark" on the
sign in poster.

"Just make a mark and see where it takes you."
Our sign in poster for our
International Dot Day Celebration

The scavenger hunt consisted of pictures around our school library. The children and their parents had to look at the picture, find the location, and then find the colorful dot that was added to the area. Once they discovered the dot, they had to color the dot below the picture on their scavenger hunt sheet. I heard a few parents say it was hard, but the children seemed to pick it up and easily find the dots. I wanted the children to have a little bit of a challenge, as well as be able to express their very own creativity for this special family night.

We have a super display of masterpieces in the hallway. The children worked very hard on their drawings in order to show their own creativity. I know a number of students wanted to take their art work home. I hope you are enjoying those fabulous works of art and have them displayed in a prominent place in your home. 

Children showing their creativity by drawing their
very own masterpiece, and then signing it.

Our masterpiece wall. These are the masterpieces
the children left for us to display. Some of
the children wanted to take their works of art home.

There was also time for a little reading, as you can see with this picture below. It is never a bad time to sit down and enjoy a good story. Thank you to all of the parents who took time out of your busy schedule to bring your family to Family Night @ the Library. I hope it was an enjoyable evening for all of you. I had a great time talking with everyone, walking around listening, and taking pictures of the fun.

A mom took the time to read a book to her daughter.
What a great time to bond over a book.

Book Care

I have now seen all of the classes. Wow! We have so many great students who are ready to read and excited about books.

For the next three weeks I will be reading very sad books. They are sad because they have not been taken care of by responsible students. We are reading The Woodland Friends by Kathryn Warner and Mr. Wiggle's Book by Paula Craig. The pages show torn pages, writing and coloring in the books, dirty hand prints, and sticky, yucky even food.  We are also reviewing The Library Monkeys by Virginia Allyn that we read last week. The children seem to enjoy saying, "Oh, No!" with me when terrible things happen to the books in the story.

We have talked a great deal about taking care of the books. I have reminded the children that Mrs. Betts is the person who can fix the books if they are hurt. I even tell them their teachers can not fix the books because they are not a librarian. I explain to the children that a librarian has to repair the books so they will be sure to bring their library book to me if it is hurt. Please do not repair books at home. I have special "magic" tape that is used to repair library books. Only this special tape should be used to repair tears in books. Thank you for sending a note or telling your child to bring the book to me to repair instead of repairing it at home.

Library Orientation and Introduction

It is always so much fun to introduce new students to the library. Today's introduction and orientation was a little bit different. Because of circumstances beyond my control our students had not been uploaded to the library system, and therefore were not able to check out books. We are a flexible bunch so I went into the classrooms to read to the children today. I got to read to seven classes of students. We read books about two of our focus words for this week respect and responsibility. We talked about how we show respect for our teachers when we sit quietly and listen and how we respect the people around us by keeping our hands to ourselves. We also talked about being respectful of other people's property. I love the quote from Cheri J. Meiners' book Respect and Take Care of Things, "I show respect for people when I respect their things" (pg. 27). It is a great way to begin a discussion on how we should take care of the property of the school, our teachers, and our friends and provides a wonderful opportunity for me to talk about taking care of the books in the library. We also read the book, Being Responsible by Cassie Mayer. The children enjoyed repeating, "You are responsible." We talked about the different jobs they are responsible for at home (clean room, brushed teeth, feeding pet, etc.) and at school (backpack, folder, library books, etc.). We discussed the fact that being responsible is a big job, but now that we are all in school it is a very important job.

The last story we read was Pat Miller's The Library Monkeys. The children seemed to really enjoy this funny story about five monkeys who were not acting very responsible for their books. The did show respect for their librarian Miss Booker because they brought to her attention all of the different problems that occurred (torn, dog-eared, and dirty pages). Miss Booker, being the kind librarian, explained that accidents happen but repairs need to be made by her only. 

I asked the children if they knew a librarian. So of the children who had been really good listeners were able to pick up on the fact that Miss Booker and I have the same job. Taking care of books is a lesson we will touch on many times through out the school. I hope by connecting book care to two of the classroom focus words the students will have a better understanding of library expectations. I want the children to check out books and enjoy reading them, but I also want them to understand how to be a good library user.