Crocker Library

Last month, Ms. Uk’s class made posters to remind all of us of some of the ways we can show responsibility at school. They were all FANTASTIC, but I just had to share these…reminders to be quiet in the library. The Crocker library is in the middle of everything so we definitely need to keep our volume down so school can go on around us. It’s also important and fun to talk about and share what we’re reading so we don’t want it to get too quiet in here .

You can see more responsibility posters on the Crocker facebook page. Check them out!

April is National Poetry Month. To celebrate, we’ve been reading, writing, and listening to poetry all month. This Thursday, we’re participating in an event called Poem in Your Pocket Day. On Thursday, everyone at Crocker will have a poem in their pocket ready to share! If you’re planning to be at school, make sure you come prepared!

A few more acrostic poems from our first graders. Too bad about the yeti!

This month is National Poetry Month! To celebrate, the kids will be reading and writing poetry all month. To get things started, our first graders are learning about and creating acrostics like the examples you see here.

Second graders are illustrating and recording poems using a website called Littlebirdtales.com. Third graders will create and illustrate acrostics using Powerpoint. Some students will be recording poetry along with music using Garageband. Fifth graders will be publishing some of their poetry on their blogs. Many students are writing original poetry – including our kindergarteners. We’ll be wrapping up the month with Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 26. If you’ll be at Crocker that day, don’t forget your poem! Stay tuned for original Crocker Cougar poetry and lots, lots more.

Every year, our second and third graders participate in a project we call the Living Museum. Students learn about the lives of important people and share what they learn by writing a short report, creating a display, and dressing up as the person. We work on this project in the library, but much of the work needs to be completed at home with help from an adult. You can help your child by making sure they have time at home to work on the project. Ask questions, remind them of important steps, and provide explanation and advice when needed. It can be tricky, but do your best to let your child do the work.

You’ll find resources to help with this project here on our library website:http://library.crockerschool.org/pathfinders/biographies/

Just in case they don’t make it home, here is a copy of the assignment, a sheet to help with note taking, and a sample paper.

Important Living Museum deadlines:

Report Due: see individual teacher
Display Due: Wednesday, February 22
Dress Up Day: Friday, February 24

In January, our Crocker Cougar word is self-discipline. As part of self-discipline month, we have a little homework for the whole family. This week, students will bring home a booklet called NetCetera: Chatting With Kids About Being Online. We’re asking adults to read the booklet and families to have a discussion about online safety and responsibility.

For younger students, grades K-2, important topics include (not) sharing personal information, what to do when you run across inappropriate content, recognizing advertisements, and the risks associated with intentionally or unintentionally downloading content to a device. With older students, grades 3-5, consider discussing additional topics such as  socializing online (email, texting, social media websites, etc.), online bullying, and photo/video sharing. Don’t forget to ask your children about their experiences online — are they chatting with people, playing games, watching videos, sending email, or creating accounts on websites?

We’re talking about these topics at school during our library/lab time. As part of the discussions, I’m reminding the kids that any time they have a question or concern about something they encounter online they should talk to an adult at home. Rules and expectations for online activities and behavior vary from home to home. This week’s homework is an opportunity for all of us to be sure our families know what we expect of them when they are online.

It’s time for the Crocker Book Fair! Here’s the essential information:

• Two days to shop in the multipurpose room: Thursday and Friday, 12/1 and 12/2, 8:30am to 8:00pm.
• You can shop online now through December 9. Send the link to friends and family!

As part of the book fair, author Mac Barnett will be visiting with students on Friday. Barnett is the author some of our favorite books like Guess Again!, Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem, Mustache, and the Brixton Brothers series. He’s also a co-author of The Clock Without a Face and contributor to Guys Read. Reviewers have described his books as weird, wacky, fun, especially fun, funny, and cool! He’ll be signing his books after school on Friday.

What should you buy?  Ask the kids – yours and any others you might meet at the book fair. Our kids read a lot and can make fantastic recommendations. In addition, this time of year, there are lots of “Best of 2011” lists to help you with your shopping. Here are some you might be interested in:

Amazon Top 10 Middle Grade Books and Top 10 Picture Books

New York Times Special Section on Children’s Books

Publisher’s Weekly Top 10 Children’s Books

If shopping isn’t enough, you can still volunteer to help out at the book fair. Finally, a huge thanks to Liz Fitzgerald and Evelyn Hess for organizing what is going to be an amazing book fair. See you at there!

September was a busy month — setting up the library and lab, learning and practicing new routines with the kids, and holding an amazing book swap! Throughout the month, all of the kids have been visiting the library weekly to check out books. The third through fifth grades have also been working in the computer lab during library time. We’ve been creating folders, taking pictures, moving and renaming files, creating a list in a Word document, and we’re just starting to create tag clouds using Tagxedo. This has been a great opportunity for me to see what the kids can do and for us to start developing a shared vocabulary for working with computers. (It makes it easier for us to work together if we all agree on what the “arrow thingy” is called.) Kindergarten, first, and second grades will begin visiting the lab in October.

In the library and lab, we use the Crocker Library website as our home page. This week, I’m sending home bookmarks that look just like those that Pete the Cat is holding. The bookmarks have the address for the Crocker Library website and the user name and password for an online encyclopedia we’ll be using later in the year. Ask your child to show you around the site and try out a few new activities. Don’t forget to bookmark the site on your browser so your child can easily return to it.