It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

We are reading by the fireplace this week!

All students are getting treated to holiday read-alouds this week.  Kindergarten through second grades witness the kindness of students in their neighborhood, and the ingenuity of the town baker, in Gingerbread Man: Loose at Christmas by Laura Murray.

Older students are hearing one of Ms Margocs' favorites, Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera.

Mrs. Woodul is bidding a fond farewell to our classes as the days count down to her end-of-semester retirement.  If you would like to attend her reception in our library on December 18th from 330p to 5p, please RSVP to Ms Margocs at Christine_Margocs@roundrockisd.org.

We're going to miss our wonderful library assistant! 

Remember--student accounts must be clear of overdues and fines for lost/damaged books to be able to check out books for Winter Break!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's the holiday season, and I'm in the mood for some holiday reading!  Here are two favorites from my bookshelves at home:

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry is a beautiful, classic tale of the gift of love.  This edition illustrated by P.J. Lynch is a treasure to share with middle grade and older children.  The language is conversational circa 1903 and may require some explanation of vocabulary--but don't let that get in the way of understanding the message of true Christmas spirit.

For the younger set (though enjoyable at any age), William Joyce's Santa Calls features bright, fantastic characters and a North Pole winter wonderland.

Art, his best friend Spaulding, and his little sister Esther are personally invited by Santa to travel to Toyland...but why?  Art, Spaulding, and the reader are left to wonder what Esther already knows; we get to find out at the very end, so no peeking!  As a parent, I would save this story for those pre-Christmas, no-school days when siblings just can't quite get along, then help them create Christmas cards for one another.

It's the winter holiday season!  What are your favorite books for this time of year?

It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

Kindergarten classes had a visitor today!

Margaret Clauder, a.k.a. The Bookworm, displayed her powers of ventriloquism, humor, and love of books while talking about book care this morning.  The students loved her performance!

In the library, the other half of second through fifth grades are coding with LightBot Hour.  They only have about fifteen minutes for the activity, and many of our students are reaching the second level in that time--forming procedural loops to use in their programming!

First grade has checkout only this week.  Kindergarteners are discussing problem solving and making kind choices while listening to The Lumberjack's Beard by Duncan Beedie.

Our winter holiday books are on display!  We have fiction and nonfiction books about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Winter Solstice, and holiday traditions around the world, as well as nonfiction books about penguins and polar bears.

Mrs. Woodul and Ms Margocs had a great time emceeing our school's multicultural event, "Passport to Sommer".  Our PTA volunteers did a great job transforming the library into a display room for Europe and Africa!

Mrs. Woodul, our library assistant, is retiring at the end of the semester!  Her reception will be held in the library on Tuesday, December 18th from 330p to 5p.  RSVP to Ms Margocs at Christine_Margocs@roundrockisd.org if you'd like to attend.

Our Stallion Readers' Advisory and Shelf Elf clubs are meeting tomorrow, December 6th, after school--don't forget!

Very late overdue notices went out yesterday this week...but we had many, many more books that were due last week as well.  Please remember to turn in all overdue books and pay fines for lost or damaged books before the winter break if you want to check out books to read over the holiday!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's hard to believe that it's already December, and we are on our second round of books with our Fifth Grade Book Lunch Bunch reading clubs!

After our girls' group gave a unanimous "thumbs up" for Kate DiCamillo's Flora and Ulysses, we are moving on to Wendy Mass' coming of age story, Finally.

Rory has been keeping a list since she was seven years old of all the things her overprotective parents said she could do when she turned twelve.  Big things, like getting a cell phone and staying home alone, and small things, like having a key to the house and walking home from school.  The story opens the day before all her wishes can come true.  But is she really ready for the responsibilities that come with her newfound freedoms?  Losing her cell phone within fifteen minutes of buying it doesn't bode well...

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this book and finding out just how many wishes Rory fulfills, and how she grows through the process of getting them.  This is a great book for fifth graders on the cusp of brand new beginnings in sixth grade!

It's Monday, and I'm having fun reading along with my Fifth Grade Book Lunch Bunch!  What book are you sharing with others these days?

It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

Coding, that's what's happening in our library!

Second through fifth grades are getting a taste of coding with LightBot Hour on the iPads.  They input commands to move an animated robot along a path to light up squares.  The program gets progressively harder as they add actions and learn how to group repeated procedures.  After playing, we take some time to reflect on all the ways coding is used to facilitate our daily activities, from shopping on Amazon and at HEB to checking out books in the library.  Did you know that librarians use MARC standards when cataloging books?

Kindergarteners are finding out that Humpty Dumpty survived the fall, but gained a fear of heights, in Dan Santat's After the Fall.

The surprise ending (hint:  what comes out of eggs?) gives us a "Big Idea" about overcoming our fears.

First graders are comparing a classic fairytale to a slightly fractured version in La Princesa and the Pea by Susan Middleton Elya (and Ms Margocs gets to practice some Spanish!).  Sometimes tricks are played for the right reasons!

We will be making an all-call soon for overdue and missing books and fines.  Students with clear accounts will be able to check out books over winter break!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Happy Monday!

We are just coming back from our week-long break for Thanksgiving.  I took a break from kidlit, too, and decided to pull a book from my to-read list.

Several chapters into 10% Happier by Dan Harris and he's yet to name his secret to happiness...but we're getting there.  I really don't mind the journey, though, as Dan's story is an interesting insider's look at the world of TV news and the toll it can take on a reporter's psyche.  The conversational tone makes for easy reading; I feel like I'm getting an honest account of his self-examination and skepticism, as if he's doing an uncensored on-air report.  My own life is nowhere near as worldly as Harris' resume, and in some ways, I'm glad--I can pass on flying into warzones, and don't feel the need for adrenaline rushes via illicit drug use.

Harris' sources for healing are familiar to me:  Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, tenets from major religions.  I know that he ultimately settles on meditation as a solution, so these encounters make sense. I'm willing to travel this path with him and I'm looking forward to reading the insights he gleams from these teachers, in hopes of expanding my own experience with meditation.

It's Monday!  What are you reading lately?  What's next on your to-read pile?

It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

We had a special visitor in the library on Monday!

Donna Janell Bowman, author of Bluebonnet Award Nominee Step Right Up and Abraham Lincoln's Dueling Words, met with our fourth grade classes to talk and teach about writing!  

Students made lists of interesting verbs, adjectives, and details to expand on scenes in their own work.  They were eager to share their stories back in their classrooms!

It's read-aloud time in The Book Nook this week for kindergarten, second grade...AND third, fourth, and fifth grades!  Our older students frequently ask about having read-alouds in our story area again, so Ms Margocs is sharing two of her favorite books about Thanksgiving this week:

We have two celebrations coming up in December:

Our wonderful library assistant, Mrs. Woodul, is retiring at the end of the semester!  She has worked in Round Rock ISD for 23 years, and is ready to enjoy more time at home with family and friends.  We will be celebrating her wonderful contributions to Sommer and Forest North elementary schools with a reception on December 18th from 330p to 5p.  Please RSVP to Ms Margocs at Christine_Margocs@roundrockisd.org if you wish to attend.

Library volunteers, please keep an eye out for your invitation to our Library Volunteer Appreciation Reception on December 19th.  We provide the snacks and treats--no shelving required!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Break next week!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Our fifth grade Book Lunch Bunch clubs are up and running, and so my reading list has grown to include their group books.  I am currently reading along with our girls' group:

I enjoyed DiCamillo's Because of Winn-Dixie and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, but it's been years since I've read those.  I had forgotten how easy DiCamillo's prose rolls before my eyes, her expert storytelling pulling me along from page to page as it does once again in Flora & Ulysses.  Campbell's illustrations are fun punctuations to this unusual narrative about a girl who loves to read comics and a squirrel who escapes death and becomes imbued with special powers.

If you're looking for an amusing book with quirky characters about the power of friendship and reading, take a peek at Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo.  It's Monday; what books are you reading to lighten your mood and outlook?

It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

Our Fall Scholastic Book Fair wrapped up this past Monday with record sales--$19,542.98!

We could not have held such a fabulous fair without the help of our fabulous volunteers!

The fair profits go far in providing online databases, author visits, books, library supplies, and professional development opportunities.

(Oh--and Ms Margocs enjoyed the chance to wear fairy wings, a gnome hat, and a unicorn onesie!  Thanks also to the Manning family for the loan of their magically huge unicorn!)

Here are our library stats for the month of October:

Our library is back to its usual schedule this week!  

Kindergarteners are listening to Niko Draws a Feeling, discussing abstract art: 

First and second graders are paying attention to the caring, helping, and problem solving ways of Jim Hickory in The Lumberjack's Beard:

The second half of the third through fifth grades are learning/ reviewing how our nonfiction section is organized by taking a walk through their growing-up years from babyhood to today.

The books now on display feature autumn, Thanksgiving, Diwali, family, and historical fiction.  Happy Diwali to our families celebrating today!

On Friday, the library will be the venue for our annual Veterans Day reception at 7a, with a special whole-school assembly following in the cafeteria.  Veterans, thank you for your service to our country!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

I have a guilty secret as a librarian for a school of avid readers:  when it comes to reading, I can't keep up with my students.  To be fair, our elementary school is huge--over 1250 students--so there's no way I could read everything that they read.  I rely on Kirkus reviews, popular series continuations, classics, award winners and nominees, and recommendations from librarians, students, and book lovers to guide my purchases...but I rarely get to read every single book that is added to our collection.

Sponsoring our school's fifth grade Book Lunch Bunch helps me stretch as a reader, since I read alongside our groups that decide to share a common book.  My boys' group indicated that they like historical fiction. We have just a couple of weeks before our first group meeting, so I chose Lauren Tarshis' I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011.

Tarshis' I Survived series books get checked out all the time in our library, but I had never stopped to read one.  I can see now why they are popular! The story itself is short--only 83 pages long--but is followed by more than a dozen pages of facts about this specific event, tsunamis in general, and thoughts about the terror and despair the victims must have felt during the earthquake, tsunami, and devastation that followed.  Tarshis gives a nod to the Japanese concept of gaman--perseverance in the face of difficulty. 

George Takei talked about this spirit of gaman in a plea to help Japan recover from the tsunami:

I Survived the Japanese Tsunami plunges us into the disaster with the main character, Ben, from page one.  We get Ben's background story in the second chapter, and learn that it is the memory of Ben's courageous military father that pulls him through his near-drowning and separation from his family.  The book ends on a high note, so readers are left more with the feeling of gaman than of sadness.

I enjoyed my first I Survived story!  I hope that my group will have plenty to talk about when we meet in a couple of weeks.

It's Monday!  What book are you sharing with friends this week?

It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

Our Fall Scholastic Book Fair is going on right now!

Our volunteers are super-CREATIVE!

Thank you for loaning us your unicorn, Mrs. Manning!

Our amazing volunteers have created an enchanted forest for book shopping.  Purchases support our library program:  online databases, author visits, Bluebonnet Breakfast, library supplies, professional development, and of course--books!

We have two opportunities for giving back at our book fair this fall!

Teacher wish list bins are located on top of the shelves.  They are filled with books the teachers would love to add to their classroom library.  Purchase a book or two, add a gift sticker, and get ready to receive a huge THANK YOU from your classroom teachers!

Our local Girl Scout troop is collecting book donations for Bluebonnet Elementary, another RRISD school.  There is a basket for donations at the gift giving counter.

There is still plenty of time to shop!

Our shopping hours are:

Thursday, 11/1     715a-415p

Friday, 11/2      715a-615p (PTA Movie Night!)

Monday, 11/5      715a-noon

Can't find what you like?  Shop online through November 9th!

Book orders are individually packaged and delivered to the school with no shipping fees.  Online purchases still benefit our library!

Thanks for supporting our library program!  Happy Book Shopping!

Ms Margocs was feeling gnome-y for Book Character Day!

Thank you, Mrs. Varljen and Mrs. Wafford, for supporting our book fair!