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?