Thursday, October 29, 2015

A book's journey from box to bookshelf

Dear friends,

I have been swimming in new books! Hundreds of books have been added to the LS Library since the beginning of the school year, and students have been checking them out hungrily.

I made this video to take you on a trip from inside the cold, dark confines of a cardboard box to on our brand new bookshelves. This is how a regular book turns into a LIBRARY book! Enjoy!


Alrighty folks, here's a MATH question for you!

If each book takes about 10 minutes to process and catalog, and let's say we've added about 200 books to the library, how many hours did those books take to get shelf ready?

Happy reading (and calculating),

Monday, October 19, 2015

Saturday's StoryWalk


Thank you to all of our Carolina Friends School and Durham Academy families that came out to Eno River State Park this past Saturday to participate in our StoryWalk! 




Background Story:
Over the summer, Michelle Rosen (Durham Academy Lower School Librarian) and I met for coffee and decided that we should do a joint reading event together. I had heard of the StoryWalk idea at a conference I attended the previous school year, and we both felt it would be a fabulous collaboration. 

The StoryWalk® Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration the Kellogg Hubbard Library. Since its creation, StoryWalks have spread across the country to 48 states and even globally to five different countries! 


For our StoryWalk, we chose the picture book The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. What better book to read while taking a walk in the woods than a book about taking a walk in the woods?! 



We were thrilled to see so many families come out to spend the afternoon in the park. We estimated about 100 of our own school folks walking the trail and reading the story, but of course, it was open to the public as well!



We were also thankful to partner with Keith Nealson, Superintendent of the Eno River State Park and husband to CFS teacher Mars, who shared information about the wildlife found at the Eno. A main attraction to his table was a stuffed fox as well as an activity to try to "peck" as quickly as a woodpecker.



We also had an arts&crafts table with Gruffalo coloring pages, a mask, and origami bookmarks. I spent much of my time at this table teaching students how fold their bookmarks and add embellishments to their monsters. Right next door was a Gruffalo plush toy raffle and animal tattoos. Fun for the whole family! 

If you missed the fun this time around, be sure to subscribe to the blog for updates on the next library event! 


Thursday, October 15, 2015

Sky class "visits" with author Kate DiCamillo

This afternoon, Sky class enjoyed participating in a live webcast with Kate DiCamillo, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and author of many beloved children's books including the Mercy Watson series, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, Flora & Ulysses, and more.

The live Q&A session celebrated the 10th anniversary of Mercy Watson, the porcine wonder of Deckawoo Drive, and was presented by Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures & Candlewick Press. Classes from all around the world tuned in to hear Kate talk about her writing and, of course, Mercy Watson! 


During the webcast, students had the opportunity to submit questions to Kate through a back channel chatroom. Students asked about how Kate got her ideas for certain characters, and what her inspiration was for writing the Mercy Watson series. Though our questions were not selected, Kate answered similar questions, telling us that Mercy simply had to be a pig because pigs are just "inherently funny" animals, aren't they? The idea that Mercy absolutely loved buttered toast came to Kate in a car ride with a friend going to the airport. Her friend (not named Mercy) brought along a piece of buttered toast to eat in KATE'S CAR (which was appalling to Kate), and thus, an idea was born. 

Want to know more about Mercy Watson? She has her very own website!
Click the picture below to visit. 



Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Take a walk with us...

You're invited!

Come hike the Eno Trace Trail and read a story along the way!

Saturday, October 17, 2015

anytime 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

This is a 0.5 mile hike with some steps and slippery slopes. 

See the flyer below (or click this link) for more info!

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