September Review!

Hello Library Detectives! What an exciting month it's been in the NAPS libraries! We've switched some spaces around, added some fun new activities...

...oh and WE HAVE TWO BRAND-NEW LIBRARIANS!

 Here's what we've been up to in the schools:

Mrs. Ahearn has been having a blast at Sargent and Thomson and so has Mrs. Mullally at Franklin and Kittredge though we only had a chance to squeeze in a few library lessons before the month was over. In the younger grade classes, we read Red Knit Cap Girl and the Reading Tree by Naoko Stoop. It's a delightful picture book that Mrs. Ahearn first heard about through the legendary Mrs. S at the Stevens Memorial Library. In classes, we used the book to start a conversation about what we know about libraries. We talked about things that are the same between our library and Red Knit Cap Girls, and things that are different.

Click on the picture to find this book in the Stevens catalog!

In the middle grades, we read Miss Brooks Loves Books (and I don't) by Barbara Bottner. We talked about why reading is important, and how the library is a place for kids to explore different genres to find the book that is just right for them.

Click on the picture to find this book in the Stevens catalog!

For the older grades, we took a look at another "Miss" book - this one was a picture book biography of one of Mrs. Ahearn's personal heroes, Anne Carroll Moore. Miss Moore Thought Otherwise by Jan Pinborough is the story of the first librarian to advocate for libraries designed for children. We talked about things we take for granted when going to the library, and things we'd like to learn more about as we go through our library lessons.

Click on the picture to find this book in the Stevens catalog!

In all of our classes, we listened to one another as we organized our ideas about what we know about libraries into a class list. Students in one third grade class at Kittredge wrote down their ideas and practiced their presentation skills with the class using our  new iPevo projector - we had lots of fun sharing things we know and building a common set of goals for this year's learning. Technology helped us organize and display our ideas at both schools.

Some of Mrs. Mullally's students talked about the amount and variety of library materials and others shared their ideas about how libraries work, how books are checked out, and how library spaces are used. Many shared information about genres and series, described fiction and non-fiction books, and what kinds of technology are found in libraries.

We are ready to move forward in our upcoming lessons during the year's quest to be amazing library detectives!