We're Thankful for November Library Lessons

November was by far the biggest month yet for our library program here in the North Andover Public Schools! Not only did we have lots of fun in the library with our lessons, but we also had Jacqueline Woodson come to speak to the entire school district!

It was so exciting, and lots of students have been requesting books by Ms. Woodson since the visit.

November was a combination of traditional library lessons and technology lessons, which made it a very dynamic month! The first weeks of library lessons had kids participating in Scavenger Hunts - the kindergarteners went on a hunt for monkeys in the library after reading Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett, which got them familiar with all of the different sections of the library.

Check out this book in the Stevens library catalog!

The first and second graders found monkeys in the library too, but they had to use clues to find specific monkeys - this scavenger hunt tested their knowledge of the sections of the library, and we found it to be trickier than we thought!

The 3-5th graders participated in a scavenger hunt that mimicked their lesson on using the catalog - we ran a keyword search in the catalog, cut out the titles, and broke up into teams to try and find as many of the titles in the library as we could! We've noticed that the older kids are much more comfortable finding books in the library on their own now, since they now fully understand the information from the catalog. 

December has been all about the Hour of Code - check out our post to find out more!

Happy New Year, and a December Review!

Happy 2016, NAPS library fans! I can't believe we're already in a brand-new year!

Last month, we completely switched my library schedule in order to free up more time with other classes that aren't scheduled for "check-out time" on the day I'm at each school - with the exception of Kittredge, where I get to see every class already! This change has been amazing - it has allowed me to visit with more classes, and as the year progresses, I'll be able to develop library lessons catered to each grade and their learning objectives.

The Hour of Code!

December was mostly all about chromebooks - for some classes, using the chromebooks during a "library instruction" block was the very first time they'd had a chance to log in, which is awesome! We hosted approximately 42 Hours of Code across all five elementary schools, which means that over 1,000 elementary school students experienced their first taste of computer science instruction! 

@NAPS_Librarian add my 5 and we have 42 classes. That's over 1000 NAPS elementary students who did #hourofcode these 2 weeks!!!

— Kara Larcome (@KaraLarcome) December 22, 2015

Pretty neat, huh?

We are still analyzing the exit ticket data we collected from the Hour of Code, but here's a snapshot of how the kids felt during the process - the larger the word is, the more often kids used it in their description of how they felt during the Hour of Code:

So glad our students are feeling mostly "happy and excited" about computer science!

Other Library Activities 

This month, I also had a chance to share some very fun stories with the younger grades, including my all-time favorite winter-themed picture book, Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett.

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

This cozy read is all about the virtues of being a kind and giving person - and Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen make a truly remarkable team. The pictures tell as much of the story as the words do, and the ending leaves lots of room for creative discussion and literary exploration.

Up Next: databases, using our reference books, computer science, and an exciting project for the 5th Graders! 

NAPS and the "Hour of Code"

Have you heard about the Hour of Code initiative? It's a world-wide movement to attempt to get as many students as possible learning how to code, and it. is. AWESOME!

The idea is that kids spend one hour playing online games provided by Code.org that teach basic coding and computing skills - things like Javascript, commands, etc. These kinds of skills will be absolutely essential in the future, for almost any kind of job in any field. It's important that we give our students a leg-up on the tools they'll need to be successful as 21st century learners.

We have about 21 elementary-age classes across the district signed up to do the Hour of Code, with more being added every day. The great thing is, even though this week is the official Hour of Code Week, the tutorials are up all year round!

Is this something you can try at home? YES!

Head on over to code.org/learn to explore all the different tutorials! For K-2, we recommend starting with Lightbot  - it's a very basic game with easy-to-follow instructions. For the older grades, we're working either with the Star Wars or the Frozen games, which teach kids about commands and coding using drag-and-drop boxes (the way freshmen in college learn!).

We'll be attempting to bring more technology to the library program this year, and I hope part of that is that each student in the district has a chance to try a bit of coding for themselves!