Genre Month

Although we discuss genre whenever possible, December is genre month at the Prairieview I.M.C. We have finished our basic computer skills course for the year and are now meeting back in the I.M.C. It is very nice to share books with the students. After consulting with the grade level teams, I address a different genre at each grade level each week. As a librarian, I feel this helps the students in two ways. First, they can identify what they already like and find more of it. Second, they and hear about and branch out to read new and different things.

Elizabeth Ide Math-a-Thon Results

Last week, I had the privilege of adding up the money brought in by our Math-a-Thon participants. Even in this difficult economy, we were able to send almost $2,700 to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis Tennessee. Our students and their sponsors did their part to help sick children. Every child who participated also had a chance to practice math skills in a fun way. The heroes in the picture on the left were there to encourage our children.

The certificates and prizes should be here for distribution in January. Many thanks to all those who assisted in this endeavor.

November 25, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

When we return from our break, we will be displaying books about the December holidays.

At Elizabeth Ide, we will be sharing these holiday books.

At Prairieview, we will begin discussing and reading books of various genres.

Book Displays

We have a tradition of displaying books to attract the attention of our patrons. Sometimes these displays are of books concerning special curricular topics or specific genres or seasonal or new books the library staff is excited about. We currently have fiction and non-fiction books about Thanksgiving on display in both the Elizabeth Ide and Prairieview I.M.C.s. I am happy to report that these books have been particularly popular. The students seem to agree with me that Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays.

Math-A-Thon 2008

At Elizabeth Ide this week, we will be launching our math-a-thon. This is an opportunity for our students to practice their math skills in a fun way. They can also raise money to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennesee. Research at this place has made a huge difference for children with life-threatening diseases. We have been supporting this worthy cause for over twenty years.

I meet with each class at Elizabeth Ide and Prairieview once a week. We do many different types of things in these classes.

At Prairieview, we have been working on computer skills for the last several weeks and will continue with this until about Thanksgiving. We began with work on Ultra-Key, our keyboarding program. This is a very important skill for students in this day and age. They will certainly need to be able to keyboard thoughout their schooling and almost everyone will need it in their jobs.

We will continue with some practice on looking up information online. This will focus on World Book Online, a very useful resource we have available in the district.

The Fifth graders are currently doing a tutorial on another useful resource we have called Inspiration. Fourth graders will soon be gathering information and pictures to put into a slide presentation. Third graders will prepare an illustrated Writer document.



At Elizabeth Ide, we concentrate more on story times. These early readers need exposure to lots of different books, covering different genres and different topics. We touch on Character Counts topics, holidays They get excited and then want to read, read, read. To encourage reading, parents can go a long way by reading to children, listening to children read to them, and reading in front of them. When they see that you value reading, they, too will value it.

Our second graders are learning to use our online catalog. We began with a presentation for the class as a group and are continuing with short private lessons for each child. You can look at our catalog by going to the district website, clicking on Elizabeth Ide, clicking on library, and then on IPAC.

I.M.C. Guidelines

Behavior—for the safety of all
No running.
No climbing.
No throwing.
Remember Character Counts in the I.M.C., too.

Book care—to keep our materials in good shape so everyone can share them
Check your hands to make sure they are clean and dry.
Keep library books away from food and drink.
Do not make any marks in books.
Do not tear pages. If a page gets torn, show it to the librarian. Do not try to repair it yourself.
Use a bookmark. Do not fold the corner of a page. It will tear off much sooner if you do. Don’t turn books upside down to save your place. It breaks the spine of the book and pages will soon fall out.
Keep library books away from small children and pets.
Carry books to and from school in your backpack.
Have a special safe place to keep library books at home so they don’t get damaged or misplaced.

Circulation—to keep materials available for everyone
Kindergarten students may check out one item at a time.
First and second grade students may check out two items at a time.
Prairieview students may check out three items at a time.
Reference materials may not be checked out and may only be taken out of the I.M.C. by special arrangement with a librarian.
Books are due in two weeks. At Prairieview, magazines are due in three days. However, students are encouraged to return them as soon as they have finished with them.
Return books in the return slot.
Return magazines in the wire baskets so they don’t get torn.
Lost and damaged materials must be paid for before more materials are checked out. The charge for books is $20.00. The charge for magazines is $4.00

Notes from the I.M.C.

Winners Read: Readers Win
We are reviewing rules and procedures during the first few classes at both Prairieview and Elizabeth Ide schools.
It is important for parents to know that our costs have gone up. Therefore if a book is lost or destroyed, the borrower will be charged $20.00. If a magazine is lost or destroyed, the borrower will be charged $4.00. Please help your children to take care of I.M.C. materials. It is important that food and drink containers in backpacks by tightly closed. It is helpful if food and drinks are kept in a seperate compartment of the backpack.

I.M.C. Notes, April 28, 2008

2008 Monarch Award Winners

Over 131,000 Illinois K-3 children from 781 schools and libraries, including Elizabeth Ide and Prairieview, selected the following titles.

1st place

2nd place

3rd place

Official Statewide Results

Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award 2008

The official results have been posted. They are as follows:

1st place 2nd place 3rd place

For further information, please see www.rcyba.org

Winning books in District 66

Statewide results for the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award and the Monarch Award are not in yet. When they are available, I will report them.We held our elections at both Elizabeth Ide and Prairieview during the month of February.

The c0nstant news of the primaries lends credence to the process here at school Winning these elections helps to sell many copies of the books. The children's votes are important and we tell them so.

Children in Kindergarten through 3rd grade are invited to participate in the Monarch Award. The winners at Elizabeth Ide were Traction Man is Here in first place, Fancy Nancy in second place, and I Stink! in third place. The Prairieview third graders selected Bad Kitty in first place, If I Built a Car in second place, and Miss Daisy is Crazy!

Participation in the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award is open to students in 4th through 8th grades. Our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders voted for The Old Willis Place in first place and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane in second place. Tied for third were Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie and The Penderwicks.

I.M.C. notes

When we came back to school after the holiday break, I was greeted with the great news that $7,000 of Title I money was available for materials for the Prairieview I.M.C. This was a wonderful surprise!

Mrs. Warkentien and I put our heads together and decided to study our non-fiction collection. It was fun and empowering to know that we could give the collection a serious update. I also consulted with Mrs. Kucera about possible software purchases.

I am delighted to announce that we now have two new software site licenses and 230 new books. We are waiting until it is published for a set of the 2008 New Book of Knowledge.

Notes from the I.M.C.

Please help our schools. We can turn in your used printer cartridges for recycling. This is a good way to be green.

We can also use your Campbell's Soup labels. We turn these in for various school supplies. So, if you are eating more soup in this cold weather, don't throw away the label. Send it to school.

Thanks for your help.

Notes from the I.M.C.

Elizabeth Ide

This month in our I.M.C. classes, we are concentrating on books nominated for the Illinois Monarch Award 2008. This is a program which gives Illinois children in kindergarten through third grade the opportunity to choose and vote for their favorite book from the twenty nominees. The voting will take place in February.

Prairieview

We have started our internet safety program. The focus will be on cyber community citizenship, cyber bullying, predators, and cyber security. For parents who are interested in learning more about these topics, we recommend the following site:

http://www.netsmartz.org/netparents.htm