Mrs. Lewin is Going to Summer School

During my summer break I have been taking continuing education classes in order to understand the learning process of kindergarten students at Jordan Bank much better.   One class in particular focuses on the need to keep young children active and moving for optimal learning.  How can this be done when there are great demands placed on curriculum and time management?  As the library media specialist I am committed to the school wide content standards but will also be incorporating this year more opportunities for children to learn through play and movement.  A big push in the library content area is to incorporate maker spaces into learning. Makerspaces, sometimes also referred to as hackerspaces, hackspaces, and fablabs are creative, DIY spaces where people can gather to create, invent, and learn. In libraries they often have 3D printers, software, electronics, craft and hardware supplies and tools, and more. Most importantly with age appropriate materials at Jordan Bank, the maker space will provide the necessary tolls that will benefit the developing kindergarten student.  Stay tuned to this blog for more information! 

Summer Reading

Yesterday Miss. Erin came to Jordan Bank to talk about the wonderful reading programs offered at the new children's library in Oxford.  The Oxford Area School District school libraries have collaborated with the public library to provide copies of required summer reading materials. When your child enters first grade for the start of the 2016-2017 school year, they will need to complete the activities listed for summer reading.
Information about the summer reading program can be found at:
http://www.oxford.k12.pa.us/curriculum/Summer%20Reading%20Grades%20K-12.pdf

Have a great summer and keep reading!  

Walking Field Trip To Public Library

What a wonderful way to collaborate with the Oxford Community! The children took a walk April 11-15 to visit the Oxford Public Library.  They met Miss.Erin, the children's librarian who showed them the new children's room and read aloud from two wonderful books.  Thank goodness for great weather. A big thank you to all the classroom assistants, and the parent volunteers who made the trek with us.  We are eager to see the new children's section when it is complete.

Clifford "BIG" Success at the book fair!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Scholastic Book Fair.  We were very successful and will receive over $1000 in Scholastic vouchers. All of the voucher purchases will directly benefit the Jordan Bank Library.  All teachers were able to reap the benefits of the book fair as we extended free books to each of them for their libraries. Be sure to ask your teacher which book they chose from the book fair, maybe it was one you selected too. Clifford made a special appearance and was warmly welcomed by a very special class.

FAR OUT!

The library has never looked more colorful!  Join us this week for the Jordan Bank Annual Spring Scholastic Book Fair and have a far out adventure!  If your child received a gift certificate from the pumpkin decoration contest and you have misplaced it, no worries!  We have a list of the award winners.  Don't forget to stop by on Wednesday night with your families to shop the book fair from 4-7.

Peace, Love, and the Scholastic Book Fair!

The Scholastic Book Fair will be here from February 22nd-26th.  The library is a groovy place to be for the book fair.  We have great titles including Pete the Cat, Ranger in Time, Fly Guy, and many, many more high- interest, lower level books appropriate for Kindergarten and beyond.  The library staff will be hosting a Family Event on Wednesday, February 24, 2016 from 4-7 PM.  This event is a chance to bring all family members to the Jordan Bank Library-Media Center to help choose some amazing titles for family reading.  Children will visit the fair during their regularly scheduled library time starting Tuesday, February 23 through Friday, February 26.  Please know your child can shop at any time during that week as well.  So grab your platform shoes, mini-shirts, bell-bottoms, tye-dye, and fringe vests and join us for a Groovy good time at the Scholastic Book Fair!

Non-Fiction Informational Text

This week the children began understanding the difference between Non-Fiction and Fictional Texts. We examined two books, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems, and Naked Mole Rats by Jody Sullivan Rake. The children were challenged as I read both aloud to recall:

1) Where does the naked mole rat live?
2) Does the naked mole rat like the sun?
3) What do naked mole rats eat?
4) How old do naked mole rates live to be?

We filled out our best guesses in an anticipation guide before becoming experts and listening to two types of read alouds, a fiction and non fiction book. The children made the connection that fiction books are read for entertainment while non-fiction books are read for information.

The children left library this week knowing that non fiction books are informational books that can teach us new information.