Welcome to the herd!

You have heard of the Golden Globes, you have been dazzled by the red carpet attire at the Academy Awards, and you have been  swooned by the voices at the annual Grammy's, but have you heard about the annual LLAMA Award?  The LLAMA Award is a year end award created by myself, Mrs. Lewin. It is the Lewin's Library Award for Media Achievement. This is the 12th year the coveted LLAMA Award has been presented.  Past recipients span two states and include an art teacher, elementary school teachers, content area specialists, and several kindergarten teachers.  The criteria for this award is to show exemplar use of the library facilities.  This includes and is not limited to: multiple book circulation for instructional purposes, book circulation for entertainment purposes, recommendation for future purchases, as well as being a good digital citizen of library resources.  It is truly an honor to present the 2014-2015 LLAMA award to Ms. Laura Shaw, Jordan Bank's ESL teacher.  She will enjoy a LLAMA certificate as well as $25 in Scholastic Dollars to be used at the Jordan Bank Fall book fair.  Congratulations!

We wouldn't "swap" this event for anything!

We are so excited to have the very first book swap at Jordan Bank this week. Children were given the opportunity to bring three books from home in order to swap with the titles we have in the book swap collection. The children delighted in the opportunity to choose books that they will get to keep! Their excitement for reading was contagious, and demonstrated the importance of putting a book in a child's hand. If your child brought in books to swap, we hope they enjoy the newly selected titles this summer.  This was strictly a voluntary activity, a letter was sent home a week ago by the classroom teachers, explaining the procedures for the book swap.  If you were not able to participate this school year in the book swap, we hope you take advantage of future book swap opportunities in the Oxford School District.

Book Swap

Last week the children should have brought home information about the first Jordan Bank School Wide Book Swap.  We will be collecting books this week for the swap next week, June 2-June 5.  All children will have the opportunity to swap up to three books.  We encourage you to participate in this worthy event. Additional information can be found within the pages section of the Jordan Bank Library Blog.

Working towards first grade!

The children should be wrapping up their animal research projects, and all library books will need to be returned by Thursday, May 21.  This is a reminder that books must be returned or paid for in order to participate in field day.

Children will continue to learn how to find a "just right book".  We will talk about using the covers, favorite authors, and the Goldilocks Rule to help children know if a book is too hard, too easy, or just right.

Students will be bring home information about our very first school wide book swap.  Children can swap up to 3 paperback books during the week of June 2-5.

Pebble Go

The children will be conducting an animal research project in collaboration between the library and the classroom teachers.  The teachers require the children to find where the animal live, what the animal eats, and an interesting fact.  Sometimes the books the children have selected do not have enough information to write this report.  This is why I have introduced to the children, PebbleGo, an on line database to which the OASD subscribes.  If you wish to use this database, please email me and I will forward the user name and password.  This information came home with the children on their prewrite-graphic organizer as well. 

Click on picture to access Pebble Go

Animals on Parade at the Jordan Bank Library

This week we begin the prewrite stage of the writing process in order to  complete an  informational writing piece on an animal. Children will have the opportunity to use print and non-print resources to complete this project. All children will choose an animal book to take home this week. We will use the informational book to identify: what the animal looks like, where the animal lives, and an interesting fact about the animal. Children will also be exposed to Pebble Go, an on line database specific for K-2 to also complete the prewrite step of the writing process. For more information and due dates for the animal research project, please contact your child's classroom teacher. The graphic organizer and info for Pebble Go can be found under pages in this blog.  Click on the link and it will take you to the graphic organizer.

Monday-Pebble Go Lesson No Book Exchange
Mrs. Verikakis
Mrs. Baughman
Miss. Smith

Tuesday-A Day Prewrite lesson All Children will bring home an animal book for book exchange
Mr. Baughman
Mrs. Black
Mr. Nelms

Wednesday-B Day Prewrite lesson All Children will bring home an animal book for book exchange
Mrs. Wilkinson
Mrs. Clark
Mrs. Trotter

Thursday-C Day Prewrite lesson All Children will bring home an animal book for book exchange
Mrs. Malinowski
Miss. Foster

Friday-D Day Prewrite lesson All Children will bring home an animal book for book exchange
Mrs. Verikakis
Mrs. Baughman
Miss. Smith

Library Schedule for April 27-May 1

We will soon be wrapping up the school year and our book exchanges. Our focus the next few weeks will be using text features to gather data to support the animal research project.

Monday- A Day Book Exchange
(labeling non fiction text feature lesson)
Mr. Baughman
Mrs. Black
Mr. Nelms

Tuesday-B Day Book Exchange
(Bold Face Print Lesson)
Mrs. Wilkinson
Mrs. Clark
Mrs. Trotter

Wednesday-C Day Book Exchange
(Bold Face Print Lesson)
Mrs. Malinowski
Miss. Foster

Thursday-D Day Book Exchange
(Bold Face Print Lesson)
Mrs. Verikakis
Mrs. Baughman
Miss. Smith

Friday- E2 NO BOOK EXCHANGE
(Bold Face Print Lesson)
Mr. Baughamn
Mrs. Black
Mr. Nelms