February in the Library
Monday, February 28th, 2011Activities
The library has been a busy place this February, with lots of activities to encourage students’ creativity and love of reading.
The Middle School enjoyed two pitched “Battle of the Book” sessions, one for 6th-8th grade volunteers (we had over 30, more than have ever signed up before!), and one for the entire 5th grade. It’s wonderful to see how excited these students get about books, and how intimately they know them—a great time was had by all. To see lists of the books for the Battle (half chosen by students, half chosen by me), click here.
5th Grade Battle of the Books
Winning Team for 6th-8th Grade Battle
The Middle School also participated in the Photo Finish contest, which challenged students to take three random pictures cut out of magazines (courtesy of my homeroom students), and write a story that incorporated them. You can see the winning entries, as well as information on all MS library activities, here.
All students had a chance to show their creativity with our Valentine Craft Table on Valentine’s day, stocked with colored paper, heart stencils, stickers, doilies, glitter glue, etc. The students really seemed to appreciate the opportunity to switch mental gears and have some fun!
Collection
The Library’s collection is undergoing much consideration at the moment.
To help students find pleasure reading, we have established an Upper School/Adult level Science Fiction-Fantasy collection, aided by the fact that 9th grader Stephen Hitchcock won a $1000 library grant in a “Letters About Literature” contest, and designated a large part of it for new SF/Fantasy. (The balance he designated for books for Cambodia and history books, the latter of which we have also ordered.)
The adult fiction and reference sections are being upgraded as well, to ensure that the books are current, useful, and interesting. Much reference is now available in ebook and database format, which students find easier to access and use, so the print reference section will shrink accordingly.
Watch this space for news about ebooks in the Library!
New Staff
We welcome long-time Library Assistant Karen Wright as our new Co-Librarian with me, and long-time Overlake sub Julia Hunt as our new Library Assistant.
–Rebecca Moore
