Sope Creek Library Media Center

Spotlight on: Biography

Mrs. Seymour's Smarties visited the Library today to check out Biographies.  Take a look at this Voicethread the Smarties helped me create to talk about the genre of Biography and how to find one in the Library.

Destiny @ Home

Yes, it's true!  The Library's catalog (Destiny) is available from home!  Follow these easy steps to gain access to our Library's catalog from your home computer:

1) Go to the Sope Creek blog and look at the buttons on the right hand side of the screen:

2) Click on the Cobb Virtual Library button.  This will bring you to the CVL homepage:

3) Select "Elementary" and enter the username and password emailed to you by your child's teacher (or available by contacting your Librarian!).  This will give you access to all the excellent online resources available through the Cobb Virtual Library.  The very first resource listed is Destiny.

4) Click on "Destiny" to gain access to Sope Creek's Library catalog. You will have to choose "Sope Creek" from the drop-down menu:

 

5) If you have a Destiny account (4th and 5th grade students will be creating accounts during the month of November) you can log in from home and see what books you have checked out, make book recommendations to friends, suggest a title for the Librarian to purchase, or write a book review!

Happy Reading & Research! 

 

How to Shelve Books

Mrs. Doniphan's Diamonds helped out the Library Goddesses last week by shelving almost 300 books in the Fiction, Everybody, Early Reader, and Biography sections of the Library (officially making them Library Geeks!).  Then this week, some of those students visited again to help Mrs. S create a VoiceThread explaining the process.  Feel free to leave a comment on any of the slides.

Information Literacy in Context: Magnets

Essential Question: How can I quickly locate information in a nonfiction book?

First graders are learning to use the graphic features of nonfiction books to locate information quickly.  These skills are necessary in order for students to become effective and efficient users of information.  We used books in the Library collection as well as one title from Google Books for this lesson.  I created a visual representation of the elements of this lesson using Wordle.net:

Librarian 2.0 in the Cloud

I attended the Georgia Council of Media Organizations annual conference in Columbus, GA last week and boy have I come back with a ton of ideas!  There are some tools that are currently blocked by Cobb County's firewall and I'm working on gaining access to these Web 2.0 tools, but other tools (like Voki.com which was used to create the Dewey the Dog avatar, below) are available for use.  Stay tuned to the Library blog for a peek at some of the cool new toys!

Information Literacy in the Library

 Now that we are finished with Orientation sessions in the Library (every grade level plus our Parent Volunteers!) we are ready to open for regular check out.  The schedule book is available on the desk in the Library office and teachers can sign up for one or more 15-minute block of time for their students to come in and exchange their books.  Small groups of 3 or 4 students at a time can come to the Library without signing up.

In this first nine weeks, our goal is to conduct one informational literacy lesson with each grade level, in addition to the critical information imparted at Orientation.

• Kindergarten: After having read Star of the Week by Barney Saltzberg, Kindergarten students will work on identifying events from the beginning, middle and end of the story using the SmartBoard.  We will also be putting the events of the story in order.  This practice helps reinforce the left-to-right skills needed for both reading and locating books on the shelf in the Library.  This lesson will be followed up with classroom activities and a link to their Art class with Mrs. Hopkins.

• First Grade: Weather is the topic of the month for First Graders and we will be working on identifying the difference between fiction and nonfiction books using a selection of titles related to weather.  This introduction to the elements of nonfiction text will help student be able to determine whether a book is suitable for solving information problems as well helping them begin to locate important features of nonfiction resources, such as the Table of Contents and Index.

• Second Grade: After having read the book The Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen, Second Grade students will visit the Library for a lesson in map skills and an introduction to Library catalog.  They will learn to locate the different sections of books in our Library using a map with a grid and learn to locate Call Number information on the shelves, the books, and the Library catalog.

• Third Grade: Third grade students will have an in-depth lesson on using Destiny, our online Library catalog.  We will use the laptop cart to allow each student to search for books in a variety of ways, including conducting a Reading Level search.  This will help them to more effectively locate and check out books on their reading level.

• Fourth Grade: The Age of Exploration and the Early Peoples of the Americas are the two topics Fourth Graders are researching this time of year.  Classes will have the opportunity to come to the Library and have an introduction the varied online and print resources we have that address these topics. 

• Fifth Grade: These students will be guided through the steps necessary to c reate their very own Destiny accounts.  Account holders have the ability to create and maintain book lists on different topics, make recommendations to the Librarian and other students, and write book reviews.

We will be contacting each grade level to schedule the lessons in the next week or so.  In the meantime, the check out schedule is available for those who wish to sign up.  Our Parent Volunteers will start their rotations on Monday, September 14^th.  Happy Reading!

Welcome back!

The First day of school in the Library is a little heartwrenching this year-- I have my own little one starting Kindergarten! 

We are working hard to solve all the classroom technology issues so that we can focus our attention on getting the Library set up for orientation. 

Each class will receive an orientation session before their first checkout visit to make the students feel welcome, give them an introduction to the Library staff, an overview of Library procedures and a review of the way the Library is organized.

If you are interested in volunteering in the Library (helping us to check out and shelve books, monitor classes who visit the Library, and help us with special projects) please email Tracey Pickens, our Library Volunteer Coordinator, at tonksy@gmail.com.  The time commitment is minimal-- two hours every two weeks, or whenever you have a free block of time.  We can always use some additional hands in the Library!