New Resources in the Library

I'm always excited to receive new books for our library. Mr. Larry Miller donated three new books to our library . He shared his love of the history of Harriet Tubman by reading Moses to a third grade class. It is already checked out to one of those students.

I have found that when someone else recommends a book because they read it and loved it, people choose to read that book. A case in point: I read Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper because it was on the Oklahoma Sequoyah Book Award list for 2013. It is a fantastic book! I did a book talk on the book after I had finished it and several students checked it out. They recommended that their teacher read it aloud to the whole class and they returned the book today - many tears were shed for the main character and how she was bullied and a lot of good discussion was had in the classroom.

Our principal, Mrs. Templeman purchased sets of books that will be used with the school's math curriculum. They are very interesting and informative. They integrate reading with math seamlessly!

I just finished reading the first book in the Seekers series by Erin Hunter. It was wonderful! Now I feel confident in referring students and teachers to that series. I had read the Warriors series several years ago because a third grade student of mine recommended it to me. The fantasy stories are so creative and the characters are deep!

What are you reading?

Read Across America DEARathon

It has begun! The COE Library is hosting a Read Across America DEARathon this week. Every 10 minutes during the school day, a student is coming in for their own personal DEAR time! This is our third reader this morning! If you are in the area and would like to join in, please come by! A big thank you to teachers for allowing their students to miss a few minutes of the wonderful lessons they have prepared for this week! READ FOR YOUR LIFE!

Encyclopedia Inspiration

When I was a young girl, my parents purchased a set of encyclopedias one at a time from the grocery store when we made our weekly shopping trip. It was the Golden Book Encylopedia set:

This set is on sale on ebay today for about $50! I loved reading those things! They inspired me to want to learn about all different kinds of things, especially famous people. Mrs. Hall's second graders came in this afternoon for an impromptu lesson about encyclopedias, and they even went so far as to check to see if the sets were in order - what a great lesson! Thanks so much, Mrs. Hall and students!

In middle school, I read all the biographies that the school library had on the shelves. Many of our fifth graders have become interested in biographies in the "Who is/was..." series. I'm so glad to see them following in my footsteps! Here is a picture of a couple of books from that series:

Have a wonderful weekend, and happy reading!

New Books at the Library

We are so blessed to have Larry Miller in our school! He brought two new books for the library's collection. They are both very popular books with our students when they are studying China or reading fairy tales. Tikki Tikki Tembo is a personal favorite of mine. Thank you so much Mr. Miller!

Ground Hog Day Prognostications

Some students from Central Oak listened to stories about Ground Hogs and made their own predictions as to whether Oklahoma would have an early spring, or have six more weeks of winter. They learned about real ground hogs and about Punxatawney Phil from Pennsylvania. Here are their predictions:

Colonial Day at the Capitol

I was so honored to be asked to participate in the Colonial Day at the Oklahoma State Capitol and celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute. I was able to meet people who do interpretations of famous people from our history, participate in activities like dancing and debating, and be energized by others who love American History as much as I! There were many children there in full costume to participate in the day's activities. Here are some pictures from the day:

Capitol Dome

We had to outside for a bomb threat!

Meeting "Ben Franklin"!

Colonial Boys

Colonial Girls

More Flat Stanley Pictures!

Here are some more little ones excited to hear how Flat Stanley enjoyed his travels! Thank you to everyone who helped our second graders learn about different places, writing letters, and mapping skills.

 

Flat Stanley flies home...

Second graders listened to Ms. Sloggett read the original Flat Stanley book a few months ago, then students created their own Flat Stanleys and sent them to people all around Oklahoma, the United States, and some even overseas! They are flying home and being received by the children who sent them out. Here are a few kids who received their Flat Stanleys back.

Stanleys returned from Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Florida, Colorado, North Dakota, South Carolina, Taiwan, and Italy! Students are really excited to receive postcards, letters, photos, and maps from their Flat Stanleys' travels.

Photo album from Virginia, postcard from the Vatican in Rome, Italy, and envelope of candy from Taiwan!

Some kids even received gifts from the person who showed their Flat Stanleys around. Lots of pictures have been received from classrooms who "adopted" Flat Stanleys, as well as pictures from famous landmarks here in the United States and overseas. We'll keep posting Flat Stanley pictures as we get them!

Tammi Sauer comes to visit!

Central Oak Elementary Library hosted auther, Tammi Sauer, on November 9th. She did four programs for our students and signed autographs in her books that students purchased.

 She taught the kids songs and had students participate in several different skits and performances during her presentations. Ms. Sloggett even played the part of Oprah in one of the skits!

Students were encouraged to dress in "cowboy gear" and many took the opportunity to do so.

 

 

Mr. Larry Miller, a CO Alumni purchased a copy of every one of Mrs. Sauer's books for the elementary library. Here he is with the purchased books and Mrs. Sauer:

 

Thank you so much Mr. Miller, for the wonderful new books!

 

Thank you very much to Tammi Sauer for doing such a wonderful job teaching our students about her job, sharing her job, and books with our students.

 

The library cannot keep her books on the shelves in the library since Mrs. Sauer's visit! The students check them out just minutes after someone else has returned them. That is a testament to having an author visit a school. Not only do students get exposed to books by the author, but they get to actually see how authors do their job. Mrs. Sauer shared with the students how she comes up with ideas for her books, how she writes them, and then how she gets them published. We are all looking forward to her new book, Nuggett & Fang, which comes out very soon. Look for that book to "float" into the library soon (It is about a shark!).

 

 

 



 

A Busy Week in the COE Library!

Veterans Day Display, COE Library

We have had a very busy week in the library!

The students are learning the importance of our veterans with presentations being given to each class (on their learning level) about what Veterans Day is about and why they should be thankful to our veterans. We have looked at books, watched video,s and viewed websites with information regarding veterans.

The flag shown in the picture is one that our school received from Mount Vernon after my visit there this summer. It flew for a day over Mount Vernon and looks great in our library. I brought in a couple of uniforms to show the students. They belong to my son-in-law, US Marine Corporal Nease (on the left) and my fiance, US Army SSG David Moody (camoflauge shirt on the right). They both served in Iraq and SSG Moody also served in Desert Storm/Desert Shield and Afghanistan. They are both heroes, as are all of the men and women who have served in our nation's armed services. The students are quite impressed with the medals and insignia shown on the uniforms and have been sharing stories of their family members who are also serving our nation. Two teachers in our school also served: Mrs. Jackson was in the Air Force, and Mr. Roberson was in the Army. Thank you veterans!

Books donated by our wonderful alumni

Once again, we are thankful to our alumni group here at Central Oak Elementary School. These books were recently donated by some wonderful people who love to see our kids read! Thank you alumni!

Carol, and the books she shared

For the last couple of weeks, I have been "booktalking" books by Tammi Sauer because she will be visiting our school this Friday. I am encouraging students to booktalk a book that they have read and enjoyed. The objective is to encourage kids to share books with other kids and "advertise" the book. Carol, shown here, did a booktalk on the two books she is showing. She did such a great job that both of the books she discussed were checked out by friends in her class! Congratulations Carol!

Stick your nose in a good book!

We finally have a new bulletin board in front of the library. I hope you enjoy our new hall decoration!

 

 

 

 

Third Graders Receive Their Dictionaries

COE third graders were presented with student dictionaries today by the Midwest City Rotary Club. This club is very generous to include our school in donating the dictionaries. The students were very excited to learn what other things were included in the dictionaries aside from definitions. Each student was presented with their own dictionary to keep and use for their studies in and out of school.

In addition, the Midwest City Rotary Club donated some much-needed books to our library. We are very grateful for these donations and I'm sure the books will be used by many students and teachers in the years to come.

Thank you for your committment to education and your generosity to our school, Midwest City Rotary Club!

Thunder Up Central Oak!

Our school was privileged this week to welcome two of the Thunder Girls and the Thunder Bus!














The top two readers in each classroom were able to board the bus and choose a free book donated by the Thunder.

Mrs. Cindy Tinney, our Library Assistant and I welcomed the Thunder Girls and were able to view the wonderful books that our students would be receiving.

Thank you Thunder! We are so glad you support schools in the Oklahoma City area!

OTA/Encyclomedia Conference - Oklahoma City, OK

Last week I spent two days at the Oklahoma Technology Association/EncycloMedia Conference held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. What a wonderful opportunity to share with and learn from many other library and technology experts from our great state! Several people from our school district were representing Crooked Oak Public Schools. The COE Library Assistant, Cindy Tinney, the CO high school librarian, and a couple of others attended.  I was there with a 4th grade teacher (Laura Knight) from our school to give our presentation called "Classroom Bloggery." Here is the presentation link: http://bit.ly/PPP4gJ
 

In addition to presenting, we were able to attend other presentations about technology tools, great books to share with students, and also looked around at vendor booths. At one of those booths, I got to meet Katy Kelly, the author of one of our school's favorite books, Melonhead! Katy signed our school copy and I got to have my picture made with her (picture above).

EncycloMedia is a great way for librarians to re-charge and reconnect. Thank you, Oklahoma Technology Association for the great conference, and thank you COPS for paying for our attendance this year. It will be beneficial to our school district in ways we can't even imagine yet.

Have you attended a workshop or conference in the last year that was awesome? What was something you learned about your craft? Please share in the comment section below.
 

Captain Underpants Interview

Three fourth graders did an interview with Captain Underpants about one of his books this morning. The students posted the interview video on their blog through Kidblog.com. I am hoping to add the video to this blog as soon as it is published.

What a cool idea, Mrs. Knight!

George Washington Portrait

The front of Mount Vernon

Over the summer, I visited Mount Vernon as part of my trip to the Washington, DC area. I had planned on staying for a couple of hours and then heading back into the city for more sight-seeing. Little did I know how profoundly I would be struck by Mount Vernon! I was transported back to the 1700s while strolling the grounds of our first president's home. I was surprised at how small the home actually was, and at how nicely things have been preserved. I was unable to visit all the parts of the site due to time limitations, so I plan to return soon.

The back porch of Mount Vernon

Gardens at Mount Vernon

 As I was wandering through the new museum, a worker recognized me as a teacher (Hmmm... I wonder how he knew?), and sent me to the teacher resource center. The staff gave me a folder of resources from Mount Vernon to share with the teachers at my school. One of the things they did for my school was send a beautiful framed portrait of George Washington to be hung at our school! We finally received it last week, and it is now hung in a very prominent place in our school library. We are just as proud as we can be to have this portrait in our new library.

If you ever get the chance to visit Mount Vernon, I highly recommend it!