Book Clubs Begin in November

We’re very excited to get the Stonehedge Book Clubs rolling again. There will be two clubs this year, one each for 4^th and 5^th grade. 5^th grade will start November 6^th and meet every other Friday from 8-9am in the library. 4^th grade will start November 13^th and meet on alternate Fridays from 5^th grade. Students who wish to participate need to be at school by 8am (but please, not too much earlier).

Our book clubs are a great way for students to get together and talk about the books they are reading. There are no assigned books; kids can report on any books they are reading for fun. Students get exposed to all types of genres and authors and more often than not at least one will leave saying “I want to read that next!” Interested students will get information sheets soon.

Some potential 4th grade book clubbers from Mrs. Lilienthal's class

Stay tuned….the clubs are sure to generate many “blog worthy” moments during our school year.

Don’t forget to “Read4Fun”

Mrs. Abbott

Don't let the library staff dress up for Halloween!!!

Hi Stonehedge! Guess what? It’s October!

Last week, after much anticipation, we were finally able to have our annual talk about book care and the students were able to check books out to bring home. This is a big deal to many of our students and we hope that library is one of their favorite places to visit.

Kindergarten and 1^st grade get to take home one book per week.

2nd grade can take out two items…one can be a magazine

3-5 grades can take three items…including magazines and/or DVD’s

Some of you may notice that that number of items for 4^th and 5^th is down from previous years. Last June, 45 items were not returned by the last day of school. We are hoping that by paring down what our older students take out, we may be able to have a better return rate.

Students keep their choices for one week and should return their items on their next library day.  They must return everything they have out before they take anything new. If they forget their books, they can return them first thing in the morning and select one book until next library.

When we talk about book care at Stonehedge, we ask the students to “treat their books like a baby”. Please help your child become a responsible library user by keeping books in a safe, special place at home, somewhere where they will know they can find their library books when library day comes around and someplace away from pets or little brothers and sisters too young to take care of the books. Water bottles are the worst offenders and should be kept away from books and backpacks when they are full. Leftovers from lunch are also enemies of books (ask your child about the banana in the “Backpack of Doom”). We also teach our Kindergarteners to turn the page from the top right corner in a fun lesson with the book Yo! Yes? by Chris Raschka.

We have over 17,000 items in our library…something for everyone. If your child is having a hard time finding something they want to read, have them check in with me. I love matching kids with books they will love to read!

One more thing…October is PARP month and our PTA has lots of fun activities planned to promote students and grownups reading together. We’ll be hosting Open Library Nights on the 7^th and the 21^st from 6:30-7:30pm.  Have your student bring you in to explore the library, read together and even check books out to take home. Please stop in and see us…AT NIGHT!

Until next time…Read4Fun!

Mrs. Abbott