📚The Library Lowdown

November, 2021 Issue 17

Beanstack is Here! Our New K5 Reading Promotion Tool!

Beanstack is a reading promotion tool that helps create a culture of reading throughout schools and across the district by participating in reading challenges! Students, staff, teachers, admins, and families can participate in reading challenges that encourage everyone to read more and makes reading social!

Beanstack focuses on minutes read which allows all readers to participate even if they are slow readers. It's easy to log minutes, as students easily scan the ISBN and enter their minutes read. Teachers can log minutes for an entire class after reading aloud or independent reading. Schools can create their own goals and can compete with schools across the district to see which schools read the most minutes. Students can add friends and have friendly competitions to see who reads the most. As students read, they earn badges along the way for a variety of achievements. There is even a built-in reading fundraiser option.

Schools can even compete against the 4J Instructional Department as we will be joining the fun too! We will celebrate schools, classes, and individuals as they meet goals and earn badges. Click the video below for a quick introduction.

Login is easy via Clever. You'll see a Beanstack tile under "Library and Information Resources".

Here is a flier to share with families and school communities.

Here is a slide deck that has helpful resources to get started.

All principals have a link to the getting started kit with more helpful tools.

Amy Page is available to visit staff meetings to introduce Beanstack and for class visits to assist in getting started with students. Email her for assistance.

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Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month. There is a curated list of titles available in Sora and you can also check out this collection of resources in Destiny Discover. The Eugene Public Library has a great list of books. The Library of Congress also has amazing resources available.

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National Novel Writing Month

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is in November. It all started with a group of people that believed in the creative, transformational power of writing. The website provides support, encouragement, and tools to help amplify the voices of emerging writers. The goal is to write the first 50,000 words of a novel by the end of November. The NaNoWriMo website tracks words for writers like Fitbit tracks steps and it's going global! Anyone can participate, teachers, staff, students, parents...let's get writing!

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Amanda Gorman's Flip Grid event.

Amanda Gorman, poet, speaker, and best-selling author, will be featured in the next Flipgrid live event this Thursday at 10 AM! She will be joined by Loren Long, the illustrator of her latest book, Change Sings, and together they will share their process, what inspired them, and inspire young learners to become change makers. If you can't join them sign up anyway and get a recording to watch with your class!

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Oral Histories: Amplify and Preserve Voices with the Library of Congress

Anyone has the opportunity to record and preserve an oral history with the Library of Congres. What a special opportunity to connect with family, friends, and community members and listen to their stories! If you would like help getting started, let Amy Page know!

The Veterans History Project: Preserve and make accessible the personal account of American War veterans. If you are a vet or know of one, share your story!

The Great Thanksgiving Listen: A national movement encouraging youth and people of all ages to create an oral history by recording an interview with a mentor, family, friend, elder, or anyone they admire. These oral histories will forever be preserved in the Library of Congress digital collection. Please take a moment to check out the resources and participate!

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Maker Hub at the Eugene Public Library!

Did you know that aside from all the books, magazines, movies, and music you can check out at the Eugene Public Library you can also check out some kits from their Maker Hub?! They have a 350 camera kit, action camera, button maker, sewing machine, lap loom, slide scanner, and more! You can find the full list of kits here and learn how to check them out. If you haven't filled out the form to receive your library card yet, click here to learn how.

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Picture Book Month

Picture books are for everyone! That's why they are located in the Everybody section of our school libraries, even our high schools have a picture book collection. This teacher's guide has all kinds of fabulous ideas on how to integrate pictures books into a variety of subjects this month. Find more resources on the website and check out the picture book collection below in Sora!