Wanamaker Library Newsletter

The third grade classes helped us with our bulletin board this month! Each student chose to be an author or an illustrator and explained why they would make that choice. It was fun to see why they made the choices that they did! Students also created the flowers used to decorate the board.

We had our own March Madness going on at WE! March Book Madness is an international online bracket-style tournament that matches books in one-on-one "games." The games were decided by a simple vote on a Google Form. Students voted individually or as a whole class.

Nineteen classrooms participated in this year's tournament. The students had a great time voting and watching the bracket in the hallway to see if the books they voted for advanced in the competition. The teachers also felt that it was a worthwhile activity. Second grade teacher, Mrs. Bush, stated, "I like to do March Book Madness with my class because it exposes them to books that they may not choose on their own. The students also get excited to see which books win."

The purpose of March Book Madness is to spread the love of books and reading. I think it definitely served its purpose at WE!

The 2nd grade library classes learned all about the Iditarod in March. The Iditarod is a dog sled race that takes place every March in Alaska. It is sometimes called the "Last Great Race." Students learned about mushers, huskies, checkpoints, frostbite, and many other facets of the grueling race. The course is officially 1,049 miles long, since Alaska is the 49th state in the USA. The trail goes from Anchorage to Nome.

We read The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto to learn about the history of the Iditarod. We logged onto the Iditarod Race's official website to look at pictures and follow the progress of the mushers. Students then designed and built their own dog sleds using only popsicle sticks, construction paper, hole punchers, and pipe cleaners. Check out the pictures below to see some of their creations!

When I recently ran the "Most Popular Titles" list for the WE Library, 7 out of the top 10 books listed were graphic novels. Many kids love them, including both reluctant and avid readers! To be considered a graphic novel, rather than a picture book or illustrated novel, the story is told using a combination of words and pictures in a sequence across the page. Graphic novels can be any genre, and tell any kind of story, just like their prose counterparts.

While some people are reluctant to consider graphic novels as "real literature", there are many benefits to the graphic novel format. One of the primary skills it teaches is visual literacy. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) points out that "to read a graphic novel, much less a wordless one, many essential literacy skills are required, including the ability to understand a sequence of events, interpret characters' non-verbal gestures, discern the story's plot, and make inferences." (Knutson, Sarah. "How Graphic Novels Help Students Develop Critical Skills". Resilient Educator.)

Many reluctant readers are enticed by graphic novels. Cartoonist Judd Winick, author of the HiLo series, says that graphic novels allow the reluctant reader to "slide into the story without as much heavy lifting as prose might require. These readers can quickly begin to develop literacy skills such as general reading comprehension, inference, and building new vocabulary." And as author Aaron Becker says, "It's not always going to be the traditional book that grabs a student. It wasn't for me!"

Some series such as the "I Survived", "The Magic Tree House", and "Wings of Fire" series have started creating their stories in graphic novel format, in addition to the traditional prose format. Children's author/illustrator Matt Tavares recently created his first graphic novel, Hoops, after discovering "just how powerful the graphic novel format can be."

So if you find your student reading a graphic novel, take a peek at it, and see if you fall in love with it, too!

The Wanamaker 4th, 5th, and 6th graders recently took a look at the world's largest library during their library classes! Mrs. Reinert and her husband visited the Library of Congress while in Washington, DC over Spring Break. The students had a lot of fun trying to guess its location before checking out the pictures Mrs. Reinert took during her visit. A phone camera can't begin to capture the majesty and beauty of the LOC, but Mrs. Reinert tried nevertheless!

The Library of Congress was established in 1800 by John Adams. The library was initially housed in the Capitol Building until 1814 when invading British troops burned down the building, destroying the library.

In 1815, Thomas Jefferson, then retired and living at Monticello, offered his personal library as a replacement. Facing a shortage of space and concerned about protecting the collection, Congress approved the construction of a separate Library building. This new building was hailed as a glorious national monument. In 1980 the building was named for Thomas Jefferson in honor of his role in the Library's history.

The LOC is currently housed in three buildings (the main one is the Thomas Jefferson Building described above) on Capitol Hill. It is the research library of the U.S. Congress, and is considered the national library of the United States. It is the world's largest library with more than 173 million items in some 470 languages.

The Library of Congress is free and open to the public with timed-entry passes.

The Bucks 4 Books campaign held during February brought in over $900.00. This will allow Wanamaker students to make a sizable donation to the American Library Association for the Haiti Relief Fund. This fund is used to help re-build libraries around the world that have been destroyed by natural disasters. Several years ago, Wanamaker donated $2,000.00 and our school was featured in an online article published by ALA.

The campaign allowed our younger students to work on learning their money concepts. Everyone who donated their change also enjoyed the feeling one gets when contributing to a worthwhile cause. We are grateful to have such a nice collection in our school library, and we want others around the world to experience the power of books as well.

The classroom donating the most money at each grade level (Hinthorn, Decker, Sutton, Larson, Kromminga, Norman, Augustine) will be rewarded with an extra recess. The classroom donating the most money overall (Mrs. Norman's 5th grade class) will be treated to a Culver's lunch sometime in May.

Thank you to our families who donated to this school-wide fundraiser!

A shout out to WE art teacher, Mr. Weatherford, for decorating the library office windows (pictured above). Thank you for all your help with our bulletin boards and window art these last few years. We will miss you next year!

April 14 & 28---Student Council meetings in the library at 8:00 AM

April 15--- Mrs. Reinert presents on the Global Read Aloud at the Kansas Association of School Librarians NE Regional Conference held at Landon Middle School in Topeka.

April 21--Library Inventory

April 28--Volunteer Luncheon in the library for all WE volunteers. Thank you to Judy Schultz, Judy Liezert, Sharlene Christensen, and Patty Jolley for being part of the library squad! We couldn't do what we do without your help!

Week of May 1--- Star Wars Celebration in the library! May the Books Be With You!

May 12--- Final Battle of the Books meetings during 4th - 6th grade lunch periods.

May 18 & 19---Battle of the Books competition for students and staff in the WE gym.

May 22---Used Book Exchange held in the WE library

May 26---Last day of school for students!