Library Newsletter

Yay for spring! While the temperature was up and down, the library had no confusion about its direction. Titled the Reading Month (AASL.org), March shares the stage with Women's History Month, both topics offering plenty to explore and celebrate. Through U.S. state research our students selected which state they'd choose to read in while visiting. Learning how literacy impacts careers was an engaging conversation during our weeklong celebration of Read Across America Day. The news show students discovered and shared facts about important events in women's' history and great literature was shared and discussed as always.

Meanwhile, April offered additional fun topics to celebrate including Earth Day and Poetry Month. Prelutsky's If Not For the Cat haiku riddle book was a huge hit, encouraging exploration of the simplicity and accessibility of poetry. As a new school librarian, it's been exciting to gather and share ideas of how to celebrate these exciting literacy-focused events. (Image: PBS.org)

Many thanks to Community in Schools site coordinators, Berea High School's Mr. Morales and our school's Ms. Herndon, for arranging a visit from the following Berea High students who joined us in the library during Read Across America Day March 2nd. (Image: nea.org)

- Drea

- Jallel

- Caden

- N'Kyla

These volunteer student athletes took time away from their busy schedules to help our students get excited about literacy through shared read alouds, book selection, and educational play. Our students' favorite part - hearing about what high school is really like during the Q&A sessions where they were reminded of the importance of hard work both in the classroom and on the field.

Our students read, voted, and waited and finally the results are in from students across the state for this year's SC Book Awards, organized by the SC Association of School Librarians (SCASL). Announced at the annual SCASL conference in mid-March, the 2022-2023 winners from this year's SC Picture Book Award nominees and the SC Children's Book Award nominees are (book images from Amazon):

Way to go Battle of the Books (BOB) team! After preparing for much of the school year with early morning practices, Wednesday lunch meetings, and two virtual scrimmages (thanks to Librarian Ms. Mobley and her Slater-Marietta Elementary team!), our 5th grade Battle of the Books team finally went to competition.

On April 4th at Gateway Elementary, six schools competed in the annual event, answering questions from the following 2022-2023 SC Children's Book Award nominees (image: Amanda Jackson, Gateway Elementary). "For Battle of the Books, the students are required to read 10 5th grade level novels on their own. They then compete in rounds against other schools answering comprehension questions on those 10 books...We were down 1 team member, so we competed with 4 rather than 5 [students]. They made it to the final gold round in their room and lost by one question. Their behavior and sportsmanship were amazing!" (Mrs. Shreckengost, Berea Elementary BOB co-coach).

The team, pictured below L-R, are Pedro, Arianna, Jayden, and Jhoan.

Our spring book fair was held in the library April 17-21. Students shopped during their weekly class visit and with family members before school on Wednesday and Thursday evening from 5:30-7 pm during our school's All About the Arts Night. A visit that evening by Greenville County Youth Services Public Librarian, Becca Page, offered families information on obtaining library cards, summer reading materials, and library services and resources.

As in the fall, every student left the spring book fair with a gently used book, this time donated by Riverside Middle School's Library and Beta Clubs, and the Pelham Falls neighborhood. The book drive, led by Riverside Middle's library staff, Ms. Glenn and Ms. Bramhall, ensured all students left the fair at least one book richer.

We're so thankful to Greenville Federal Credit Union and Sarah Bell, their Director of Community Engagement & Business Services, who fulfilled all of the teacher wish list book requests to add to their classroom libraries.

Last but not least, a million thanks also goes out to the following community volunteers and staff members who helped make the spring book fair a success:

- Mamie Aiken

- Venus Bigham

- Mary Ruth Elliott

- Nolan Grabiec

- Ty Grabiec

- Eliza Hazard

- Francesca Hazard

- Tiffany Herndon

- Liz Holcomb

- Mary Catherine Horne

- Qena Jennings

- Andy Jones

- Sydney Jordan

- Jaime Kapadia

- Angie Lamb

- Ginny Magee

- Yrma Martinez

- Ashley Parris

- Mary Ruth Elliott

- Courtney Rodriguez

- Allison Scott

- Stephanie Snow

- Myles Sowinski

- Madison Stewart

- Courtney Swartzendruber

- Quetzally Wadsworth

We're so thankful to Bethany Leslie for our library's new reading corner! Please read below to learn more about her project which included collecting books, instructional materials, and building and installing a bookcase to create our cozy reading space:

"I am an 11th grader at Greenville High School. I have been a Girl Scout for 12 years and I created this Gold Award project, Turning the Page, to share my interest in reading with elementary age children. Literacy is very important throughout a person's life, from school to work life [,] it affects everything. The Girl Scout Gold is the same as the Boy Scout Eagle Scout award, and takes a minimum of 80 hours to complete."

Way to hit it out of the park! Between February 6th and March 10th, every student in our school read at least five grade-level books, meeting our school's reading goal of 100% participation in Greenville Drive's Reading All Stars Program. Each student earned a ticket to a Greenville Drive's baseball game on April 25th or 26th. Thanks to our school's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Huntebrinker, for accepting the award.

We love our guest readers in the library and our male student volunteers this spring did not disappoint. We're thankful to them for sharing the joy of reading with our students.

Thanks to our ETS tech. rep, Greg Mueller, five desktop computers were added to the library for students to easily search our library catalog, Destiny Discover.

Images: Amazon.com

Stay tuned for summer reading lists and open days and hours the Berea Elementary school library will be open this summer. (Image: Canva)

Library Media Specialist, MLIS

Berea Elementary School - Greenville County Schools

mgrabiec@greenville.k12.sc.us

864-355-1500

Photo by: Susan Gill

Unless noted otherwise, photos by newsletter creator.