Gingerbread Baby Hunt

Our Pre-k classes have been listening to different versions of the Gingerbread Man stories during their library time the past couple of weeks. Today we concluded the unit with a search for the Gingerbread Baby. We followed the clues left around the school, using our nifty binoculars to help us search. In the end, we found the Gingerbread Baby and a tasty treat! What fun!







We also decorated gingerbread ornaments to take home!

I Dream of Reading...

Author/magician Chad Crews performed for our students right before our Thanksgiving break. I think you can tell by the photos that a good time was had by all! He amazed us with his feats of magic and while doing so, also impressed upon our students how important it is to be good readers. I must admit that even after seeing all four shows, I still have NO idea how to do any of his wonderful magic. I guess I will just have to get a book and read up on magic! Our students will be able to do the same, as we sold 100 copies of "So You Want to Learn Magic: The Sequel" by Chad Crews - a record number of books for any of our author visits. We also have several new books about magic in the Media Center that will be available for check out soon!

Welcome Chad Crews!

Continuing our tradition of inviting special performers to our school, we have arranged for popular Magical Educator Chad Crews to visit our school. Chad will present one of his educational assembly programs, the “I Dream of Reading Extravaganza!”

Chad will WOW our students with incredible feats of hilarious magic, comedy and live animals. Students will participate onstage in the magic, witnessing things they never thought possible! Best of all, our students will learn that good readers can learn all kinds of things, meet all kinds of people, and go on all kinds of adventures. We are so excited to be able to bring this special guest to our school!

As a way to reinforce the importance of reading for our students, our school will be selling copies of Chad’s unique book, “So You Want to Learn Magic: The Sequel” which contains lots of amazing magic tricks that are super easy to learn, and the tricks themselves are in the back cover! We encourage you to participate in this exciting opportunity. If you would like to purchase a book for your child, please return the order form that was sent home last week and return it with your child.

Please make checks payable to Brookwood Elementary or you may send cash in the exact amount. The cost is only $10.00 per book! A portion of the book sales go back to our school so that we can have future programs!

(If you can not locate the form, a note with your child's name and their homeroom teacher will do!) All orders should be turned in to the Media Center by Wednesday, November 14th.

We will post pictures after the visit, so be sure and check back later!

Literacy Night

The Brookwood PTA is hosting Literacy Night on Tuesday, November 13th. There will be a PTA meeting at 6:00 pm followed by several sessions for parents that will be hosted by grade levels. I will also be in the Media Center to show parents some of our resources, such as BookFlix, TrueFlix, Follett Shelf, Destiny Quest and iPad apps for literacy.

Where did October go?

I can't believe we are already at the end of October! We have had quite a busy month.
Our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders have learned to use our new OPAC (Online Patron Access Computer) System. They have enjoyed being able to connect with their school friends and recommend books to other students, too. 5th graders have also used the Destiny Quest App on the iPad, learned how to post their own reviews of books they have read on Quest, and conducted online research with Destiny Quest for their 4H projects. PK through 1st graders have enjoyed fall and Halloween stories this month on their weekly visits and 2nd graders have been learning about tooth customs from around the world. (Of course, we have had a Halloween story or two, also!)


So far this year, we have already circulated 10,180 books! Wow!

Don't Forget!

Our online book fair continues until October 5th. All orders will be shipped FREE to your student at Brookwood after the fair closes on October 5th. Click HERE to visit the online book fair!

If your child pre-ordered the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Third Wheel at the book fair (whether online or while it was at school), those books will be received in November after the book is released.

Please consider downloading the FREE app, Storia, from Scholastic through our Book Fair Link located on the right hand side of this page or by clicking HERE and then clicking for the "Get Storia" button. This app can be downloaded to a tablet or mobile device and also can be used on a computer. You will receive 5 FREE books when downloading through our site and in addition, our media center will receive fifty cents in Scholastic dollars (up to $200). Scholastic dollars were used last year to not only pay the yearly subscription fee for BookFlix, but also to purchase summer reading incentive prizes.

Book Fair

Thanks to everyone who shopped at our book fair. A BIG thank you to Ginny Carson for organizing and recruiting volunteers to work at the book fair and to all of those who graciously donated their time. Our wonderful PTA operates this book fair and the proceeds help us bring special programs to our student and purchase books and supplies for the media center.

Our theme for this book fair was "All Stars" and the Dalton High School Football Team and Cheerleaders created excitement by visiting and helping our students with their purchases.

QR Code Scavenger Hunts

Over the summer, we worked hard and made lots of changes to the Media Center. In order to help students learn the new layout, I created a scavenger hunt using QR codes as clues. Students used our iPods to read the codes which were spread throughout the library. The clues sent students all over the media center to find items and in the process, they learned about the media center.

Students who turned in their summer reading lists and/or contributed a reading photo over the summer, were invited to a special celebration on Wednesday, August 29th. Students received a special treat bag which they filled with prizes & goodies, including books (of course!). Special books were also awarded to all students who sent in photos either by email or print. You can view a slide show of pictures that were emailed by looking at the blog entry dated June 4th (that's the day of the first photo). Printed pictures that were not sent via email are currently posted in the media center.

Brookwood READS! What & Where are YOU Reading this Summer?

A slide show using submitted pictures of students and staff members will be posted here throughout the summer. See what your friends and teachers are reading this summer.  Pictures should be emailed to Mrs. Wagner.  Don't forget to fill out your summer reading log, too!

REMEMBER - You can read ebooks by clicking the link on the right hand side of this page.  We now have 42 ebooks on Follett Shelf.

In addition to our own summer reading program, you can sign up to read and win prizes from Scholastic.
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IF THE SLIDE SHOW DOES NOT START,PLEASE TRY THIS LINK and click on the slide show icon at the top left corner of the screen.

End of the Year!

We have had a wonderful, busy year. Don't forget that many of our media center activities are documented on this blog - just check out the archive on the lower right hand side of this page to see older posts.

Our students have checked out a total of 20,971 books this year.  In addition, teachers, staff, and parents have checked out an additional 4,066 items. 

We hope everyone has a safe and happy summer!  Remember to keep READING!!! Students who return their summer reading logs will be invited to a special party in August.

Also, don't forget to email your summer READING pictures to Mrs. Wagner.  Keep watching this blog for pictures to be posted.

In Honor of Mrs. Parton

One of our fifth graders, Matthew W. has donated the Rick Riordan novel, "The Son of Neptune" to the media center in honor of his 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Rebecca Parton.  This book will be available for check out when school resumes in August.  Thank you, Matthew!

In Honor of Palmer Griffin

We have recently received two wonderful books by Patricia Polacco for our media center in honor of Palmer Griffin, former principal of Brookwood Elementary who is retiring from the district office this year.  The books were donated by Martha Wassum and will be available for students to check out next school year.

The Junkyard Wonders

Thank you, Mr. Falker

5th Grade Projects

Our fifth graders have been researching inventions and inventors.  Students had the freedom to decide how they would present their findings to the class.  Some shared their research with an oral report, others chose to make a poster, a powerpoint, or a glog (online interactive posters).

Some of the glogs are posted below - these will only be available until the accounts are reassigned next school year.
 

SORRY - THESE GLOGS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING.

Volunteer Luncheon

We hosted a luncheon to thank our wonderful volunteers today. Thank you so much for giving your time to help with shelving, book fairs, book swaps, and more!

3rd Grade Research Projects

Here are some of the 3rd grade Glogster(online posters)Projects. Please be aware that these links will be unavailable next school year when accounts are reassigned.

SORRY - THESE GLOGS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING.

Author Visit - Diane Z. Shore

Today, Georgia award winning author, Diane Z. Shore visited our pre-k, kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students. There were two presentations, each followed by book signings. The students and teachers really enjoyed her visit. Thanks to our wonderful PTA for helping us to be able to bring authors right to our students! Be sure and ask your student to tell you about George Washington's teeth!

Georgia Children's Book Awards

We finished voting for the Georgia Children's Book Awards today and I placed our votes online.  Students in kindergarten through 4th grade voted on their favorite picture book nominee and 5th graders (who had read at least 2 books on the list) could vote for their favorite chapter book nominee.

Here are pictures of our nifty voting booth and what it looked like on the inside - 20 cups, nicely decorated by Mrs. King - one for each book.  Children were given a penny to drop into the cup for their favorite book. 

The overwhelming favorite picture book at Brookwood is "I Need my Monster."    The favorite chapter book at Brookwood is "Extra Credit."  It will be interesting to see how our students votes compared with the rest of the state once the results are announced.

Author Visit

Award winning children's author, Diane Z. Shore bops over to Brookwood in the morning.
We are so excited!  Don't forget to send in your book orders!

Our next Book Fair will be held on May 2, 3 from 7:45 - 4:00 pm and on May 4th from 7:45 until 1:00 pm. Please click below for more information.

April is National Poetry Month and Thursday, April 26th is National Poem in Your Pocket Day. Students and staff members are all being encouraged to carry a poem and especially, to share their poem with someone. We have lots of poems that we will distribute, so students do not need to worry about finding a poem to share. Students can even win a prize if one of our mystery listeners asks them to share their poem! We hope to hear lots of poetry in our halls and classrooms!

3rd Grade Glogster Projects

Third graders have been researching Georgia animals and their habitats. They used both print and online resources to learn about their animal, then created "glogs" which are online posters, to share their information. The slides show students presenting their finished glogs to their classmates. Check back as more pictures will be added until all presentations have been completed.

Volunteer Schedule Posted

We love our volunteers!  Thank you for helping in our Media Center!  The April schedule can be accessed by clicking on "Volunteers" on the right hand side of the blog.

Enjoy the books our pre-k classes created!

Making a Book

Pre-K is making their own version of "It Looked Like Split Milk" by Charles Shaw.  We hope to post the finished book soon!

Cat in the Hat Pictures Posted

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

The Cat in the Hat popped in the library for a visit with Pre-K today.  Pictures will be posted soon!

Final Days!

Our online book fair ends this Friday, March 2nd.  All books purchased online will be shipped to the school free of charge and should arrive next week.

Click here to shop.

Help Us Earn Free Books!

Thank You!

Thank you to everyone who shopped at or visited our school book fair. The book fair continues online until March 2nd. Click on the book fair page for more information. Please share the link with friends and family, too!

Volunteer Schedule

The February schedule for Media Center volunteers is posted on the Volunteer page. We are also having our Book Fair from Feb. 2 - 10th. We appreciate all the hours that our volunteers so graciously give us. If you would like to become a volunteer in the Media Center, please call us or send a note with your child. We always need help shelving books, but if there is something else you would like to help with, please just let us know.

Happy New Year!

We hope everyone enjoyed their time off over the break. We enjoyed spending time with family and friends and reading, too!

We have quite a few new books ready for check out in the Media Center and more will follow shortly. Parents, we have two copies of Alice Ozma's book, "The Reading Promise" that are available for you to check out. This is one of my favorite books and I would like to circulate these copies as much as possible to encourage parents to make the same kind of reading promise with their own children. You can find out more about the book by clicking HERE. If you would like to read one, you may email me, stop by, or just send a note with your child and I will put your name on our circulation list in the order your request is received.