THE RUG IS HERE!!!

Yea! We are heading in the right direction in the library!!

Geographic Bee 2016

EDGEWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GEOGRAPHIC BEE 2016

How to Qualify for the School Bee:

Each 4^th or 5^th grader will take the qualifying test

on Tuesday, December 1, 2015.

5^th grade will take the test at 10:30 am.

4^th grade will take the test at 9:30 am.

The top 8 scorers from 4^th grade and 5^th grade will be named

as the 16 participants in the School Bee.

Our School Geographic Bee is Monday, January 8, 2016.

For the Qualifying Test,

You will need to find on a map the Continents and the Major Oceans:

the Seven Continents

Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America

(The National Geographic Society considers Oceania a region rather than a continent;

therefore we will not accept Oceania as a correct answer

for the continent of Australia.)

 the Major Oceans

Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic

You will also need to know the location and major facts of:

these Countries

Germany, Greenland, Syria, Uruguay, and Papua New Guinea

and these States

California, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, South Carolina

You can locate information on these topics from the following resources:

*   any general encyclopedia or atlas

*   The Alabama Virtual Library: www.avl.lib.al.us/  

*   National Geographic Bee website:

www.nationalgeographic.com/geobee/

*   CIA Factbook website:  

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html

*   World Atlas website: http://worldatlas.com

Questions? Ask Mrs. Woodruff, Geo Bee Coordinator.

Heading in the Right Direction in the Library

Big, exciting changes in the Library!!

The Alabama State Department of Education has requested that schools help ensure student privacy by removing reading level indicators from the outside of books.

As we re-label our library books by moving the reading level dots from the spine to the inside back cover, we are also using this opportunity to rearrange our Fiction. The new sections will provide greater choice and make finding books easier for our students.

We will divide our fiction books into three sections:

books with less than 35 pages;

books with 35 to 120 pages;

and books with more than 120 pages.

Within each section, there will be books on a variety of reading levels. Students can select shorter or longer books based on their interest and then check the back of the book to help determine comprehension level.

These three sections will be called by their geographical location in the Library:

Fiction Northwest (the books less than 35 pages)

Fiction West (the books from 35 to 120 pages)

and

Fiction Southwest (the books greater than 120 pages).

By sectioning our fiction books according to length, we believe students will have more choices and have an easier time finding “good fit” reads that match their interests. By naming the sections according to geographic location in the library, we will help students learn another important “directional” skill.

We look to have this project (which impacts over 7,000 books) completed by Spring of 2017…but ambitiously, we are aiming for Spring of 2016. Our PTO Library Volunteers have already helped with Phase I; we are now scheduling/planning Phase II. We will keep you up to date!