Summer Reading BINGO!! 2018

Here is what you need to track your summer reading...

1) Start by DOUBLING your fun by going to Homewood Public Library and registering for their Summer Reading Program. You can do it in person or online! All of their services and programs are FREE!

2) Print the attached BINGO board for your Grade next year. Track your reading. (One book may count for Two Squares...but only two squares and not three, or four, or five, or more...but if you do 25 different books to get a Blackout--Whoop! Whoop!!!)

3) Post pictures of your reading with the Instagram hashtag #ewdreads
and/or
3a) Post pictures of your reading on FlipGrid...using the access code and password!

4) Bring your sheet--signed by a parent!--back to school in August. You will get to show next year's teacher and this year's teacher...and get a prize (or prizes!!)!!!

**EES Rising 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grader Bingo Sheet
**EES Rising 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grader Bingo Sheet en espanol
**EES Rising Kindergarten, First, and Second Grader Bingo Sheet
**EES Rising Kindergarten, First, Second Grader Bingo Sheet en espanol

Add an Information Book...to our Library! 2018

It’s time to replace the old copies of our favorite information books!  

  

How to do this:

-The student returns this signed permission slip.

-The student visits the library with their class on March 19, 20, or 21.

-The student gets to choose from 300 new information books on favorite subjects.

-The parent is notified of the donation price.

-The student brings the money to the library.

-The book is processed including a bookplate with the student’s name as donor.

-The student gets to be the 1st to checkout the new library book! 

Book prices range from $20 to $26 

with most around $23.

Books can be donated 

In Honor or In Memory of someone.

 Selections can also be made during the Fine Arts Nights:

Mon, March 19, and Tues, March 20.

If you would like for your child to participate in this voluntary activity,

please complete and return the permission slip to their teacher.

(Forms were sent home March 9...or you can print the image below.)

Students must have a signed permission slip to make a book selection.

[Books are not available for personal purchase.]

Thank you for supporting all of our students!

 

4th Grade Paper Bag Book Club...

Hey 4th Graders!! Join us to discuss and share whatever books you like! You must have a signed permission slip...click here.

Digital Responsibility Awareness Week...

Edgewood Paper Bag Book Club!!

Summer Reading!!!

The I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis
 is VERY popular! You can find many of these
titles at the HPL.

We 'survived' another year...

Let the fun summer reading begin!!

HCS encourages all of our readers to keep reading...and we think the best place is at
the Homewood Public Library!

Sign up for their summer reading!
Visit their programs!! (Including July 6th Edgewood Elementary Night at HPL...Lego Breakout Program!!)

Hang on to your certificate and bring it to the Library 

in August...we will put you on our

Readers' Wall of Fame!

And don't forget to stop by Edgewood during the summer and visit our new Little Free Library. Located by the gym doors, this community library allows you to share your personal books and get new reads. Leave a book...take a book. Now you have access to books 24/7!
Thank you to Miss Sloderbeck and the 5th Grade Enrichment Team for designing the LFL and to parent John Petrella for building it and to Dave Garrison for installing it. We are so excited about this awesome new resource!!

Watch @edgewoodbooks on Instagram for reading suggestions throughout the summer!

Happy Reading!
Mrs. Woodruff

Add A Replacement Book to Our Library!

This year we are doing a twist on our annual
Add a Book to the Library program.
Instead of presenting 300 NEW books that we would like to add to our library...we have 300+ new REPLACEMENT copies of our favorite library books!

REPLACE A Book 2017!

During Fine Arts Week, Monday March 20-Thursday March 23, students can select one of these books to donate to the Library. Classes have a 'shopping' during school or families can look during our Fine Arts Nights on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Students must have a permission slip to select a book; then a notice is with the price of the book is sent home with the student; when the book is paid for, we process the new library book including the student's name on a bookplate as the donor; and then the student gets to be the first person to checkout our NEW old book! Book prices range from $18 to $25 with most around $22.
This voluntary activity is a great way to support our school and all of our readers. And our twist this year will insure that there are copies of our favorites for our new readers for years to come.

Please contact me if you have any questions...

Click here if you need a permission form...

Author (Illustrator) Day 2017

On Thursday, March 9, we will spend the Day in the Life of

Author/Illustrator

Eileen Christelow!!!

Order forms for

her autographed books

go home Friday, January 27,

or you can click

HERE.

Please return the form and payment by Friday, February 3.

YouTube!!!!

There are so many good books in this world...nobody has time to waste reading a bad book! But how do you find a good one? In our ongoing effort to match readers and books, we are now using YouTube! Look at our YouTube channel, Edgewood Books, to find short video book reviews. They are kind of like "unboxing" videos except we "unshelve" books to see what is inside them. The list of videos is growing as well as the format...I'm hoping to get students involved! Check them out!

Edgewood Books on YouTube

October is Digital Citizenship Awareness Month

During October, Homewood City Schools highlight 

Digital Citizenship. 

Going home in the student's folder is a booklet titled Net Cetera. 

This is a resource for parents to facilitate family discussion about manners and safety online. Included with the booklet is a flyer with some suggested activities. 

When your child completes at least one of the activities, 

they should bring the signed portion to the Library. 

From October 3-20, classes will be discussing smart online practices 

and we hope you will also share with your child ways they can 

be the best Digital Citizen that they can be.

For more information, please check these sites:

Homewood City Schools District website Parents and Students Technology 
       (Here you will find our BYOD policy as well as other guidelines.)
Net Cetera (This is the booklet sent home with each student.)
Common Sense Media (This site offers parents MUCH information!)

Why Did My Kid Checkout THIS Book?

We have around 10,000 books in our school library. When students visit, I let them choose which books to checkout. I believe that the library is one place students can make their own choice...and I believe that we learn from a book even if we can't read all the words in it.

With this in mind, parents sometimes are surprised by the books their kids borrow--especially books their kindergarten kids choose. But something about this book called to the student, and that's the magic to discover. Many a great conversation about books has started with "Why did you choose this book?" Maybe a friend or teacher suggested it; maybe it has a cool picture on the cover; maybe it was the fattest book they could find, and fat books are cool. "But what if my kid doesn't like the book when they get it home?" No problem! They can return the book the next day and make another choice. To paraphrase Thomas Edison, 'there are no bad books, just books I don't like.' Knowing this truth helps us find good fit books that we will like to read.

So if your kid brings home a book that seems unusual, ask what they like about it; find out what called to them.

Off and Checking Out....

We've been through the first ten days of school and already checked out over 4,600 books!!

So many new and exciting things in the Library!

Bookcases have been moved...

Shelves rearranged...

New books to read...

a new Library Assistant (Mrs. Morgan)...

and new postings on Instagram! 

(Follow us @edgewoodbooks)

Check us out!

Summer Reading with the HCS Digital Library

So Mrs. Woodruff, just how do we work those ebooks
from the Homewood Digital Library?

Miss Sloderbeck's students created instructional videos.
Watch this video and you will be an ebook expert!

In addition, Overdrive is providing an enhanced ebook collection (for free to us!!) that is only available during the month of June. So if you are into ebooks, check the HCS Digital Library during June and find some awesome limited-time-available titles. (At this time, I'm not sure how the site will look  or how you will know? I assume there will be a collection indicating the Juvenile Titles that fall into this special category.)

Keep Reading.................................

We are excited to announce:

The Fiction Shelves have moved!!

We now officially have 3 Fiction areas: Fiction Northwest (short picture books); Fiction West (short chapter books); and Fiction Southwest (loooooong chapter books). We are all getting used to the new arrangement, but everybody is finding good fit books and new favorites. Many thanks to our PTO volunteers who moved and shifted almost 6,000 books in one day!

And we are super excited to announce:

Edgewood Night at Homewood Public Library!!

We hope everyone participates in HPL’s Summer Reading Program…books + programs = fun! And be sure to join me and some of your favorite teachers on July 7 at 6:30 pm at the Homewood Public Library. We will enjoy an evening visiting with you and hearing about what you are reading. In addition, Edgewood Readers will be highlighted as the Birmingham Zoo shares some of their special friends. We are looking forward to this big night!

And we are over excited to share:

Little Free Libraries around Homewood!!

You’ve seen them in the park and down the street. Little Free Libraries are popping up everywhere! They are a fun way to pass on you own books and find new books to enjoy. Two of these wonder boxes were started by Edgewood alum Charlie McCalley: one library can be found in front of All Saints’ Church and the other at the Homewood Community Garden.

And finally:

THANKS for a great year in the Library!

Edgewood Readers are awesome. We’ve checked out over 65,000 books this year!!! That’s a lot of reading/learning fun!! And it could not have been done without the help of our fabulous Library Volunteers!! They get the books where the kids can find them. Thank you team!! In your honor, we have added the picture book by Jerry Pinkney: The Grasshopper and the Ant. You are each as busy and dedicated as the Ant, yet as joyful as the Grasshopper!

And as always:

Find GREAT summer reading suggestions…

on Edgewood’s Library Blog!

Mrs. Woodruff’s Ultimate Book List gives a short description of many perfect books as well as suggestions for when you say “I want to read another book like…”

and from the HCS Digital Library.

You can checkout and read ebooks all summer long! Easily download great reads directly to your device or computer. Instructions (from Miss Sloderbeck’s students!!) included on the site.

Happy Reading!!

Mrs. Woodruff

I Love a List: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...

1. Author Day is Friday, March 11.

• Everybody wear yellow! (It's Mike Thaler's favorite color.)
• Autographed books (pre-ordered last month) will be delivered to classrooms Friday afternoon/Monday morning. (Most likely Monday morning.)

2. Add a Book is Monday, March 14-Thursday, March 17.

• Permission slips will go home March 4.
• Students must have a signed permission slip to select a book to donate.
• Click here for Add a Book permission slip.
• Do not send money until you have received the price slip.

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR STUDENTS BY SUPPORTING OUR LIBRARY!

3. Better Basics Book Drive April 4-21.

• Once again, Edgewood will be sharing the love of reading by collecting your old, gently-loved children's books for Better Basics of Birmingham. This wonder-filled organization gets books in the hands of local readers. Send to the Library those children's books you are ready to let go and we will make sure they find excited new readers. Many thanks!!

4.Follow the Library on Social Media!

• Twitter: @EdgewoodBooks
• Goodreads: Edgewood Books
• Goodreads is a Pinterest type website for book lovers. 
• Checkout our Bookshelves to find new favorite books. (iyl = if you like)
• Then find these books here at the  Edgewood Library, the Homewood Public Library, or your local bookstore.

5. The Shelves are moving!!

• Our re-labeling and re-shelving of the Fiction books is moving fast. I'm hoping to have our new Fiction West section ready by mid-April. 

6. Ask your fourth grader about the Iditarod, the last great race...

Author Day from the Black Lagoon!!!!
Want to order some autographed copies of Mike Thaler's books?
Complete this order form, 
attach your check/money, and send to the Library by February 2.

Edgewood's Geographic Bee

The School Geographic Bee

Friday

January 8, 2016

8:30 am

We went around the world and back again!

Congratulations to all of our participants
and our First and Second Place Winners!

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!