Pre-K
In addition to practicing library routines and meeting the library mascot, a puppet named Maddie Mouse, pre-k students have been meeting lots of book characters and have been introduced to their respective book series. Maybe your child has brought a book home from one of the series' below! Overall the students are doing a great job in library! Please help them remember to return their library books in the plastic bags every week!

Kindergarten and First Grade 
Kindergarteners and first graders were very excited to try out Beebot coding devices in library class. First we practiced coding the sequence of events in the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear as a group and during the next week, students worked in a small group to code the Beebots. They were great problem solvers and teammates! In addition to the time spent coding, we visited PebbleGO to research different topics and continued reading some of the nominees for the Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award.

Second Grade 
Second grade students were very excited this week to be able to return to the story corner for library class. They have been at the tables in the main part of the library for majority of the year, but since Covid restrictions have eased a bit, I moved them back in the story corner. Rest assured that they still have assigned seats and distance between them. Similar to kindergarten and first grade, second graders have been reading some of the 2022 Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award nominees. Looking forward, it will be second grade's turn to do some coding!

Third Grade
Third grade students have been busy! Over the last month, students have been introduced to some STEAM activities with Capstone 4D- an application that enhances the content of some of our library books with video instructions and other content. Students used the 4D content to make paper airplanes and origami creations. Currently, third graders are reading some fracture fairytale versions of Little Red Riding Hood. We have one more to go! 

Fourth Grade and Science Technology Magnet Program
February started with a lesson on media balance and how to use media in a way that feels healthy and in balance with other life activities. Fourth grade students had lots to contribute and it was clear that many of you have had similar conversations in your homes. If you would like resources to vet media resources or learn how to have a healthy media balance at home, I recommend Common Sense Media. The website offers reviews for all kinds of media and articles you might find useful.

In addition to reading a couple of great narrative non-fiction titles about Elgin Baylor and a floating Thai Soccer field, fourth grade students coded with Ozobot Bits. They are learning how to program the robot to dance, turbo-boost, and even spin like a tornado! It is fun to see their creativity and collaboration. They also just started a unit about fables. We'll spend the next few weeks reading them and learning about the lessons associated with them and how they connect to idioms they hear. 

Fifth Grade 
Similar to fourth grade, fifth grade students spent some time coding with Ozobot Bits. They are learning how to program the robot to dance, turbo-boost, and even spin like a tornado! It is fun to see their creativity and collaboration. Check out their Seesaw accounts for photos! They also read some great narrative non-fiction. One story was about a village in India that plants 111 trees for every girl that is born and another was about the fight for children with disabilities to receive a public education. Fifth graders continue to ask great questions about stories and seem to like learning about true events. Next up will be some digital citizenship lessons!

Welcome Pre-K!
Pre K students started at Clark in mid January! Mrs. Guillen is delighted to have them visit the library on Wednesdays. They have been practicing procedures such as finding their spot in the story corner, being good listeners, and lining up. We have been learning about some favorite book characters and will start checking out a book to take home in February! 

Kindergarten
Kindergarteners have been busy! We have read books from a few favorite authors and are continuing to learn about call numbers and where books live in the library. Here's a look at what we've been reading!

First Grade
Be sure to ask your first grade student about titles and headings! We learned that titles tell about the whole book and can be found on the cover, spine, and title page. Headings tell about part of a book and are bigger, bolder, and often a different color. They chose appropriate titles to match texts and practiced locating titles and headings in books. They have also been reading some great books in the library and learning about various chapter book series' that they might like to read. Class read-aloud titles are below.

Second Grade
Second grade students started out December finishing their "Dino-vember" STEM activities. They used QR codes to access database articles about dinosaurs, Seesaw to complete an activity, Keva blocks to build a structure, and Legos to create a dinosaur model! WE read some stories together, too, and continued our learning about how to locate materials in the library. 

Third Grade
Third grade started December learning about the Washington Library Association's Otter Award and its 2022 nominees. Otter stands for "Our Time to Enjoy Reading" and it is an award given to an outstanding transitional chapter book. The books are available for students to check out in the library. If they read at least two of them during the school year, they are eligible to vote for the award winner. The books have been popular additions! 

Third graders also learned about non-fiction author Steve Jenkins and his books. They practiced reading infographics as we learned some interesting facts about animals form Animals by the Numbers, a Book of Infographics.

Finally, third grade students put their book fins=ding skills to the test as they located books using a call number in the non-fiction section.

Fourth Grade and Science Technology Magnet Program
Fourth grade and science-tech started December learning about the Washington Library Association's Sasquatch Award and its 2022 nominees. The Sasquatch Award given to an outstanding middle grade chapter book. The books are available for students to check out in the library. If students read at least two of them during the school year, they are eligible to vote for the award winner. The books have been popular additions! 

We also read a few stories that were connected to science and social studies classroom learning and explored how to access audiobooks and e-books in Sora. Next up... coding with Ozobot Bits!

Fifth Grade
Fifth graders have been busy! They started December by learning to code with Ozobot Bits and similar to fourth grade, they learned about the Washington Library Association's Sasquatch Award. The award is given to an outstanding middle grade chapter book. Students who read at least two of the nominees throughout the school year are eligible to vote for the winner in the spring. 

Since fifth graders are researching historical topics in class, we learned how to use Sora as a resource to find e-books and audiobooks on their topics. Students can access Sora through their Clever accounts.

Finally, fifth grade students read some narrative non-fiction to learn about an amazing astronomer, the oldest man to ever complete a marathon, and the Pig War. It has been a busy couple of months!

Kindergarten
We have loved getting to know the new kindergarteners. They are a sweet energetic bunch! This fall kindergarteners started the year by learning behavior expectations for the story corner and the library.  In fact, they are now experts at sitting on their spots in the story corner and modeling a quiet voice, ears listening, eyes watching, and a calm body during instruction. They learned how to use a shelf marker while browsing so that books can be returned to the correct spot. They also practiced naming and identifying the parts of a book and know that E stands for the Everybody section (picture books). In addition to learning how the library works, we read and talked about lots of great stories together, some of which are nominated for the Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award. We also went on a virtual field trip to the Kennedy Center to watch the National Opera perform Slopera, an operatic retelling of Mo Willem's book I Really Like Slop!  Take a look below and be sure to ask your child about their favorite book!  

First Grade
First graders got to visit the library for the first time this year and boy were they excited! I was so impressed with how quickly they learned and demonstrated expectations. I would not have known they were virtual learners last year! Similar to Kindergarten, first graders practiced using shelf markers and browsing the library. They learned about the Everybody (picture book) section and how to use pictures on the tubs in the non-fiction section to locate topics of interest. They learned that call numbers on the spines of books tell where the book lives in the library. In the Everybody section, call numbers have an E and then the first three letters of the author's last name. They learned how to access our PebbleGO database through Clever to research topics of interest and attended a virtual performance of  Slopera, an operatic retelling of Mo Willem's book I Really Like Slop! performed by the National Opera. Finally, we read and talked about lots of great books together, some of which are Washington Children's Picture Book Award Nominees. Take a look below and be sure to ask your child about their favorite book!  

Second Grade
Second grade students have been busy this fall! It's hard to believe they were kindergarteners the last time they spent time in the library! We have reviewed and practiced expectations, learned how to locate books in the library, read and discussed lots of great stories together, and spent some time learning about the PebbleGO database. They participated in STEM rotations as part of "Dinovember." Learning activities included using the iPads to scan  QR codes to access and read articles in PebbleGO about dinosaurs and then complete a Seesaw activity to share their learning. They also built models of dinosaurs using Legos and structures using Keva planks. Be sure to check out their Seesaw accounts for the evidence and take a look at what they have been reading below!

Third Grade
Third graders were really excited to check out books again! We started off the year reviewing expectations for the library and learning about its organization. Then we read several stories about some pretty remarkable animals, like Belka and Strelka, some of the first dogs to visit space. Third grade students learned about the different call numbers in the library and how to use them to locate a book. They also learned about the PebbleGo Next database and how to toggle between it, PebbleGO and our Capstone e-books. Recently, we learned about the Otter Award, an award given to a transitional chapter book by the Washington Library Association. We book-talked the nominees and the children are eager to read some of the titles! Check out the books they have read in library class below.

Fourth Grade and 4/5 Science Tech Magnet Program
It was wonderful to have our fourth graders back at school and so nice to get to meet our new fourth grade science tech students. It took them no time getting back into the swing of things! We started the trimester by reading a few books about animal helpers and fished the trimester with some mythology to get ready for a reading unit they will have in their classrooms. The highlight for many of the students this fall is that now that they are in fourth grade, they can check out Playaway audiobooks. They have been a hit! The little battery operated MP3 players have a single book recorded on them and can be read anywhere. Many kids have been plugging in their headphones and enjoying listening to the story as they read the book during class time. Maybe your child has brought one home to enjoy as well!

Fourth graders have also learned about how to use the library catalog to conduct a title, author, keyword, subject, or series search. they also know how to use the sublocation to know where to find the book in the library. Students also spent some time learning about the PebbleGO Next database and how to access Clark's Capstone Interactive E-books. 

Fifth Grade
It has been wonderful to have the fifth graders back in the library! In addition to reviewing expectations and procedures, fifth graders also started the year with some great stories. They learned about the genre of narrative nonfiction as we learned about various inventions and their inventors. 

Similar to fourth grade, the highlight for many of the students this fall is that now that they are in fifth grade, they can check out Playaway audiobooks. They have been a hit! The little battery operated MP3 players have a single book recorded on them and can be read anywhere. Many kids have been plugging in their headphones and enjoying listening to the story as they read the book during class time. Maybe your child has brought one home to enjoy as well!

Fifth graders have also learned about how to use the library catalog to conduct a title, author, keyword, subject, or series search. They also know how to use the sublocation to know where to find the book in the library. Students also spent some time learning about the PebbleGO Next database and how to access Clark's Capstone Interactive E-books. 

​Finally, they learned how to code Ozobot Bits, robots the size of ping pong balls that have a light sensor that reads and performs codes students draw for them. Be sure to check your child's Seesaw account. There may be a video or image of them working with the Ozobots!