RES Library Media Center News

RES library volunteers donate over 20 hours a week of their time helping students find books, checking out materials, setting up displays, and reshelving the hundreds of books our students and teachers read and return every week. They also put in many extra hours at the beginning of every school year when students return several thousand summer library books. This year many new volunteers also came to the library to read with our kindergartners. Many thanks to these dedicated people who keep the library welcoming, attractive, and organized for our students: Susan Amidon Jen Cushman Heather Drury Berta Dumas Sherri Gouse Meghann Greenough Liz Halgas Adriana Hashinga Amy Ide Michael Marciel Meredith Monahan Jenn Poehlman Amanda Repp Evelyn Rolfe Renee Slattery Jackie Wintersteen Melissa Wolaver Students and staff from Camels Hump Middle School Officer Brett Lindemuth

First grade students at RES have started a unit in their library classes about communities around the world. The first book we shared was Chopsticks For My Noodle Soup by Susan E. Goodman, which is set in Malaysia. Students were especially interested in the similarities and differences between school in Richmond, Vermont and school in rural Malaysia: children in both schools learn reading, writing, and numbers, but the school cook in Malaysia sells unlimited candy to her students! In future weeks we will be sharing An Elephant in the Backyard by Richard Sobol (Thailand), Far North by Jan Reynolds (Scandinavia), and My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me by Maya Angelou (South Africa). Book cover images are from amazon.com

Fourth grade scholars at RES have been participating in a once a week class, co-taught by teacher-librarian Beth Redford and enrichment teacher Darcie Rankin. The class focuses on digital literacy, critical thinking, research skills, and interest driven projects. Scholars’ culminating activities were independent, interest driven research projects. Each scholar self selected a topic and designed a Capstone Project to share his or her interests and knowledge. Fourth graders and their families and friends gathered on Wednesday, May 13 to share their Capstone Projects and celebrate their learning. We hope you enjoy this video from our Celebration. Digital versions of many of the projects are available at the links below: Mrs. Berliner's Class Capstone Presentations Ms. Erickson's Class Capstone Presentations Ms. Senning's Class Capstone Presentations Thank you very much to all the adult experts and volunteers who assisted our scholars! And congratulatio...

For the last four months, RES fourth graders have been planning, researching, and preparing presentations as part of their Capstone Projects for enrichment library class. The scholars have showed amazing creativity in how they choose to present the information they have learned. Here are just a few examples! Some students created videos:    Writing a Tellegami video about dinosaur extinction While others wrote movies or plays: rehearsing a play about a pop singer Created Google Presentations (don't miss the embedded greenscreen video):  Or wrote and illustrated comic strips: All the fourth grade scholars will be presenting their Capstone Projects at their Capstone Celebration, Wednesday, May 13 at 5:30 p.m. All projects will be posted on the ThinkCreateCollaborate blog next week!

The Day the Crayons Quit  by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers. Yes, the top Red Clover Book choice of RES students also got the most votes all across Vermont. Click here for a list of the Red Clover Award-winning books from previous years . image from amazon.com

Running a book center about The Flying Beaver Brothers books April at the RES library, by the numbers: Number of library books and other materials checked out by RES scholars, families, and staff: 1,511 -- that's 89 per day in our 17 days of school this month Number of scholar visits to the library: over 850 Number of checkouts for our most popular book: 13 for The Minecraft Construction Handbook Number of second graders who ran "Book Centers" to persuade their classmates to try their favorite books: 30 . The rest of the second graders will be running their book centers in May Number of fourth graders who read or listened to at least 5 books from the 2014-2015 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award reading list: 22 . This is a voluntary program for fourth through eighth graders which involves a LOT of reading during the school year, and we are very proud of all of our scholars who participated!