April is School Library Month, which marks a time to celebrate the essential role that strong school libraries play in transforming learning. Around Osseo Area Schools, fun and educational events take place in library media centers all year long, but below are a few highlights from this month.
Edinbrook Elementary School
At Edinbrook Elementary School, library media specialist Sally Kimmes is focusing on poetry with her school’s scholars. She has read a different nature poem each day this month, and she introduces students to different poetry books and styles of poetry. She also sets out poetry boards for students to make their own freeform poems. On April 12, students were busy creating a poem about themselves during library time, using the poem “Cool Like That” from Vanessa Brantley-Newton’s Just Like Me collection as a guide.
Garden City Elementary School
At Garden City Elementary School, library media specialist Elizabeth Kuettner said her students had a blast doing a book tasting event and a March Madness book tournament.
Kuettner set up book tasting for scholars in grades three through five, where they got 10 minutes at each table and could rotate through three tables. The students could reserve a spot at different tables, rate the books they read and talk about first impressions.
“Many of the kids checked out books they ‘tasted’ and learned they like a lot of different books, even if they’re not graphic novels,” Kuettner said. “They all asked to do it again!”
The March Madness book tournament faced off eight top book choices by grades kindergarten, second and fourth against grades first, third and fifth’s picks. Ultimately, the book The Box Turtle from the kindergarten, second and fourth bracket won the tournament.
Fernbrook Elementary School
Most people likely associate media center time with book check-outs and read-alouds. While those are important aspects of any school library, many other activities take place in these spaces as well. For instance, every Friday morning, fifth grade scholars from Fernbrook Elementary School’s news team spend part of their morning preparing the following week’s Fernbrook Television (FBTV) student news segment. The team consists of two news anchors, a photographer, and a handful of students to work on artwork and story ideas. Scholars apply for the positions at the beginning of fifth grade and are selected for one-month spots on the news team.
In addition, the district’s school libraries service even the youngest learners. In Osseo Area Schools, kids from the Four Star Express pre-kindergarten program also enjoy regularly-scheduled library time, just like their older peers.
