Library News

Through All for Books Book Fair contributions, the Library was able to shop and add 38 new books to the library. Woo hoo! Thanks to everyone who rounded up their totals at the Book Fair!

Thank you Annabelle and Isaac Falla for your wonderful donation of Snap Circuits and K'NEX from our Library Maker Space Wishlist! These manipulatives will give students access to STEM learning in a creative and collaborative learning environment.

Various literacy stations that allowed students and families to participate in: comic book making, Mexican tin bookmarks, cheer squad spelling, free book giveaway, and raffles to a local book store to support student literacy needs over the summer!

Thank you Annie Barrows, Author of the Ivy & Bean series for coming to Bella Vista to share your funny and engaging stories. All students in grades 2-4 attended and had the opportunity to listen to Annie speak about how to write a book and ask questions, lots of funny stuff in between! Thank you to Judy & Jean of Temple Sinai for making this happen for our students!

All students had the opportunity to come up to the library and select a new free book along with a bookmark of their choice to enjoy over winter break. There was something for everyone! Thank you Temple Sinai for donating all the books!

Thank you Temple Sinai for the continued support to Bella Vista library. With their generosity, the library was able to purchase brand new hardcover high interest books and update our language collection with new Chinese, Vietnamese, and Spanish titles. We are so grateful for Temple Sinai's support to the Bella Vista library!

Bella Vista students in grades 1 - 5 have the opportunity to explore and build during the lunchtime maker space in the library. A variety of materials are available for our imaginative young inventors to learn through creating.

Middle and high school students from the Athenian School in Danville gave a generous donation to our school library. The library advisory board raised about $500 to purchase new titles, and then came to Bella Vista to present their gift. These amazing students paid visits to classrooms to read a picture book or give a book talk on one of their favorites. They fielded questions about books vs. movies and life middle school, and one reader even had to protect her leg from a TK "alligator"!

Bella Vista students can look forward to seeing these titles on our library shelves when we return in August. I hope that they will be inspired by this good deed and will do something for another school when they are older. Thank you Athenian!

The week of May 7-11, students were encouraged to donate their loose change to purchase books for our school library. Classroom collection containers plus additional donations during the book faired totaled almost $650, enough to add more than 50 titles to our library shelves! These books will be available when we return to school in August.

As an added bonus, Scholastic Books will match our donation and give an equal bonanza of books to a school library in need. Your generosity will benefit young readers in both our community and another. Thank you Ms. Gibbons for hosting the school Book Fair and for collecting donations!

This week, every Bella Vista student got the opportunity to choose a free book and bookmark, compliments of Temple Sinai. This community organization has been a continued supporter of Bella Vista Elementary. We are so thankful to be one of the lucky schools in OUSD they choose to support. Thank you for getting fresh books into our students hands!

Mrs. Chu, Ms. Peguero, Ms. Pitts, and Ms. Rorabaugh's classes enjoyed a visit with Carmen Bogan where they learned about writing and publishing a book. Ms. Bogan generously donated a signed copy of her book Where's Rodney? to the Bella Vista library. Thank you!

On November 14, local author/illustrator Sara Newman returned to Bella Vista Library to present her book,Milo the Littlest Barn Owl to Ms. Prchlik's kindergarten class and Ms. Peguero's 2nd grade class. All students got to take home a Milo owl to decorate and put on a craft stick. Students learned first-hand the multi-step process a book goes through before it becomes published. Thank you Sara for coming to see us again! And thank you to Ms. Belenson, our librarian, for arranging this visit and nurturing a love of literature!

Kids are amazing! A 5th grader from Crocker Highlands Elementary dropped off a box of new high quality hardcover books to donate to Bella Vista Elementary Library. Rather than accepting gifts for her birthday from friends, Saskia Lee decided to request books be purchased (from an established list I curated at the request of her kind mom) so that she could donate them to a library less fortunate than her own school's. This heartwarming and humble gesture is an example of direct equity. Saskia chose Bella Vista because it is a sister school to Crocker Highlands. It's touching to see how happy it made her to hand over the books to make a difference to those she may one day meet in middle school or high school. Thank you Saskia Lee and her sweet friends for your thoughtful donation to Bella Vista Library! Books are processed and ready for checkout!

Bella Vista Students each were given the opportunity to a free book and bookmark during our Book Giveaway, sponsored by Temple Sinai. Each student left with something they wanted. These types of events encourage free and independent reading. Thank you Temple Sinai for another generous contribution this year!

Bella Vista's 2nd and 3rd grade students attended a special presentation from local author, Muon Van. Her books include: In a Village by the Sea and The Little Tree. Students watched her works come to life on the projector while Muon tied in interactive elements. Both stories touch upon themes of: immigrants, refugees, kindness, and perseverance. Many students related to her stories and shared with her where they and their families have come from in a meet and greet after the presentation (Ms. Chu's class).

A special thanks to Muon Van for her wonderful visit and also to Temple Sinai's Literacy Project for allowing for this visit to happen. Both of Muon Van's books are available in the Bella Vista library, come on by to check them out!

Thank you to Author/Artist/Activist, Innosanto Nagara for his enriching visit to Bella Vista Elementary. Students really conceptualized the similarities in his book, My Night in the Planetarium and his experience in Indonesia to what's happening today with the political climate and the inequalities. Ms. Belenson will continue the conversation, and hope students were inspired to see that justice and freedom can prevail through community and art. Thanks for giving them a relatable story -- one of safety and hope.

Today's author visit with Sara Newman was fantastic!

Both classes were enriching and fun. Students were able to listen to a local author read Milo, a tale of a little owl who finds courage through discovery and wonder. Sara Newman took the time to showcase how a book is made and brought in drafts and illustrations that showed the process of book writing. The teachers both have developed lesson plans from the story, Milo. Ms. Hansen will be having her students each write their own fairytales and may even delve into an owl pellet dissection segment, as it correlates to the story. Ms. Prchlik's class will be writing a story to present to the author as a thank you. Students also had the opportunity to purchase copies signed by the author. Thank you, Sara Newman!