Library Life
WE LOVE NEW BOOKS!
Our first of (at least) 3 shipments has arrived! It will take some time to process all of the new books and get them out into the students' hands, but I'm so excited to dive into these boxes and get started!
See anything you're excited to read? I see some old friends, and hopefully some new ones you'll be excited to meet!
Thank you to everyone who supported our Read-A-Thon!!
Students were invited to join us in this fun reading event. They agreed to read every day for two weeks and gained sponsors who helped to encourage them. They earned different prize levels for participating, and were able to earn "R.A.T." dollars to spend at the online store, too!
Students who chose to participate earned the following reward levels:
Level 1: Students who activated their pages, agreeing to read every day for 2 weeks, were awarded a bookmark.
Level 2: Students who got a parent to share their link on Facebook were given a kids meal from Texas Roadhouse.
Level 3: Students whose parents sent 10 emails were awarded with a visit from our Treasure Box and got to pick a cool reward.
Bonus Level: Students whose parents sent 10 text messages were entered in a drawing for a trip to Disney World!!
Level 4: Students who were sponsored in their reading goal for $5 or more were invited to our Book Character Dress Up Day Parade!
Our Top Readers (most recorded minutes) were:
Arya Mallya
Nyla Johnson
Abel Hevey
Mia Prebe
Will Stevens
Check out these cool characters and see if you can identify their favorite books!! It's fun to see the kids sharing what they love to read!!
And thank you to everyone who supported our Read-A-Thon!! I'm excited to be able to purchase new books for our students!!
What do YOU like to read??
Read-A-Thon 2021
Our 2021 Read-A-Thon will take place October 11-22nd. Please help us by registering your student and sharing their link with family and friends via email or on Facebook.
Students will receive a bookmark for registering their page, a Free Kids Meal certificate to Texas Roadhouse when you share their link on Facebook, a Treasure Box Prize if you send 10 emails, and every child who raises at least $5 will get to dress up as their favorite book character to march in our Book Character Parade on Friday, October 29th. In addition, students will be awarded 15% of the money they raise in RAT dollars to spend at the online store for some very cool prizes of their own choosing!
Profits from the Read-A-Thon will go to the Media Center this year to buy new books for our students. Due to county budget cuts, we have not been able to buy new books for our collection in four years! We have a lot of award winners and and series titles our kids have been missing out on.
Thank you for all you do to support our school!
Check out our new look!!
Ms. Graham spent several weeks this summer cleaning out the library, purging old unwanted materials, rearranging the furniture, and reorganizing the collection. The fiction section is now genrefied to help students more easily find what they are looking for, and everything is fresh and clean! Come on in and enjoy our newly redecorated space!
Northwest Elementary invites you to shop our Virtual Book Fair and help encourage your child's love of reading! The Fair runs from March 17 - March 31.
Our Fair will feature a Virtual Fair walk-through so you and your kids can experience the magic of an in-school Fair: Browse titles by grade, meet popular authors, and much more!
All purchases will benefit our school directly (25% back in rewards!). Don’t miss these two weeks of events, fun, and books.
Some of our kids have been making blankets for Project Linus thanks to a grant Ms. Graham was awarded by TriCounty Electric.
The kids are learning how to "braid" the edges together to make no-sew fleece blankets.
Request books using the form at bit.ly/nwebooks
NWE StoryWalk
Thanks to a grant from DonorsChoose, Ms. Graham was able to bring a StoryWalk to Northwest Elementary. The kids can walk around the playground reading a fun story while they are out enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. While "Social Distancing" keeps us from doing many of the fun activities we love, this is one we can enjoy.
A good book, fresh air, and a chance to walk around and move our bodies?? What can be better??
It has been 9 years since the US has launched its own manned space mission, but today a new era in space exploration will begin!
Click the link to learn more about the SpaceX program and watch the launch!
This month, we have focused on cyber-safety with our students. Many of them have had stories to share about their experiences online. Parents may not be aware of the dangers lurking in the apps and games their kids use regularly, so I thought I would share some important information. Please see the PDF files below to find out more about the programs your children are using at home.
Fortnite-parents.pdfFortnite
Minecraft-parents.pdfMinecraft
Roblox-parents.pdfRoblox
Discord-Parents.pdfDiscord
FIFA20-parents.pdfFIFA20
SNAPCHAT-parents.pdfSnapchat
TikTok.pdfTikTok
Kik-parents.pdfKik
Nintendo-Switch-Online-parents.pdfNintendo Switch
YOUTUBE-parents.pdfYouTube
Twitter-parents.pdfTwitch-parents.pdfTwitch
We had our first Family Code Night on May 7th
Parents and students learned a little bit about what Coding means.
Not only do our kids need to learn skills for jobs that don't even exist yet, they're the ones who will have to create these new jobs!
Our students and parents had such a great time learning and problem-solving!
Parents provided support and encouragement as the kids worked with them to solve the mazes.
Parents cheered their kids on and celebrated each victory with them, instilling pride and confidence in these awesome kiddoes!
IMG_5673.MOVWe met Astronaut Mike Hopkins!
He read us the story "Max goes to the Space Station" from the International Space Station!
We then toured the International Space Station!
We used iPads and Virtual Reality glasses to wander all around!
IMG_5680.MOVThe kindergarteners were so excited!
They had a great time on our virtual field trip!!
What a Marvelous March we had!
We had a very BUSY month, with lots of extra fun and excitement!! We won a WalMart Community Grant from the local "Rosewood WalMart" which we used to buy Virtual Reality equipment to use. We had our Book Fair and Battle of the Books competition. We also participated in the Wayne County Schools STEM Fair where our kids were what everyone was talking about! Wow... I'm tired just THINKING about it!
Building a Robot
Learning to code the robot
We've got it going!
The girls learning to code games!
Everyone loved playing with the game handle the girls coded.
A Future Engineer!
They learned circuitry and coding.
These guys decided to build a car!
Building a piano
Building a harp
Programming the makey-makey
And finally... Getting to show off their cool instruments at the WCPS STEM Fair!
Congratulations to our Elementary Battle of the Books team on a job well done!
What a fun group to work with!!
We've had a
FANTASTIC February!
In addition to our usual lessons, book circulations, and fun, we have also had groups of 4th graders working on presentations for the STEM Fair! Wait till you see what these kids can do!
January was a GREAT month in the library!
We also won our Fairy Tale STEM grant on Donors Choose and the kindergarteners were able to use all of the new challenge kits as we completed our Fairy Tale Unit in the library!
Check out the pics of our TOO COOL Kinders problem-solving, collaborating, and have FUN!
Retell fairy tales with puppets
Build a ladder to save Rapunzel
Build a house the Big Bad Wolf can't blow down
Build a raft to keep the Gingerbread Man safe
Build a basket to hold all of Red Riding Hood's apples
Build a bridge for the Billy Goats Gruff
Build chairs for the 3 Bears and Goldilocks