Doss Library

I am so excited about this year's Winter Reading Challenge! It is new and improved and will hopefully encourage all of the owls to access AISD's many databases and electronic books as well as Doss' subscriptions to PebbleGo and PebbleGoNext. Teachers sent home a copy of the challenge printed on blue paper, a bookmark with all password information for databases and electronic books, and a yellow quarter sheet ticket for myON this week. Please sign and return the challenge sheet after break. We will celebrate participation with hot cocoa on the playground sometime after January 6th. Happy reading, wondering, & exploring! Enjoy the break!

Phil Bildner with RAD committee, Mrs. Lang & Mrs. Palmer

Mrs. "Gobble Gracker" Lang with Abby Hanlon

We had a great September! On the morning of the 22nd we hosted Phil Bildner for our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. Phil is a picture book and chapter book author. He is this year's winner of the Margaret Wise Brown Prize for Children's Literature for his picture book, Marvelous Cornelius. His message included the importance of reading, writing, editing, hard work, and kindness! His energy and excitement were contagious and we were so fortunate to get to spend time with him. Phil suggested many great books for our owls to read and encouraged them to work hard and do their best. The kids came out in their jerseys to celebrate the newest book in the Rip and Red series. They were excited and engaged for the visit. It was a great learning opportunity and a reminder of the value of bringing authors to our school

Let me start by telling you how much I love being the librarian at Doss Elementary School! I cannot imagine a better place to spend my days. The icing on the cake is that I get to work with the most amazing group of students, teachers, administrators, and parents around! I cannot thank the community enough for all of the support that they show! That brings me to the library volunteers and Read Across Doss (RAD) committee chairs. These people make my world go 'round! We've hit the ground running and have a great bunch of people coming weekly to help shelve, organize, and complete everyday tasks. We are also busy planning some amazing author visits. RAD is hosting Phil Bildner and Abby Hanlon on Thursday, September 22nd. Phil's visit is sponsored by PTA with the help of the RAD committee. He has been to Doss before and I am thrilled that a new group of owls will have the opportunity to meet him- He is truly an inspiration! Check out his website and especially the video about the first book in the Rip and Red series. He has written books for all ages and had received many accolades for his work. He will be speaking to our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in the morning. While we've never hosted two authors in one day- we will be able to say that we've done just that come Thursday afternoon when BookPeople brings Abby Hanlon to Doss. Abby has written and illustrated a series for young readers called Dory Fantasmagory. Our 3rd grade team didn't want to miss this so third graders will actually see both authors (this opportunity will likely never happen again!) and will be joined by second grade. Visit Abby's website for more on her adorable books!

BookPeople, Austin's independent bookseller supports our school in many ways. We host our book fair with them and the wonderful Topher Bradfield always spends a few days at Doss book talking and visiting with students. BookPeople also brings us talented authors and illustrators that inspire our students to read, write, think, and dream. We are grateful for their partnership and support them by purchasing books through the online web store that they have set up for us to use when authors visit our school. These purchases allow us to continue bringing authors to Doss. We appreciate BookPeople and encourage you to follow this link and buy books. Please consider buying a book for your child, your child's teacher, their classroom library, or as a gift for a friend. We would also like to provide books for students who may not be able to afford one; these books can be given to me to distribute. Our community is always so thoughtful and generous- I thank you for this!!!

Next up is Ridley Pearson. He will be speaking to 4th and 5th graders on Thursday, September 29th. This talented author has written many books for adults and children. He is known at Doss for his Starcatchers and Kingdom Keepers series. He will be promoting his new book, Lock and Key. Signed copies of his books are also available for purchase.

Many thanks for your support!!!
Bonnie

Wow! I hope that everyone had an amazing first week! I know that I did. I love the beginning of the school year. I spent this past week greeting returning Doss Owls and meeting new ones. I enjoyed being back to work with the awesome teachers, staff, administrators, and community that makes our school special. I met with the Read Across Doss (RAD) committee and my volunteer coordinators. I am grateful for these amazing parent volunteers who work with me to create an fantastic library program! I created a check out schedule, read to all of the first graders and all but two of the kindergarten classes (I will be reading to those classes tomorrow), and scheduled my required district inventory of all books and materials as well as the week that we will host the AISD Dome. I discarded at least two hundred books and have a cart full of at least that many more. It was a great week!  Back to school time feels like sitting down and opening up a new novel...the one you read slowly, lingering over each precious word and savoring the details. This is a time to set goals and plan ahead. While I try to be consistent with my posts, I do find it easier to tweet and post to Instagram... You can find me @dosslibrary! I hope that you will follow me! Come by and say hello--- you are always welcome at the Jane Willis Library! Best wished for an incredible 2016-17 school year!!

Mr. Jones and I collaborated to introduce a great app called Explain Everything to his class. The students learned how to access and use the app in the library and had been learning about procedural text in class. They worked in small groups prior to coming to the library on a plan and script to explain a particular library procedure. The students worked diligently to create a audiovisual presentation in the application and were able to save it to their Google Drive, open the file, and create a QR code that links to the final project.  The QR code above is just one of the student created products that are now on display in the library. It will lead you to an example of one of the small group's creations. I was thrilled with the cooperative efforts that students made and their ability to follow through and complete the assignment. Technology can be unpredictable and the kids were patient and helpful with one another. I am looking forward to using Explain Everything with other classes!

If you are looking for a QR code reader for your handheld device, I've found i-nigma to be a good one.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I am so happy to be your librarian! I am lucky to work with kindergarten through fifth grade. I am fortunate to have willing, supportive, and extremely hard-working volunteers that make wonderful things happen each and every day! I could not do it without them! I have a motivated, dedicated, and highly talented group of teachers and administrators that trust and believe in me. They work tirelessly to plan and execute amazing learning opportunities and I am both honored and grateful to be a part of that.

February has been fantastic!!! Earlier this month, I walked by an inspired bulletin board with work from Jenny Carroll's class. I couldn't help myself- I just had to stop and take a picture. I am glad to be able to share it with you. Well done 4th graders!!!



The amazing RAD team brought Jory John to visit with the kindergarten and first graders... I was sad not be there, but knew that everything would run smoothly in the capable hands Mrs. Chacha, Sherrise Palmer, Julie Middleton, Katie Kinzy, Liz Bronson, and Virginia Jones! I've heard that Jory was fantastic and hope to have him back sometime so that I can meet him!



That brings me to today.... I celebrated with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders who participated in the Bluebonnet Program with Pop Tarts and milk. I encourage current 2nd through 4th graders to check out the list of books for the 2016-17 year and start reading now. The twenty books are selected by Texas librarians and inlcudes a variety of reading levels and genres... It's a great place to find a book! Anything that your child reads from now through next January counts towards program participation. Look for more details on that later, but for now- Happy Reading!!!

and.... One last thing- 2nd and 3rd graders welcomed the amazing Lincoln Peirce, author of the Big Nate series.  RAD brought T.A. Brown third graders over for this event and once again, you opened your hearts and bought books for them! I plan to deliver the signed copies by the end of the week. If you did not order a book and would like to, it's not too late. Details can be found on the RAD committee page on the PTA website. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!





oh... and don't forget to follow dosslibrary on Instagram and Twitter- @dosslibrary

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the RADical Winter Reading Program and/or BookSpring!!! The Read Across Doss co-chairs served hot chocolate during recess last week for all participants. I hope that next year we'll be serving even more marshmallow and whipped cream topped cups of sprinkled happiness.

We are especially proud of our top readers:

Kindergarten
First Place with 301 minutes- Kaitlyn in Ms. Collin's class
Second Place with 180 minutes- Leo in Ms. Vrba's class
Third Place with 130 minutes- Brighten in Ms. Sprague's class

First Grade
First Place with 610 minutes- Aydin in Mrs. Singerman's class
Second Place with 562 minutes- Jiarui in Mrs. Mowry's class
Third Place with 296 minutes- Charlie in Ms. Sprague's class

Second Grade
First Place with 1101 minutes- Emmy in Mrs. Smith's class
Second Place with 878 minutes- Celeste in Mrs. Smith's class
Third Place with 730 minutes- Asseah in Mrs. Hello's class

Third Grade
First Place with 1152 minutes- Dominic in Mrs. Stover's class
Second Place with 993 minutes- Lorelei in Mrs. Stover's class
Third Place with 908 minutes- Amelie in Mrs. Bone's class

Fourth Grade
First Place with 3479 minutes- Aima in Sweeney/Wiley
Second Place with 3012 minutes- Ella in Cormack
Third Place with 2445 minutes- Zach in Sweeney/Wiley

Fifth Grade
First Place with 1795 minutes- Claire in Mrs. Key's class
Second Place with 1720 minutes- Connor in Mrs. Hawkin's class
Third Place with 1715 minutes- Addison in Mrs. Daly's class

Keep Reading!!!

Thanks to Mrs. Means and her amazing second graders for taking an interest in my blog. It doesn't get as much traffic as I'd like and I was flattered that Mrs. Means wanted to check out the library Samsung Galaxy Nook tablets to use as a vehicle to explore my blog! I have some great links and it's a fantastic platform for sharing, but haven't posted in a while and was energized by the enthusiasm shown today.

I know that my community is busy and there isn't a lot of time to explore all that's available on the internet and in social media, but am glad that you're here and ask that you check out the new books on our FollettShelf. Take some time to look at the first 29 titles. They are the newest additions and were purchased with funds awarded through our People's Choice Award in the FollettChallenge last spring. These electronic books have built in videos, slideshows, internet links, and more! I've ordered a variety of content and levels and hope to add more soon. You can gain access with a generic username and password. It's the same one we use for mycapstonelibrary.com. I will post this on Living Tree as I cannot share this information here, or ask your owl... most of the kids know it! You can also login to the FollettShelf with a student id # as the user and the transitive verb meaning "to receive or take in the sense of (as letters or symbols) especially by sight or touch" as the password.

Also, I'd love for you to follow dosslibrary on Twitter and Instagram!!!

Please leave a comment-- I'd love to hear from you!

Guess where Jenna and I were over the break... This was only one of the amazing places we visited!