Oak Street Third and Fourth Graders Participate in the KU Reading Program

Oak Street Elementary has again partnered with the University of Kansas to bring the KU Reading Program for Children to our school. This program was started by the university from the notion that reading for pleasure is an essential part of the learning process. This is an exciting way to recognize the reading achievements of our third and fourth grade students.

The program, which is SEPARATE from the regular school curriculum, is designed to stimulate reading among children in elementary and middle schools. It is also designed to encourage students to read a variety of genres.

Students who read at least 12 books receive a certificate the first year of completion. This certificate is signed by the chancellor of KU. Then every year they participate they get either a silver or gold seal to put on the certificate. Silver is recognition for reading 12-23 books and gold is for reading 24 or more. After participating in the program for four years the students receive a Jayhawk Patch.

In addition students who reach either the silver or gold level will be recognized with a special pizza lunch in May. They will also receive their certificate and seals during morning announcements.

An informative letter will come home with the students who are interested.

Welcome

Welcome back to another exciting year of roaring good reading at the Oak Street Elementary Library!

All students will be allowed to check books out during their first visit to the library.

Kindergarteners will start with checking out one book as they get used to being responsible for getting that book back and forth all by themselves! Many have visited the public library with their parents, but this will be the first time for them to take ownership of checking out and returning the book. When they get the routine of this they will go up to two books at a time. Remember they don't have to wait until their library class to get new books. They can return them anytime their classroom teacher says is okay and then get some new ones to read or have read to
them!

All other grades have the option of checking out up to three books at a time.

Books are due back in one week of check out. A student may renew a book they are still reading, but the book must be brought in to do this. We do not send notices the first week a book is over due. We just remind the student. When a book is two weeks overdue we will send a reminder with the student. We do not charge fines for overdue books, but the student can not check out until the book has returned.

Library days are posted on the right of this blog as well as some helpful and fun links.

If you have any questions, suggestions or concerns feel free to contact me.

Read to Rover

Check out this fun opportunity to read to a dog at the Kansas Humane Society.
http://www.kshumane.org/news.html

New Check Out Limits

After reviewing the data from the online survey we have made the following change to the number of books students may check out at one time. The limit has been changed from two to three for grades 1-4. Many parents thought this would be helpful and still be manageable for the students. At this time we kept Kindergarten to two books at a time. Again thanks for your input!

It was so nice to see many of you at the book fair. Your support of the fair will help continue to improve the selection of books available to the students!

Thanks for your input!

Parents,
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my survey questions. I will be letting you know the results soon.

It's a busy time in library land as we get ready for book fair, Read Across America and Camp Read A Lot Read Night. Be watching for more information.

Mrs. Franz

Libraries and Reading Achievement

January 2010
Dear Parents and guardians,
Goddard has always valued the importance of well funded and staffed libraries and the role of the library media specialist. Since 1990, a tremendous amount of research has been gathered showing the positive impact of libraries and librarians on student achievement.
Besides teaching students how to evaluate and manage all the newest forms of media, one of the best things we can do is to help cultivate that lifelong reader. Students need to have access to books. While we have always had an open check out at the Oak Street Library, it seems the students’ days are just too busy to get back daily. With the goal in mind to get more books in students hands and the knowledge that students become better readers by reading (practice), I would like to open up the limit of books the students can check out at one time.
I would so appreciate your input in this procedural change. Would you please take a minute to answer the online survey? It is located at the top right hand corner of this blog. The survey will be up until Feb 5th. Please take the survey for the grade your student is in and if you have more than one child, please complete a survey for each grade! I will post the results on the blog in February and also any changes we will make. Thanks so much for your time.