May 17, 2012
Micki Nevett Library
Betty Ahearn-Library Media Specialist
Our School Library! shapeyourfuture24/7@gcsdlibraries
Westmere's young people learn about digital citizenship, information fluency and literature appreciation throughout the year.
We love to see our Westmere friends in the news! These are clippings from The Altamont Enterprise and the Albany Times Union newspapers.
Poetry Celebration
Students in Mrs. Kelleher's Third Grade invited parents and families to their celebration of poetry, sharing their own poems and teaching the audience about various kinds of poetry.
Birds in Hand
Second Grade students have crafted beautiful nesting birds in art class, creating a rich display in our library windows facing the lobby - please stop by to admire their handiwork!
Learning Circle
Students in Fourth Grade have created books and multimedia projects from their research on Colonial Artifacts. This year Hannah S. is learning about these artifacts from a book her brother Jon created two years ago. Her class is creating books and multimedia projects about Simple Machines that future fourth graders will study.
Shoe-La-La!
In Art Class, Fifth Grade Students fashioned clay shoe sculptures! Enjoy these varied and creative designs!
Third Grade Biography Experts
Students in Mrs. Kelleher's class shared their expertise on famous people they researched in the library.
Students in Mrs.Silva's class created Bottle People to represent the results of their biography research.
Fourth Grade Learns
Fourth Grade Council Fire in Library Iroquois artifacts
Fourth grade dramatize the book: Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo and display character boxes from the story.
Fifth Grade Projects
Fifth Grade Heritage Projects from Mrs. Garrity's students.
Below see examples of Fifth Grade research from students in Mrs. Gigante's class.
Students in 5th Grades researched Canada. Some students used wood from fallen tree limbs in their backyards to carve totems that demonstrate their new understandings of Canadian culture and history.
From the 2010-2011 School Year:
Third Grade Students Learn About
Kenya
Annette Sebiyura is a native Kenyan, as well as a GHS chemistry teacher and parent of WES third grader Ekale Elonge in Mrs. Ellen Mosher's class. Third graders studying Kenya all gathered in our library to listen to Mrs. Sebuyira describe life in Kenya through slides, and artifacts such as toys, clothing books and tools. Ekale assisted with several of the demonstrations. Third grade children learned to speak some important words in Kiswahili such as "welcome," "friend," "thank you," "lion" and "ruler."
StudentsPerform Following Class Author
Study
First grade Thespians in Mrs. Brennan's class put on a play after doing an author study in their class about Frank Asch. Here they present facts about Frank Asch that they discovered during their research. Look for Frank Asch books and other wonderful authors in the Picture Book Section of our library!
Spring in Our Courtyard
May Kicks Off with Children's Book Week.
This celebration attests to the importance of reading.
As we plant our gardens outdoors in spring, we endeavor to grow our young readers as thinkers, dreamers, and solution builders. Happy reading!
April is
National School Library Month!
April is also
National Poetry Month
Other celebrations include:
National
Library Week April 10-16
Earth Day
April 22
Arbor Day
April 29
Stop in our library for a
"green book" this month!
We Are All Pieces of the Puzzle
Fourth Grade students from Mrs. Shudt's class shared the diversity found in their classroom with invited guests in the library. Each held a flag from their family's country of origin designed in the shape of a puzzle piece, demonstrating that we all fit together, that "we're all different but the same!"
Gingerbread Man Checks Out Our Library!
Gently Used Book Sale
Saturday December 11, the Holiday Inn Express on Western Avenue, together with our PTA, co-sponsored a gently used book sale to benefit our visiting author fund. Westmere PTA parent Angie Pettiti organized the many WES volunteers and patrons to make this book sale a success! The Holiday Inn staff generously contributed their time and efforts to host this event. Nearly $200 was raised from this book sale toward future author visits. So far we have had two wonderful authors share their craft with us this fall: Daniel J. Mahoney and James Preller - go to our EVENTS link to read more about their visits!
November News
Heritage
Studies
What is my heritage? Students in fifth grades investigated countries of their families' origin. They were immersed in library books, online and text encyclopedias and websites. Each became an expert spokesperson to visiting parents. View more photos from the event!
We're
Green!
Some of our fifth grade recycling club members are holding aloft a selection of our library's books on recycling and conservation. On November 15th we celebrated Recycling Day at Westmere. These were some of the books read aloud in classrooms in observance of our special day.