International Dot Day Celebration

Fourth grade students celebrated International Dot Day this week during their library checkout time with Mrs. Jennings.  They watched a video presentation of the book The Dot written by Peter H. Reynolds.  The author invites us all to "make a mark and see where it takes us".  Students shared their ideas about the book's theme of encouragement and discussed how characters in the story "filled buckets".  Fourth graders then made their own Dot creations using the Tux Paint software and enjoyed a Dot treat, one for themselves and one to share.

Happy Birthday Books!

A new tradition has begun at Spirit Lake Elementary.  When a student celebrates a birthday they may choose to donate a book to the library instead of bringing candy to their classmates.  Donating a book is a healthier alternative and is a gift that can be shared with hundreds of students for years to come.  Pictured here is our first birthday gift of the year.  Thank you!

New Library Book Bags!

Watch for your students' library books coming home in new book bags.  Library books should travel to and from school in these bags.  Using these bags to protect the books inside your students' backpacks should help keep the books from being damaged by wet snowpants, boots, water bottles and spilled lunches.  Please remember to return library books inside the bags on your child's library checkout day.  If a library book bag becomes lost, you will be asked to pay $1.00 for a replacement.

Summer Travels

What does a librarian do on her summer vacation? Why... visit libraries, of course! This summer I traveled to Greece and Turkey and had the opportunity to visit the ruins and archaeological sites of many different ancient libraries. Pictured above is one of the most beautiful ones I visited in the ancient city of Ephesus near the port of Izmir in Turkey.

QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) are starting to appear throughout the SLES building .  You can also find them in the library.  Use the codes here to discover the titles that are the winners of the Iowa Children's Choice Award and Goldfinch Award for 2012!

SLES Library Panorama

Check out the link above to see a 360 degree panoramic photo of our SLES library in action taken by Mr. Huebner on his new Ipad using the Dermandar App!