Thanks For Stopping In

It was wonderful to met so many of you at open house tonight. I appreciate you taking the time to support your child by coming to open house. I am glad you took a moment of your evening to stop in and take in the beauty of our wonderful library full of so many beautiful books to take your child on so many wonderful adventures this year though reading. We are very blessed at Harritt. My hope is that you and your family enjoy this year to its fullest.

Shine on!

Again another great week of shinning students.

Jordan A-4
Rodolfo A-4
Estrella A-4
Deonte B-2
Jacob A-6
Kyle C-5
Alexa C-2
McKenna A-3

Anna B-5

Taryn B-3

Jessica B-1

Jonny B-1

Xavior B-1

Koich B-1

Matt M-1

Cameron M-1

Alice A-6

Wonderful Week (our week in review)

Our week started off wonderful as Technology spent time helping us get our lab back to being stable for student use again. Our break from the projects in the lab was fulled with fun, laughter and learning as we did the following activities.



Grades 2-5 met author Cynthia Rylant via an author video. She has authored many great books for a wide range of readers and library has a great collection of her titles for all ages. Now we can put a face with a name and know a little bit more about this wonderful childrens author.



The 3-4 grades were exposed the the Beverly Cleary Award named after one of Oregons most well know authors. The students heard about the history of this award and learned about last years winner of the Beverly Cleary Award and got to see and hear about each of this years nominees. Down Girl and Sit Smarter then Squirrels by Lucy Nolan was the book we read this week as an introduction to this years Beverly Cleary nominees.

Upper grades spent time doing a library classroom scavenger hunt as they located reference books to answer questions as well as locating other books in various parts of the library and different authors located though out the library. This was a fun activity we will have to visit again. I was also able with some of the upper grades to spend time doing a short book talk about recent books I had read in hopes that someone might be inspired to read one of the recent title I had read.

Shinning Stars

I am so very pleased with the way the students are starting off this years with behaviors that just shine.

Marcus C-4
Lucas C-3
Chad B-4
Cody B-5
Banessa M-1
McKenzie A-4
McKenna A-4
Cullen B-4
Michelle B-4
Sadie C-5
Kyle C-5
Tanner B-4
Jordan B-4
Nixxon B-4
Emma B-4
Shelbey B-4

Our Stories For The Week

Our stories for the week included the following:

I Took My Frog To The Library

By: Eric Kimmel

Stella LouElla's Runaway Book

By Lisa Campbell Ernst

Arthur's Teacher Moves In By: Marc Brown

Book Care, Word Art, and OPAC (our week in Review)

This week saw us doing a wide variety of things in library/media.

The younger grades continued to learn about book care and all class (1-5) have now had their first check-out of the year. Each year we have seen more damaged/lost books at Harritt so each year I have tried to impress upon the students responsibility in a fun and creative way. This year the younger children learned about the job of an illustrator or they illustrated a book care rule for me to use to help teach the kindergarten students when they begin to check-out books. Look for some of these wonderful illustrations at Open House next week in the hallway displays.

Middle grades had hoped to begin typing their "Recipes for Good Year" this week but as we progressed through the week we ran into technical difficulties in the lab that caused us to abandon that lesson for another week and focus on one aspect of Microsoft Word. We experimented with the Word Art tool in partners typing our names. Oh this was a fun lesson full of ooohs and aaahs! We look forward to returning to our recipes at a later date but regret that they will not be on display for Open House.

Upper grades spent time doing a scavenger hunt using the OPAC system (Online Public Access Catalog) We learned how to search for books in our library by title, author and keyword. It proved to be both fun and useful as the students enter the year being able to confidently locate information on their own should the need arise.

It was my privilege to go to each kindergarten classroom and met the kindergarten students and next week I will be visiting each classroom for a storytime as we build towards their first trip to the library media center in the coming weeks.

More Shinning Stars

More stars were placed on our "All-Star" Bulletin Board this week as students showed above and beyond behavior and attitude in media class.

Preston C-2
Karisma B-6
Shakeria C-1
Ana C-1
Maritza C-1
Levi B-5
Jaden A-3
Anna A-3
Adam B-5
Malia B-5
Jasmine B-5
Keagen A-6
Blake A-6

We Are Cooking In Media (Our Week In Review)

The middles grades began a lesson on recipes. We talked about how a recipe looks listing the ingredients, amounts and direction for how to make something with those ingredients. We began the process of writing
our own recipe titled: A Recipe For a Good Year.


This week the younger grades continued learned about the responsibility of checking out books. We looked at book care using the Shelf Elf and What Happen To Marion’s Book.




We met and learned all about the author/illustrator Marc Brown via a video interview. We then spent time looking at all the Arthur books our library has to offer.



The upper grades worked together to create book care skits and have them video taped for use with the younger children. I saw some very creative and talented students as well as some great teamwork in each classroom.

Now on to next week!

They Say Teachers Shape the Future....

While they touch the lives of the children they teach. Well, today my life was touched by two of my students and I know I will never forget these children.

Jaden in A-3 ( a new 1st grader to Harritt) had just heard the story of "What Happen to Marion's Book" and been shown some of the books from our library that had met an ill fate. These books were damaged beyond repair. He raised his hand in a sweet 1st grade voice said, "teacher I have that book at my house I can bring it and give it to you to replace the one that you have that is damaged." My heart was so moved by this tender child and his willingness to give for the good of others.

Ashlea, C-5, a 5th grader (and another new student to Harritt), asked me yesterday if we had any Dolphin books. I directed her to the "Dolphin Diaries". She said she had read the first one in that series (Into The Blue) and really enjoyed it. As I steered her to the book "Stranded" she remarked, "Mrs. Wanek have you read the "Dolphin Diaries," if you haven't I can loan you the first book that I liked so much." Today what did I receive? None other then Ashlea's personal copy, of the "Dolphin Diaries Into the Blue," for me to read. As I write this now I am 1/2 way through the book and I agree with Ashlea this is a great book. Thanks for suggesting it Ashlea maybe someday you'll be a librarian too!

The Stars are Hanging Already!!

Yeah for Sam E who received our first star of the year for his thoughtfulness for Mrs. Burlison and his classmates. Without being asked he offered to hold two doors while moving from one specialist class (library media) to another specialist class.

Okay, lets start filling the wall with more star students!

Check back often to see more "Star Students"

4,3,2,1

After our first week of school we all know that a 4 is where we want to be at the end of each day in library/media right?

Each day students are given a daily grade between 1-4. A student getting a 4 grade is following the rules of the class and making wise choices at all three of our classroom rules. (Respect the Teacher, Respect Others, Respect the Media Tools). Any student unable to follow the classroom rules will receive a lower grade for the day based on the behavior issue encounted for that day.

These daily grades will be the basis for the Citizenship grade on the report card.

We discussed that a 4 grade for behavior in media is where we want each student to work towards. Yet there is also the goal of a 5 grade. If a student goes above and beyond in any of the three categories (Respect for the Teacher, Respect for Others, and Respect for the Media Tools) and either Mrs. Burlison or myself catches that students effort they are rewarded with a 5 grade and their name is listed on the "All-Star Library Wall". Last year we had one class end the year with 25 stars!

Book Adventures Week #1

Our first week back at school saw us taking one or more of these book adventures during library media. Tell your friends and family about the book that you listened to during class time.

1. Wild About Books

2. Aunt Chip and the Triple Creek

Dam Affair

3. What Happened to Marion's Book?

How Many Rules Do We Have In Library/Media

Okay this isn't a test but how many rules does
Mrs. Wanek have in library/media?

That's right only 3!

1. Respect for the teachers: (listening, following directions quickly and quietly (and with a good attitude), and just showing kindness to the teachers in charge. (That includes Mrs. B. right!)
2. Respect for others:using kind words and actions. Remember we are a family in library and we want to treat everyone kindly and the way we would like to be treated.
3. Respect for the media tools: computers, books, magazines, chairs and even the pencils and plants. What a great place we have at Harritt and we want to all work together to keep it that way for us and others to come to Harritt.

Lets have a great year following the big 3!

Welcome Back or Welcome to Harritt

Our first week is done and it was great to see all the old faces from last year and all the new faces of this year. I enjoyed hearing about your summer and what fun things you got to do over the summer. I hope I have a chance to hear even more as we work our way into the fall season.

For those of you new to Harritt let me extend a warm welcome and hope that you find this a great place to be for the next few months. I look forward to getting to know each of you better in the days ahead of us in library/media class.