At the end of the last school year, I received a grant of Osmos from Donor's Choose.org. It was right at the end when I was doing inventory and awards days and another book fair! Busy month. Well, now that school is back in full swing, students are able to play all of the different games on 4 extra Osmos. I had one that I purchased when they first came out but we certainly needed more. This is a very popular "center" in the media center.
Yesterday I remembered to capture the fun when 5th graders played various games on Osmo. I think they didn't want to leave!
THANK YOU DONORS CHOOSE!!!
I will be posting more projects soon. If you would like to donate to one of my projects go to ​http://www.donorschoose.org/mary.dean

During orientation Jeffery Panther, our mascot shows students library procedures and library rules.. If 5th graders have been here since Kindergarten, they have seen a Jeffery video every year for 6 years. Yesterday 5th grade spent the day with me. I heard a few comments about the video. One kid said to his friend, "This is cheesy!" Then he proceeded to giggle throughout the video. Of COURSE it's cheesy! WHY would Jeffery and I make a video that ISN'T cheesy!? Hopefully listening to Jeffery will help students remember what to do.

Today we distributed Chromebooks to all 3rd - 5th grade students. I think they were a bit excited! It makes me a bit nervous but then I worry about library books! These are much more fragile! 
Orientation is going well.. Since 3-5 are now swapping classes, I have been knocking out a grade level a day. The most exciting thing is that kids are getting books to read. The other exciting part about checking out books is that Pokemon are hiding in our books! If a student checks out a book and a Pokemon is hiding in that book, the student gets to choose a QR code to scan to see which Pokemon they caught. If they catch 9 1 Star Pokemon, they get a prize. If they catch 4 2 Star Pokemon, they get a prize. If they catch 2 3 Star Pokemon, they get a prize. Prizes could be a cool bookmark, ice cream, a book, or a gift certificate to the Book Fair! Who knows what these crazy little "Pocket Monsters" will come up with to try to get kids reading! Once they "catch" their Pokemon (QR Code scan). I will mark their library card with a special pen. Students MUST have their library patron card to check out books and to "catch" a Pokemon!

This shows the back of the student library patron card. You can see the list of Pokemon who have been hanging out in the library. They are divided by 1 Star, 2 Star and 3 Star!

We've had so much testing going on in the library, it's been difficult to schedule orientations in the media center! Today most of 3rd grade came through and learned about library procedures and heard a little more about how to catch Pokemon in the media center, While groups of kids waited to check out, they were able to play Jeffery's Pokemon game on several computers. 
It was GREAT to have students in the library who weren't there with Chrombooks testing!! FINALLY the year begins! 4TH GRADE TOMORROW!

It's hard to believe we are about to start a new school year! I hope you allllll read alllll summer! I know I did! I read quite a few of our books as well as some books for grownups. Don't forget to bring in your summer reading list to get a goody bag from me! I will let your teachers know when those are due.