Barnes & Noble Book Fair- Guest Blogger, Mrs. Lajaunie

If you didn't make it to the Barnes & Noble book fair on December 3rd, you missed a great time! We made $3,000 for the Forest North library in one day! That equals a lot of new books for our library. Mrs. Fournier planned a day full of exciting events to keep shoppers entertained.

The day started off with a teacher dog parade. Even the rainy weather couldn't keep Forest North staff and their furry friends away. Next, the entertainment moved indoors where the Forest North choir, led by Mrs. Hermansen, serenaded shoppers with holiday carols. The fun didn't stop there! Shoppers were then directed to the cafe where they could enjoy an exclusive red or blue frappuccino (Forest North colors, of course) while enjoying the 4th grade Poetry slam. Thanks to Mrs. Albin, Mrs. McCollum and all of the brave 4th graders who shared their poetry. The walls of the cafe were also decorated with beautiful art created by our very own students. Ms. Bell hand-picked some of her favorite art pieces to display. Meanwhile, amidst this flurry of activity, some dedicated parents and teachers volunteered their artistic skills to paint kids' faces. Then once again, the fun times moved outdoors. Ms. Potral and her Jumpin' Eagles drew an impressive crowd as they wowed us with their jumproping talents.

A HUGE thanks goes out to all of the Fournier Friends who hosted story times, greeted shoppers, held posters and gave our Forest North stickers. We couldn't have done it without you!

We appreciate everyone who came out to support our school. Forest North Eagles rock!!

Guest B

Coins for Coats

Guest Blogger: Mrs. Lajaunie, Library Assistant

The sweet sound of coins dropping into milk jugs filled Forest North classrooms last month. Round Rock ISD kicked off the Coins for Coats donation drive on Oct. 12th. Mrs. Fournier, along with her team of caring 4th graders, led the campaign at Forest North. This year's drive was a HUGE success! All together our Eagles raised $452! This money goes directly to the The Round Rock Serving Center to provide coats this winter for students in need. Mrs. James' Kindergarten class won 30 minutes of special reading time in the library for raising the most money at Forest North. Flashlight Friday meant that while Mrs. James got 30 minutes of additional planning time, her students read in the library with the lights off with Mrs. Fournier. RRISD raised close to $12,000 this year which is about $3,000 more than the previous record! Thank you to all of our eager Eagles who are always ready and willing to help. About 1,200 RRISD students will be warmed this winter because of your generosity, and 352 of them will be all because of our generosity at Forest North.

For more information about Coats for Kids and the Round Rock Serving Center, visit https://www.rrasc.org/index.php

Online Book Fair through 10/21

The Book Fair was an intergalatic success! Please feel free to access our online bookfair through 10/21 and buy more books. 25% of all sales go directly back to the FNE Library to buy library books for students. So far, we have raised $935 for the FNE Library. Hopefully we can get a little more through our online book fair. Thanks for your support, Eagles!

The Book Fair!

The Book Fair is over tomorrow, and we haven't gotten any comments yet on our blog giveaway! Leave a comment with your favorite thing about the book fair, and you'll be entered for a chance to win $10 tomorrow at the Book Fair!

Library Book Fair!

Our Library Book Fair is up and running! The theme this fall is Book Fair and Beyond: Reading is Out of this world!

The in-person fair goes until Friday at 1 pm, but after that, you can still shop online at the link below until 10/23. Thank you so much for supporting the Forest North Library! All profits will be put towards buying new books for the library.

Please leave a comment with your favorite thing about the book fair to be entered in a drawing on Friday for a $5 gift certificate to the Book Fair!

Thanks so much to all who attended Family Night last night from 4-7 PM. We made balloon animals, got our faces painted, got additional raffle tickets for our morning broadcast drawings, and bought books- what a fun night!

Here's the link once again to our online fair, if you want to copy and paste: http://onlinebookfairs.scholastic.com/default.aspx?f=2872244

Bluebonnets available on Thursday!

The most popular question in the library since school started is "Where are the Bluebonnet books?" Mrs. Fournier is thrilled about this, and bought more copies than ever to meet our intense demand for the nominated titles. Last year, over 90 kids attended the voting Wii party. 3rd-5th graders are invited to participate again! Here are our Bluebonnet Champions last year, who won 3rd place in our district Battle of the Bluebonnet. Way to represent us, Eagles! Who will represent Forest North this year? You can qualify by reading all 20 books. If there are more than 5 students again who read all 20 nominees, then we will have another campus level battle. The top 5 winners of that Battle will go on to the District battle! As you can see in our video, Ms. Jacobs, our principal, came to support us- everyone is invited to come root for us again! See you there, Eagles.

10 Reasons to Read to Your Child

Here's a great article on 10 reasons why it's important to read to your child.

welcome back to school

It's almost here, Eagles- the first day of school! I can't wait to see all of our returning students, and to meet our new ones as well. Orientations in the library will almost all take place during the first week of school. Students will be allowed to check out books during orientations after we review book care and how to check out a book.

PreK students check out one book for school use only. Kindergarten students check out one book and may take it home with them.

1st and 2nd grades may check out two books at a time. When they bring back one, they can check out another one. When they bring back two books, they can check out two more books.

3rd, 4th and 5th graders can all check out 3 books at a time. However many books they return, they may check out again.

Parents are welcome to get their own personal library account. They have unlimited checkout. They can send the books back with their student to school when they're done with the books.

There are no overdue book fees at Forest North. If you lose or damage a book though, we will need you to pay for a replacement. Lost or damaged books can be paid for by cash or a check made out to Forest North Library. Please include your phone number and a valid state ID number as well.

I can't wait to see you, Eagles!

Camp Bluebonnet 2011- Thursday

Thursdays were our last day at Camp Bluebonnet. How sad! It flew by. On our last day, we read Balarama: a royal elephant, and did lots of fun activities and snacks relating to India and elephants! Check out what we did in this video, especially our awesome Bollywood dancing!

Camp Bluebonnet 2011 - Wednesday

Today we read Phil Bildner's Hallelujah Flight. Phil Bildner is going to vist our school this year! How exciting that we'll have a real Bluebonnet author visiting us! Check out all of the activities and food we had on Wednesday relating to our book:

Camp Bluebonnet 2011 - Tuesday

On Tuesday we read The Duchess of Whimsy! It was awesome. See all the activities and food we ate relating to the book in this video:

Camp Bluebonnet 2011 - Monday

Hello Forest North! We had 2 awesome sessions of Camp Bluebonnet this summer through the RRISD Community Education Center. It was great to see some of my favorite Eagles even during our vacation! Here's a video of what we did on the first day of camp. If you like it, keep your eyes peeled for flyers going home this spring regarding next summer's camp!

American Library Assocation 2011 Annual Conference

Mrs. Fournier, your loyal librarian, had a whirlwind trip to New Orleans for the 2011 American Library Association 2011 Annual Conference!

First, I had to drive for 10 hours to get there. I checked in at my awesome hotel, the Renaissance Arts. I shared a room to save money. My roommate was Sheri Boggs, who was also on the 2011 Theodor Suess Geisel Committee with me! Look how cool my hotel was! Here's a picture of this cool art made out of puzzles at the check in desk and a picture of the cool chandelier.

I had a wonderful time touring New Orleans and its rich history. Here are some of my favorite moments!

1. Eating beignets at Cafe du Monde with some old friends from library school
2. Posing near a giant snow globe with the cover of the new Wimpy Kid book inside
3. Letterboxing in the garden district and seeing lots of streetcars
4. A skull with "offerings" at the Voodoo Museum
5. A house where one of my favorite authors wrote a book!
6. A cool old jazz club on the famous Bourbon Street.

Of course, my very favorite moments were meeting some of my favorite authors! We were so lucky to be invited to lunch or dinner with each of our 3 Geisel award winners and honorees. I was so sad to miss lunch with our winning authors and illustrators from Bink & Gollie (you'll see why later), but had a great dinner with Mo Willems and a great lunch with Grace Lin, who both won Geisel honors in 2011, and my pal Sheri Boggs sent me photos of the great stuff we got from the authors, illustrator, and publishers of Bink & Gollie - most special to me being a watch!

After these wonderful meals, I was also graciously invited by Little, Brown & Co to attend the Newbery Caldecott Wilder Banquet. It's a special night where everyone gets really dressed up and listens to speeches from the people who won the most prestigious awards in children's literature for the year. It was a very special moment in my career as a Librarian!

I was also a lucky duck and got to sit next to Grace Lin! Even though I'd had lunch with her earlier that day, I never got to talk much to her then, so this was a very special meal for me!


I was also sitting at a table with two other famous authors - Andrea Davis Pinkney and Jewell Parker Rhodes.


As soon as the Newbery winner, Clare Vanderpool, finished her great speech, I jumped in my car and drove all through the night back to Austin! It was quite an adventure, and I was surprised that I barely got tired. I got back just in time to take a shower, pick up Shelby, my junior counselor, and to be right on time for CAMP BLUEBONNET! More on that later!

I didn't forget you either, Forest North! I lugged this giant bag of books (it must weigh 50 pounds!) from the Convention Center back to my hotel, and then drove it all the way back to Austin. I took a picture of the stack of books (there are 23 - I need to make sure they're all good for elementary students) but it doesn't look nearly as heavy as it felt to carry it for a half mile in the heat!

RRISD Battle of the Bluebonnets! How did we do?

top 5 Bluebonnet Champions!

10 Bluebonnet Champions!

Bluebonnet Winners announced!

Andy and Phil Bildner are buds!

New Awesome Books!

Two new exciting books to report today! First, there is a new Gerald and Piggie book out by Mo Willems! It's called Should I Share My Ice Cream? Also, I finished one of our Bluebonnet books, The Shadows from The Books of Elsewhere and it's awesome! The second Book of Elsewhere, Spellbound, will be released in 4 weeks. Mrs. Fournier will work on getting a copy for our library as quickly as possible! Check out this awesome video about The Books of Elsewhere!

Camp Bluebonnet!

There are still a few spots left in our June session. Come sign up for Camp Bluebonnet with Mrs. Fournier (and Mrs. Kuperzstoch, the Brushy Creek Elementary Librarian) and be ready for the voting party before school even starts! Go to the website listed to register your incoming 3rd, 4th or 5th grade student. All RRISD 3rd-5th grade students are welcome! We'll be posting entries each day after we do our awesome activities at Camp!

Mrs. Fournier serving on Armadillo Committee!

I'm thrilled to announce that I have been asked to serve on the 2011-2012 Armadillo Readers Choice Award Committee. I met with my other committee members in the past few weeks to get our nominees together, and they've been announced! The nominees are: