El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day)

From the American Library Association website:
El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day), commonly known as Día, is a celebration every day of children, families, and reading that culminates yearly on April 30. The celebration emphasizes the importance of literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

Día is a nationally recognized initiative that emphasizes the importance of literacy for all children from all backgrounds. It is a daily commitment to linking children and their families to diverse books, languages and cultures. The common goals of all Día programming are to:

• Celebrate children and connect them to the world of learning through books, stories and libraries.
• Nurture cognitive and literacy development in ways that honor and embrace a child’s home language and culture.
• Introduce families to community resources that provide opportunities for learning through multiple literacies.
• Recognize and respect culture, heritage and language as powerful tools for strengthening families and communities.

* Many thanks to our friends at Charlotte Mecklenburg (North Carolina) Library who have supported Dia and successfully promoted it as "Diversity in Action."

To celebrate Dia at Forest North, we asked each faculty member a favorite book they remember from when they were a child.  Check out their answers:

Camp Bluebonnet Scholarships!

Mrs. Fournier & Mrs. Kupersztoch (librarian at England Elementary in RRISD) are excited to teach our 5th year of Camp Bluebonnet this summer.  Check out this flyer for more information.  The library is offering a special opportunity this week to two lucky students! 

The Forest North Library is offering 2 scholarships for students to attend Camp Bluebonnet at Old Town Elementary, 6/22-6/25, co-taught by Mrs. Fournier.  For more information, see flyer.

To enter the contest, please submit a 1 page persuasive essay about why you should be chosen for a Camp Bluebonnet scholarship.  Essays are due to the library by Friday, 5/1, at 3:30.  Campers must be a 3rd-5th grader next school year, and campers will need to provide their own transportation to and from camp on 6/22-6/25 at 9:00 and 12:00. Best of luck, campers!

3rd Grade Book Club with Mrs. Peyton

Mrs. Peyton & I have a special book club we like to call "Peyton, Fournier and Associates, LLC."  (The LLC stands for Lifelong Learners Club!) We just started meeting with 3rd graders a few weeks ago to read next year's Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee Quinny & Hopper. They are right on track with their reading, and earned their Bookworm spirit stick.  We were all so excited about that, we took a photo to celebrate.  Check out these readers!

Creatures from the Deep: Book Fair Under the Sea

We had a great time last at our Creatures of the Deep show here at the Book Fair Under the Sea.  Check out this video of our jellyfish, squids, moon jellies, octopus, mermaids, sea captains, sea kings, pirates & crabs!  Join us for the student costume contest on Thursday 5-7 pm.  We'll see you then!

Mrs. Vetter is Paraprofessional of the Year

Mrs. Vetter, Forest North Library Assistant, has been working here since last year.  She's so good at her job, she was voted by all of the Forest North Staff as our paraprofessional of the year!  She attended a special breakfast at the Northwest Austin Rotary Club this morning to celebrate her win with Mr. Martir, 5th grade teacher and our Teacher of the Year, with our principal, Ms. Jacobs.  Mrs. Vetter brought her daughter Lauren along to watch her accept her award.  Congratulations, Mrs. Vetter.  I'm so lucky to work with you every day and so glad you're on Team Library.  

Sophie Blackall Writes Us Back!

You may remember an earlier post about a special book study on A Fine Dessert by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Sophie Blackall, that we talked about last month.  

Today, I received the most special package in the mail!  Sophie Blackall sent us some fine things to look at after our Skype session with her back in March.

1. a beautiful painted letter
2. 5 bookplates - one signed to Forest North (already put it in our FNE library copy), two with just her signature (put it in two copies I'm going to give away to two lucky 2nd graders!), and one with my name on it to put in my special home copy.
3. seeds from her latest book, The Baby Tree. 
4. an amazing envelope to hold it all- cool stickers and handwriting all over it!

I also included in the collage an absolutely gorgeous "Library Appreciation Week" note from Tiffany that says "Thank you for showing me how to make a fine dessert."  It was so beautiful, I had to include it in this collage!

Sophie Blackall, you are so cool!  We are your biggest fans!  Thanks for supporting us!

Library Appreciation Week

Mrs. Vetter and I are floored at the show of support from our wonderful students & colleagues here at Forest North during Library Appreciation Week.  We love our jobs!  Thanks for appreciating us this week, everyone - it means so much.

We'll see you next week at the Book Fair Under the Sea!

Book Fair Under the Sea Approaching!

#txla15 - Texas Library Association Annual Conference 2015

What a whirlwind week I had last week.  I was gone from Forest North (missed you guys!) for four days to participate in the Texas Library Association Annual Conference 2015, which was here in Austin, TX.  I co-emceed a Texas Bluebonnet Award Speed Dating Session where 192 librarians from around the state paid to learn about next year's list that my committee & I picked.  I participated in the 2015 Book Cart Drill Team Challenge (and we won, finally!) with 8 of my fellow RRISD librarians.  I also helped present the One Book, One Community: Share the Wonder, Choose Kind project that RRISD librarians participated in across the community last year.  I was honored to work on such amazing teams and with such amazing people.  I love my job!  Check out some of the fun I had!

Book Fair Under the Sea is Next Week - Buy Online 4/23-5/13!

Can't make it in to support the library?  Buy online through our Scholastic Book Fair website 4/23-5/13! 

4th Grade Book Club Wrap Up!

It was awesome but a little bit sad as Mrs. Peyton & I finished our 4th grade book club last week.  We've had so much fun reading & discussing Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri.  Check out the bags they made as a secret surprise activity for our last meeting.  These boys worked so hard, kept up with their reading, and had the most insightful comments as we worked through our book.  Great job, readers!