Category

This week library checkout began for most grades except for kindergarten. Since the library supports a wide age range of students, we have a Middle School Collection geared towards and limited to our 6th-8th graders. When both 5th grade classes visited the library this week the first thing they asked me was, “Now that we are in middle school may we check books out from the middle school collection?” They

How wonderful it was to welcome back our students this past week! I was able to see many of the classes this past week and look forward to seeing more this week. It is exciting to have the children tell me about the great reading adventures they had this summer and have them excitedly tell me about their new favorite book. With our 3rd-8th grade students I have been busy talking about how as they progress in school,

Last Friday Mrs. Joseph from the Wilmette Public Library visited our school and spoke to students in Kindergarten-5th grade about all the great offerings the library has for children this summer. From great family entertainment to reading clubs, as well as volunteer opportunities for middle school students to help younger children over the summer, the library is the place to visit this summer. This summer’s rea

Bill Buczinsky, this school year’s poet in residence who spent a week teaching poetry to our students last fall, stopped by the school yesterday to meet with our 5th/6th grade poetry group. The group has been busy working with Mrs. Pritchard and me on creating and animating their original poems. It was heart-warming to watch the students respond excitedly to Bill as he walked around the school. While in the sch

What a wonderful day we had on Friday with our visiting author, Kirby Larson. When Mrs. Larson arrived at SFX, she was greeted by our official student greeter, a 2nd grade student, who had read almost all of Mrs. Larson’s books as he was so excited that she was coming to the school. How wonderful to see so many students excited to finally meet Mrs. Larson and have her at our school. Mrs. Larson gave three prese

The Six Flags Read to Succeed Reading Challenge vouchers have arrived and were distributed to classroom teachers on Wednesday. All children who read the 6 required hours and submitted the reading log to the school earned a free day pass to Six Flags Great America. The vouchers are valid from June 12-August 6, 2017. Be sure to be on the lookout for these vouchers to come home in your child’s backpack. Mrs. Sawye

On Monday we started the week with our 7th grade Battle of the Books competition. Fourteen 7th grade students volunteered to be on our two 7th grade Battle teams for our interscholastic battle. They had to read all the books that were on the 2017 Rebecca Caudill Reader’s Choice nominee list and be prepared to answer questions from those books. The competition was fun with the 6th grade and 7th grade serving as

It’s hard to believe we are just a few weeks away from the end of the school year. In an effort to get all school library materials back and inventoried before we leave for the summer, all library books checked out to students need to be back to the school library no later than Tuesday, May 30. Students may continue to checkout library books until Friday, May 26. In an effort to help children remember to return

It is hard to believe it is May already. It seems like just yesterday that the language arts/reading teachers and I were talking about what author we would like to have for our One Author, One Community project this year and now this year’s selected author, Kirby Larson’s visit, is just around the corner. Kirby will be with us on Friday, May 19 and will be speaking to our students in Kindergarten-7th grad

I hope everyone had a joyous Easter! It is hard to believe we are almost to the end of April and the school year is winding down. We continue to have many fun things happening in the library. Book Fair Wrap Up Much thanks to all the families who shopped our Spring Book Fair held at the Book Stall in Winnetka. 20% of the sales made by SFX families will come back to the school library and enable us to buy new books for

Tuesday we were so fortunate to host author Mike Lupica. His visit was made possible through the generosity of The Book Stall in Winnetka. Mike came to SFX earlier than planned and joined our 4th-6th grade Battle of the Books team members at the ice cream party we had to celebrate their accomplishment. After ice cream Mike addressed our 4th-8th grade students and spoke of his love of sports and how he always knew tha

Today, Betsy from the Book Stall, spent the afternoon with our students promoting just some of the wonderful titles that will be available at this weekend’s spring book fair. It is always so fun to watch the students get so excited when they hear about new books. The book fair takes place at the Book Stall in Winnetka and runs Saturday, Sunday and Monday. For the first time, we will have a special storytime imm

Congratulations to our 4th-6th grade Battle of the Books team members. Our three SFX teams competed Monday against six other teams from two other schools-Baker Progressive School and Chiaravalle School.  Two of our SFX teams came in 2nd and 3rd place in the individual team competition and in the overall school competition SFX came in 2nd. I couldn’t be prouder of how well these students worked together and how

There has been much going on in the library this month. The first week in March we held our qualifying competitions for our annual Battle of the Books competition for 4th-6th grade students.  We had to narrow it down to a finite number of students so the 12 students with the highest scores in our Battle of the Book game show will be representing the school on Monday, March 20 at 4:00 p.m. when we compete in an inters

Last week, we had a great time during Book Cafe where we discussed Masterminds by Gordon Korman. Our next meeting of the group will take place on Tuesday, April 11 during 4th and 5th grade recess and lunch. Dessert will be provided.  The discussion is open to all students in 4th and 5th grade.  We will be reading Last Man Out by Mike Lupica, who will be visiting SFX on that same day to talk with all 4th-8th grade stu

What a fun and busy week we had in the library last week. On Monday. local author Songju Ma Daemicke came to talk about her book A Case of Sense, a folktale she wrote based on a tale she was told when growing up in China. Second grade enjoyed hearing her talk about her journey to become an author and they even got to try out the author’s Chinese gong, an integral part of her book. On Thursday, we celebrated the

What a great time our 5th-8th grade girls had with author Elizabeth Eulberg last week. She gave us a sneak peek of the cover of her forthcoming book due out later this year, gave our students an opportunity to purchase her brand new book, Just Another Girl, which isn’t out in bookstores until later in March. Elizabeth thoroughly engaged our students with her wit, humor, and candor. She told the girls that SFX i

SFX has been given the opportunity to host popular middle school author Elizabeth Eulberg this Thursday, Feb. 16. Ms. Eulberg, who previously visited SFX and was deemed “fabulous” by our students, will be speaking to all the 5th-8th grade girls about the writing process and her two most recent books, The Great Shelby Holmes and Just Another Girl. For more information about the author, visit her website. C

On Wednesday, we had a great time at Book Cafe where we discussed Liberty by Kirby Larson. Our next meeting of the group will take place on Thursday, March 9, which is a noon dismissal day. Students can bring a sack lunch and stay at school for the discussion.  Dessert will be provided. All students must be picked up by 12:50 p.m. The discussion is open to all students in 4th and 5th grade.  We will be reading Master

Second grade students have been busy learning about different versions of classic folk and fairy tales. As part of this unit, we will be hosting local Glenview author Songju Ma Daemicke on Monday, February 27.  She is the author of A Case of Sense, a book inspired by a folktale her grandfather told her as a child. She will be visiting SFX to tell 2nd grade students about her childhood growing up in China and the role

In the world of children’s literature, this was a very important week. Each year, the American Library Association holds their midwinter conference where book award committees meet and select the most notable books published in the previous year. This Monday, the awards, which include the Caldecott and Newbery medals, were announced. I was excited to be at the awards announcement as I was fortunate enough to be

Kevin Henkes, author/illustrator of numerous award-winning books for children and a very popular author with our SFX students, will be visiting the Evanston Public Library on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 4:30 p.m. Henkes will celebrating the release of his 50th book for children, Egg. For details and to register for the event, visit the Evanston Public Library’s program calendar. Henkes is a wonderfully engaging speake

Book Cafe returns!  It is open to students in 4th and 5th grade. We will meet on Wednesday, February 8 during 4th and 5th grade lunch period. We will be reading Liberty by Kirby Larson, who is our featured author for this school year and will be visiting SFX on Friday, May 19. Students are invited to bring a sack lunch and come to the library and join me for a fun book discussion. Dessert will be provided. Registrati

Happy New Year to you all!  I hope you all enjoyed a joyous Christmas with your family and friends. As we return to school this week, I am very excited to share many great books with our students in 2017. Some of the exciting library programs coming up include Battle of the Books, the return of Book Cafe for students in 4th-5th grade, and the inaugural Breakfast with Books get together for middle school students. As

What fun we all had when David visited SFX on Monday! His visit was made possible by your generous support of the EPIC Difference Fund. His hilarious and engaging presentation had our Kindergarten-3rd grade students enraptured from the start. David showed the children how he created his artwork completely on his computer and he encouraged all the children who are interested in illustration to try sumopaint.com to cre