Lakeshore Readers Are Turning Pages!
Our Lakeshore readers are turning pages and checking out books! Since the first day of school on August 12, our students have circulated 2,045 books from the library, and we are only one month into the school year!
To put that into perspective, our 654 students have already checked out an average of more than 3 books per student. Thank you, Lakeshore readers, for making our library a place where books are always on the move!
1st Grade Robotics & Phonics Integration
This past month saw first graders learning the basics of coding and programming with the library's new Sphero Indi robot cars! Students had fun investigating how color tiles program Indi's movements, and we seamlessly integrated phonics learning (focusing on th, sh, ch, ck, and short vowels).
Students built custom "roads" for Indi to drive on to navigate directly to the word that Dr. Loflin stretched out phonetically!
Soar in Books with Sora!
Free E-Books & Audiobooks at Home
Our students have started using Sora again this year! Sora connects directly to the NC Kids Digital Library and Iredell County Public Library using your child's student ID card.
Collection Development: Curators of Knowledge
Speaking of access to books, I have been conducting a thorough analysis of our library collection and created a comprehensive collection development plan for this school year.
Why We Update Our Shelves:
According to state guidelines, the average age of a school library's collection should be no older than 10 to 15 years. Prior to our updates, our library's average copyright age was 2001. While our age-sensitive nonfiction areas are up to date, areas such as psychology, social sciences, arts, and biographies required attention.
Two years ago, I weeded out-of-date nonfiction titles, and last year I focused on weeding low-circulating chapter books in fiction. This year, I am focusing on our Everybody picture book section.
A Fun Piece of Library History
During our picture book review, I found a 1996 printing of Millions of Cats—originally published in 1928 as the oldest American picture book still in print! While I weeded the duplicate from circulating shelves to make room for new titles, I am keeping it on my desk shelf as a special piece of children's literature history.
"As school librarians, we must remember we aren't curating a museum—we are curators of knowledge."
Upcoming Fall Book Fair: Oct 19–23
Mark Your Calendars!
October 19 - 23Join us for our Fall Book Fair! Special Family Day is on Tuesday, October 20th, where the fair will remain open all day until 6:00 PM for families to shop together after school.
Digital Wallet Reminder: Be on the lookout in Dr. Tulbert's ParentSquare posts for instructions on setting up a digital shopping account for your child so they don't have to carry cash. Note: We do charge sales tax, so please remember to account for tax when adding funds!
Help Us Reach Our Goal: 500 New Books!
Our two annual book fairs are our only source of funding to purchase new books for our school library. With the average library-bound book costing around $23, our goal this year is to add 500 new titles to update our collection for our students.
Adopt-a-Book ($10)
Sponsor 1 brand-new title for our library with a personalized commemorative bookplate honoring your child placed right inside the front cover!
Donate via Titlewave
Purchase curated books directly from our official library wishlist to fill key topic gaps in our collection.