What's Happening at the BSS Library?

In last week's scavenger hunt, I noticed that some students had a little bit of trouble locating books in the library. So I thought that we could practice that a little bit by exploring Destiny Discover, which is how we search the Library catalog.  We made several catalog searches and used the Call Numbers and Library Sub-locations to find the particular book.  It was great practice and got them exploring different sections of the library. I also showed them how to access e-books that our library owns.  I showed them how to log into their Destiny account (for more Library Catalog and log in information see the  Library Catalog and E-books  page of my blog), and gave them the handy bookmark shown below for them to keep track of their login information and how to access to catalog. We will continue to practice this skill to make sure they are becoming self-sufficient users of the library! TRY OUT A SEARCH IN THE SEARCH AREA ABOVE (SEARCH FOLLETT DESTI...

The Henderson family donated a great book called I'm NOT Just a Scribble . It tells the story of Scribble who is not accepted by the other drawings because he is different from them, with his bright colors and not-so-straight lines.  Scribble helps them realize that when everyone is included they have more fun, and together they can make beautiful artwork! It is a great story of acceptance and inclusion, and we talked about the word "empathy" and how important it is to be able to recognize how other people are feeling. Scribble displays a range of emotions throughout the story , and Diane Alber effectively portrays them in her drawings.  I asked the students to create their own scribbles and to add expressions to each one to see if others could guess how each scribble was feeling. They had fun and did a great job!      

Children’s author Dusti Bowling visited Blessed Sacrament School on Sept. 24 to speak to students about her books, the importance of not giving up on your dreams, and finding what inspires you. Bowling—who has visited over 100 schools—has written three novels for children, each of which received starred reviews. Her first book, “Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus,” received several awards and is often praised for the inclusion of characters with disabilities. The main character, Aven, is born without arms, and one of her friends suffers from Tourette Syndrome. Bowling explained her inspiration to feature a character with limb differences. Her cousin was injured in Iraq in 2007 and was severely injured, which resulted in the loss of his arm. Bowling began to imagine what his future would be like. How would he perform routine daily tasks? Would he ever be able to work again? When she set out to learn more about this disability, she realized that there were n...

We read two books in second grade this week by Mies Van Hout, and after reading students used black paper and pastel chalks to imitate his style. They were asked to illustrate one word like in the books, and they were very creative!