What's Happening at the BSS Library?

BSS Library Choice Board Week 2 Please select at least one of these (hopefully fun!) activities to complete this week. Feel free to comment below or email me if you have questions, if you'd like to share a photo or a description of what you chose, or if you just want to say, “Hi!” Choice #1- Watch Story Time From Space Choose a video read aloud from the list of astronauts reading from the International Space Station. My favorites are Ada Twist, Scientist and Rosie Revere, Engineer , but choose whichever you like! Choice #2- Listen to an Audio Book Audiobooks are great if you feel like being read to, working on a jigsaw puzzle, or if you are going on a walk or a drive. Put on some headphones or earpods, or play it for everyone in the family to listen to. Use apps like Overdrive or Libby to listen to books from your public library, or try sites like Audible or Tumblebooks AudioBookCloud. Here are a few suggestions: On  Audible , search for t...

BSS Library Choice Board #1 Please select at least one of these (hopefully fun!) activities to complete this week. Please comment below or email me if you have questions, if you'd like to share a photo or a description of what you chose, or if you just want to say, “Hi!”  Choice #1- Read a Book! Read a book you have at your house or an ebook from the list of online resources I posted. Or listen to my read aloud of Mrs. Roopy is Loopy from the My Weird School series here . Check out the list of " Amazing Ways to Read ," and challenge yourself to try as many of these ideas as possible! Choice #2- Wonderopolis Wonderopolis answers all your burning questions! Read one of the Wonders of the Day and then click the Test Your Knowledge button to see how much you remember. What are you wondering? Add your question on the Wonderopolis site here . Choice #3- Write a Book Review Search for a book you loved from the BSS Librar...

Here is a read aloud of Q is for Duck by Mary Elting and Michael Folsom, with illustrations by Jack Kent.  It is a book of riddles where the authors write a letter and an animal. The animal name doesn't start with that letter, but the letter does begin a word that is related to the animal in some way. Just because what you guess isn't what the author wrote, it doesn't mean that your answer is wrong! It's just different. I hope you enjoy it! Click the tool in the right corner of the video to view in full screen. I think it would be fun if you could create your own letter riddles! Be sure to share them in the comments or email them to Mrs. Ferguson!

Click the tool in the right corner of the video to view in full screen. In honor of March's character trait of the month (honesty), I have selected The Honest-to-Goodness Truth by Patricia C. McKissack and illustrated by Giselle Potter.  Temporary permission to post this reading online has been granted by Simon and Schuster.

MRS. ROOPY IS LOOPY  (BOOK #3 IN THE MY WEIRD SCHOOL SERIES)  BY DAN GUTMAN AND ILLUSTRATED BY JIM PAILLOT Dan Gutman and Harper Collins have given temporary permission to post this reading online to share with students during school closures. The entire recording lasts 40 minutes, so I divided the reading into four sections. If you enjoy this series, be sure to like Dan Gutman on Facebook, where he has been reading live from his books every day (I believe at 2:00). I hope you enjoyed this read aloud! Mrs. Roopy is making me look bad...I guess I have to start dressing up in costumes more often! I guess dressing up as book characters is more my forte...

READ ALOUD OF BIG RED LOLLIPOP Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan and illustrated by Sophie Blackall is a great story about sibling rivalry and about a family getting used to the customs of a new country. After watching my read aloud, I recommend that you watch the video below of the author discussing how this book was inspired by an incident from her childhood. Students should make sure they ask permission from their parents before going on You Tube to watch the author video. Click the tool in the right corner of the video to view in full screen. AUTHOR RUKHSANA KHAN VIDEO LEARN MORE ABOUT PAKISTAN There are several online resources and books to help you learn more about the country of Pakistan, which is where the author Rukhsana Khan was born. EPIC. There are several books about Pakistan in the EPIC collection. Many are nonfiction books about Pakistan, a couple are stories where the setting is in Pakistan, and several books are about one ...

If you are in need of some entertainment, here's a video I created earlier in the year featuring all the things that BSS does so well. It is one way to see some familiar faces!  I had to make it low quality to upload it here (the original file with better quality can be found here on Facebook ). Enjoy!

In honor of Women's History Month, I chose to read Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell by Tanya Lee Stone and illustrated by Marjorie Priceman. I will miss the outrage that I usually get from the students when I read the part that says that women were not allowed to be doctors back in the 1830's. It blows their minds that times were so different back then!  If anyone is interested in reading more about Elizabeth Blackwell, there are two ebook biographies on EPIC about her life. These ebooks are geared toward Grades 3-6.

Because many of you might be at home without any books to read, many authors have been posting videos of themselves reading their books or sharing an activity you can try at home.  I will be updating this page, so check back! Let me know if you watch any of these videos and what you think! B. J. Novak.   Author of the very popular The Book With No Pictures , B. J. Novak will be reading this book on Facebook live on Friday 3/27 at 3:00 followed by a Q & A for kids. (@BJNovak on FB).  Jarrett J. Krosoczka.  Author/Illustrator of the Lunch Lady series.  He has been posting videos at 2:00 every day on You Tube called "Draw Every Day with JJK (old ones are archived to view):  https://www.youtube.com/studiojjk Aaron Reynolds   (author of Creepy Carrots and Creepy Pair of Underwear) is posting "The Aaron Reynolds Stay-at-Home Show" videos on You Tube.  Click on the link to see the first one he posted.  He said he will be posting a couple...

While I'd much prefer to be reading you a story in person, I thought you might enjoy this reading of Bear Feels Scared, written by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Jane Chapman. Scholastic has given permission to record the reading of this book. If you enjoyed this book, there are a couple of audiobooks from this series on EPIC! You can't see the pages but you hear the story being read. https://www.getepic.com Visit my post on how to log into EPIC  . Ask me or your teacher if you need any help. There are also other stories about bears and lots of non-fiction books too.  Just type in "bears" in the EPIC search bar and you will see lots of audiobooks and ebooks to choose from. You can narrow it down to just fiction (stories) or non-fiction (facts). I posted a screen shot below of some of the bear books available.

FEATURED RESOURCE Here is a sampling of some videos from BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. ***use this login information to get full access to all the videos: username: bsswalpolemass password: bss123 BrainPOP Videos (geared towards Grades 3+) For students who have questions about the Coronavirus, here is a 4 minute video from BrainPOP that does a great job explaining it for children:  https://www.brainpop.com/health/diseasesinjuriesandconditions/coronavirus/ In honor of Women's History Month, learn about Ada Lovelace, whom many historians credit as being the first computer programmer:  https://www.brainpop.com/technology/computerscience/adalovelace/ Forces of Nature:   https://www.brainpop.com/science/forcesofnature/ Space:  https://www.brainpop.com/science/space/ Arts and Music:  https://www.brainpop.com/artsandmusic/seeall/ BrainPOP Jr. Videos (PreK-2) Washing hands:  https://jr.brainpop.com/health/bewell/washinghan...

One of the greatest resources for reading is EPIC, which provides ebooks and audiobooks that you can read on your computer or device. ***EPIC is free for use in schools, so it is ONLY available Monday-Friday during school hours. They are offering free 30 day trials to parents which would allow students to log in any time, so if you are interested in the free trial, visit  https://www.getepic.com/promo  and click "Join Free for 30 Days." During school hours, visit  http://getepic.com/students  and enter your classroom code provided by your teacher.   Classrooms in grades 1-5 already have EPIC accounts but require a classroom code. Logging into your own classroom allows you to save books you are reading and create lists of your favorites. Just comment here if you need your code, or feel free to email me at  kferguson@blessedsacrament.org . Once you enter your classroom code, find your name on the list and click on it. There are tons of ebooks, videos,...

BSS has over 100 ebooks (or "electronic books") in our collection, which can be accessed by typing the word "ebook" into the search bar above.*** (scroll to the bottom of this post if the search bar won't load). 1. Visit this link: https://bsslibrary.follettdestiny.com . 2. Click on "Blessed Sacrament School" above our logo. 3. Choose Destiny Discover in the sidebar to the left. 4. Then type "ebook" into the search bar. Please note that this catalog is for print books as well as ebooks, so not everything you see is available to read online. Be sure to either search for the term "ebook" or scroll down to the "Ebooks" section and click the purple "See All" tab to the right of the screen. There are over 100 ebooks to choose from. I have also created collections under "Learning Links" for Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary, and Middle School Once you are logged in, you are able ...

FACEBOOK LIVE WITH BEN CLANTON, AUTHOR OF NARWHAL AND JELLY  : March 18th at 2 pm EST https://www.facebook.com/events/190785292224208/ March 20th at 5 PM EST https://www.facebook.com/events/1856341974500700/ _________________________________________________________________________

MARCH BOOK MADNESS We have been having some fun with March Book Madness! We started out with 30+ popular picture books, some classics and some newer titles.  I had my classes vote for their favorites, and the top 16 books are matched up with one another.  I set up a Google Form so each student can vote for their favorites.  There were some tough matchups... Creepy Carrots or Chrysanthemum??  How about the Mo vs. Mo matchup (Knuffle Bunny or Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus)! It will be fun to see which of the Sweet 16 books will move on to the Elite 8. Although most students have read all or most of the books, we have been reading some of these books so students can be "informed voters." I'll let you know which books moved on to the next round! WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH Because March is Women's History Month, we have been reading some books about famous women the past couple of weeks. Some of the read alouds have been about Jane Goodall, Eugenie Cl...

Reading Week was so much fun! This week was a busy one!  Bookmark Design Contest winners were announced, we played Book Bingo every day during snack time, we showed off our crazy socks when we kicked our shoes off during Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) time, and we dressed as our favorite book characters. A highlight was when Officer Hart and Rebel, Walpole's community resource dog, visited the library. Rebel loved being read to, and the students loved hearing Officer Hart read to them. In Book BINGO, each homeroom had their own BINGO board, and I called out titles of award winning books over the loud speaker.  The following homerooms won in BINGO: Mrs. Grogan, Mrs. MacLean, Mr. Souza, Mrs. Orlando, and Mrs. Newell. They will receive a free casual day sometime this year! Mrs. MacLean's class celebrating their BINGO win! Bookmark design contest winners Snow White and Angelina Ballerina Fancy Nancy and Harry Potter 4th graders loved meeting Rebel! ...