Kids Can Never Get Enough of Diary of Wimpy Kid!

Some Irondale Middle classes will be joining in the fun of hearing a sneak peek about the latest in the Wimpy Kid series.

This event takes places November 4th at 1:00 p.m. central time.

It's Teen Read Week! And there's a Prize for that!

While Be A Champion and Read is ongoing until October 28th, the library is drawing prizes from those who have turned in their list of six books.

The books are all from Scholastic and here's the winning book today!

During Teen Read Week the library will be giving away a great book everyday! Logan, please stop by and get your prize. Thank you, Ms. Ward, for being a guest on the news and drawing the winner's name!

Seeing Pink

Here are few things that are coming through the library lately:

• The news is broadcast through the library and here are a few things going on in the whole school and the library is connected to all of them!
• The National Junior Honor Society is selling pink t-shirts in honor of breast cancer research and awareness for $9
• The Be A Champion and Read Contest ends October 27th. Encourage your child to participate!
• This Friday is our Fall Festival!
• The library is selling water bottles, powdered flavoring packets, and bookmarks for 50 cents each to raise money for books
• The next Scholastic Book Fair is scheduled for November 4 - 9!
• Stay tuned for more news from the library!

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Today was our first book club. We read passages from Wonder by R. J. Palacio and discussed the book.

Some of our favorite parts as a group are the birth of August and the hilarious story of the nurse (you will have to read it), the sad Cheese Touch chapter, and reading about Daisy, August and Via's dog.

We also talked about the "precepts" in the book that August's Social Studies teacher brings up to get the kids thinking. At the moment all 5 copies are still checked out, so I can't list one, but I will in the next blog post!

How a Federal Government Shutdown Affects Schools

Yesterday, as we all know by now, the Federal Government shut down. Federal Parks, some Washington monuments, and even the WIC (women, infants and children food distribution program) are being affected.

But did you know that your child's middle school (elementary, high, college) are also being affected?

Yesterday our Teen Living teacher came into the library from the computer lab and said that students could not access the website they were using for research. The 7th graders were researching the food pyramid on a .gov website. The teacher had spent several minutes troubleshooting the reasons the students could not get online.

So, the teacher had to quickly go to plan "B" and explain the Federal Government Shutdown. In the end, there was a lesson, but not the one the teacher had planned.

Alabama College and Career Ready Standard of the Week

This page (which you cannot see, but you can click on this link) is my new favorite section of the Alabama Department of Education. While there are naysayers for the Common Core Standards which are called College and Career Ready Standards in Alabama, you have to love that the State Department of Education is trying to get information out there about the Standards of Learning.
Some people are against College and Career Ready Standards because of the long period of testing while some people are against them because they aren't sure of what they are.
The Standard of the Week paints a clear picture of what Alabama's children need to be able to do and tugs at you emotionally as a parent that Yes! you do want your child to be able to write, be excellent at math, know history, and understand science.

Encouraging Your Kids to Read

Did you know that your children really can lead a better life if they read more? Their grades depend on it, success in middle school, high school and college depends it. The future of their own children depends on being able to read and deciphering the world we live in today. They need to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak - find the good websites versus the bad and the good literature versus the bad. The more they read, the better they will be at judging the usefulness of information!

One way they can help themselves as well as their school is to participate in the Be A Champion and Read contest. Students in grades K - 8 have an opportunity to win tickets to the Iron Bowl if they read six books by October 26!

One student will win for Auburn and one for Alabama. The lucky winner will be able to take two guests along to the Alabama / Auburn game, visit the hospitality suite for all the food and drink they can handle, and step onto the field for pre-game activities. Good luck to all students participating! We need 70% participation for the library to be in the running for $5,000. Please encourage your child to get involved!

Here's a Scholastic link about Kids and Reading. Please take a look! You might be surprised at what you find out...