Destiny: Our Online Catalog

The benefits of the Highcroft Drive Media Center online catalog are immense, such as:

• Students can see the covers of many books, increasing interest and their ability to find the book themselves

• Access to our collection from home to see what is available in our library at any given time http://destiny.wcpss.net

• The ability to read a short description of a book if it is included in our collection

• To see if the library has a book on the research topic your child is doing and comparing that with what is available at the public library http://www.wakegov.com/libraries/default.htm

• Our online catalog does not allow you to see what your child has checked out like the public library, but we are pleased to offer you this increased access to the Highcroft Drive Media Center library collection.

Happy Reading,

Mrs. Wetherell

Destination: Destiny!

This week in the media center grades 2 - 5 accessed our online catalog called Destiny. Students learned how to search for books using keyword, title, author, subject and series links. However, the students quickly learned even though you can find the book on the computer you need to know where the book is located in the library. That's what the spine label is for....F for Fiction, E for Everybody (Picture Books), B for Biography, and Numbers for Non-Fiction. Of course this is not easily learned in one class period...Practice makes Perfect! We will definitely be practicing throughout the year to reinforce independence in choosing materials in the library.

First Grade viewed a DVD titled "A Magical Journey through the Library" which teaches students proper library etiquette and introduces essential media skills needed to locate books with the use of puppets and catchy songs, jokes, and plays.

Kindergarten continued their exploration of Eric Carle's books with a read aloud of The Honeybee and the Robber, a moving picture book. Students were excited with the colorful illustrations and engaging storyline. We followed up with a story about a shelf elf named Skoob (That's "books" spelled backwards.) He is always on a mission to inform students how to put books back on the shelves correctly and how to care for books properly.

Happy Reading,

Mrs. Wetherell

Good Fit Books

After having read The Daily 5, written by the sisters Gail Boushey and Joan Moser, I decided to implement the acronym and strategy of I PICK into my instruction/lesson for the past week for grades 1 - 5. Each class was met with me wearing my husbands shoes which were way too large. After the students decided that our lesson was about shoes I proceeded to have the class list as many types of shoes as possible. (Fifth graders were introduced to the lesson through Jon Scieszka's, Guys Write for Guys Read selection of Dan Gutman's, And now back to the videotape...about Converse All-Star shoes and life as a kid in the 60's...)

After listing the types of shoes I shared some of my family's shoes and their purpose of why they chose those shoes. We talked about the reasons why we buy shoes and that's when I told them the lesson was not about shoes, but about BOOKS! We learned we choose our books the way we choose our shoes. I shared the acronym:

I choose a book

Purpose (What is the purpose? reading buddy book, entertainment)
Interest (Are you interested in this book?)
Comprehend (Can you understand what you are reading?)
Know most of the words (If you don't know most of the words, you can't comprehend, and you will probably not be interested in it so it does't matter what the purpose is...)

The students really were interested in this lesson and they went on to pick "Good Fit" Books...we also discussed the ways you can read a book.

Kindergarten was introduced to another Eric Carle book, The Very Quiet Cricket and we paired this book with a non fiction book on insects. They were able to go to the shelves and choose a book and read.

Happy Reading,

Mrs. Wetherell