A Brief But Patriotic Week at the Library!

This week will soon be over and yet its only just begun! Such are the days of November, when a full week of school is rare. This Friday schools are closed for the Veteran's Day holiday. I often wonder how many students actually know the purpose of Veteran's Day so this month the school library is displaying photos of veterans near and dear to the Memorial School staff. And, I also spent some time with Kindergartners and First Graders discussing what a veteran is and what it means to be brave. Then we made beautiful poppies to share with a veteran in our own lives - it may be a neighbor, a friend, or relative. At Memorial School it even includes our own 2nd Grade Teacher Ms. Gould who served in the military!

Our resident veteran, 2nd grade teacher Ms. Gould!

Volunteer Mrs. DiPasquale with visiting volunteer Judy DiPasquale prepare the petals for the poppy flowers created by our Kindergartners and First Graders to honor veterans.

Voila! Flanders Field comes to life in the library. Mrs. DiPasquale holds up a sample of the poppy that the children created to symbolize their remembering the brave men and women, past and present, who fight for our country.

On another patriotic note, the 4th grade classes just kicked off a library research project on U.S. landmarks. The students will each be researching the who, what, where, when and whys of a particular landmark in this great nation and then sharing their research via podcasts! Students will be using a variety of sources - books, an iPad app, research pathfinders, resource lists from the library database and an online encyclopedia. The collaborative project will be the focus of both library and technology class for the next several weeks.

Here volunteer Mrs. Birkeland organizes the books students in 4th grade will use for their U.S. Landmarks research project.

Students made themselves comfortable spreading out in the Library and Technology Lab and got right to work researching their landmarks.

Happy Veteran's Day!