Zervas Moves part 1

It's the end of the year, library classes are done, and it is time to move back to 30 Beethoven Ave, in our beautiful new space!

Yes, our books are coming with us!  This past week I have been busy preparing the library for the move. Taking down displays, packing up supplies, getting all the books back on the shelves, and now we are just waiting for the packers to come and help put the books on the mobile trucks to move our library back home.

Boxes packed and labeled and books shelved

Waiting for the packers

Computers covered, tables moved out of the way, chairs piled up.

Moving on up!

Signs of our move to our beautiful new space are everywhere! Crates, crates, everywhere crates!  I've started to pack up the library space on this 90 plus degree day.  The number one question I am asked is, "Do you have to pack up all the books?"  And my answer is yes, and no.

We will use a moving company to do what is called "Shelf-to-shelf" moving.  This means that we will be putting our library books in order on large wheeled book trucks, wrap them up and transport them to new Zervas.  Then once the shelving is installed, we will unload the book trucks on the shelves, still in order.  So yes, I have to make sure each book is in order on the shelves, but I don't have to put them all in boxes and move them that way.  Thank goodness!  We have over 8,500 books in our library, that would be a LOT of boxes!

And while we are moving out of the Zervas library, the Cabot School Library is moving in!  It's really exciting!

Its been an adventure, lots of moving, lots of sorting, but in the end, the real end, we know it is well worth the effort.  I can't wait to see our children's faces when they walk into their brand new beautiful school in September.

Time to start packing!

You know it's time to move when your books no longer fit on the shelves!

Moving our books to the book trucks at old Zervas

We used a lot of trucks and wrapped them up for transport

This is a fraction of what our classroom teachers have to pack

New Zervas Library.  Media room in back, seating steps in back.

Along this wall will be the non-fiction

The circulation desk will be here

Once the shelves are in, it will be AMAZING!

Annual Spring Library Gift Book Drive

Summer vacation is almost here, and Zervas is getting ready to move into our beautiful new building! What better way to celebrate a new library with new books dedicated in honor of Zervas teachers?
Ordering is fast and easy, you can buy online, dedicate your book, and it will come to new Zervas processed and ready to be checked out.

Zervas students are readers and LOVE new books! Support the Zervas Book Drive HERE
Thank you!

~Ms Kinney

All STEAM Ahead!

The STEAM movement is alive and well in the Zervas Library!

STEAM centers give our children the space and time to be innovators, creators and designers. These STEAM centers and websites foster a hands-on approach to learning and creating.

Over the next several weeks, students in grade 2-5 will get to choose a different STEAM center. Students have a chance to code, design a ramp using Keva planks, create a moving machine using legos, color bookmarks, design their own comic books, create stop-motion stories and much more.

Selected maker sites are available on the Zervas Library Website

Summer Reading 2017

It's gray and rainy outside, but with six more weeks of school, summer is on the minds of the wonderful librarians at the Newton Free Library!

This year the summer reading program has changed a bit.  Instead of earning little individual prizes, children preK-rising grade 5 can log their reading minutes online and help earn a community prize for the Newton Free Library!  Be sure to fill out a postcard and share with Mayor Warren what you are reading this summer.

Newton Free Library Summer Reading Challenge

Going into Middle School?  Guess what!  You have a challenge and a change to help earn a community prize for the new teen space in the Newton Free Library!  READ READ READ and log those minutes!

Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month!

Students Grades K-5 read, created, and listened to poetry.

We read and studied many types of poems: color poems, shape/concrete poems, creating poems from a word bank, listening to music and creating poems from what they heard.  Students created blackout poems, haikus, and acrostic poems.  

Best of all students read and found some new favorite poems to read and share!

We learned about shape/concrete poems

And more shape poems 

We learned about color poems

We read class favorites poems

Students created shape poems

Students used the Word Mover app to create poems from a word bank

And the Winners are...part one

For the past several weeks Zervas students grade 2-5 have been reading picture books, discussing picture books, comparing picture books, all to decide what is the best of the best for ZervCott 2017.

And now the results are in.

Winner of the 2017 ZervCott is:

They all Saw a Cat 

written and illustrated by Brendan Wenzel

Students loved the illustrations, and felt that this book best represented the criteria #3. Importance.  Illustrations must be necessary to understand the story. 

Following the cat walking through the world with its whiskers, ears and paws, many animals see the cat, and all from a different perspective. Bright, bold illustrations make this a fun read for everyone.

There were three honor books including: 

This is Not a Picture Book

written and illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier. 

This simple book packs a lot. Students felt this was a great example of criteria #2: Appropriateness.  Illustrations are a good match for the mood, tone, and theme in the story.

Little duck finds a book on the ground and is dismayed to see that it has no pictures!  But he sticks with it and even though the words are hard, he gives it a try and sees pictures in his imagination.

Bonus: the endpapers narrate the story!

Maybe Something Beautiful               by F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell and illustrated by Rafael Lopez.

This vibrant, colorful book based on a true story, is a great example of criteria #1 Excellence. The illustrations are an example of excellence in technique.

A little girl and an artist gather new neighborhood friends to brighten their gray city with creating murals and art everywhere.  A wonderful story about the power of art that transforms.  The illustrator is a muralist, and it shows.

What to do with a Box
written by Jane Yolen and Illustrated by Chris Cheban

A box.  Such a simple concept, but it makes for an extraordinary toy with a little imagination.  Because of this simple, universal theme, this book appealed to many Zervas students after one read (criteria #4 Appeal).

Detailing the edges of the pages with a box, this book is about endless possibilities of imagination.  The illustrations take children to the beach and France and back.  What can you do with a box?

ZervCott 2017

The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

The 2017 Caldecott Award will be announced January 23, 2017.
It will be streamed live here at 8am EST:http://ala.unikron.com/2017/

All grades at Zervas Elementary are learning about the Caldecott Award and reading past winners and contenders for this year's award.  We are having our own award, the ZervCott, to be awarded January 19th.

Students participating in this voting are reading picture books published in 2016, and are thoughtfully applying the same parameters as the actual Caldecott Committee.

1. Excellence:
Are the illustrations an excellent example of its technique (collage, painting, wood carvings)?

2. Appropriateness:
Are the illustrations a good match for the mood, tone, and theme in the story?

3. Importance:
Are the illustrations necessary to understand the story?

4 Appeal?
Do we like it?

They have some tough decisions ahead!  Many excellent picture books were published in 2016, it will be exciting to see what they decide, and what will win the Caldecott.

Potential candidates for the ZervCott 

Hour of Code

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but coding is so delightful!

December means Hour of Code at Zervas elementary.  Every student in grades K-5 has the opportunity to learn how to code, and learn coding vocabulary and coding strategies.  

An annual anticipated event, Hour of Code gives all students the opportunity to learn about the exciting field of Computer Science.  Coding lessons are taught by the technology teacher, library teacher,  the math coach, and classroom teachers.  After Hour of Code students can continue coding throughout the school year in classes and center choices.

Coding is done in partners

Levels get more challenging

Problem solving at its best!

Celebrating problem challenges solved!