Re-Boot Camp is back!

Attention 4th and 5th graders! Re-Boot Camp was on extended leave, but after 3 years, it is back! Want to learn research skills, prepare for school reports and have fun, all at the same time? I can't hear you! Did you say YES?! Call the Children's Desk at 503-718-2656 to register. It will be upstairs in the Technology Room on Wednesday, October 30 and November 6 from 4 to 5:30. Please plan to attend both sessions.

Governor Kitzhaber Proclaims October Information Literacy Month in Oregon

On June 26th, 2012, Governor Kitzhaber proclaimed October to be Information Literacy month in Oregon.
The National Forum on Information Literacy is leading an effort to encourage all states and U.S. territories to submit requests to their governors’ offices to proclaim October as Information Literacy Month. With a signed proclamation in hand, Oregon is ahead of many other states in the Information Literacy proclamation initiative.  Read the Governor's proclomaton here.  For ideas and tips on increasing information literacy in your family, visit the library!  We also have tons of resources you can take home to develop early literacy in your child to help prepare them to get ready to read too!

Simon Says: Don't Use Flashcards!

Recent research has been indicating that play is how kids learn and is important for their future success. This short article from the New York Times by Tara Parker-Pope, provides more explicit guidance around what types of games and how you can alter games to increase a child’s ability to pay attention, remember rules, and exhibit self-control—all strong predictors of academic success!

Here are a few things from the article that you can try with your kids or even a group of kids, for that matter:
• Play games like Simon Says, Red Light/Green Light, and clapping and signing games which require kids to pay attention and focus, follow instructions/rules/the leader, and exhibit self-control.

• Change rules or add new components to games develops mental flexibility and requires increased concentration and memory skills—examples include having kids touch the opposite body part than what is being sung during Head and Shoulders (touch your nose when you sing the word ‘toes’), switching green to stop and red to go in Red Light/Green Light.

• Do more singing and clapping games! Make up a new verse to an old favorite action rhyme that kids have memorized and try singing in the round (Row, Row, Row your boat is a good one to start with).

Meet the Collection Mondays: Big Books

The key feature of most Big Books is that they are in a patterned and predictable language format. These kid-favorite titles are packed with everything from rhyme & repetition to rhythmic language and more! Our Big Book collection is nestled lying down on the shelves at the end of the Parenting collection and contains a wide choice of charming stories filled with marvelous illustrations that everyone is sure to enjoy.

The very size of the Big Book makes it a novelty which attracts young children's curiosity as well as sustains their enthusiasm. Children are easily able to track and differentiate the printed word in this format individually or in a group.  In the classroom setting, the enlarged text in a Big Book allows students to focus on the text much the same way they do when experiencing one-on-one reading with their individual caregivers. This is significant in light of the attention span of young children and the challenges of large classrooms. The reading process is a visual task as well as a hearing task and by using a Big Book instead of a traditional sized book in a group setting, young readers are readily able to follow their teachers lead in modeling various reading skills.  Positive shared reading experiences focus on the enjoyment of the story. Pre-readers and readers alike readily model reading behaviors in socially rewarding and risk-free environment. Reading a favorite book over and over again, no matter what format, helps build experience with handling books and the reading process itself long before children actually learn to read.

Don't forget to extend the fun of your Big Book choices with our wonderful collection of Puppets!!!

Meet the Collection Mondays: Picture Books & Board Books

Welcome to Meet the Collection Monday.  We're sorry we missed last Monday October 3rd.  We've been so usy her at the library.  Today we will highlight the Picture Book and Board Book collections with blurbs from Molly and Terri.

About the Picture Books from Molly:
This collection lives on the six shelving units that greet you right when you walk into our Children's Room. This large and lovely collection holds over 15,000 books in which the illustrations and text work together to tell a story. It is one of the library's most popular collections, with 98% of titles having been checked out at least once in the past year.


While most picture books are written to be shared with children from birth through six years of age, there are also picture books appropriate for and appealing to children in upper elementary school. If you've already graduated to "chapter books" (Juvenile Fiction) but would like to enjoy an illustrated story every now and then, ask us for some recommendations. Some of the most sophisticated picture books are actually wordless, the story being told completely via the artwork. Picture books can be different heights and widths, but are generally 32 pages in length. At the end of the shelving for the regular Picture Book collection, there is an aisle reserved for Holiday Picture Books. These titles are grouped together by holiday, then by author’s last name. Even though we add new books every year, we can never seem to have enough. For example, as I write this, there is only one Halloween book on the shelf. So stop by and spend some time exploring our colorful, fantastic Picture Book collection, and be sure to check out some holiday books nice and early!

About the Board Books from Terri:
The juvenile board book collection consists of materials to meet the educational and recreational needs of children from birth to three years.  The board book format plays an important function for children who are learning what books are and how to handle them as the develop motor skills and print knowledge.  The sturdy pages are able to stand up to chewing and fingers that are just leaning how to turn pages.

The collection is comprised of multiple copies of individual titles in board book format.  Some books include special features of interest to this age group, such as lift-the-flap, varied textures and shapes, mirrored surfaces and the like.  The board book collection is housed in bins placed on the floor so that they are easily accessible to babies and toddlers.  Because these books are not placed in any particular order and are frequently withdrawn, this is a non-holdable collection. 

The strongest influencing factor in the board book collection is the age group that it is intended for and primarily used by: children from birth through two years and their caregivers.  Children in this age group are most interested in simple stories, repetitive and rhyming text, artwork that is clear, bold and realistic, and books that feature animals, human faces, other babies, and objects and activities familiar to them such as bath time, food and bedtime.

Good Ol' Dewey

The Dewey Decimal System is the way our library and many libraries, including all in the Washington County system, categorize non-fiction books. Pretty much any subject you can think of probably has its own Dewey Decimal Number. If you find the call number of a book you want, chances are if you go out to the stacks, you will find more like it with the exact same call number or right around there. If the books you find in the the kids' section are too easy, you can even go upstairs, and using the same call number, find something that is a little harder.

Our fiction books, on the other hand, are generally shelved in alphabetical order according to the last name of the author.

Reading - Good for Your Future Education

It seems more and more people, including kids, are talking about money, whether it's the economy, personal finance or allowances! The Oregon State Treasurer and The Oregon College Savings Plan have teamed up to encourage this awareness through Reading is an Investment, a literacy and financial education program.

Elementary students (K-5th) can sign up for the program, track their reading and be entered into a drawing for $500 towards an Oregon College Savings Plan account. Twenty scholarships will be awarded in each of Oregon's five Congressional Districts.

How does it work? Check here for more information or stop by the library to pick up your reading log, instructions and booklist and get started!

Re-Boot Camp, Take 3

Missed Re-Boot Camp last summer? Well, now's your chance! We're offering it again, this time during the school year. Fourth and fifth graders can get help with specific assignments or just learn how to do research in general. This will not be a tutoring session, but kids will learn how to find the information they need on their own.

So want to come have fun at the library while learning, too?

WHAT?! I can't HEAR you!!!

Re-Boot Camp will be two days long: Tuesday, October 12 AND Wednesday, October 13 4:30 to 6:00 in the Puett Room.

To register your child, call the Children's Desk at 503.718.2656.