February 2020
Library Newsletter Lower Moreland Township School District Mission and Beliefs District Mission: To foster individual excellence in a nurturing environment by integrating a dedicated staff, an innovative curriculum, and community resources, while promoting respect for self and others. All students will acquire the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes necessary to become lifelong learners and citizens who will think critically, act responsibly, communicate clearly and collaborate effectively in a global community. In our school libraries, we support students in achieving these goals and teachers in constructing meaningful lessons to meet their curricular needs. Ultimately, we hope to create lifelong learners of all ages via our LMTSD School Library Media Centers.
Reminders! You can check your library account online at any time! Go to: http://library.lmtsd.org, click on your school and enter your network username (lunch #) and network password (lm5d…). Once entered into Follett Destiny, you can search the catalog and resources, like Follett Shelf eBooks and Audiobooks, or see which items you have checked out.
Mrs. Succi will be the new library aide at LMHS
Finding a Just Right Book!
Pine Road Pine Road Library had a busy month in January! Kindergarten explored more with sequence in both STEM and coding and in stories in the library. In STEM, students programmed Bee Bots to follow the sequence of the story We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and back in the library, we talked about sequence in the context of retelling a story using the elements of Beginning, Middle, and End with the story King and Kayla and the Case of the Lost Tooth. This story is also a PA Young Reader’s Choice Nominee and a past Theodor Seuss Geisel award honoree. First grade students are learning more about “book birthdays” or the copyright date of a book and how to find the copyright symbol on the verso. Fifth graders have begun to apply their 3-D design skills using a program called Tinkercad in the STEM lab and learned about the story of Beauty and the Beak to explore more about the work of bioengineers in creating prostheses, both for humans and animals. Save the date for our Pine Road Pajama Palooza Family Reading Event taking place on Thursday, March 5th as part of our week-long Read Across America celebration. And, entries are being accepted for the Young American Poetry Digest contest until March 8th. Entry forms are available on the counter in the library and on the Virtual Backpack.
Students Play Chess in the Library
5th Grade TV Studio
Email Contact
@ontheshelf4kids @murraymakers
PR ~ Mrs. Zschunke: ezschunke@lmtsd.org MA ~ Ms. Grosso: rgrosso@lmtsd.org HS ~ Mr. Engleman: pengleman@lmtsd.org
@lmhs_library
Highlights from January
Murray Avenue In January we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by joining the #ReadWoke movement. Read Woke was developed by school librarian Cicely Lewis, and promotes building empathy through reading books that: challenge a social norm, give voice to the voiceless, provide information about a group that has been disenfranchised, seek to challenge the status quo, and/or have a protagonist from an underrepresented or oppressed group. Mrs. Balin’s classes visited the library for Book Talks promoting our selection of woke books. Stop by the library to join the movement and #getwoke! As students learn about the library MakerSpace tools, their creative opportunities expand outside of the classroom. This month our Future City participants used the Cricut Easy Press to quickly, easily, and safely make t-shirts for their team. Mr. Manning’s Communication Arts classes used the Cricut to cut lettering for their marketing projects. Art classes used the Glowforge to cut and etch renderings of Hokusai’s The Great Wave and shadowbox projects exploring foreground, middle ground, and background.
MurrayMakers at lunch explore littleBits, a circuitry kit that promotes computational thinking as students "build something that does something."
Upcoming at Murray Avenue Library
Skype a Scientist: Meteorologist Edition On February 28th at WIN we will be Skyping with scientist Terra Ladwig, who uses computer models to study global weather patterns. Stop by the library to sign up!
January's Skype a Scientist visit with a graduate researcher who explores sustainable ways to purify water. Mrs. Meyer's students asked questions to solidify their understanding of civil engineering before their Future City competition.
You Can Do The (Rubik’s) Cube No experience necessary! This popular STEAM maker station returns to the library throughout the month of February. Join us at lunch to build a mosaic from 225 3x3 cubes using logic and mapping skills. You can also learn the algorithms to solve a Rubik’s cube. If you can already do the cube, come by to help when we reset them!
Creative Cafe & Book Fair Our annual Creative Cafe & Book Fair, a showcase of artistic talent in conjunction with our Literary Magazine Club and the MA art department, will be held at Barnes & Noble Willow Grove on February 21st, 6-8pm. Come out to support our writers and artists! A portion of the proceeds from cafe cafe and book sales support the Murray Avenue Library audiobook collection to support our English language learners. Hope to see you there!
Future City competitors also took advantage of our Cricut Easy Press which made creating team t-shirts quick, easy, and safe.
Upcoming in February Creative Cafe & Book Fair Barnes & Noble Willow Grove February 21st, 6-8pm
Library Websites
Pine Road
Murray Ave
High School
Pine Road: goo.gl/rJ3Bi7 Murray Avenue: goo.gl/rrLHV2 High School: goo.gl/ZwkCRX
Lower Moreland High School Mini-Grant Awarded The library is celebrating its receipt of a Mini-Grant for some Raspberrypi computers, soldering tools and equipment, and some parts to develop automated processes in the library through engineering and coding in our Maker Space.
CHROME CREW In the new year, we launched our student Chromebook repair and support crew called the Chrome Crew. These students will get training and support in diagnosing and repairing their classmates' computers from our technology specialists and then they will start helping to fix computers.
Featured Books We added some books to our Beat the Winter Blues display. We have a variety of books in that display to warm these winter days. Stop by the library to check out some books.
NFC in our library We know the Eagles are in the NFC, but we aren’t talking about football here. We are talking about Near Field Communications. NFC is the same technology that you use to pay with one tap or to enter a building using a key fob. We are taking this technology and applying it to books and equipment in the library. The chips will be installed in some of our books to share a review, a discussion from a teacher, or a link to a Youtube video about the book. We are really excited to have our students working on this cool new tool.
NEW BOOKS! We brought in a host of new books for all ages. We have expanded our collection with fiction and nonfiction. Ranging from the work at Pixar to today’s top sellers like The Dutch House!
The Makerspace is looking for donations: Old flat screen monitors.
“Getting there is good, but we're going there to win.” – Dan Rooney Database of the Month www.loc.gov The Library of Congress. User Name: None Required
This free tool gives access to the collected works of our nation. It can’t be beat for research, photos, music, and newspapers from its extensive open and free collection.
Book Buzz The Dutch House The Dutch House is a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go.