This week we continue reading books about baseball and about science. In addition, and with reference to their previous "gingerbread man" studies, the DK classes will hear The Matzah Man: A Passover Story, by Naomi Howland. For specific titles read aloud this week please click on Weekly Readalouds. 

This Thursday night, March 29, is Family Science Night. It starts at 6:00 p.m. and is free of charge to all Pennekamp families. In support of this awesome event, the library will display science-themed books all week.

Thanks and congratulations to the 5th-graders for putting on a wonderful Richstone Feast--a fundraiser for the Richstone Family Center. Mr. Warner and Mrs. Barney deserve a round of applause for coordinating this meaningful service event for our school and especially for our hard-working and gracious 5th-grade students. Want to do more to support the Richstone Family Center? The center's Pier-to-Pier Walkathon is coming up on 

Next week is our April break. Make sure you and your students have enough books to read! Pennekamp parents may borrow up to ten books at a time from the school library.

When we return from break, we start the last leg of the school year. Wiith hundreds of books circulating at any given time, it does take a while to round them up and put them away properly. If you have been receiving overdue notices or notice library books that have been around the house for a long time, it's time to begin finding and returning those books. If a book is lost or damaged beyond repair, please make payment for it in exact change or a check made payable to MBUSD. Thank you for helping maintain our outstanding library collection.  

If you have come to the library website because you are looking for either the music video by OK GO or the United Nations World Food Day game, "How Much Water Is on Your Plate?" please click over to Weekly Readalouds, where those links can be found.

This week and next I am focusing on books about science and scientists (because next week is Pennekamp's Science Week); and on books about baseball, which is starting up right now and which provides an interesting window on American culture and history. 5th-grade has completed their Catalog Search Hall of Fame endeavor, which has dominated library time for the past few weeks, so this week we will without fail finish Queen of the Falls, by Chris Van Allsburg. 

This is an exciting time of year to be a Pennekamp Dragon. Having just done the talent show, our students (and teachers and parents) are preparing for the Richstone Feast on the evening of Thursday, March 22. This is a fundraiser for the Richstone Family Center, which "is dedicated to preventing and treating child abuse, strengthening families, and preventing violence in families, schools, and communities" (from the organization's website). This is a fun event that gives 5th-grade students a chance to do some hands-on community service by organizing and serving dinner for dozens of guests. Tickets for both early and late seatings are still available from the school office.

Then, next week, Thursday, March 29, is Family Science Night--the high point of Pennekamp's Science Week. Hugely popular last year, Family Science Night this year will offer many educational displays and workshops on a great variety of science topics. Featured events are a show by Mad Science, visiting robots from Beach Cities Robotics, and the chance to meet a real astronaut. Also that night students who chose to do a science fair experiment will be displaying their projects in the cafeteria. Family Science Night starts at 6:00 p.m. and is free of charge.

As busy as everyone is, school events such as these enrich our everyday lives and will one day be treasured family memories. Please consider taking an hour or two out of the weekly routine to attend both of these great events.

The younger grades will be hearing stories this week related to Saint Patrick's Day, as well as a nonfiction book about the holiday, St. Patrick's Day, by Gail Gibbons. Soon enough most children become too busy to look for leprechauns. I figure we might as well all enjoy it while there's still time to do so. Grade 4 will be reacquainting themselves with the nonfiction section and the Dewey Decimal System as we read You Can't Use Your Brain If You're a Jellyfish (new in our library) in honor of Brain Awareness Week. Grade 5 has been using much of their library time to attain places in the Catalog Search Hall of Fame, so this week, we are reading Queen of the Falls, a new book by Chris Van Allsburg, the popular picture book author and illustrator of such books as Polar Express and Jumanji. This continues our observance of Women's History Month, showing the ways in which being a woman--and in particular an older woman--motivated Annie Edson Taylor to carry out the daring stunt of going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

Library events coming up: 4th-grade book club meets this Friday at lunch recess to discuss Marley: A Dog Like No Other, by John Grogan, and to choose a new book. 5th-grade book club meets next Friday, March 23, to discuss the Emerald Atlas, by John Stephens, and to choose a new book.  

5th-graders who have completed all four catalog search questions are entering the library's "Catalog Search Hall of Fame" in great numbers--so far sixty-six students have their names up on the Hall of Fame charts! Students who complete all four catalog search questions by 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 15, will receive a frozen fruit bar from the library on Friday, March 16, at 2:45. Catalog search questions are available from the library. 

I hope to have the Scholastic flyers out next week, but the library has recently received an order of new books, so some of my time will be going into cataloging and covering those. A big shout-out to Arita Wong and Monica Waki, both of whom help cover our new books so they can go onto the shelves and into the students' hands! Arita and Monica, your help is greatly appreciated, as it that of the nearly thirty volunteers who assist in the library week after week! I truly couldn't do it without you all, so thanks!

From the Library of Congress's Legislative Guide to Women's History Month: 

Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week."  Throughout the next five years, Congress continued to pass joint resolutions designating a week in March as "Women’s History Week."  In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month."  Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as Women’s History Month.  Since 1995, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.”

The library will be recognizing Women's History Month this week by displaying and reading to all grades books that recognize the ambitions and accomplishments of women.

Also this week voting on the "Intermediate" nominees for the California Young Reader Medal will take place in Mrs. Hunt's third-grade class, as Mrs. Hunt read all three nominees aloud to her class.

Scholastic orders were distributed last week. New order forms will go home in two weeks. Thank you for purchasing from Scholastic Books. The points your orders generate provide free high-interest books for Pennekamp's library and classrooms.

Book club meetings are coming up: 4th-grade book club will meet Friday, March 16; 5th-grade book club will meet Friday, March 23.

Also on March 16 the library will provide frozen fruit bars for all 5th-grade students who have earned a place in the Catalog Search Hall of Fame. I am proud of all the students for practicing their catalog search skills. 

This week it is anticipated that the "app" for Destiny Quest will be loaded on all iPads throughout the district. Destiny Quest is a very user-friendly and visually appealing version of the library's catalog. Try it, you are likely to find that it is fun and easy-to-use for students and parents alike. The free Destiny Quest app is also available for newer Android phones and iPhones.