On to the second week!

Class visits begin this week. The younger grades (TK/K, 1, 2, and our deaf and hard-of-hearing class) will be hearing stories about starting school and will be talking about how the Pennekamp library works. Of particular importance is using our "paintstick" shelf markers when browsing for a book to check out. 

The upper grades will review library rules and become familiar with our ten new-ish Chromebooks. The Chromebooks are for accessing the library catalog; they are not to be used for other internet searches. To access the catalog, students need to know how to log on the the Pennekamp "Google apps" account, how then to open Chrome, and finally how to find "Library Search" on the Bookmarks Bar. Learning that is what grades 3, 4, and 5 will be working on.

Almost all classes have library volunteers now. These awesome parents and grandparents are trained to assist in the library with shelving, circulation, and using the catalog. New volunteers are welcomed every fall, so if you didn't get in on the action this year, please try again next year!

Friday is a minimum day. School will be dismissed at 12:45. The coming Monday (September 4) is a school holiday. 

Welcome back, Dragons! I hope you had a wonderful and restorative summer. This begins my eighth year at Pennekamp, and I feel we have a great year ahead! The library is cleaned up and ready to go, and the school is full of excitement, new faces and old friends, and great ambitions for the coming year.

​The library is a resource for the entire Pennekamp community--students, teachers, staff, administrators, and families. You can visit the library whenever it is open except during class visit times. The library is open from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. every weekday (except school holidays), but on occasional Wednesdays the library will close at 1:30 p.m. so that I can attend districtwide library staff meetings. This year to accommodate class visits the library will not be open on Fridays during lunch.

Every class visits the library every week. Before and after school, families may visit the library until it closes, but children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Students are permitted to check out the same number of books as their grade level; so, for example, a first-grader may take one book and a fifth-grader may take five books. Parents may check out ten books at a time. Kindergarteners are also allowed to check out one book but they keep their library book in their classroom. The loan period is one week. A book may be renewed three times, for a total of four weeks. Although there is no fine for late books, patrons are asked to return books promptly. (There may be a long waitlist for the very book you have checked out!) You will receive a courtesy notice every week stating what you or your child have checked out and when it is due. Payment must be made for books that are lost or damaged significantly. Please encourage your children to handle books with care. In particular, now that many of us carry water bottles, it's important to protect books from moisture.

This website is the best way to find out what's happening at the library. The class visit schedule shows when your child's class is coming to library and therefore what day he or she needs to bring any library books to school. On the Current/News page of this website you'll find a blog entry each week that describes what we are doing in the library and why--if, for example, I am reading books in support of curricular topics or related to a civic or cultural event. On the Weekly Readalouds page you can see what I am reading to each grade. If I show any internet content during class visits, I will usually link to it from my weekly blog post or the Weekly Readalouds page. You are obviously aware of the website since you are reading this post! If you find it interesting, I'd be grateful for your recommending it to other Pennekamp parents.

I'd like to express my thanks to the Pennekamp PTA, which is far and away the main source of funding for library materials. When your child brings home a beautiful book from the library, that book was almost surely purchased with PTA funds. I would also like to thank MBEF for funding my position as well as for the many other ways MBEF benefits our students, teachers, and community. Thank you, in turn, to the families that support the Pennekamp PTA and MBEF--your generosity makes our library possible.