Our school library provides a wide range of print and non-print materials and online sources for our students, teachers, and the Russell Family at large. Students visit their library during weekly scheduled library classes. They learn how to use their library’s resources and technology, and they become acquainted with the wonderful world of children’s authors, illustrators, and literature. The library is continuously open during regular school hours. Students are welcomed at all times during the day to work individually or in small groups under the guidance of the professional librarian. Our library is a great place to read, learn, and connect with books, information, and fun! We ever strive to make our library a friendly and inviting place where students will want to return time and time again.
During the school year, we sponsor several “celebrations” highlighting the importance of reading:
September - Suggested Summer Reading Lists/Special Participation Recognition (www.mnsd.net/reading)
October - Library Book Fair coinciding with Marple Newtown Visitation Days
March – Read Across America Day/ Dr. Seuss’s Birthday/PTO Author Assembly
May – The Visiting Author coinciding with Young Authors' Day
At Russell School, we say YES to reading, learning, and connecting @ our school library! Do stop in and visit. The welcome sign is always out!
Think LIBRARY, because @ your library, you can explore, find, and create!
Think LIBRARY for Reference Sources!
Visit Library Links on the Russell Homepage.
Library Mission Statement
In a systematic and accumulative approach, using a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books and materials,
on-line sources, problem solving solutions, reading comprehension strategies, author studies, and author visits:
to instill in our students a life-long love of reading and learning,
to promote an appreciation for the world of children's book authorship and illustrations,
and to create information-literate students of the 21st century.
Library Links
World Book Online (World Book Encyclopedia) -- www.worldbookonline.com
From home, you will need to enter username: marplenewtown / password: student
Power Library -- http://www.delcolibraries.org/Databases_Full.htm
From home, this link will take you to the Delaware County Public Library Homepage. You need your public library card barcode number to access the databases on POWER Library
Grolier Online (New Book of Knowledge; America the Beautiful; Lands and People) -- http://auth.grolier.com/cgi-bin/go_up_login?formu=culber&formp=home
netTrekker (curriculum based search engine) -- http://school.nettrekker.com
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frontdoor/
From home you will need to enter the username: mnsdes / password: student
Please see complete list of Library Links on Russell Homepage -- www.mnsd.org/russell
@ Your Library
Month by Month Highlights!
2008-2009 School Year
2008 September Update Please hold this date: Sept 12, 9:10 AM Library Parent Volunteer Training Session!
During the month of September it is always wonderful welcoming the students, eager learners and avid readers beaming with enthusiasm, back to their school library! We are thrilled to learn of all the great reading done over the summer by our students! Way to go, Russell Tigers!!! Our Russell students read! Our students know that "Paws," the library St. Bernard dog mascot puppet, reinforces our motto that we at Russell School paws (pause) every day to read and to enjoy good books! If your child participated in the Suggested Summer Reading Program please return the Summer Reading voucher or a letter from you informing us of your child's voluntary participation. We want to acknowledge all students who participated in our voluntary summer reading program. We thank you for taking your child to the public library and bookstores this summer. We are a team, delighting our children with books and making them life-long readers!
It is also in September that we are most earnestly asking for help in our school library. We need parent volunteers, partnering with us, serving our students and faculty. If you have one hour a week or one hour every other week to help us in the library we would be most grateful! We welcome your help during your child's library class or at any time most convenient to your schedule. Volunteer forms go home for you to fill out and return. Our Coordinator Library Volunteers prepares a schedule on a first-come, first-serve basis. We always have a Volunteer Orientation/Training Session to officially welcome our volunteers. This is "a must" for our new volunteers and a worthwhile "refresher course" for our beloved veteran volunteers. The welcome mat is always out, and we are only a phone call away: 610-359-4317. Please know how grateful we are for each and every parent volunteer. You have our heartfelt thanks!
2008 October Update
We look forward to seeing you at the Library Book Fair!
October 20-24 Library Book Fair/Family Night Oct 22
In October we sponsor our one and only fund raiser for our school library, the Scholastic Library Book Fair!
Our Book Fair runs during Marple Newtown Visitation Week, October 20 – 24, 2008.
Dates and times:
Monday, October 20, 9:00 AM - 1:30 PM (2 hour early dismissal)
Tuesday, October 21, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Wednesday, October 22, 9:00 AM – 7:30 PM
Family Night!
Thursday, October 23, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Friday, October 24, 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Place:
LGI Room (Large Group Instruction room) room #216
Teacher Wish List bags are available, giving our students the perfect opportunity to purchase books listed on their teachers wish lists.
These special purchases of books can be enjoyed the whole year long by all of the students in their classrooms.
Special name plates that the students fill out are placed on the inside front covers of these wish list books so that the generosity of the giver will always be acknowledged and appreciated.
We need parent volunteers to help at our Library Book Fair.
Please consider visiting and/or helping when your child comes to the Fair during his/her regularly scheduled library class time or at any time convenient to you.
Set up is on Friday, October 17 at 1:30 PM and the break down will be the following Friday, October 24 at 2:00 PM.
We appreciate everyone’s help, support, and generosity.
Special thanks are extended to Mrs. Karen Carr, who is both our coordinator of parent volunteers and our book fair chairperson.
We are very grateful for our parent volunteers who truly make a positive difference in our library program.
Thank you one and all!
2008 November Update Counting our blessings!
In November, this month of Thanksgiving, I wish to thank one and all for the wonderful support that you give to our school library all the year through!
You do so much to foster our library program, and we are ever thankful!
We thank all of you who bought books for your families, friends, and the teacher Wish List bags at our Book Fair.
Special expressions of thanks are extended to Mrs. Karen Carr and her team of wonderful library volunteers!
Their help is invaluable to our library program!
Shouts of thanksgiving go out to our school principal, Mrs. Dianne Smith, and to our teaching staff who support and use our library and who encourage others to do so likewise.
Thank you to our students who value good books and the quest for information and knowledge.
Many, many thanks are sent to our generous PTO who always remembers our library with kindness and generosity.
Oodles of thank yous to our school secretaries, Mrs. Roseann Cavacini and
Mrs. Diane Manchio, who do so much in so many ways to help our library.
And a bouquet of thanks to Mrs. Diane Kiewel, our super fantastic library assistant, who does so much everyday to help others, serve our students, and carry through with 101 tasks with circulation and technical services to keep the library running so smoothly!
@ Russell Library we count our blessings!
2008 December Update Bright with expectancy!
In December, while busily emerged in library classes and engaged in learning, our hearts and minds think ahead to the winter holidays.
I want to take this opportunity to extend holiday greetings to each of you and wishes for a bright and happy New Year!
While the current year will soon end, our school year is bursting with expectancy looking ahead to 2009 with two different author visits and our participation in the Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award Program, a statewide reading program, that we have proudly been a part of for eleven years!
2009 January Update Looking ahead with New Year anticipation!
This is a time for remembering the year past and for all that we have achieved, for anticipating the New Year ahead with great expectancy, and for making New Year resolutions.
We are very grateful for our PTO’s commitment to us as our partner in promoting literacy!
We are so thankful for the generous outpouring from our PTO of both line item funds and extra donations to our school library this school year with the result that new outstanding fiction books, as well as, the complete set of the Magic Tree House books are now available to our students and the 36 brand new blue book ends!
We want to also acknowledge the generous gift of four new books by our Russell School faculty, new books also given by Mrs. Jennie Teti, Mrs. Judy Barsam and Mrs. Dianne Smith, and the new books given by our students who donated books during the Library Book Fair and for other occasions. Our students will enjoy these beautiful books for years to come. Our library collection is enriched with these excellent new titles.
Looking ahead to special activities in the New Year, with all grades in library classes we are enjoying with earnest the books on the Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Awards lists, a Pennsylvania State reading program that we have proudly participated in these past 11 years.
With grades 3-5, during the extra library class time, we have been concentrating on PSSA preparation, analyzing different essay selections.
We are looking forward to the school visits of two authors/illustrators this year, Gene Barretta on March 2nd, Read Across American Day, and Roger Roth, May 20, Young Authors’ Day!!!
We greet the New Year with much happy anticipation!
Friendly reminder: Win an author visit from Jeff Kinney, to our school.
Cartoon entries are due Jan 31.
Call the school library for details!
2009 February Update Preparing for our first author visit of this school year!
In library classes we have been enjoying several of the books written and illustrated by Gene Barretta, a local illustrator, author, and animator who will be presenting assemblies on March 2 in honor of Read Across America Day, Dr. Seuss’s birthday!
Gene Barretta’s illustrious career includes films for Sesame Street, character design for The Jim Henson Company, and the authorship and illustrating of many picture books and trade books. His picture book, Now & Ben is the winner of the 2007 Carolyn W. Field Award: Best Book by a Pennsylvania Author or Illustrator. Now & Ben brings the genius of Benjamin Franklin to life and deepens “our appreciation for one of the most influential figures in American history.” Yet another book, Dear Deer: A Book of Homophones, “introduces children to the richness of language through the concept of homophones.”
Many thank you’s to our generous PTO who makes Gene Barretta’s visit possible and to Mrs. Joanne Boulanger who did the administrative work and booking behind the scenes to insure a memorable 2009 Read Across American Day!
2009 March Update Voting for our favorite book!
Proudly for the past 11 years, our Russell School students have participated in The Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award Program, a Pennsylvania State reading program for all students in grades K -12. Selecting books from two of the four lists, the K-3rd grade list and the 3rd-6th grade lists, we have enjoyed the books during library classes throughout this school year.
Students are encouraged to read on their own other books from the lists which were not selected to be shared in library class.
March is the month when the students are given a ballot to cast their vote for their favorite book on their grade level reading list!
It is an exciting time for our students to have a voice in voting for their favorite book!
The votes are due into the state by March 15. We will hear in the late spring the favorite books from each of the lists voted for by Pennsylvania school children across the state including our Russell students!
2009 April Update Tallying the votes!
The tally of our votes for The Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award Program books reveal our class, grade, and all-school favorites!
The favorite book voted for by all Pennsylvanian students from the specific reading lists will be announced the end of May.
The favorite book for our Russell students in Grades K – 3rd is:
Dogs and Cats by Steve Jenkins
The favorite book for our Russell in Grades 3rd – 6th students is: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Kindergarten/Grade Favorites
AM
Mrs. Paine:
Dogs and Cats by Steve Jenkins
AM
Mrs. Reardon:
Dogs and Cats by Steve Jenkins
PM
Mrs. Paine:
Dogs and Cats by Steve Jenkins
PM
Mrs. Reardon:
Dogs and Cats by Steve Jenkins
First Grade/Grade Favorite:
Mrs. Antenucci:
Dogs and Cats by Steve Jenkins
Mrs. Martin:
Dogs and Cats by Steve Jenkins
Mrs. Philipps: a tie between Dogs and Cats
by Steve Jenkins and The Secret Science Project That Almost Ate the School by Judy Sierra
Second Grade/Grade Favorite:
Mrs. Chamoun:
Cowlick by Christin Ditchfield
Ms Leidy:
The Secret Science Project That Almost Ate the School by Judy Sierra
Mrs. Peirce:
The Secret Science Project That Almost Ate the School by Judy Sierra
Third Grade/Grade Favorite:
Mrs. Barsam:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Mrs. Botos:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Mrs. Nash:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Fourth Grade/Grade Favorite:
Mrs. Gerhard:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Mrs. Scheck:
The Last Brother, A Civil War Tale by Trinka Noble
Mrs. Teti:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Mrs. Videon/Mrs. Acrich:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Fifth Grade/Grade Favorite:
Ms Cunningham:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Mrs. Locher:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Mrs. Saybolt:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Looking ahead to May 20th when our visiting author/illustrator, Roger Roth, will be here for Young Authors' Day, order forms for his books are being sent home on March 25th and April 1st. All order forms and checks made out to Russell PTO are due back to the Russell library by April 14th. Thank you!
2009 May Update Young Author's Day!
May 20th, Young Authors’ Day!
Looking forward to our second author of the year!
Roger Roth, children’s author and illustrator, will be presenting two assemblies on May 20th in honor of Young Authors’ Day here at Russell School!
Roger Roth, a local Philadelphian, graduated from Pratt University with a degree in fine art and has been working as an artist ever since.
His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Barron’s.
Illustrating children’s books since 1982, he is also a senior lecturer in the illustration department at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Roger Roth has both authored and illustrated many children’s books.
Several of his books that we are enjoying in library classes are:
Fishing for Methuselah, The Sign Painter’s Dream, Stink Soup, and The American Story 100 True Tales from American History.
Other titles that he has either written and/or illustrated include:
The Giraffe That Walked to Paris, The invisible Dog, The Cat Hall of Fame, Harriet’s Hare, Billy the Ghost and Me, Mr. Ape, The Merman, The Wolf Girls: An Unsolved Mystery From History, The Mary Celeste: An Unsolved Mystery From History, The Roanoke Colony: An Unsolved Mystery From History, and The Salem Witch Trials.
We wholeheartedly welcome Roger Roth to Russell School!
2009 June Update Library Circulation Closes June 1st!
As the end of school approaches, we begin to think about getting all of the library books and magazines back to start our annual inventory process.
Therefore, library circulation will close on Monday, June 1st, approximately two weeks before the last day of school.
(Across the district, June 1st is the traditional day to close circulation.)
Library classes continue of course, but all library materials will be due on Monday, June 1st!
Please help your child/children find all books and magazines checked out from Russell School Library, so that they can return their library materials by the 1st of June.
We are always so appreciative for your help when calling all books home for the summer!
Our volunteer mothers are still very much needed during this busy end of the year! Many, heartfelt thanks for all of your help with our end of the year round up of all library materials!!!
Student/Faculty Periodicals
Suggested Summer Reading Lists
