We were very fortunate to have author of "Peak," "Sasquatch," and "Thunder Cave" among many others,  Roland Smith, breeze through town last week.  He had a nice visit with FYF on Wednesday and did a presentation at Noel Wien in the evening. Then, after getting up at 4am to write (his  regular on-the-road routine) he started the morning off at Lathrop presenting to at 9th grade team doing a cross curricular unit on mountain climbing. From there he hopped across the street to Hunter Elementary to present to the 3rd through 6th graders and autograph a few books.  Because the resident librarian at Hunter was home healing and not there to match him up with every one of Hunter's budding writers we were able to spirit him away to University Park where he had time to eat a bite of lunch in the homey library before presenting to 3rd - 6th graders in the gym.  All of the students loved his photos. Apparently he has worked for National Geographic in the past and it was obvious in the quality of his shots.  He also shared fun information about his family and then his formula for writing.  His adaptation of the movie industry's poster boards for a story layout seems like a great tool for those kinetic learners in the crowd. 

Unfortunately, Roland had to catch a 3:30pm flight to Anchorage and on to Bethel, so really didn't get a chance to see much of Fairbanks.  I hope we can get him back again some day.

And to give credit where credit is due please remember that Roland's visit to Alaska, including airfare to Fairbanks, was made possible by an inter-library cooperation grant funded by the State Library but written and coordinated by AkASL through the Spirit of Alaska Reading program. Rumor has it that the Sitka librarians may be ready to hand the management of this grant off to another community.  Anyone interested in volunteering?

 A Walk in the Boreal Forest (Series - Biomes of North America) 4th  (LM)
What are Earth’s Biomes   Bobby Kalman   (LM)
The Flim-Flam Fairies  by Allen Katz  (BB)
The Doghouse  by Jan Thomas    (BB) (read  with expression K-3)
A Book  by Mordecai Gerstein   (BB)  (genres up to 5th graders)
Yo Vikings   by Schachner, Judith (PF)
Roxie  by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor   up to 4th grade boys even    (PF)
Our Class is Going Green  written by a kindergarten class   (Earth Day K-1)   (MD)
Wangaris Tree of Peace by  Jeanette Winter   (MD)
Wide Mouthed Frog  by  Keith Faulkner  (popup)  (NE)
Binky the Space Cat   by Ashley Spires    (Jr Library Guild) (CS)
Splat the Cat  by Rob Scotton  (CS)  (character is kindergartener beginning of schools)
The Cheese   by Margie Palatini (song – Farmer in the Dell)  (CS)
Here Comes the Garbage Barge  by Johah Winter art made from trash (Jr Lib Guild) (DR)
Zorgamazoo   by Robert Paul Weston (DR)
Sword Bird by Nancy Yi Fan (DR)
A Visitor for Bear  by Bonny Becker (CN)
Imagine a Place  Sarah L Thompson  (CN)
Curious Garden  by Peter Brown   (BB)
We Planted a Tree by Diane Muldrow   (KS)
Survival at 40 Below  by Debbie Miller (KS)

respectfully submitted by Katie

......RHYMING electronic storybooks to help teach  science in a fun and entertaining manner!!  Be sure to look at the Owl Pellet Party!
http://msnucleus.org/membership/guide/storybooks.html                              Katie with thanks to Lindy Kinn for discovering and sharing!

Great video of Laurie Halse Anderson promoting school libraries for School Library Month.
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslissues/slm/schoollibrary.cfm

Katie

Found this post on a blog called ChickenSpagetti, which is a collection of poetry resources to use with children. The 30 Poets/30 Days is one I want to use now and set up on my calendar to use ALL of April next year!

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/preservation/repair/index.html

And that's just what it is - a simple book repair manual for some of the most needed repairs in the library. Click around and check things out when you have time. Keep in mind that some of these repairs are for the books you really, really, really want to keep and will need time to complete them properly. Enjoy the link!  Jim

20 Ways to Support Ethiopia Reads
If you're looking for a means of exposing your students to the great feeling one gets from helping others, check out this site on the building and supporting libraries for children in Ethiopia.  I love the fact that some of the 20 ideas are not fund raising but ways to connect with the Ethiopian children. My favorite is #6 - Make a video of teachers or students reading a favorite book for Ethiopian teachers and children to watch and enjoy.
What fun!! Modeling the joy of listening to a good book!
Check it out at---
http://www.ethiopiareads.org/_blog/Blog/post/20_Ways_to_Support_Ethiopia_Reads/
And if you're not familiar with Yohannes Gebregeorgis' story of becoming a children's librarian in San Francisco and discovering there were virtually no children's books from Ethiopia then read about it here-
http://www.ethiopiareads.org/about/founder

Katie

As long as these fur.lys are out there in cyberspace and since they don't appear to be searchable except when they're tagged in sites like Delicious I decided we better so some advertising......
 
fur.ly/kdk/ - a list of sites to learn and teach about webpage evaluation

fur.ly/ivo/ – list of sites to learn about and teach the Dewey Decimal System

fur.ly/ivp/ – list of sites of general interest to school librarians

fur.ly/b48/ – list of  37 websites compiled by the NSDL –National Science Digital Library  (confession..I made a mistake typing the address of one URL..I think #28 and we all have to remember that websites come and go so who knows how long these fur.lys will be useful)

fur.ly/yet/ – a collection of Alaska dogmushing related websites for students

If you create your own fur.ly at http://fur.ly/ please share with the group!! 
Katie

Check out what ALA has to offer in free promotional tools and ideas at
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/pio/natlibraryweek/nlw.cfm