Welcome Back!

Do you know your child's library schedule? 

Kindergarten:  
     Ms. Anzalone, Monday 9:45 - 10:30
     Ms. Coverdale, Monday 10:30 - 11:15
     Ms. Nagle, Monday 11:15 - 12:00

First Grade:
     Mr. DeBenedictis, Tuesday 9:15 - 10:00
     Mrs. Kanef, Tuesday 10:55 - 11:35
     Mrs. Kennedy, Friday 1:45 - 2:30
     Mrs. Samson, Thursday 9:15 - 10:00

Second Grade:
     Mrs. Bowman, Thursday 11:00 - 11:45
     Mrs. Flaherty, Tuesday 10:00 - 10:45
     Mrs. Haggerty, Thursday 10:10 - 10:55

Third Grade:
     Mrs. Fitch, Wednesday 12:45 - 1:30
     Mrs. Hollis-Pfeifer, Thursday 12:45 - 1:30
     Mrs. McEleney, Tuesday 12:45 - 1:30
     Mrs. Thomashow/Caputo, Monday 12:45 - 1:30

Fourth Grade:
     Mrs. Adams-MacLeod, Monday 1:45 - 2:30
     Mrs. Bradford, Wednesday 11:30 - 12:15
     Mrs. McElaney, Wednesday 1:45 - 2:30
     Ms. Swymer, Tuesday 1:45 - 2:30

Fifth Grade:
     Mrs. Hunt, Friday 11:15 - 12:00
     Ms. Ostler, Friday 10:30 - 11:15
     Mrs. Wallace, Monday 9:00 - 9:45
     Ms. Whiting-Jones, Friday 12:00 - 12:45

 Please try to help your kids remember their library day!!  

Happy Summer!

Was summer really so long ago?  It certainly went fast, but I had fun taking several trips to visit family in Pittsburgh along with overnight trips to Lake Sunapee and Lake Winnipesaukee.  The craziest thing that I did was agree to go zip lining with my family:

We visited Gunstock Mountain Resort in New Hampshire.  There are 3 parts to the course, and the longest run travels close to 3/4 of a mile.  Your body speed can actually travel 60mph! 

I may be smiling, but I actually am afraid of heights!

It was loads of fun though, but still, I decided I liked keeping my feet on the ground, unlike my daughter and husband who jumped out of an airplane!

Those 4th Graders!

This morning, I saw a group of well prepared 4th graders ready for the annual vocabulary parade:

Battle of the Books at Ambrose!

Battle of the Books is a great tradition which we started 5 years ago.  Basically, students have to read a minimum of 8 of the Winchester Reading Rocks Books throughout the course of the year.  If they have, they are eligible to enter their name a specific number of times based on the number of books read.  Their chance increases when they read more books.

Our team:

Back Row: Emily Campo, Grace Wagner, Olivia O'Connell
First Row: Jacqui Schlesinger, Isabella Ryan and Maggie Sendlenski

It takes teamwork to come up with the answers!

We also had a number of students who read all 25 books in the Reading Rocks list.  This is a major feat and students were recognized that evening.  They include (although not all pictured):

Kate Bicks     Stephen Burchfield     Emily Campo     Emily Chesterton     Madelyn Dengler
Andrew Houllahan     Mitchell Hoyt     Anna Jacobson     Caroline Linskey     Michael Salvatore
Jacqui Schlesinger     Maggie Sendlenski     Marina Vernaglia     Vivian Zander

The teams and All 25  Readers!

Great News!

Right before April break, the elementary librarians received the news that WFEE awarded the district the funds to purchase digital audio books for the five libraries.  These "books" will be purchased in the fall, so look forward to more information to come!

Thank you WFEE!

Authorfest 2014

On Tuesday, April 15th, all of our students were visited by a talented group of authors and illustrators in celebration of Authorfest.   Thank you to the Winchester Foundation for Educational Excellence(WFEE), the En Ka Society and the Parents InterSchool Council (PISC) for supporting this wonderful event.  I hope your kids had a chance to tell you what they learned from their visitor!  I know that many are looking forward to checking out their books in the coming weeks.

Photos courtesy of Karen Kosko (*courtesy of Charlesbridge Publishing)

Brian Lies - Kindergarten

Meg Kearney - 1st Grade

Tracey Fern - 2nd Grade*

Marty Kelley - 3rd Grade

David Elliott - 5th Grade

Fred Bowen - 4th Grade

Kindergarten Fun

Collaborating with the Lincoln staff is such a pleasure.  Although I can't take credit for this entire project, I wanted to share what I saw in Mrs. McEleney's kindergarten class this week.  Kids watched a short clip from an old Mr. Rogers show where Eric Carle explained his painting and collage technique.  Mrs. M. took off with the idea and had her class become little artists.  Enjoy!

Eric Carle in Kindergarten!

And we have a winner!

Katie and her proud Mom and Dad!

At the 2014 Massachusetts School Library Conference, Katie Lew's bookmark was chosen as an honorable mention in the Grades 4-5-6 category of the annual bookmark contest.  She, along with 11 other students from across the Commonwealth were invited to the State House today to receive their awards.   For the first time, all recipients were girls.  Katie even received a special citation from the office of Jason Lewis.  Way to go Katie!

Carolyn DeCristofano who authored the book, , 

gave an inspiring speech about the importance of school libraries. Listening to her may just encourage our girls, to take an active interest in STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.  

Ms. De Cristofano behind Katie and the other recipients of the MSLA Bookmark Award

 Certainly, this year's theme  "School Libraries:  Something for Everyone" rang true at today's event!

2014 Award Winners on the Great Hall's Staircase

Practicing with Ebooks!

For the past few months, students in grades 3, 4 and 5 were introduced to our new ebooks.  (See above link for more information on these great resources!)  Many have practiced at home and many have "checked-out" ebooks to read on their own personal devices.  I will continue to revisit these new resources, so see if your kids can give you a demonstration!  

Here is a sampling of our 4th grade using both desktops and iPads to browse the collection.

Look at the Google Gang!

Over the March 15 - 16th weekend, faculty of the Winchester Public Schools attended a 2-day technology conference. The "Ed Tech New England Summit: Featuring Google Apps for Education" was  held in Burlington, MA and featured two full days of sessions devoted to integrating technnology to promote student learning. Pictured above are Librarians Janice Bernardi, LeeAnne Toner, Jessica Callahan, Lynda Moylan and IT specialist Lynne Peledge attending the Saturday - Sunday sessions.

My head is still spinning, but I'm looking forward to sharing with colleagues and students some of the information I learned.

Caught reading!

 I ran into a great scene Wednesday morning before school started, and I didn't even have to stage this photo!  These two girls were so enthralled with their books, that they never knew I took their pix.  Love it.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Click here to see a sampling of the morning events!

Welcome!

Welcome to the new Lincoln Library blog!  

Feel free to poke around as I  familiarize myself with blogging.    As you can see by the above headings, there may be interesting information for you to preview.  I will continue to add links and information and look forward to your comments too.  Enjoy!


For the next few weeks, our bulletin board will display the creativity of our students who participated in the Massachusetts Library Association Bookmark contest.  Out of the 90+ participants, 9 were selected to represent the Lincoln School in the statewide contest.  The winners will be announced on March 10th at the annual conference.  I'll keep you posted to see if we might just have a winner!