Chatsworth Media Center Gazette
Teacher's Edition
Volume I, Issue II
 January/February 2001

Check These Out:
S.A.F.E. Grant Books Arrive

Thanks to the S.A.F.E Grant, all elementary schools in Baltimore County were, for the third year, given money for collection development. After selecting titles from a materials catalog especially developed for Baltimore County, over $6,400 of new fact books were added to our Chatsworth Media Center this week. Once again, materials were selected with the curriculum in mind. To better assist you in using these materials to supplement your programs, I have compiled the following list of books. While this is not an exhaustive list of all 350 titles, it is a comprehensive list of topics.

Sports Related
Hockey, Rock Climbing, Auto Racing, Softball, Juggling, Games, Olympics, Swimming, Dancing, Exercise, In line Skating, Ballet, Horseback Riding, Basketball, NBA, Stadiums, and Kayaking

Transportation
Tugboats, Trains, Airplanes and other Aircraft

Art, Craft and Hobbies
Selected artists (see biographies), Prehistoric Art, Landscapes, Papier Mache, Stamping, Rock Collecting, Drawing, Puppets, Japanese Origami, American Quilt Making, and Chess

Economics
Credit Cards and Checks, Your Allowance, and At the Bank

Primary (additional titles listed by discipline)
Seasons, Food Groups and Individual Books Focusing on Specific Foods, Safety, Vitamins, Games and Toys, ABC Books, Farm, Orchard, Towns, Pets, Families, Assorted Community Helper Books, Transportation, and Health Related

Health and Safety
Being Overweight, Stuttering, Having Cancer, Being Blind, Being Deaf, Poison Ivy, Head Lice, Alcohol, Anorexia and Bulimia, Asthma, Nutrition and Diet, Allergies, Blood and Circulation, Rashes, Smoke Alarms, Strangers, Bicycle Safety, School Bus Safety, Being Afraid, Twins, Common Colds, Cuts and Scrapes, and Sore Throats and Tonsils

Reference
Human Body Encyclopedia, World Book Medical Encyclopedia, 2000 Childcraft Set, 2001 World Book Encyclopedia, World Book of American Presidents, Animals of the World Reference Series, Atlases, Almanacs, Children's Quotations, Punctuation Guide, Children's Atlas of the Universe, Scholastic Encyclopedia of the North American Indian, and Thesauri

Science
Magnets, Adapting to the Environment, Shells, Dinosaurs, Astronauts, Animal Senses, Wildflowers, Solar System, Robots, New Field Guides, Food Science, Rocks and Minerals, Recycling, Earth, Amphibians, Animal Records, Insects, and Weather


Biographies
Charles Shultz, Tomie dePaola, Dr. Seuss, Swimmer Gertrude Ederle, Monet, Jean Craighead George, John Glenn, Ferdinand, Magellan, Norman Rockwell, Benjamin Franklin, J.C. Watts, Hernando Cortes, Jacques Cartier, Ponce De Leon, LaSalle, Leonardo Da Vinci, George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther King Jr., Pocahontas, Sitting Bull, Susan B. Anthony, Coretta Scott King, Ronald Reagan, Mozart, Colin Powell, Prokofiev, Lord Baltimore, Beethoven, Picasso, Bach, Hernando De Soto, Duke Ellington, Amelia Earhart, Mark McGwire, Uncle Sam, Leonard Bernstein, Johannes Brahms, Andrew Johnson, Tara Lipinski, Georgia O'Keefe, Jan and Stan Berenstain, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Maurice Sendak, and Alexander Calder

Miscellaneous
Carnival, Smithsonian Institution, Circus, Brides, Forests, National Mall, Sending a Letter, Shakespeare Plays, and Theater

Geography
Washington D.C., Maryland Facts and Symbols, Kenya, China, France, Germany, Taj Mahal, Atlantic Ocean, Continents, Amazon, Israel, and India

Music
es, Lullabies, Music Theory, Opera, Rhythm, Orchestra, Holiday Music, and Composers

Holidays
Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, Independence Day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving

American History
Books focusing on ways of life at various periods in American History, the Colony of Maryland, French and Indian War of 1812, Liberty, Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Oregon Trail, Boomtowns of the West, John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry, Boston Tea Party, American Revolution, Crossing the Delaware, Presidents, Thirteen Colonies, America Symbols, and the Declaration of Independence

New Videos
Ezra Jack Keats biography, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Shh! We're Writing the Constitution, Robert McCloskey biography, The Amazing Bone and Other Caldecott Classics, The Tomie dePaola Library, Winter Holiday Stories, The Robert McCloskey Video Library, and several videos from the Dear Diary series such as Winter of Red Snow.

Teaching Kits
Each of the following kits have six paperback books and a teacher's guide. They are: Animal Homes, The Human Body Riddle Book, Rainforest Ride, The Life of a Butterfly, Creepy Crawlies from A to Z, and Penguins Through the Year.

There are also a few new picture books...come check out our collection!

 Talking about the School Media Center.....

"It's now a place where students and teachers engage in activities that help them become effective users of ideas and information; where certified school librarians work with teachers to plan and implement activities that support reading and other specific instructional goals..." Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick, Superintendent, MSDE


New Caldecott and Newberry Books Announced

The winner of the 2001 Caldecott
Medal is So You Want to be President? illustrated by David Small and written by Judith St. George. The 2001 Honor books are: Casey at the Bat, illustrated by Christopher Bing and written by Ernest Thayer; Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type, illustrated by Betsy Lewin and written by Doreen Cronin; and Olivia written and illustrated by Ian Falconer.
The 2001 Newberry Award was given to A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck. Four Newbery Honor Books also were named: They are: Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer; The Wanderer by Sharon Creech; Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo; and Joey Pigza
Loses Control by Jack Gantos.
 

Reminder: Online Research Modules

If you have not yet checked out the web site of the Office of Library and Information Services at: ( you should. It contains links to online reference tools and the research modules which contain everything you need to incorporate research into your program, including the BCPS goals, indicators, objectives....even the assessment tools!
From this website, you can link to such other sites as Governmental web sites; parent summaries of the BCPS curriculum; the Baltimore County Public Library; Big Chalk, a wealth of information for teachers; the Electric Library Logon Page; and SAILOR, the State of Maryland's Public Information Network and lot's more.  

 Reference and Teaching Tools Online

  • www.50states.com - this website contains kid friendly information on all 50 states, including state flags and symbols
  • http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyk3.html - this website contains great cyber guides for both picture and chapter books.
  • www.biography.com - an website is online biographical encyclopedia.
  • http://www.refdesk.com/facts.html - this site contains links to dozens of reference sites such as atlases, encyclopedias, phone books, e-mail directories, books of quotations, grammar and style guides, weights and measurement sites, postal information sites, and more!
  • http://www.factmonster.com/ - this is one of my favorite reference sites containing links to almanacs, atlases, dictionaries, world record sites, science links, today in history, sports and games links, homework helper sites, online quiz sites, puzzles and thoughts for the day, and tons more! It even has a link (citing factmonster) that tells you how to cite electronic sources on a bibliography.
  • http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ - this is the World Fact Book put out by the CIA which has helpful, easy to use information on countries all over the world.
  • http://www.infoplease.com/ - This website is another store house of reference sites. Links to sites that will answer any reference question you can think of!
  • http://www.tyler.net/ruskhslib/cited.htm - This is another website that provides information on how to cite both print and electronic resources. It includes citations for works by one, two, or no author -any example citation you will ever need is here.
  • http://www.everyrule.com/ - You never know when this fun site might come in handy. It contains links to the rules of almost any game you can think of. Playing Monopoly...forget a rule - no need to worry, www.everyrule.com is here!
  • http://www.libraryspot.com/ - This final website contains links to even more reference sources. This site is a must to bookmark, even for a librarian!

More Teaching Literary Elements
If last edition's suggestions for using picture books to teach literacy elements in your language arts programs were helpful, why not try these? This article continues to highlight common literary elements and suggests books which will demonstrate the concept.
Parallel Story One story inside another story
The Village of Round and Square Houses by Ann Grifalconi
Black and White by David Macauley
Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say
This one is a chapter book but is a great tool for parallel story >>>>>>>Canyons by Gary Paulsen
Onomatopoeia  The formation of a word to imitate or suggest a sound
Ghost's Hour, Spook's Hour by Eve Bunting
Traveling to Tondo by Verna Aardema
The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Berlioz the Bear by Jan Brett
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
Simile  A comparison between two unlike things to show similarity; a simile implies that one thing is like another.
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble
The Bicycle Man by Allen Say
Storm in the Night by Mary Stolz
Dakota Dugout by Ann Turner
Nettie's Trip South by Ann Turner
Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like by Jay Williams

Riddle Me This....

A bookworm is very hungry. SO, he goes into his kitchen which, of course, is the library to get a meal. He spies a set of encyclopedias on the shelf and decides to "dig in." Now, this set has one volume for each letter of the alphabet. The books are all in alphabetical order on the shelf. If he starts eating at the front cover of "A" and finishes at the back cover of "Z," how many volumes would he have eaten through? (The answer is not  

February Is.....

Valentine's Day; National Cherry Month (www.cherrymkt.org); Library Lover's Month (www.calibraries.org); National Snack Food Month; National Weddings Month (www.BridalAssn.com); National Wild Bird Feeding Month; February 2 - Groundhog Day; February 7 - Charles Dickens' Birthday (1812); February 12 - Judy Blume's Birthday (1938); February 5 - Weatherperson's Day;
February 27 - Uri Shulevitz' Birthday (1935) (www.hbook.com/exhibit/shulevitzradio.html); February 20 - Student Volunteer Day; February 22 - Popcorn first introduced to colonists by Quadequina in 1630.

Send comments/questions to Nancy Braverman, Chatsworth School Media Center Specialist.