Category Archives: Parents

Scholastic Book Fair 2019

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Scholastic Book Fair
March 25 – 29

In the Spofford Pond School Library

The Scholastic Book Fair is coming to Spofford!  This annual event is eagerly anticipated by students and is the major source of funding for new books and materials for our school’s library media center, averaging $3000 annually in cash profit.

All students will have an opportunity to shop at the Fair during Library Media classes.  Due to Parent Conferences/Early Release days, some classes were assigned to alternate days/times in which to visit the Fair.

Please click here to view the Fair Schedule.

Purchasing books at the Fair

Students may make purchases by using either cash, a pre-signed check made out to the Town of Boxford, or by eWallet – a digital, prepaid option from Scholastic.  Learn more about how eWallet works on our Fair homepage.

Family Event
The Fair will be open till 5:00 pm on Wednesday, March 29 in order to give families an opportunity to shop together.

Shop online at our Fair Homepage

The online fair is available from March 17 – March 31.  All orders placed online can be shipped free to the school and count towards the total Fair sales.   Should a popular book sell out at the physical Fair, it can often be purchased online.

Interested in volunteering at the Fair?

Volunteer Sign up Sheet

Scholastic Book Fair a Success!

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Student’s from Mr. Duffy’s Gr. 4 classroom

This year’s Scholastic Book Fair earned nearly $2000 in profit for our school Library Media program!  This money will add both new books and new furnishings to our Library Media classroom.

The Fair was well attended; our Family Night brought in many families shopping for books to add to both their home libraries and to the classroom libraries in our school.

In addition to the profit earned from the Fair, our school community very generously provided new books to our classrooms via the Book Donation feature of the Fair.  Mr. Duffy’s name was selected from the “Books for Your Classroom” raffle drawing this year.  Above, (4) student representatives from his classroom  selected  books from the Fair to add to Mr. Duffy’s classroom library.

Many thanks to the parent volunteers who donated their time to set up the Fair, work at the Fair, and pack it up at Fair’s end.

 

Volunteers Needed for our Scholastic Book Fair!

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Volunteer Online Sign Up

Scholastic Book Fair 3/19-3/23

Come to the Fair!

Our Annual Scholastic Book Fair will be held in the Library Media classroom.

Each classroom will come to the Fair during their regularly scheduled Media class times, with the exception of Mrs. Cronin’s class (Wed. 9:35) and Mr. Duffy’s class (Tues. 1:30)

Book Fair dates: Monday March 19 – Friday March 23

Shopping hours:  8:30 – 3:30 Mon., Tues., Wed., and Thurs.   8:30 – Noon Friday.

Special activities: Family Night on Tues. March 20 from 3:30 – 6:00

Before you visit the Book Fair, be sure to download the Book Fairs app to help you find the right books for your child. For more information, visit: scholastic.com/apps/bookfairs.

Shop Online!

If you are unable to attend the Fair in person, we invite you to visit our online Book Fair Spofford Pond Schools Book Fair Homepage.  Our online Fair is available from March 14 to March 24.   All profits from online sales are added to the Book Fair total sales.

Library Book Loan Policies

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Last week in Media, all students were given the opportunity to explore the thousands of books available in our school library.  Gr. 3 and new students learned how check out books and what our school’s Library Book Loan Policies are (see below).

We all read at different speeds and in different ways (one book at a time, a few books at a time, etc).
 
We believe that our policies honor these differences by giving students the opportunity to make their own independent book choices.  Our policies also provide our teaching staff with flexibility to assign their students library books that support specific curriculum needs in a timely and accommodating way.
 
Library Cards
All Spofford students and staff are issued a library card and account.
Responsibility
Students are responsible for the books on their record and will determine when they no longer need a book within the 30-day loan period.  Students with books on their records past the 30 day loan period will be instructed to return these books in a timely fashion.
Loan Periods
A month is the general rule of thumb for books that are being used for classroom studies and personal reading.  Parents will be notified  via a notice with information about any overdue student library books on their child’s account.
Holds
Should a book be requested by another patron, a hold will be placed on the book as well as a flag on the patron’s account. This will notify us that the book is being requested by another patron.
Returns
Students may return a book to the library at any time.  They do not have to wait for their library media class day.  The book drop boxes are located both inside and outside the library at the entrance.
Renewals
Books are to be returned to the library when the student no longer needs them within a 30 day loan period.  The 30 day loan period is usually sufficient time for most students to read a book, thus eliminating the need for renewals.  Exceptions are made for books required for classroom assignments.
Censorship Policy
We believe that giving students independent selection of library books fosters the student’s confidence in his or her own curiosity and interests. Therefore we do not censor, or direct, their selections.

 If a parent or guardian objects to a book that their child has checked out from the library, they are encouraged to have the student return the book in the Book Drop Box the next school day and to check out a more suitable book.

 There are district policies and procedures in place for book and/or material challenges. Parents should please contact the library and/or the principal’s office with any major issues or concerns about library books.

 

Library Media Volunteers

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librarian

 

14  members of our school community have volunteered to help out in the Media classroom at Spofford Pond School this year!

A big nod of appreciation goes out to the following people who will help keep our Media classroom running smoothly for all of its many users.

Laurie Cantalupo, Judi Wulf, Heidi Zeltsar, Judy Werner, Russ Fiore, Megan Pietropaolo, Danielle O’Heir, Lisa Melillo, Britta Anderson, Melissa Scheirey, Robyn Riley, Barb Klanderman, Jill Fogarty and Janine Fraser.

 

 

Summer Reading Program at the Boxford Town Library

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On Thursday, June 9, Josh Kennedy, Children’s Librarian from the Boxford Town Library, visited with our students to tell them about this year’s Summer Reading Program.   Informational fliers went home today with students in Backpack Mail.  All reading time counts,whether it be devouring the latest novel by their favorite author, or even the comics in their grandparent’s daily newspaper!  This perennially popular summer program offers incentives for students to keep up their daily reading habit over the summer months; reading hours count toward some fun prizes and celebrations, including Benson’s ice cream and tickets to the Topsfield Fair in October.

Sign up Online Link

Boxford Library Homepage

Phone: 978.887.7323

Scholastic Book Fair coming the week of December 7th

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The annual Scholastic Book Fair is an eagerly awaited, perennial favorite of Boxford students and parents alike.  This year, the Fair is scheduled to take place in the Spofford Pond School Library during the following days and times.

Monday  December 7, 2015 – 8:30 – 3:30

Tuesday December 8, 2015 – 8:30 – 3:30

Wednesday December 9, 2015 – 8:30 – 3:30

Thursday December 10, 2015 – 8:30 – 5:30 (Family Event)

Friday December 11, 2015 – 8:30 – 3:30

Proceeds from the annual Book Fair average $2500 annually, and are used to purchase hundreds of new library books that students are eager to read, as well as other Media center supplies to help support student reading and learning.

Students can shop at the Fair during their regularly scheduled Media classes.  Students in Ms. Davis’ and Mrs. Bouffard’s classes can shop on Friday December 11, 2015 between 8:30 – 12:00, before students are released for Parent Conferences.

Families can shop together in two ways:

At the Family Event on Thursday December 10, from 3:30 – 5:30

or

Through the Spofford Pond School Online Fair.   Online shopping is available November 29th, continues throughout the Fair, and ends on December 12.   All sales ordered through our online Fair are included in the total sales of our Fair.  Items ordered online can be delivered to school with no delivery charge.  Please be advised that online orders are not guaranteed to arrive in time for Holiday gift giving.

Click on the link below to find out more about the Fair.

 http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/spoffordpondschool

Interesting in volunteering at the Fair?

Parent volunteer Jill Fogarty is Chairing this year’s Fair and has set up a Sign Up Genius for volunteers.

http://www.signupgenius.com/

Book Fair flyers are going home in Backpack mail before Thanksgiving.  See a digital copy of the flyer at http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/cptoolkit/F15Booklist/ES/index.html#4

Please keep in mind that there are many more books available at the Fair itself than are shown in the flyer.

Survey Says! Creating meaningful data with Gr. 6 students

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Screen Shot 2015-10-25 at 6.20.33 PM

Google for Education provides its users with many useful digital educational tools for students and teachers.

Students in Gr. 6 Media Classes are creating their own surveys using Google Forms, and then deciding how to successfully share the resulting Google Form surveys with others in order to gather relevant data.

In class, we have been examining and discussing the (3) sharing tools provided to us by Google Classroom.

The email sharing feature is not available to Spofford students at this time, nor is the sharing via Social Media outlets such as Twitter or Facebook.

This left us with the option of sharing the link to our surveys with fellow students in our classes.   Although this approach worked for some student surveys responses, some student surveys did not receive sufficient responses (data) to make their surveys meaningful enough for data analysis.

Together, the students and I agreed to try the strategy of sharing all of their surveys only with me, via links, so that I can then aggregate all of their survey links in one Google Doc format, and then share the document with classmates to access and respond to all surveys.

The survey screen shot above was shared with me via a Google Forms Link by Sarah Green.

I am looking forward to reporting out student survey results.

We will all learn more about student preferences for favorite author, genre, sport, pizza toppings, pet dog and more as reported via online survey.

Up next:   Critical thinking skill . . .  how reliable are surveys?   What factors, if any, could influence survey responses?

Yours, in learning together,

Ms. Boulay

Massachusetts Technology Literacy Standard 3.5  Research: Gathering and Using Information.  Use online tools to gather and share information collaboratively with other students.

Massachusetts Technology Literacy Standard 3.6  Problem Solving:  With teacher direction, use appropriate technology tools (e.g., graphic organizer) to define problems and propose hypotheses.

 

What is digital citizenship?

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Pause and Think Online

Image from Common Sense Media

Beginning this week in Media classes, all grades will participate in various discussions, activities and instruction in digital literacy and citizenship and will continue to do so throughout the school year.

We will be using some of the educational resources available from Common Sense Media’s Education curriculum. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators

This curriculum is designed to help teachers and parents “empower students to think critically, behave safely, and participate responsibly in our digital world.  These 21st-century skills are essential for students to harness the full potential of technology for learning.”

Our students ” . . . today are using the immense power of digital media to explore, connect, create, and learn in ways never before imagined.  With this power, young people have extraordinary opportunities, and yet they face potential pitfalls”.

I encourage everyone in the Boxford Schools’ Community to become familiar with this free, standards-aligned resource and learn more about the many resources available that can help all of us learn and grow in the digital age.

 

Massachusetts Technology Literacy Standard 2. Demonstrate the responsible use of technology and an understanding of ethics and safety issues in using electronic media at home, in school, and in society.