Media Center

Corliss Smith Memorial Collection

 Corliss Smith was a beloved and well-respected Special Ed. teacher at Keheley.  You may recall seeing her wearing a smile and navigating her wheelchair through the halls of Keheley.  Mrs. Smith was a role model and an inspiration for all of us with the good fortune of being in her presence.  She and her husband and their sons moved to Texas two years ago to be closer to family.  She spent her spare time reading with children in her local elementary school.

When Mrs. Smith passed on in January, we were saddened by the loss of this kind and generous woman. She had requested that donations be given to her library in Texas or to Keheley's Media Center.  Lovingly, a collection of books has been purchased with happy memories of our friend, Corliss Smith.  You will find them on top of the bookshelves as you enter the Media Center.

Lynn Dye, Media Specialist

BOOK FAIR!

 The cases are here and the excitement is building.  We're getting ready to set up our Keheley Spring Book Fair!  As you know, Keheley Kids love to read and the Book Fair is a great way to find new books for vacation reading and long-hot-summer reading.

We officially start selling books on Monday, March 23 at 7:30 AM and we close up the cases at 3:00 on Friday, March 27.  For more information about our Book Fair, go to our Book Fair website.

I'll see YOU at the BOOK FAIR!

Mrs. Dye

Information - It's Everywhere!

In the media center, we see daily the growing importance of information skills for our students.  Sources of information are expanding and increasing dramatically and the skills for using them are crucial for academic success.  Without information skills, a research assignment can be daunting, frustrating, or even frightening.

 

The Internet can be a wonderful source of information for our students.  It can also be a wonderful source of misinformation!  I like to compare the World Wide Web with the Wild Wild West – anything goes and no one is in charge.  In that kind of environment, we need to be cautious and armed with information skills and critical thinking skills.

 

Some questions we all need to ask when we view any website are:

 

1.     Who is the author?  Is information about the author available?  Is the author an expert on the subject?  Is there contact information? 

2.     Is the information up to date?  When was the page created or updated?  Does the information need to be current?

3.     What is the purpose of the website?  Is the purpose to give information?  To sell something?  To entertain?  To promote a point of view?

4.     Can the information be confirmed through authoritative resources?

 

Sometimes it’s difficult for even adults to determine what information is valid and what is not.  There are no built-in mechanisms to keep us from reading (and perhaps believing) misinformation.  Through conscious effort and awareness, we can model the necessary critical thinking information skills for our students.

 

Lynn Dye, Media Specialist

Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl

Keheley was well represented at Cobb County's Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl on Saturday, Jan. 31.  In fact, our team of Keheley Readers tied for third place - and this was our first reading competition experience!  We're quite proud, as you can imagine.

Our Reading Bowl Team is made up of these 4th and 5th grade readers:

Chelsea Chen
Adam Gardner
Jessica Lopes
Kaylee Marchitto
Paul Miloro
Chase Monroe
Abby Shaw
Hope Smith
Karen Wu

Special thanks to our team coaches who volunteer their time to work with Keheley's Book Club every week.  They are Linda Kimbrough, Laverne Evans, and Lisa Miloro.  I am so grateful for their assistance!

Happy Reading!

Lynn Dye, Media Specialist

Keheley Spelling Bee Champs!

  The annual Keheley Spelling Bee was held on Jan. 8.  It might have been the longest Keheley Bee ever!  We almost ran into lunch time!  Fourth and fifth grade spellers were well-prepared and, WOW, they know how to spell!  It was exciting and, finally, we had a winner.

Congratulations to Spelling Champion Christopher Yun and first runner-up Ammu Kumar.  Christopher will represent Keheley in the Cobb County Spelling Bee on Jan. 24 at Kennesaw Mountain High School (9:00 AM).  Ammu will be in the audience ready to compete if, for some reason, Christopher cannot.

The county bee includes all the local school winners in grades 4 - 8 and promises to be a great competition.  I'll be there and you're invited, too!

Good luck, Keheley Champs.  I know you'll make us proud!

Lynn Dye, Media Specialist

Book Club Discussion

  This discussion is for Keheley Book Club members and any other Keheley students who want to participate.  Comments are closely monitored.  All comments will not be posted.

We all like Percy Jackson.  As a main character, he's mostly perfect!  He has the boarding school problem, he's angered a few Greek gods, and his adventures keep us waiting for the author to finish another book in this wonderful series! 

Percy searches for Zeus's stolen lightning bolt, tries to bring peace to Mt. Olympus, solves the riddle of the Oracle, and his thoughts are consumed by his father's abandonment.  Percy is one complex character, isn't he?

Here's our discussion question:  Other than Percy, who is your favorite character in this book and why?

I'll check for comments every day, so watch for yours to be published!

Mrs. Dye

Spelling Bee

Our annual Keheley Spelling Bee will be held on Thursday, January 8, at 8:30 AM in the Cougar Cafe.  The winner and first runner-up will attend the Cobb County Spelling Bee at Kennesaw Mountain High School on Saturday, January 24.

We have some great spellers at Keheley.  Fourth and fifth grade classrooms have been conducting classroom spelling contests to determine who will represent each class in our schoolwide bee.  Here are the classroom representatives:

Mrs. Biello's Class: Alexis A., Brandon G., Kyle M. and (alternate) Kaylee M.

Mrs. Boye's Class: Paul M., Nathan W., Vince W. and (alternate) Ismail D.

Mrs. Johnson's Class: Skyler C., Jake D., Juan M. and (alternate) Alli S.

Mrs. Strickland's Class: Miranda K., Joe N., Aidan R. and (alternate) Jessica G.

Mr. Campbell's Class: Chelsea C., Naya H., Brian M. and (alternate) Adam G.

Ms. Moss's Class: Jordan G., Clara P., Christopher Y. and (alternate) Kylah B.

Mrs. Web's Class: Rebekah A., Nick T., Karen W. and (alternate) Kayla O.

Mrs. Williams' Class: Austin A., Armani B., Ammu K. and (alternate) Shannon R.

I've met with all these students and I showed them one good way practice spelling.  I recommend that they go to http://www.spellingbee.com/ and choose the Spell It! test found on the lower right section of that screen.  (It's not as easy as it looks!)

Good luck to all our spellers!

Mrs. Dye

  We always have a contest to go along with our Keheley Book Fairs.  For this Book Fair, students estimated how many animal crackers were in a jar.  We had separate jars for primary and intermediate students.  In each grade level, there was one winner who came closest to the actual number of animal crackers without going over.  Each winner won the opportunity to come to the Book Fair and choose $10 worth of books! 

We had some very close contests!  Keheley Kids are pretty good estimators, you know.  The following students were our grade level winners:

Kindergarten:     Zachary S. (Eckman)
First Grade:        Cameron B. (Frederick)
Second Grade:   Zachary K. (Collier)
Third Grade:       Autumn A. (McAlpine)
Fourth Grade:    Giuliana L. (Biello)
Fifth Grade:        Chris H. (Webb)

Congratulations to our winners.  I hope you enjoy your new books!

Mrs. Dye

  The Book Fair is coming!  It will open for business SATURDAY, Dec. 6, during Breakfast With Santa!  Then it will be open every day the following week.

Check out the Book Fair webpage for times and other information about this year's fair and to start your booklist!  I look forward to seeing you at the Book Fair!

Mrs. Dye

Book Exhange Update

Keheley's annual Children's Book Exchange was held last week.  I'm happy to report that 136 students participated in the exchange.  They exchanged 810 books!

There's a whole lot of reading going on out there!  Way to go, Keheley Kids!