• 2022/2023 Impact Report

Librarian

  • The Colonial Hills Library hosts 2-3 Scholastic book fairs every school year, a fall and spring book fair, and a highly anticipated BOGO book fair that brings enjoyment and excitement in reading. During the book fair, the librarian partners with the Family Specialists to promote special events, such as Grandparents Day, in which families may share the joy of books.
  • The Colonial Hills librarian gave students an opportunity to practice characteristics of good citizenship by voting. The librarian engaged student curiosity by reading 2 stories with the word vote in the title. Afterward, students picked their favorite book and submitted their ballots in the voting booth.
  • Welcome back African storyteller Elizabeth Kahura- After 2 years of virtual presentations, Colonial Hills welcomed back Elizabeth Kahura in person for a day of fun! Ms. Kahura entertained the students about African culture through such things as songs, dances, and storytelling.
  • Dr. Terrell King, Executive Director, visited the Colonial Hills library as a special guest reader during our out-of-this-world Space Week. He read, prompted conversations, and entertained Kinder students with a book about the red planet Mars.
Students sitting in front of voting booth.
 
 
12,094
print books in collection
 
4,234
ebooks books in collection
 
18,442
print books checked out
 
3,511
ebooks books checked out
 
Students looking at chromebook.

Teacher

  • The librarian read the Texas 2x2 book Circle Under Berry to engage student curiosity and promote knowledge of various shapes, position words and colors. After the story, students created their own pictures where they described their pictures using position and shape words learned from the story.
  • Celebrating the rich Hispanic culture of Paracho, Mexico, students viewed a video that allowed them to gain background knowledge about the Paracho guitar that was recognized in the movie Coco. After discussing their personal connections to the movie, students were able to use their creativity to create their own guitar craft.
  • Celebrating Black History Month, 2nd grade students were introduced to Dr. Patricia Bath, inventor of cataract laser surgery. After discussing and using the eye chart, students discussed their personal connections and used their creativity to label and decorate an eye craft.
  • The librarian read the former Texas 2x2 book, See the Cat, to engage student curiosity and promote knowledge about how to add details to pictures and words. After the story, students created their own revised sentence where they added descriptive colors and words to a sentence.
 

Lesson Spotlight

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month! Students welcomed Hispanic Heritage Month by researching information on the 5 Latin countries that celebrated their Independence Day on September 15th, using the new library resource, CultureGrams! Students had an opportunity to share personal and appreciation of Hispanic heritage by working in small groups and choosing 3 of the 5 countries to compare/contrast information such as type of government, schools, languages spoken, transportation used, and popular forms of recreation to complete a template. Each group completed their assignment by illustrating the flags for the countries chosen.

 

Collaborator

  • The librarian collaborated with a 3rd grade teacher to create a biography research lesson during Black History Month. Students used the library resource PebbleGo to research an African American person that they chose to learn additional information, such as major accomplishments, important fact and birth information; thus creating a poster to share with their fellow classmates.
  • The librarian collaborated with the Westfall Branch San Antonio Public librarian during 7 Habits PTA Night to encourage registering for a public library card. The focus was to bring awareness to reading for pleasure supporting Habit 7- Sharpen the Saw!
  • The librarian collaborated with a Newcomers teacher to create a research lesson about how community workers help “Build A Dream.” Students worked in pairs using the library resource PebbleGo to locate facts about various community workers and completed the Edu Protocol google slide to share with their fellow classmates.
  • The Colonial Hills librarian collaborated with the family specialist to introduce and demonstrate NEISD library resources, such as Pebble Go, Sora, and the newest resource, Culture Grams for a parent meeting. Parents would have an opportunity to utilize these valuable resources at home with their children.

Collaboration Spotlight

Butterflies Are Pretty….Gross reading! For this collaboration, the Colonial Hills librarian collaborated with the teacher and the campus ITS. Prior to reading the 2x2 book Butterflies Are Pretty ….Gross, the students shared the definition of the term “gross” and gave a few examples to confirm their knowledge of the term. Students were assigned the library resource PebbleGo to choose an insect and write down one fact they considered gross. Students input their information and added a picture of their chosen insect into a class Google slide that was shared with them through the class Seesaw.

 

Group of people working at tables on chromebooks.

Campus Leader

  • The Colonial Hills librarian welcomed all new staff members to the library and introduced them to the wonderful library resources that are available. This presentation informed new staff members of library resources, such as Pebble Go, Sora and Britannica-Escolar, that may be used to create engaging lessons for their students in class.
  • The Colonial Hills librarian and the Family Specialist met to schedule San Antonio public library’s Little Read Wagon to present to Kinder Roundup in the Spring. This is an excellent opportunity to showcase resources available to Kinder students and parents within our Community.
  • The Colonial Hills librarian regularly shared library events and lessons on social media using the library's Twitter account @ReadingCougars1. The librarian created a quarterly Library newsletter that was shared with staff and parents that highlighted lessons, upcoming library events and pictures that were shared through social media, email and the Principal’s weekly message.
  • The Colonial Hills librarian created a sign language enrichment club for students in grades K-5. Through the engaging lessons, students were able to learn signs such as alphabet letters, counting to 20, colors, and simple phrases.
 
Group of people standing at table.
Group of people standing in front of board signing.