Library / 2022/2023 Impact Report

2022/2023 Impact Report

Librarian

Author of the popular Mustache Baby books, Bridget Heos, visited the Fox Run library this year. The students enjoyed learning how they can use their everyday life to come up with big ideas for writing.
At Fox Run we love to promote reading to all of our wonderful students. Examples of our promotions include: Texas 2x2 Books for Pk-2nd grade students, Bluebonnet Books for 3rd- 5th graders, Thanksgiving, Spring Break and Summer Reading rewards and Schlitterbahn Waves of Pages.
Twice a year students get to enjoy working with each other in our makerspace stations in the library. Students are able to get creative with materials such as Legos, Cubelets, and Squigz. Makerspace stations are a great way to teach collaboration and problem solving.
This year Fox Run has started a school wide reading promotion called the 100 Book Club. Teachers are given a tracking poster they display outside their classrooms and each time they read a book or chapter from a book they add a sticker to the chart. Completed charts are announced on the announcements and the class earns a prize given by the librarian.

12,769
print books in collection

4,520
ebooks books in collection

21,774
print books checked out

930
ebooks books checked out

Teacher

Students are met with thousands of books to choose from when they visit the Fox Run library. In order to help students with their decision making they learn the 5 finger rule. Students practice looking at a variety of books
Using one of our new resources, Culture Grams, students in 5th grade choose a state to research. Students then created a trifold vacation planner to entice people to visit their state.
After hearing examples of biographies including Magic Ramen, Bartali’s Bicycle and Balloons Over Broadway students in 3rd grade used Pebble Go and PebbleGo Next to research a biography of their choice. Then students used digital publishing to create a Mystery Person slide deck to share with friends for some fun guessing of who their biography was about.
After reading Festival of Colors students in second grade had the opportunity to share some of their favorite holidays and celebrations. The following week students used PebbleGo to explore different holidays and celebrations that they weren’t as familiar with. Students took notes on their celebration, and then put the information into a Google slideshow for a digital publishing piece.

Lesson Spotlight

In the spring our kindergarten students get to learn all about ladybugs. We start out the project by listing all the things students already know about ladybugs as well as questions they may have. We then read print books as well as use the PebbleGo resource to learn more. We add new things we learned to our class chart. Students then get to paint a ladybug where they list some of their favorite ladybug facts that they learned. We ended the unit by sharing the facts they wrote on their ladybug and getting to observe real ladybugs. Students are so excited to see the ladybugs up close and observe some of the things they have learned, like the hidden wings they have.

Collaborator

The librarian and first grade teachers worked together to create reading choice boards for the first grade ELAR station time. After choosing themes such as books that use rhyme and repetition, communities, and strong characters, the librarian used library resources such as Capstone to create a station of books for listening.
The librarian and Instructional Technology Specialist worked together to take fourth grade research to the next level. After students used Pebble Go, Pebble Go Next, and Britannica students were able to create a digital published artifact of their Who Would Win project.
This year we had a wonderful surprise for our Spring Break Reading Challenge. In years past we had a reading challenge over the break but this year librarians and family specialists teamed up to make it extra special by providing each student in the school with a Spring Break book package that included books and activities. We will continue this amazing program by doing the same for summer reading.
The librarian and second grade teachers worked together to continue our Fairy Tale Battle this year. Second grade students listen to classic and fractured fairy tales and then use Kahoot to battle for the fairy tale trophy.

Collaboration Spotlight

For a second year in a row Fox Run has continued to make SEL an important focus on campus. The librarian partners with the administration, instructional coaches, and teachers to provide a fantastic opportunity for the entire campus. Each month a mentor text is selected, and each teacher receives a classroom copy of the book, sometimes it comes from someone special like our mascot Foxington. The librarian puts together an ongoing Google slide of the book title, activities, and the SEL focus. Students at Fox Run then get to participate in hearing the read-aloud and completing activities that go along with the story. Teachers then make the books available in their classrooms for students to be able to read after they have completed their work. Students are able to take away different social skills such as self-awareness, relationship skills, patience, and social awareness. We love being able to share a common story throughout the entire school each month.

Foxington delivering book

Campus Leader

The Fox Run library promotes special events and information through the school Facebook page and family newsletters sent home from our administration. We love to encourage reading by promoting things like our book fair, reading challenges, and fun lessons we do in the library.
Fox Run students start off each day with student led announcements. Fifth grade students share their leadership skills by providing daily news of birthdays, reminders, Pledges and moment of silence for the rest of the students and staff.
This year teachers were provided the opportunity to attend a professional development in the fall that focused on Capstone ebooks as well as News-O-Matic. In the spring, teachers were provided professional development on how to access TeachingBooks and some of the features it contains such as linked resources, author interviews, and the literacy and standard connections.
Our love of reading doesn’t stop at the Fox Run library. We love to spread the love of reading by having our fall and spring Book Fair. The Book Fair provides our community with reasonably priced books to have at home. We encourage anyone in the community to come by and visit by having a late-night option in the spring.