Battle of the Books: Northwood 4th grade students read 10 novels, with a goal of qualifying for the school Battle of the Books teams. Students met at a weekly “Battle Crunch Lunch Bunch” to review details of the books and practice. After an exciting school Battle, the winning team advanced to compete in the MacArthur cluster Battle.
SEL Programming: Our youngest students are always invited to lightly tap a sign indicating how they are feeling that day (happy, sad, excited, mad, or worried). Grades 2 through 5 do a 5-finger checkin when they enter the library to indicate their state of mind. This standard library routine allows children to communicate their feelings and lets the librarian know if any child needs a special hug or greeting. Fortunately, coming to the library almost always results in 5 fingers up!
Birthday Books: Birthdays are special days and we love to help make it even better! Birthday kids can come to the library, squeeze the paw on our singing birthday plush puppy, choose a free bookmark, write his or her name on the birthday wall, AND choose a new paperback book as a birthday gift! Our children enjoy this program so much. Thanks to our community's support, we are able to make this program happen.
Makerspace: On some visits, our students can enjoy our Makerspace educational toys and games, such as Legos and Cubelets (electronic robot building blocks). We added a new Makerspace activity this year, our Stick Together poster. After checking out books, students can stick two squares onto the color-coded poster, working together to create a large mystery picture! Clues are posted every week or so to keep everyone engaged and guessing.
Schlitterbahn Reading Challenge: Many Northwood students completed this challenge this year and earned a free ticket to the Schlitterbahn water park in New Braunfels. Students were challenged to read 10 hours for fun and keep track of their progress. We have 50 students who will be enjoying a free day of fun in the sun this summer, all because they tracked their reading minutes!