Dalton Middle School Library

On February 19th, the 4th and 5th graders had fun at the Library Quiz Show: Do You Know Books?!

We thank all the students who read diligently and participated actively in the show.  70 students signed up and we managed to bring up on stage 42 students.   Since there are still many questions to be asked so the students who did not get to go on stage will have a chance to continue playing the game during their Library classes.  Some of their classmates might also have a go at answering the questions.

Congratulations to the Top Contestants (answering more than five questions in a row)

Fourth Grade

Colette Astier
Lucien Fox-Denise
Benjamin Goldstein
Priya Mittal
Carish Sha
Kaitlin Young

Fifth Grade

Lily Feldman
Alana Eiland
Julian Freiberg
Clay Hamilton
Daniel Wing
James Woods

On February 1st and 2nd, poet Hope Anita Smith visited and conducted six poetry writing workshops for the 7th and 8th graders.

It is not common when we have an author who prepares three different presentations when the audience is on the same level.   But Hope did.  The students had a great time working on a list poem: “The Cool Poem”, they definitely struggled a bit with coming up with working metaphors for “Seven Ways of Looking At ________”, and were engrossed in “reading” the names of the paint color chips that you brought and applying those to their own “Paint Me Like I Am” poems.

We thank Hope for her enthusiasm and energy.  Hopefully, some of the student poetry will be submitted and published in the Middle School Literary Magazine this coming spring.

Stay tuned for some video clips of the workshops!

Each year, as a component of a Library Class Unit for the fourth graders to examine the similarities and differences of online- and paper-publishing, each fourth grade House makes up a class story (Each student contributes one line of the story and we go around the room until everyone has had a go.)

It also serves as a way to examine how web pages are indexed and found on search engines such as google and yahoo.

A Weird Morning, or The Appendix Eating Dinosaur – by Noble House, composed on Tuesday, February 2nd.  By Tuesday, February 9th, we still cannot locate this story on Google.  This blog PAGE is linked to the MS Library’s Blog on Tuesday, February 9th.

We used the key phrases “A weird morning” and “The appendix eating dinosaur”.

Younge House’s story is called “Wario Man Cuts the Cheese.” And even in late April, the story is still not directly indexed on Google.

Never Have Surgery Before Your Belly Dancing Class – by Vogelsang House, composed on Tuesday, February 2nd.  By Tuesday, February 9th, we cannot locate this story on Google.

My Pet Chicken and His Gun – by Farnsworth House, composed on Friday, February 5th.  By 12:15 p.m. on Friday, February 12th, we cannot locate this story on Google even when we typed in the exact title in quotation marks.  We made a link on the MS Library’s blog site.  At 12:30, Richard D. tried again.  He typed in My Pet Chicken and His Gun by Farnsworth House — and voila, we found it!