Welcome Back!

Welcome back to a new school year; hopefully one that will be full of reading!! We have JUST gotten a new shipment of High School Fiction books in the library, and have another shipment of Elementary Fiction books which are being shipped here as we speak! There are many things to look forward to this year, so stop into the library whenever you get the chance!
-Miss Bacher and Mrs. Powers

Putting the "Media" in Our Media Center

Our skyping session with Sheri Amsel was a wonderful success. The class really enjoyed using this technology.....so much so that, as soon as we hung up, they wanted to call her right back!
Below are some pictures from this experience (the lighting in the room is a bit dim so that we could see the projector).

Learning to Skype

During the first week of June, Mrs. Durham's 4th grade class will be holding a "skyp-ing" session with author/illustrator Sheri Amsel. Skype is a virtual phone call which takes place over the Internet. Users at each end utilize a webcame in order to see one another as they are talking. This will be our first trial usage of the technology in the library. If it goes well, there are many other ways in which we could try using it next year, including skyping with other schools in different areas of the country in order to get firsthand accounts of what life is like in other places! Stay tuned to find out how this first experience goes. I'm sure it will be interesting, no matter what happens!

Thank You, Mr. Masiello

We had a wonderful visit with author/illustrator Ralph Masiello yesterday. Below are some pictures from his 4 presentations to grades Pre-K through 6th. Students got to learn about everything from illustrating techniques to the shape of a giant panda's skull! Click on the photos to enlarge them.



Ralph holds a giant panda skull while some of the elementary classes look on.



Ralph drew many pictures for the students.....and had a staring contest with a monkey skull!



A copy of "The Flag We Love" which was autographed by the illustrator and given to the school.



This print from one of Ralph's books was autographed and donated to the library as well. It will be framed and hung where it can be enjoyed by many students to come!

Springing Into Action

In celebration of Earth Day, 2nd and 3rd grade classes read books about what we can do to help the Earth, and then decorated and planted seeds during their library classes. As you can see, the seeds have begun to sprout, and we will be planting them outside once the nice weather finally comes to (and stays in!) Star Lake!
We have made it through the April (snow) Showers, and now we look forward to watching our May Flowers begin to bloom!

Get Ready To Draw!

Clifton-Fine students are getting their pencils ready for author/illustrator Ralph Masiello's visit on Thursday, May 6th! Students will get to spend hour-long sessions listening to Mr. Masiello talk about his life, his inspirations and his drawing. They will even receive lessons on how to draw some of their favorite things!
In preparation for this visit, we have begun talking about the different aspects of being an author/illustrator, as well as preparing some questions to ask after the presentations. This seems as though it will be an exciting and inspiring day, and we look forward to it!

E-xciting new reading!

The Clifton-Fine Library now has 167 E-books which have been imported into our catalog through SLL BOCES. These books have been provided through Gale, and will probably prove very useful for high school students who are working on research projects.
To see these titles, you can simply type "Ebook" into the keyword search box and browse through what we have available. Once you have chosen a book that you would like to look through, just click on the title (highlighted in blue) which will take you to the item record. Then, under "Material Type," you can click on "Weblink for more info." This will take you to the E-book, and you will be able to search the entire document for the information that you are looking for.
Feel free to leave comments and let us know what you think about this new collection!