Guyton Elementary Media Newsletter October 2015 The summer renovations are finally complete and we are thrilled will our new space! In addition to new carpet, lighting, painting and shelving units, we have been able to add a separate room for our Parent Resource Center as well as a classroom for teaching Media Literacy skills. We’ve even been able to add a cozy reading section we are calling our V.I.P. Reader lounge that our students are loving! Parents are more than welcome to come by and see our new space and while you are here, be sure to see what resources we have available for you to borrow in our Parent Resource Room. Our Parent Liaison, Ms. Felicia Hills will be more than happy to assist you! Contact Ms. Hills at to set up an appointment. Welcome to our NEW Media Center! Our Media Center is busy, busy, busy each day. We are glad to see so many students excited about reading and completing the 6 levels of the Be A Reading Star challenge incentive program! All students are encouraged to read diligently throughout the semester and work toward completing all 6 levels before our first semester challenge ends in December. The following incentives are in place to encourage our gators along the way: Students receive a Star Reader charm after completing each level of the challenge. Once students pass level 6, they will receive a shooting star charm. Students who complete level 6 will choose a free book, will also be recognized by the principals during lunch, and have their names added to the “Red Carpet Reader” display in the lunchroom. The deadline for completing the first semester challenge is Monday, December 14 th. Each grade level has sent home information about their reading incentive plan for this semester. Copies may be found on our Media Center website: As students pass reading comprehension quizzes online with a score of 70% or better, they may fill out a "Brag Ticket", bring it to the Media Center and place it in the raffle box. At the end of the month, we will choose a ticket and the winner will receive a $10 gift card to a local movie theater. Kindergarten through 3 rd grade students utilize Book Adventure: th and 5 th grade students utilize Readnquiz: 1 (See reverse side for details about these websites. Brag tickets are available in the Media Center or may be downloaded and printed from our website.) October 8-20 Scholastic Book Fair November Children’s Book Week December 14 Deadline for first semester reading challenge December -17 Reading Challenge Dance Party **Students must complete level 3 to attend "Reading is important because, if you can read, you can learn anything about everything and everything about anything. " by Tomie dePaola Movie Raffle Incentive! Important Dates Dates Be A Reading STAR!

Book Adventure for K-3 Students: The Book Adventure website provides a way for K-3 rd grade students to test comprehension after reading a book. Students may test at school or at home using the log-in information that was sent home in August. (If you have misplaced your child’s username and password, feel free to or call and ask for Mrs. Crager and she will be happy to assist you.) If you have been assisting your child with the Book Adventure website, you may have noticed that there is a prize library associated with the website. This prize library is offered by Sylvan learning, not GES. However, if your child would like to take advantage of the free prizes offered by Sylvan, we would be more than happy to assist your child in doing so. (We recommend the chocolate bar prize and the Highlights magazine prizes.) Once your child selects the prize from the prize library, your child will need to see Mrs. Crager in the Media Center for help mailing off the certificate required to redeem the prizes. Once the sponsors receive the certificate, it usually takes 4-6 weeks for prizes to arrive at your home ReadnQuiz for 4 th -5 th grade students: ReadnQuiz and Book Adventure are similar in that both programs provide a way to test comprehension after students read a book. However, ReadnQuiz incorporates Lexile information into its test features, which make this program a more suitable choice to use with students in upper grades. The Georgia Department of Education has set a benchmark Lexile Level of 650 and above for third grade students and 850 and above for fifth grade students. ReadnQuiz helps teachers monitor students’ reading comprehension success with books on a given Lexile level. · Any books in the GES Media Center that have a Lexile level have been labeled. The label will be located on the spine of the book. The word Lexile appears at the top of the label with the specific level printed underneath.· Books that have a ReadnQuiz test available have been identified with a clear green label placed over the Lexile number. · Keep in mind that we are working toward the goal of having all 5 th graders successfully comprehending books with an 850 Lexile Range or greater before leaving GES. · Mrs. Jeanne Crager, Media Clerk, manages the ReadnQuiz accounts for our Guyton Gators. Should you have issues accessing the ReadnQuiz website or have password issues, you may or call the school at to speak to Mrs.

Author of the Month: Steven Kellogg Scholastic Book Fair October 8-19 Parents who shop at GES during our family event from 12:30 to 6 on October 8 th may enter a raffle drawing for their child to win free books from the Fair Families may also shop online at until October20th. All online orders ship free to GES. GES receives a small portion of the funds collected to fund both our charm and reading incentive programs For more details, visit: Media Contact Information: Angie Roberts, Media Jeanne Crager, Media Media Center Website: To encourage our Gators to read books from a variety of authors, we have created an “Author of the Month” display in the Media Center. We would love to see all of our Gators read at least one book from each author we feature to broaden their reading experiences. In addition, we will provide trivia questions about the featured author: Students who complete the questions and turn them in by the end of the month will be entered into a raffle drawing for a dress- down day pass. This activity is a great way to motivate students to practice research skills as well! Students may use print or online resources to answer each question. Families are absolutely allowed to work on this activity together at home! This activity provides a great opportunity for you to not only learn about some fabulous authors together but also to reinforce the importance of online safety and using only credible, trusted websites to find correct answers. Students can pick up our questions in the Media Center or print them from our website.