Dunbar School's literacy coach creates a scavenger hunt

Kelsa and Linda in the Literacy classroom

We had a great meeting today with Linda Pillo, Literacy Coach at Dunbar School in Bridgeport. We dropped off about 500 books and hope to provide a lot more in the future - especially once their school library is reopened later this year

Ms Pillo planned to use the non-fiction books we brought to teach 3rd and 5th graders about how these books differ from fiction. She created a scavenger list of unique non-fiction elements, such as a table of contents, a glossary, captions, graphs, timelines, comparisons, etc and the kids will have to find as many as they can in the books they choose. Julio and I thought this was brilliant and we'll begin to read non-fiction in a whole new light. 

Books sourced from: Greenwich Book swap, Cos Cob Library, Parkway School and Darien Book Aid

Greenwich Book Shed celebrates 20 years

The Greenwich Book Shed was built 20 years ago to house and distribute books donated by Greenwich residents at the town's recycling center. In 2015 Greenwich residents have taken home over 30,000 books, and an additional 20,000 have been taken to schools, senior centers and other organizations.

For the 20th anniversary celebration, we shared pictures and thank you notes from many of the organizations that have received the donated books.

See an article about it in the Greenwich Sentinel from 10/16/15. 

YMCA Childcare at St Roch took a field trip....

We were in for a great surprise last Friday when a preschool class from the YMCA at Saint Roch stopped by the Greenwich Book Swap to check out the books. On their walk over they also visited a grocery store and learned a bit about recycling.   They had a fabulous time chatting about books and each student took one back for their classroom. We've been taking board books and picture books to the Y for about a year, but it was so much more fun to have them come to us!

Childcare Learning Center's Kids love books

Stamford's Childhood Learning Centers just opened a beautiful new branch on Lockwood Avenue adjacent to the DOMUS community center and Trailblazers Academy.

We have been maintaining two free library carts of books for the local community in front of the school on a weekly basis, and it's been so much fun to watch the 3-5 year old preschool students stop by to look at books. They always take walks in the neighborhood holding on to a colorful rope with a teacher at either end, so we affectionately refer to them as the "Duckies".   

This week they were finally able to take an armful into their new classrooms and we are sure they will be back for more.

Books sourced from: Darien Book Aid and Greewich Book Swap

Child First loves board books

Julio, Ivette and Kristina

Julio Reinoso introduced me to Child First today. Kristina Foye, the program director and Ivette Negron were thrilled with some of the fun board books and pop-up books we got from the Children's Book Drives at Cos Cob Library. Their program provides home-based intervention to children at risk in the Bridgeport area and age-appropriate books are always very welcome.

Books Sourced from: Cos Cob Library

Winthrop Elementary preps for a family reading night

Mrs Morgan and Ms Ortiz with Julio Reinoso 

Mrs Selena Morgan, principal of John Winthrop School in Bridgeport found 8 strong kids to carry in the 600+ books we delivered there today. Maria Ortiz, the Home School Coordinator was very happy to find 100 "1,2,3 Readers" that she can use in an upcoming reading event.

Books sourced from: Cos Cob Library, Greenwich Books Swap and Darien Books Aid

Roosevelt School is looking great

Jackie Simmons and Betsy Sisson (on the left) 

We had a chance to meet Jackie Simmons (Principal) and Betsy Sisson (Literacy Coach) at the beautiful new Roosevelt Elementary School in Bridgeport. They have 524 kids in Pre K - 8th grades.  As an Apple sponsored school, they will have Apple TVs in every room and iPads for each kid.

They are in need of lots of books for the classroom, and really appreciated the 600+ books we dropped off.

Books sourced from: Cos Cob Library, Darien Book Aid and Greenwich Book Swap

Black Rock has a beautiful addition that houses 10 classrooms and a multipurpose assembly space

Mr Herminio Planas moved this year from Curiale School to Black Rock to become Principal. He walked us through the lovely addition to the school and we got the opportunity to see their new library, which is currently in the process of getting replenished. We were able to add about 750 books today, but hope to circle back later this year with Katy Meyrick, their Librarian, once they get a sense for the gaps in their collection.

Book Sources: Cos Cob Library, Darien Book Aid, Greenwich Book Swap  

Friends of the Cos Cob Library hosted a great children's book sale

Cos Cob Library, Greenwich CT

Every year, the Friends of the Cos Cob Public Library host a very popular Children's Book Sale. This year the room was absolutely packed with great kids books, and we were very fortunate to be called in to take the overflow. The 1,700 excess books were donated in separate deliveries to seven elementary schools in Bridgeport and three preschools and early childhood centers in Greenwich, Stamford and Bridgeport. You can read about these organizations in upcoming posts. (The bottom of each post shows the sources of the books in order of magnitude)

Thanks so much to the Friends of the Cos Cob Library for the generous donation of books which, we can assure you, were very much appreciated!

We love to give board and picture books to ABCD

Thelma Peeples (center)

A while back, Julio introduced me to Thelma Peeples, Senior Coordinator of Child Development and Curriculum of ABCD in Bridgeport. These ABCD programs (Action for Bridgeport Community Development) provide early learning for 1200+ infants through toddlers at 14 sites.  

We've provided boards and picture books to several of the sites, but now we make all of our deliveries to the headquarters and Thelma distributes them to the various centers.

Since they are always so appreciative of the books, we thought of them immediately when we got a gorgeous set of brand new books from Greenwich Country Day School.