Week in Review: Spirit Week

It’s spirit week at Country Day and our students dressed to impress!

Tuesday was Twins day and Mrs. Eustace and Mrs. Strong joined in on the fun. Wednesday was Disney-themed and Brandy dressed up as Snow White while Shelly played as the Evil Queen with the poisonous apple. Don’t eat the apple, Brandy! On Thursday advisories dressed up as TV characters. Ms. Melinson’s advisory dressed up as The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

On Friday two local librarians visited the Sophomores. Kim, from the Arden-Dimick branch, gave the kids their library cards and talked about what research resources the library has. James, from the Sacramento Room, also visited and spoke on the historical resources the Sacramento Room has to offer. He also brought a signed copy of the Ladybird script. How cool!

Bonus:

Ms. Melinson visited the arts event, Tearing Walls Apart, featuring the work of some of our students – Bella, Jason, and Sophie. Check out their work below!

 

Week in Review: Walkies

Monday started off with Ms. Eustace’s 6th graders in for some Independent Reading. Ms. Melinson showed students how to search for books using the catalog and then gave a them a tour of the fiction collection.

Our Summer Reading raffle winners were picked this week. Congratulations to Mattias M., Annabel L., Rebecca T., Ryan X., Manny B., Chase C., and Kaityln D.! Rebecca, come by the library for your prize! On Wednesday we had our first Book Club of the school year, which you can read about here.

On Friday the Sophomores took a walk around the track while discussing their potential Sophomore Project topics and big questions they’re hoping to answer. This helped determine how much information they knew about their topics and served as a good listening exercise as they had to explain their partners topics rather than their own.

September Book Club

We had our first Book Club of the 2018-19 school year on Wednesday. The library Book Club meets once a month at lunchtime and it features students and faculty talking about what books they’re read (we don’t all read the same book).

Ms. Melinson started us off with some new additions to the library: Midnight – a new Skulduggery Pleasant book, Fugitive Six – a new Pittacus Lore book, Crazy Rich Asians and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before – both really hot right now, Factfulness – recommended by President Obama, and the absolute edition of the Sandman Overture graphic novel. Ms. Melinson also talked about a few of the books she read over the summer, Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nations and All Other Nights, which she found beautifully written.

Heloise finished Americans Gods and liked it overall, but found parts of it unenjoyable. She also talked about Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process, which she described as interesting and possibly useful for Octagon articles. Heloise also read What We Cannot Know and My Beloved World, Sonja Sotomayor’s autobiography. Luca said he bought more books than he read, but he did get some reading done over the summer. He read Gone Girl and Sharp Objects and enjoyed the unique writing style and unexpected endings. He also reread Good Omens in preparation for the TV adaptation that’s coming out.

Josh also read Good Omens, but for the first time. He also talked about some really interesting art books, Things from the Floods and Tales from the Loop. Sarina read The Sun is Also a Star, which she picked because of the pretty cover and enjoyed the alternating viewpoints. Ms. Batarseh read Raven Black (the first in the Shetland Island series), on recommendation from Ms. Fels, but didn’t enjoy it. However, she also read Moon Palace, recommended by Luca, and loved it. Ms. Nellis read Notorious RGB: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsberg and found it so inspiring and interesting. Chloe read A Master Calls, which she liked despite how sad it was. Erin just started reading The Hate U Give and is already hooked on it. Evan read The da Vinci Code as part of his summer reading and really liked it because of the fascinating information about art and religion.

For more information about all of the books we talked about, check out our Goodreads page!

Summer Reading Raffle Winner

Thanks, Anu, for picking our Grand Prize winner!

Congratulations to Jojo for winning the Grand Prize for our Summer Reading Raffle! Come by the library to claim your $25 Barnes and Noble gift card.

Congratulations are also in order to Mattias M., Annabel L., Rebecca T., Ryan X., Manny B., Chase C., and Kaityln D.! Come to the library and pick your prize!

Week in Review: Dystopian edition

Ms. Eustace’s Dystopian Studies elective was in the library on Wednesday for mini book talks on lesser known dystopian works before checking out books. After getting their books, they spent the rest of the period reading.

Also on Wednesday, Julie Checkoway (author and SCDS parent) spoke to the Sophomores about her thoughts on how to begin researching for their Sophomore Projects. Julie emphasized organizing their notes, backing up work regularly and in different places, and not being afraid to fail at first and put yourself out there.

On Friday Mr. Crabb’s History classes were in to learn how to focus their Sophomore Project topics and posing a research question. Friday was also the first Glass Knife meeting where students determined what jobs they would have for this year’s book.