Dear Students and Parents,
The library staff is thrilled to share some of the exciting library opportunities in store this year district wide! For school specific library information, please visit the school website and click on the library link. Also, if you'd like to volunteer in the library, you are most welcome! 

SBUSD Library Program:

• Our program will be promoting the very best of children’s literature to your child with activities designed to help student’s enjoy the stories even more.
• We will be doing our very best to get (or keep) your children “hooked on reading” by recommending specific reading materials to each individual.
• We will continue to update and add new titles this year of the latest and most exciting new books for young readers, including quality non-fiction to help meet the Common Core requirements.
• We encourage you and your child to use our online digital library (think vetted, encyclopedia online in audio and multiple languages) at home and year round: http://sbunifiedk6libraries.weebly.com/
• We have created K-6 Information Literacy and Digital Citizenship lessons to help your child make safe and ethical decisions when using the Internet.
• We will be working with classroom teachers to help them find core curriculum enrichments as well as materials especially suited to the individual interests and abilities of your child.
• The library iPads combined with grade level iPad distribution will allow students to access ebooks online and year round!
• In collaboration with each site’s Library Technician, we will be introducing “maker-space” activities to enrich curriculum and to promote collaboration, exploration, problem solving and creativity.
• Special events have been planned throughout the year to promote literacy and a love for books such as book fairs, Read Across America, Author-Go-Around etc.
• The most important thing you can do at home is to promote reading. Read to your child every night. Encourage your child to read to you, sibling, grandparent or friend. Need more books at home? Parents are welcome to check out books in addition to your child's leveled book allowance. Come on in!

We are excited about this coming year and is committed to making the library your child’s favorite place in the school!

Read on,

Jamie Allison
SBUSD District Elementary Library Media Specialist
jallison@sbunified.org

Who doesn't want to learn more about creatures about creatures that live under the sea? If you are looking for resources, lesson plans, and videos, your search has ended.

Click HERE to see the Under the Sea Knowledge Building Center. Created for TK students in mind, teachers can find--

• Lesson Plans
• Videos
• Games & Songs

All Santa Barbara Unified elementary students now have access to the Gale database Kids InfoBits. Kids InfoBits is a great place to turn for formal and informal research on any topic. Check out the screenshot below for a glimpse at the most popular search catagories.

There are many reasons for students to turn to Gale's Kids InfoBits for their information needs. 

1. It is kid-friendly and advertisement free.
2. Clickable images make it easy for all ages to search successfully.
3. Every article has been reviewed for quality and accessibility.
4. Students can search by Lexile level, content type, and document type.
5. Kids InfoBits can translate articles into several different languages.
6. There is a feature to have articles read aloud.
7. Students can log in with their district-provided Google accounts in order to annotate and save articles in Google Drive.
8. Citation tools make it very easy to keep track of research and create accurate bibliographies.

Please take a moment to try out Kids InfoBits to see what it has to offer. If you have any questions, or comments, click on the Contact tab on this page or see your school library technician.

Happy searching!