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Our school library web page
will help you
throughout the year to find
enjoyable and informative resources.

Stay informed and have fun!

Your Librarian, Heather Kralik -
476-6617x401

Our library now has Britannica Online

Click the links on the right to access. Username and password are both btmes.

Nonfiction genres:

Fact books- A wide variety of books with facts on people, places, and things.

How To- Books that provide instruction.

Biography- The true story about a person's life. This includes biography, autobiography, and biography collection.

Folk Tales, Fairy Tales, Tall Tales, and Legends- A narrative handed down from an oral tradition and reflects a particular culture.

Myth- A traditional story accepted as history to explain the world view or beliefs of a people.

Poetry- a literary expression in which words are used in a concentrated blend of sound and imagery to create an emotional response.

Fiction genres:

Adventure/ Survival- Stories that have action and adventure. The main character is physically challenged.

Fantasy- Stories that could not happen realistically such as talking animals, magic.

Historical- Works in which the characters are fictional but the setting and other details are rooted in actual history.

Mystery- Stories that focus on an unanswered question.

Realistic- Stories that seem real and in the present and focus on relationships. A story that attempts to portray characters and events as they actually are.

Science fiction- Stories that are set in the future or contain a scientific idea involving, for example, robots, time travel, space.

Library/Teacher Bookmarks for class projects

Click on the link and access bookmarked sites needed for your class project.

Log in using the information shown here:
 

K-12 Student Research Websites at Home and in the Classroom

Parents, are you looking for websites your child can use to write a research paper, term paper or essay? Teachers, do your students need primary sources? Students, do you want good research resources? Take a look at the many free educational resources described here.

KidsClick! - Search tool for kids written by librarians
Think of it as the children's and teen's sections of your public library. Librarians have put together research sources that are kid-friendly. The search results include the reading level so your child can select ones he/she can more easily read.
You'll also see that the KidsClick! main page has subjects arranged as they would be in a library. At the bottom of the page, you'll find a link to see the page as it would look through a librarian's eyes. All of the subjects and sub-headings turn into the Dewey Decimal number system as you would see it on the library shelves. My students had an "Aha!" moment when all those numbers finally made sense.

Awesome Library - Another librarian-compiled search and browsing tool
Awesome Libary is another student-friendly search engine. As the name implies, this site is also maintained by librarians. This award-winning search engine advertises that they have more than 35,000 resources available, the top five percent in education. In addition to the search feature, there are dozens of categories to browse through for kids, teens, parents, teachers, librarians and college students.

CIA World Factbook - Brief facts on all of the countries in the world
If what you need is fast, accurate facts about a country, take a look at the CIA World Factbook. Here you'll find brief facts about all of the countries of the world. The information provided is at the country level only. There is no information at the state or provincial level of a country.

Now for the facts, which the CIA updates frequently: each country's flag and map; an introduction which may include a brief history; geographic features, climate and resources; demographic information about the population and ethnic groups; government and political structure; and details on the economy, communication, transportation and military; along with any transnational issues. And they fit all of that on one web page per country -- amazing!

Fact Monster - Encylopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, almanac and more
Fact Monster, from Pearson Education's Information Please, is an award-winning often-reviewed site for kids. It offers some good tools for doing research on a variety of topics. These tools include an encylopedia, dictionary, thesaurus and almanac.

You can find info on the world, the U.S., people, science, math and money. Fact Monster's resources include a Homework Center with more excellent info and study guides.

Fact Monster has some other excellent research paper tools. The Citing Fact Monster page provides helpful guidance about citing resources from their website. Another helpful page is their Plagiarism page. It explains what can be considered plagiarism, with examples, and what is considered common knowledge. The page also has links to their Homework Center pages on writing papers, footnotes and endnotes, and writing a bibliography. Love that!

RedZee Search Engine - Family-safe search with a twist
RedZee is based on the premise that a picture is worth a thousand words -- or at least an image of a website. That red and white zebra will show you a fanned array of websites when you hit the search button. The site image is displayed, with the text underneath.

To scan through the results you use your mouse to drag the fan from website to website. Be careful about using the back arrow on your browser, though! RedZee keeps track of the search results and the sites you've visited on tabs at the top of the screen. To go back to the results after visiting a website, click on the Results tab. If you use your browser back arrow instead, RedZee will think you want to start a new search.

Library of Congress
Wow! If you're doing research for a paper on some aspect of American history or government, PLEASE look at the Library of Congress website. For social studies research, it's hard to beat the sheer volume of sources available on the LOC.

They have more than 138 million artifacts, people! LOC's information includes digital documents, photographs and webcasts, many of them primary sources. Much of this material can be reproduced for educational purposes, but be sure to read the Rights and Restrictions Information.

Word Central - Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus for kids
We make frequent use of the thesaurus, dictionary and rhyming dictionary at Word Central. This Merriam-Webster site is designed specifically for the K-12 crowd. The dictionary has a speaker icon that lets you hear the word pronounced correctly. All of the components give you links to the other ones when you look up a word so your kid has plenty of options to find the right word for his paper.

By the way, I love that rhyming dictionary. Kids writing poetry or songs will love it too! There are also lots of word games on the site.

NoodleQuest - Research help
Another more sophisticated research tool is available. Sometimes, one of the hardest parts of a research paper is helping your student find a topic, narrow it down and find appropriate resources. NoodleQuest from NoodleTools was designed to help.

You answer a set of check-the-box questions, then NoodleQuest uses your answers to recommend the best websites to find the type of information you need. For instance, you may need historical primary sources that include biographical information, speeches, images and statistical data. You let NoodleQuest know how experienced the student is at using the Internet. Then it returns a list of possible sources to help the student research the topic (or even find a topic). Love it! Love it! Love it!

40 Online References
Here are more than 40 online references to help kids do research in all subjects and grades levels. They include kid-friendly search tools, bibliography tools, MLA citation generators, online dictionaries, primary sources, and encyclopedias and thesauruses.

Top nine research links inspired by: Squidoo

2009-2010 Independent Required Reading

(The following books may be read anytime throughout the school year)

Click here for a printable PDF copy of the book report form.
Please indicate next to the title whether the book you read is: NF (non-fiction), P (poetry), B (biography)

Bibliography Examples or Works Cited

Research Reports need to include a bibliography or "works cited" page at the end of the report. This page gives credit to those whom found or created the information and it let's your teacher know where you found the information. If you have more than one resource, list them alphabetically by the first word of your citation. This information may also be found in your homework books. Examples:

Books

A book with one author

A book with two or more authors

A book with an editor

Encyclopedias

An encyclopedia article with an author

An encyclopedia article without an author

Periodicals

A signed article in a magazine

An unsigned article in a magazine

A signed article in a newspaper

CD-ROM and Digital Resources

CD-ROM

Electronic encyclopedia with an author

Electronic encyclopedia without an author

Internet

Internet with an author

Internet without an author

•••Example of a FINAL Bibliography or “Citation”Page•••

To create your final bibliography, list your resources alphabetically by the authors’ last name and indent the second line if two lines are needed.

“Animals and their Homes.” Danbury: Grolier Electronic Publishing. 2000. [CD-ROM].

Burke, Lauren P. "A History of Bees." Insect History. 5 Dec. 2002 <http://www.ccs.new.edu/home/lpd/bee.html>.

Carter, Douglas G. "Honeybees." World Book Encyclopedia. 1999 ed.

Good, B. and Goofy, A. The Secret Life of the Honeybee. New York: Summit Books, 2002.

Josephson, Matthew. Learn About Bees. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1998.