Librarian Without Walls

The Battle of the Books program has been around since the 1980s, but is still fairly new to Montana. Students read from a list of books and, in teams of up to three contestants, answer questions about the books. The teams that provide the most correct answers advance to the state tournament in Missoula. Students are grouped by grade levels: 5/6 and 7/8 for middle school. Last year, a team of fifth graders won a very close contest at the middle school and represented CMS at state, while an eighth grade team won the 7/8 category and placed third at state. At this time, Montana is using the Alaska Battle of the Books list of titles. But as participation continues to grow in Montana, we hope to develop our own list and practice questions. For a list of this year's books - all of which are available in the CMS library - click here .

On Halloween, fifth graders visited the library to put together insects they drew in an earlier visit. Fifth grade science teachers Amanda Bestor and Melanie Auch limited materials to those gathered outside by students: sticks, leaves, cattails, and so forth. We also let them use a little bit of foam craft paper. The results were often striking: intricate, creative, humorous. Take a look: Pine cones, dried leaves, glue guns, and two artists at work. The two bugs above hint at student creativity. These happy faces - on student and bug - sum up the day's cheerfulness. Fifth graders will be back in the library this week to build zip line racers. Yes, it's a glue gun world in the CMS library right now!