Library

Cerritos Elementary Librarian: Mrs. Sandra Green

Library Books

Students visit the library with their classes to check out books once a week.  Students are responsible for their library books and must pay for lost or damaged books.  Complete payment must be received prior to the release of all school records. 

Library/Media Center

Welcome to Cerritos Elementary Library/Media Center! The overall objective of the library/media center is to provide our students with a variety of choices for information and entertainment. Our current collection has a vast and varied assortment of interesting, high-quality books including fiction, non-fiction, easy picture books, foreign language, and reference materials. Our library/media center currently houses approximately 11,000 books. Our program provides the students with an understanding of the information available to them, the skills to locate desired materials and the ability to intricately evaluate, select, and interpret materials. 
Library Skills like reading and writing are process skills--skills used to reach other learning goals. These skills help our students to understand the sources of information available to them. It also empowers them to locate the materials and information they need. Library skills are taught at all grade levels starting with the earliest storytelling experiences at kindergarten level and continuing on to research and book reports at the advanced level 
Cerritos Elementary students receive 30 minutes of library/media time weekly. This time allows furthering enhancing classroom instruction by integrating information skills with classroom curriculum. Other skills include location skills, interpretation skills, listening and viewing skills, and literature appreciation.

FIRST GRADE- Familiarization with Easy-to-Read Books happens in first grade. An initial understanding of the difference between fiction and non-fiction materials is clarified. First graders learn to select books of interest or of a comfortable reading level. Students can identify the cover, spine, title, author, and the illustrator. Lastly, an understanding of how a library media center is a collection of materials that have a specific arrangement is emphasized.

SECOND GRADE- In second grade, locating books in the easy section no longer requires as much guided assistance. Reading abilities increase through a wide variety of materials that awakens interest and motivates children to read independently. The understanding that a book has various parts is clear. Many of our second graders regularly check-out chapter books and also search for book titles on the electronic catalog search stations using the titles of books and keywords. 

THIRD GRADE- A year of transition, which the children emerge from the almost exclusive use of the easy collection and begin to use the entire media center collection. Third graders locate desired material on the electronic card catalog search stations by title, keyword, subject or series. 

FOURTH GRADE- Fourth graders begin to use intermediate magazines for information and pleasure reading. Reading is now established as evaluating a book for quality, meaning, and interest and readers now favor certain authors and types of books. Introduction of the main ten categories of the Dewey Decimal System is taught through games. Fourth graders independently select materials with a specific purpose in mind. 

FIFTH GRADE- Fifth graders used developed skills for research and reporting techniques through various reference resources. They can use shelf guide letters to locate materials in the various sections of the library and can use read information in a written report, oral presentation or research papers. Students have strong allocation skills on the electronic search stations and understand the differences of a dictionary, almanac, atlas, thesaurus, encyclopedia and biographical dictionary. Moreover, students begin to understand that within each category in the Dewey Decimal System there are ten individual subjects and each subject is then divided into smaller subjects. 

SIXTH GRADE- Sixth graders have an understanding of the available resources and know the steps to locate materials. Students are given opportunities to analyze the different genres our fiction collection: adventure, science fiction, fantasy, humorous, historical fiction, and mystery and know information comes in a variety of formats and cross-references. Literature appreciation and reading are strongly emphasized as students enter middle school and must manage their reading time on their own.