Beginning & Lower School Library
Library & Technology
The Beginning & Lower School Library serves and supports our Meadows preschool and elementary school-aged community including students, faculty, and families. Our library houses a diverse collection of over 20,000 print books and a dozen databases.
Students in PreK through fifth grade come to library class weekly to listen to, learn about, and analyze literature. We laugh together and develop a love of learning together daily. The librarian also provides guidance for personal reading, both in print and digital, as well as provides support for research for classroom assignments.
Technology
Students are given a Meadows Google account starting in Beginning School that will stay with them for the duration of their time at The Meadows School. In Prek through first grade, this account is used to access our learning management system, Seesaw, from school and home. Students begin using all of the additional features of G Suite for Education once they begin using Google Classroom in second grade. This includes, but is not limited to, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Google Forms.
Students of all ages will also learn how to navigate the library website and use all of the resources and tools provided by our school, including interactive whiteboards in the classroom, education apps, and iPads. In the Lower School, we have a 1:1 iPad ratio in kindergarten and first grade, a 1:1 Chromebook ratio in second and third grades, and then transition to 1:1 laptops in fourth and fifth grades. Students use these devices in the classroom, bring them to technology class weekly, and to Spanish class upon request.
From digital citizenship to coding and problem solving, our goal is to develop independent thinkers while at the same time teaching collaboration skills. By the time students leave our Lower School, they will have taken part in digital citizenship lessons, learned the etiquette of email exchange, explored the features of myMeadows, and will be ready to tackle the next phase of library and technology in our Middle School.
For more about our Beginning & Lower School library and technology curriculum, please visit our Beginning School curriculum page or Lower School curriculum page.
