We are lucky enough to have a fantastic community supporting us at Johnson Elementary School. This includes hundreds of loving parents, families, friends, and other community members. The Charlottesville community shows support to Johnson in many different ways, and we are thankful for all of them. But today, we are giving an extra special thanks to the Johnson Elementary School PTO.

The PTO is very active at Johnson, with dedicated and hard working parents organizing events, holding meetings, particiapting in school activities, and even giving their time and funds to teachers to help support curriculum and instruction. This year, our generous PTO was able to offer assistance to the Johnson Library in a very special way, which will be appreciated by students and teachers for years to come.

Thanks to a generous contribution from the Johnson PTO, the library was able to purchase a number of National Geographic Kids 2014 Almanacs to add to our reference collection. These almanacs are absolutely beautiful! The hard cover books have glossy, colorful pages and are packed with interesting facts and information. Knowledge of reference tools makes up a large portion of student curriculum in grades three and four, and are a critical part of SOL testing. Although students may have learned the purpose and main functions of an almanac, the ability to use these brand new almanacs for research and pleasure reading will take their understanding to a new level.

These National Geographic Kids 2014 Almanacs will be used heavily in the library during research, reference, and nonfiction instruction, but they will also be used throughout the school. The books are already barcoded into our collection and available for teacher checkout to use individually in classrooms.

Thank you to the Johnson Elementary School PTO for your gift of the National Geographic Kids 2014 Almanacs to the library. We can’t wait to use them for research, learning, and exploring!