Open eBooks, a free eBooks resource for all students!
Open eBooks is a website and an app that provides access to free eBooks. Also, this resource is free at all times of the day and on weekends! In order for students to access Open eBooks through their school laptops, have them go to Clever and to the District Resource’s section, scroll to the bottom, and click on the Open eBooks icon, which will take them to
https://www.openebooks.org/. In the upper right hand corner of the webpage, they should click the “sign in” button and then select “Sign in with Clever” on the next page. That’s it!
Readers will have unlimited access to free eBooks on the website. They click “borrow” on a book in order to check it out. The book will automatically be returned after 30 days, or students can choose to return it early. They can borrow up to 10 books at a time and replace each book with a new book as many times as they’d like. Also, there are unlimited copies of each book available for students to check out, and books are available in Spanish! You can find more information about the program at https://www.openebooks.org/faq.
Students can also choose to download the app from the Google Play store or Apple App store to a personal device, such as a phone or a tablet. In the app, they should select that they would want to log in through Clever and then search for Homewood 153 in the school search box and select Churchill. They can then log in with Microsoft Entra using their district email and password.
2024 Bluestem Award Program
Churchill School is participating in the 2024 Bluestem Award program. The Bluestem Award is Illinois’ Readers Choice Award that is selected each year by students in 3rd-5th grade. Participating in the program is optional, but any student who chooses to participate will be invited to a special celebration! As a part of the program, students will read at least four books out of the 20 books nominated for the award. After break, students will be instructed on how to log their books on an online form, and any students that read at least four books will be eligible to vote! Two of these titles, Opening the Road: Victor Hugo Green and His Green Book and The Floating Field: How a Group of Thai Boys Built Their Own Soccer Field, are available through EPIC, the free eBooks resource that students use in school. Also, three of the titles are available through the free app Open eBooks (please see that note for more information on Open eBooks). Limited copies of all of the titles will be available for students to check out through Churchill’s library after break. Also, kids can check out the books from their local public library! Please see the list of nominees below on this bookshelf. Click on the bookshelf to see a printed list of the 2024 Bluestem Award Nominees list on the award website. Click here to see all of the 2024 Bluestem Nominees available to check out from the Homewood Public Library. As a reminder, students who have a library card with Glenwood-Lynwood Public Library and most area public libraries can still check out books from the Homewood Public Library. The Homewood Public Library also has a display of all of the award books, so stop by and ask to see the nominees for the 2024 Bluestem Award! We will also be reading two of these books, Ben Yokoyama and the Cookie of Doom and Maya and the Robot as a part of the after school Book Club starting in January, so please consider signing your student up for Book Club!
