Welcome to week 31 in the library. We have finished spring break and are winding up the school year. It is hard to believe we have gotten this far. I am on the SCPBA committee, and I am currently reading the 197 titles to help narrow it down to the best 20 for the year. The story we are reading this week, is one of those possible nominees, so it must remain nameless at this time. The students are enjoying it and getting to draw themselves going on an adventure.
First grade has moved into checking out from the Nonfiction section of the library. Next week we will move into the Fiction section and then they can check out from the entire library after that. We have been working on finding good fit books for ourselves by stopping and reading a page of the book before checking out. Kindergarten is checking out from 4 shelves at the moment. I am slowly giving them more titles to choose from as they figure out what they like to read. We began with 1 shelf as they learned how to use a shelf marker and place the books with spines facing outward on the shelf back where they belong. Then we moved to 2 shelves, and now we are at 4. In a few weeks they will be choosing from the entire picture book section, and are so excited. This time of year not only are flowers blossoming, but so are our students as readers. They get into their groove and begin to find authors, series, and genres that they love. These are the stories they will remember when they become adults and share with their own children. Please keep them reading this summer!
0 Comments
Welcome to Week 28 in the Library. This week we are reading Help Wanted: Must Love Books by Janet Sumner Johnson. We are discussing characters and how characters have different feelings and actions. This is a great book as there are tons of characters and some show good character traits and others do not. We take the time to say that the Gingerbread Man stole the little girl's book and being dishonest is not a good character trait. We name a few good character traits we see in the book: kindness, protectiveness, being a rule follower, and politeness among others.
Kindergarten is still learning how to check out from the shelves and 1st grade is working on remembering to see if the book they are checking out is a good fit book or not. I received 4 boxes of books today that I haven't been able to open and process, but I hope this is most of what we have left to add to our collection. Welcome to Week 27 in the library! This week we are reading If I Built A House by Chris Van Dusen. We are continuing our setting study and this book has a ton of settings. As you tour the main character Jack's house, your setting changes. I used this book to show that even each page can have a different setting.
Welcome to Week 26 in the library! It has been a few weeks since I posted. We have successfully finished our 2nd book fair of the school year and had Pork Chop Productions share a play with our families. The school year is flying! I can't believe it is March tomorrow. This week I am reading Potato Pants by Laurie Keller and we are talking about setting. We have already done basic retelling of what happens in our stories, but now we can add more details like where the story takes place, and in a few weeks character traits of our main characters. We are finishing up Black History Month and beginning Women's History Month. We have created different displays with popular and less well known books in our collection to teach our students about different African Americans and Women who have made a difference in our world.
It is Week 23 in the library! Bedford Falls Book Fair was delivered this morning and will open bright and early tomorrow, February 7th at 7am. We have previews for the rest of this week, and are actually open every school day until February 23rd. We do not charge taxes, so every price is what it is listed as. We have a lot of great deals and everything goes to benefit building our collection of books and other materials for students and teachers to use.
On the evening of February 23rd, we will be hosting Pork Chop Productions in our cafeteria. They will be performing "Chicken Little's Day Off" beginning at 6:30 pm. We will open the book fair from 5:30-6:30 pm for anyone who hasn't had a chance to shop. This week with book fair in the library, we are reading The 12 Days of Valentine's by Jenna Lettice and talking about repeating patterns. They then spend the rest of their time in the library creating their wish list of titles from the book fair. Welcome to Week 22 in the library. We are finishing up our Retelling unit with kindergarten and 1st grade.
I have continued to learn from my students and as always what has worked before won't necessarily work for others. We are reading one of our new titles Danbi Leads The School Parade by Anna Kim. Welcome to Week 20 in the library. We are continuing our Retelling unit we began last week by reading The Little Red Fort by Brenda Maier which is a modern retelling of The Little Red Hen. Instead of just drawing the ideas this week, we added some writing. First grade had to write at least 1 sentence in each section (beginning, middle, end) and then they could draw the story. Kindergarten I asked to write a shorter sentence (Ruby played, Ruby built, etc) but some aren't quite there yet, and that is okay. All of them can retell with their voices, so I know they understand the idea of sequencing start to finish. I also have been awarded a grant to work with our students in the 3 Special Education classes to teach about the different parts of plants, learn to grow plants, and then harvest the fruits (and vegetables) of their labors. So far, we have 1 Aerogarden that I personally purchased, and we are waiting on the 1 from the grant to arrive. There will also be a variety of different pods that we can plant. I started with our youngest students and they planted dill, parsley, basil, and thyme. They were so excited to put the plant pods into the system. Aerogardens are great because they water and feed the plants constantly, and the grow lights simulate daylight for 15 hours each day. In only a few days the dill has already sprouted beyond the cover, and basil is close behind. When our 2nd Aerogarden arrives the 2 older students' classes will each fill several of the pods. We will have tomatoes, peppers, lavender, and a few other pod types to choose from. As the different vegetables mature they will be tended and then harvested for the students to take home to their families. We will be adding a school garden next school year, so our Special Education students will be our garden leaders and be able to train the other students on what to do. I am looking forward to sharing pictures of how everything progresses. Welcome to Week 19 in the library. This week we are reading Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson.This is a great title to talk about so much: book series, rhyming words, and the topic I introduced this week, retelling- beginning, middle, and end.
Kindergarten is using it in a basic way of 1 thought for each section. The bear hibernates, the animals partied while the bear continued to hibernate, and then they all fell asleep while the bear stayed awake. 1st grade is using it a little more in depth with several thoughts for each section. The bear hibernated in his den during winter. Hibernate means he is sleeping. The 7 animals began to gather in the bear's den while he slept and cooked food and tea to eat. Finally, the bear woke up and was mad and then sad that he wasn't included in the party. They all partied together until the other animals fell asleep. We will continue to go further in depth as the next few weeks happen. Happy 2023! We are back in school. It has been a weird week with not coming back until Tuesday, and then having severe weather on Wednesday that had us hunkering down in hallways and other safe zones because of the chance of tornados. The rest of the week has been going well though.
This week we are reading Snowmen At Night by Caralyn Buehnero. This is part of a series about snowmen, but this book in particular is great for rhyming words. We have been reviewing rules and expectations, reading, checking out new books, and then drawing what our snowmen would do at night if we had one in our yard. There have been some great drawings of dancers, truck drivers, skaters, rock stars, and snowball fights. I enjoyed my time off, but excited to get back into our regular schedule. Don't forget, our 2nd book fair will be in February! It is week 16 of library checkout and storytimes. This week we are reading How To Catch A Snowman by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton.
We are still talking about Fiction and Nonfiction and how Fiction is a story that is created from the author's mind to entertain us and Nonfiction is to teach you something. We talk about how the title makes it seem like you will be learning how to catch a snowman, so you would think it is Nonfiction, but it isn't. We are talking about how to figure out reasons that prove it is a Fiction story. In this title, the snowman talks, runs away from kids, and thinks through his actions, so we know it is not a true story because snowmen really don't do those things. Today also began our Gnome scavenger hunt. The first class in each grade to find all of the gnomes and figure out why gnomes like to hang out in the library will receive a special class treat from the cafeteria. So far 3 teachers have said how much fun their students are having. I hope they enjoy the hunt each day for more gnomes. |
AuthorI am in my 9th year as an Elementary School Librarian. Archives
October 2022
Categories |