Welcome to the first week of library story times and checkout. This week is orientation to the library space, rules about conduct and handling the books, and the first checkout.
Our read aloud this week is 1st Day Critter Jitters by Jory John. It is a great story about how even teachers can be nervous with the first day of school. As the start of the school year is getting closer the animals are all nervous for different reasons, arriving on time, carrying their backpack, having too much energy, and other feelings that our students may also have. They realize that they can help each other through their jitters and that school is fun. I want the library to be a fun time for students where they look forward to coming for read alouds, lessons, makerspace, reader advisory, and so much more. The library is constantly evolving as a space and this year I am excited to have it completely open again to all students at all times of day.
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It is hard to believe another school year is upon us. I am going to try to post what we are doing weekly in the library. I will be working with 4K, Kindergarten, and 1st grade weekly, and 2nd grade bi-weekly. 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades will come in small groups or individually to check out. I am excited about this change as I will be able to spend more time with students and their teachers.
I am calling this week 0 instead of week 1 as I will not be seeing students for library time until August 22nd. This shortened week of school I will be taking pictures of students, helping distribute new devices, dealing with technology issues, and doing whatever else I can do to make the start of the school year easier for teachers and students. I look forward to interacting with you as the school year goes on! Mrs. Swygert I attended SCASL in Myrtle Beach, SC March 9th-11th. I learned so much and met a lot of authors, illustrators, and other librarians with great ideas. I had a credit from my Bedford Fall Book Fair to spend at their booth and got 2 boxes full of amazing books to add to our collection. They are going to be great additions to our library that students will love!
I told you I would try and update this site at least every 2 weeks, but I oopsied and let time get away from me. We opened our book fair today. Bedford Falls is an amazing book fair so far. We celebrated Valentine's Day with a read aloud and an activity about people and things we love. Now we have moved into talking about the sequencing of a book and when you retell the story. Of course, I am talking about Beginning, Middle, and End. We are currently stopping at the end of each section to retell the story in Kindergarten and 1st grade story times. They are all doing a great job at retelling. I am so proud of them!
Every year librarians, teachers, parents, students, and community members get together and read as many of the new books for students as they can. They narrow it down to 20 titles in 4 different categories:
Picture Books Children's Books Junior's Books Young Adult Books Students must read at least 3 of the titles in a specific category in order to cast a vote in that category. The award winners are announced during South Carolina's annual librarian's conference. Below I have shared our newly released nominees for the 2022-2023 school year. Check them out from your local library! Our Related Arts rotation (4K and K for me) is a 7 day rotation, so that is approximately 2 visits every 3 weeks. I see 1st graders every week, so that would be 1 visit each week.
Week 2 cycle (Jan 13th-25th) we are reading: 4K & K- Kindness to Share from A-Z and Help Wanted: Must Love Books Week 3 cycle (Jan 17th-21st) we are reading: 1st- canceled again I was quarantined for part of the week (yay for a negative test!) and then we had a collaborative planning day. My assistant took over the reading duties while I wasn't here and did a great job. While I was back at school later that week, I was pulled to teach music as we were short on available staff members. I enjoyed my time in the music room but I look forward to returning full time to the library. I was only in the library for kindergarten story time. They loved picking out the fairy tale creatures and princesses/princes that were interviewing to be the main character, Shailey's bedtime story reader. Both of these stories were a hit! We made it to 2022! I am hoping that this year will be a little easier for students and teachers than the last two were. I thought that 2020 was going to be a great year where I could use my "One Word" of VISION to make myself a better person, friend, and teacher. While these last two years have challenged me and helped me grow in those areas, it wasn't in the way that I had hoped it would be.
Our Related Arts rotation (4K and K for me) is a 7 day rotation, so that is approximately 2 visits every 3 weeks. I see 1st graders every week, so that would be 1 visit each week. I want to share our read alouds and projects that we do with you as the semester and 2022 continue. Week 1 cycle (Jan 3rd-11th) we are reading: 4K & K- The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats & The Little Library by Margaret MacNamara Week 1 cycle (Jan 3rd-7th) we are reading: 1st- The Little Library by Margaret MacNamara As I sit here typing this, we are virtual schooling today, not because of the pandemic, but because of high wind warnings. We are very lucky that our leaders make sure all students and staff are safe at times like this. I have spent the morning so far sending out links for read alouds and updating my schedule. One of my duties as a librarian is to support teachers as much as I can, and I hope our other teachers think I am doing just that. With book companies having delays in shipping of new titles we want to use in our teaching, I have created units of study virtual book shelves for our upper grades. This gives them ebooks and read alouds on topics they are studying to share with students for virtual days or to use in class. I have also been sharing virtual book shelves of books for the month, holidays, or the season that were created and shared last year by myself and other librarians. Stay safe readers! I haven't posted on this blog since February of 2020, right before I left to help with a family emergency. Right after that, Covid hit and schools were closed down. So, not only was I dealing with this family emergency, but now I was trying to help classroom teachers figure out what online learning looked like, what virtual story time looked like, and how to navigate during this scary time. All thoughts of this blog left my mind during that time.
Since then we have had AA/BB/virtual schedules. I lived on a cart last school year and it felt like I was never in the library and didn't have time to breathe, let alone write a blog. I will strive to do better in 2022 and update the blog at least every 2 weeks. How did 2 weeks go by before I got another post done. I'm sorry, I've been trying to get a post done each week, but it just didn't happen last week.
Week 6: With Valentine's Day last week, we read The 12 Days of Valentines and talked about sequences and patterns. The book is really cute and is set up like the song 12 Days of Christmas. (I had to stop myself from singing the 5th day like the song.) ;) Week 7: We started this week off on Day 4, but I started a new book, The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade. This is a great read. We talk about how everyone can make a difference. Just because she is small and people don't seem to pay much attention to her most days, doesn't mean she can't see a problem and be part of the solution. This week we are reading another SCPBA nominee, The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors by Drew Daywalt. It is a funny book that allows us to talk about how characters can have different voices.
I have also been working on my Black History Month display. So many of the everyday items we use and take for granted were invented by African Americans. I want to make sure that our students know about these people as well. We are having Pastries with People We Love this week and it is great to see our students and their families sitting around laughing and enjoying each others company. Pictures will be up on the school's Facebook page sometime in the next few days. |
AuthorI am in my 9th year as an Elementary School Librarian. Archives
October 2022
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