This Past Spring

Summa summa summa time! It is summer! I know, I haven't blogged about all of the cool things we did from February until May of this school year, so now that it is summer, I have some time to give you a quick recap! I am going to break it down in sections. These will be some cool lessons we did, celebrations/ special occasions we had, and professional development I attended. Here Goes:

Lessons Taught:

First Grade Poetry

First grade was working on their annual poetry unit. One type of poetry they were learning about was Haiku. We had just gotten THE BEST book in, called Guess Who, Haiku by Deanna Caswell and  Bob Shea, and I couldn't wait to share it with the kids. Around this time, I had also just attended my BER training with Judy Freeman and she had given a wonderful activity suggestion to go along with the book, so I got some first grade classes on board to do the lesson with me. 

We read the book altogether as a grade level and then in each class we completed the lesson/activity. The children had to come up with their own Guess Who? Haiku poem.They then shared their poems with the class. 

Kinder Research
Another cool project I did was with some of the Kinder classes. They had been studying about living things, such as the Earth, rocks, minerals, and animals. We decided to have them come and do some actual research on those topics using the ever so awesome, PebbleGo database and our ipads. The kids did great! They loved learning what a researcher does and getting to come to the library to do the research. They felt very official, and they were!    

Poetry Month

Every April I love celebrating Poetry month with all of my kiddos throughout the month. Every year I host what what I call a "poetry picnic." This is essentially poetry centers that I change up throughout the month.  The kids always have a great time, and I use it as a chance to help them see that poetry is fun! Some of the centers pictured below are ipad poetry, reading poetry, stamp poetry (acrostic poems), and magnetic poetry (not pictured).  

Makerspace Fun

Towards the end of the year as things were winding down I decided to try and set up a makerspace.

What is a makerspace?

A makerspace is a collaborative work space inside a school, library or separate public/private facility for making, learning, exploring and sharing that uses high tech to no tech tools.  These spaces are open to kids, adults, and entrepreneurs and have a variety of maker equipment including 3D printers, laser cutters, cnc machines, soldering irons and even sewing machines.  A makerspace however doesn’t need to include all of these machines or even any of them to be considered a makerspace.  If you have cardboard, legos and art supplies you’re in business.  It’s more of the maker mindset of creating something out of nothing and exploring your own interests that’s at the core of a makerspace.  These spaces are also helping to prepare those who need the critical 21st century skills in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

That is a makerspace definition in a nutshell. I wanted to give the kids a chance to explore and have fun. And I told them that this might be becoming a permanent thing in our library so to get excited! Here were some of the makerspace centers:

Origami:  

I put out origami paper, scissors, glues, books, and a few directions and the kids were in business. They made some really neat things!

Toothpick tower challenge. For this center the kids had to build a sturdy structure using toothpicks and marshmallows.
Ok so it started out with marshmallows and then I changed it to play-doh because the marshmallows melted and they were a big mess. Play-doh wasn't all that better but we made it work and the kids had fun! 

Coloring!

Celebrations

Every year I like to encourage our 3rd and 4th graders to read the Texas Bluebonnet books on that year's list and go above and beyond the minimum of 5 in order to vote for their favorite in January. For those students who do go above and beyond I might hang their picture up on the wall or honor them somehow. However, this year I also decided to honor those students who read 10 or more by hosting a Bluebonnet Breakfast. We did it shortly after the winning book, Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson was announced.  During the breakfast I showed the kids a slideshow of the books on this next year's list and a little video of Victoria accepting her award. It was fun!  

Every year I also have a contest going to see which class can read the most Bluebonnet books. The 3rd and 4th grade class that wins gets a little celebration. This year we had games and donut holes or popcorn, and a mini award ceremony for the kids who read the most in each class.     

World Read Aloud Day

For the past couple of years our library has celebrated World Read Aloud Day. World Read Aloud Day is a day to celebrate the joy of reading and the right to read, and it encourages everyone to stop and read aloud. Of course we had to do that in our library so I invited guest readers to come and read to the classes that day. Here were a few of our guests.      

Children's Book Week:

Children's Book Week falls during the first week of May. In the past we have not gotten to celebrate it much because it is usually during testing and our library space is being used. However, this year our space was not used so I was so excited to really get to celebrate. We once again invited guest readers to come and read, but we did it all week long. We had almost 25 guest readers, and the kids LOVED it! I think they just enjoy having a new face and voice read to them sometimes. I know I do!

After the story we did a book swap. In order to participate the kids had to to bring a used book to then get a book. I think the children who brought books loved it, but others were not so sure what it was. However, now that they have seen it in action I think we will have more participate next year!  

Professional Development:

Every year I like to attend our Texas Librarian conference through TLA (Texas Library Association). This year the conference was in San Antonio which I love. I went for a few days. On my first day a few of us were walking to lunch on the Riverwalk and we ran into to so many visiting authors! Thousands of librarians and authors from the state and all over come for the week to speak, do seminars etc. Our first sighting was Nathan Hale author of Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales. He was sweet to take a picture with us, and one of us just happened to have his book so he signed it.  

The next day I attended the Bluebonnet Luncheon with once again thousands of librarians in attendance. At the luncheon every year we get to hear from the author of the winning Bluebonnet book. This year it was Victoria Jamieson, pictured above. Later that day we ran into her in the Lobby of the the hotel so we of course had to take a picture. I always feel kind of shy asking to take my picture with anyone, and especially an author celebrity. But they were all so sweet and didn't seem to mind!     

Then in May I attended a seminar at Region 10 with John Schu. John Schu, or Mr. Schu used to be a librarian, but became well known through his blog where he reviewed tons of children's books, and is now a part-time lecturer at Rutgers University and the Ambassador of School Libraries for Scholastic. He is so funny and a great speaker.

He spoke some of Amy Krouse Rosenthal, an author of so many wonderful children's books who lost her battle to cancer this year. He posted this quote and it really spoke to me. It is so true and something to remember daily. She will be missed!          

And last but not least this came up on my instagram feed the other day so I just had to share.  I wish we had this cool sign up in our library because I sure do believe it!

Now that it is summer I have tons of books that I am enjoying, and tons more I can't wait to get to! It is truly one of the best things about summertime, because it is true. Books Are Magic!  

Happy Summer!

January Happenings in the Library!

After returning from the winter holidays the library was super busy and the month of January flew by. Here are some things we were up to!

Texas 2x2 and Bluebonnet Voting Time!

Upon returning it was time for our students in Pre-K through 2nd grade to choose their favorite 2x2 book and our students in 3rd and 4th grade to choose their favorite Bluebonnet book. As I stated in my last post, the Texas 2x2 program isn't an award program, but I still wanted to give our younger students a chance to read as many of these books as they wanted to and get to vote on which one was their favorite. However, the Texas Bluebonnet program is a program developed by the Texas State Library Association, and it encourages reading for pleasure for students in grades 3-6 in hopes to expose children to excellent writers across several genres. Twenty titles are nominated by Texas teachers and librarians with the ultimate winner chosen by students in January. In order to be eligible to vote students must read a minimum of five books out of the twenty titles.

   

During the month of January we had our younger students vote for the 2x2's using a paper ballot and our 3rd and 4th graders voted online for the Bluebonnet books. The Bluebonnet committee will announce the ultimate winner at the beginning of February and we can't wait to find out which book won. I plan to announce the winning books at one of our Monday morning assemblies so I will for sure keep you posted!

Here was the ballot that our younger students voted on. Sorry I don't have pics of the actual voting! 

I bet you can see which book was the winner...SHHH! It will be our little secret until I announce it officially to the kids. Mums the word.... 

And here were some of our third and fourth grade casting their electronic vote!    

 

 

 After voting was done here were some of the other things we were learning about in the library this month. 

How to pick a "Good Fit" book

Taught to Primer, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Grades

With our Primer-3rd graders we focused on what it means to choose a "Good Fit" Book, and I modeled what that might look like using library books and a pretend scenario. We want our students to use the I PICK strategy and choose books that are right for them. They can do this by following the acronym of I PICK.  Often times kids are tempted to want to choose books that are really long or books that their friends are reading, but they sometimes forget to check and see if they are really interested in that topic or book, or if it is going to be a book that they will be able to read independently. However, I am also a big advocate for letting kids choose what they want to read even if sometimes that might mean that they choose a book that is too easy or a little challenging for them. My belief is if they are interested in the book or topic then that is what will keep them reading, and in my opinion that is the most important thing.   

Following this we prepared our Pre-K-2nd Grade students for an upcoming author visit with Nancy Churnin. 

 

 The William Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game by Nancy Churnin

Read to: Pre-K-2nd Grade

Nancy Churnin came to our school at the end of January, so I prepared our students for her visit by reading her current book to the classes. It was a super cool nonfiction book about deaf baseball player, William Hoy. This story tied into so many themes that the students are studying right now. Pre-K is discussing change makers and through our new Mind Up curriculum all of our students have been discussing what it means to have empathy. This was also a great story to help students understand what it means to persevere at something, and overall we had some great discussions about the hardships William faced, and what he did to overcome them. I love reading and sharing books where I too learn something, and before this story I had not heard of William Hoy. I was excited to learn later that this book is on the 2017-2018 Texas 2x2 list for next year.

 

Here was Nancy re-reading and discussing her book with the 1st graders. They were very excited and had some great questions for her. 

The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant

Read to: Third Grade

Third Grade recently has been studying Realistic Fiction, so they asked me to read a story, and share some other examples with the classes. I chose one of my favorite books that I loved to read growing up, as I think it is a great example of realistic fiction. It is also a story that lends itself to the discussion of making connections with a text, because most everyone can relate to having relatives and maybe getting to visit them. They also could have had similar experiences with their own relatives. It was fun hearing students share those connections after reading.

4th Grade

Research Project

During the month of January, 4th grade began a new research project. The students were to choose a topic that they were curious about and that they wanted to research. They then had to create and write a feature article to present their findings. Being that this was the first time for the 4th graders to do this particular project, there was a little trepidation with how to go about it all. However, I promised my help along the way, and together we collaborated as much as time allowed.   

All of the classes came in to choose their books and resources, and begin searching for more information on their topics using our databases.

 Here was one particular day that we had another class in the library while 4th grade was working on research, and it just happened to be the one day it has snowed in Texas this winter! But everyone was surprisingly working or reading diligently. We call days like this in the library organized chaos and of course team work!              

 

Later our lessons covered how to take better notes, what it means to plagiarize, and how to avoid it. We then spent several weeks looking at various sources and together we worked to find the information that would go into a citation for a book, database, and photo.   Below are examples of the forms I used for the kids to find the citation information and fill it out. Sometimes finding the correct information can be the hardest part!

They are now wrapping up their research and I am excited to see their final projects! 

Professional Development

 

Finally, last week I got to attend my favorite seminar of the year. Judy Freeman's, What's New in Children's Literature for 2016-2017. I love this seminar because we get to hear and talk about great new children's books all day long. She also always offers great activity suggestions to go along with the books she talks about so I leave with so many neat ideas to bring back to the library.     

 

And of course I come back from her seminar wanting to add about a thousand books to my next book order! But for now these are our latest books that just arrived to our library and I am just itching to read them to the kids!   We have so many great ones! Feel free to come and check them out!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It is officially 2017 and I am just getting a chance to sit down and blog a little about our school year so far! Oops! To my defense I have been a little behind this year because I was gone on maternity leave for the first couple weeks of school, but I am back and ready to blog again about what is happening in the library!

We got off to a smooth start, and have just been a tad behind with our usual lessons and programs. Our theme this year is Superheroes, and we are encouraging the students to be superheroes and read, read, read! Like last year we are having our youngest students (Pre-K-2nd) participate in the Texas 2x2 Reading Program, and we are having our older students (3rd-4th) graders participate in the Texas Bluebonnet Reading Program. Even though the 2x2 program is not a program in which a book from the list wins an award, at our school we encourage everyone to read at least 5 books from the list, and we read some out loud too, so then our students can participate in our very own election and vote for their favorite. On the other hand, the Bluebonnet program does require students to read at least 5 books from the list in order to be eligible to vote, and the winning book will win the distinguished Bluebonnet Award. Thousands of kids across Texas in 3rd-6th grade will be voting in January so we will be doing the same when we get back to school!

Here are some of our bulletin boards with our theme this year and how we are motivating our students to read 5 or more books from their list.    

 

 

 

 Texas 2x2 Wall

 

Texas Bluebonnet Wall 

On each of these walls the kids are checking off and keeping track of which 2x2 or Bluebonnet books they have read or had read to them. With our youngest students we are reading the 2x2 books together in library and coloring in the book on their class' boot. We are almost to 5 books!

  

 

We are also encouraging kids to go above and beyond just the minimum of 5 books. If students read or listen to ALL 20 2x2 books then they earn a superhero badge. Or if they are in 3rd or 4th grade and they read 10 or more, they earn the badge. 

Here is what the badge looks like close up.  The students sign their name and write what superpower reading gives them. 

Students and teachers are also being encouraged to read the books and write a review to tell others about a great book from the list. They can fill out 1 of these forms and if they do students can choose a prize at the end of the month.

 

Here are the teachers who are currently helping to promote books from the lists! 

   

 These pictures and reviews are posted in the breezeway to our Lower School and Preschool, so all who walk through can see it.  I am thankful for these teachers as they have done a super job of encouraging our kids (and families) to read these books as well!

As we begin 2017, and head into our second semester of school, we will vote for our favorite books from the list. I am then planning on possibly doing a genre challenge for the 2nd part of the year. We did this last year and had mediocre participation, so I plan to switch it up a little to see if I can get more kids to take part this year! If you have any ideas send them my way!

Cheers to 2017 and the many more adventures we plan to have in the library!        

     

Library Lessons Lately

Wow! It is already 2016 and I am just now able to blog again. I guess that means we have been busy in the library! So much has happened since I last wrote. We have been doing some super fun new lessons, and our kids have been reading like crazy as we wrapped up our 2x2 and Bluebonnet programs in January.  I'll first tell you about some of the lessons we have done and then I'll share the outcomes of our reading programs!

CDC, Pre-K, and Kindergarten lessons:

We began seeing our CDC Multi-age class in the library mid fall. This is our mixed class of 3 and 4 year olds so many of the lessons I have done with them have been interactive. I know they can't sit for very long so I try to have them moving and participating with the story as much as possible. I have also done many of these same lessons with my Pre-K and Kinder kids and they have enjoyed them as well.

My Little Sister Ate One Hare by Bill Grossman

This story is a counting book and also a great story for practicing sequencing events. The little sister eats 9 crazy different animals and insects and then when she eats something normal and healthy (10 Peas) she throws up! After reading the story I handed out pictures of all of the items she ate and the kids had to come and put them in the little sister's mouth (a brown bag) in the order that she ate them.  

Arlo Rolled by Susan Pearson  

The previous lesson inspired me to do a lesson where the main characters were peas. So that is when I came upon the next two books that I read together. 

Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

In Little Pea, Little Pea's main problem is that he hates having to eat his dinner which is...candy! However, after eating a few bites like his parents insist he finally gets dessert, which is of course, Spinach! The kids get a big kick out of that for sure!

In Arlo Rolled, Arlo is a pea who wants to get out of his garden and see the world. He avoids a lot of animals and insects along the way who may want to eat him and he eventually has a family (pea pod) of his own. I wrapped up these two fun stories with the Five Fat Peas finger rhyme, which was a good way to end this story time.                  

Ding Dong Gorilla by Michelle Robinson

Hi! Pizza Man! by Virginia Walter

In both of these stories the characters are waiting on a pizza, which is another crowd pleasing topic. In Ding Dong Gorilla, the main character is a little boy that claims that a gorilla came to his door to deliver the pizza and then of course proceeded to destroy the house, and eat the pizza! 

In Hi, Pizza Man! the little girl wonders what would happen if things, other than the pizza man, came to deliver the pizza. 

After reading these two stories I handed out a picture of a door and the kids drew something that they could imagine coming to the door and delivering a pizza to them. Some kids drew a character from one of the stories or something totally new!           

Hug Machine by Scott Campbell

A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead

Our theme at our school this year is Compassion, so I decided to share these two stories to introduce and discuss this topic. Hug Machine was one of the books on this year's Texas 2x2 Reading List, and of course, A Sick Day For Amos McGee is one of my favorites. Both of these stories have characters demonstrating acts of kindness and thinking of others. After reading we brainstormed ideas of how we might be able to show compassion to our friends.      

Primer, First Grade, and Second Grade:

 

The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf by Mark Teague 

First grade was doing a unit on Fables and Fairy Tales so I thought it was a good opportunity to discuss this genre with several of the classes and also explain and read an example of what a Fractured Fairy Tale is. I think I have read this story before, but it is a great one to compare and contrast to the original story.   

First grade was also recently completing a mystery unit so they asked me to introduce this genre to the classes.  I used this mystery lesson story map last year, and the teachers really liked it so I did it again, but with a different story. I found this mystery vocabulary and story map on Scholastic's website and it is a great introduction to the genre. For our lesson we first went over some of the key vocabulary, and story elements to look and listen for, and then I read the story, Miss Nelson is Missing. I encouraged the kids to fill out the story map on their own while I was reading the story as best they could, but then after reading the story we filled out as much as we could together. They planned to continue this lesson in their classes so really it was just a brief introduction.         

Miss Nelson is Missing by Harry Allard

Third Grade: 

The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant

Third Grade was also recently doing a unit on Realistic Fiction, so they asked me to discuss this with the classes and read some examples. I also set some books out so the kids could see the wide variety of books that can fall under this genre, but I chose to read one of my very favorites out loud, The Relatives Came.  I LOVED this book growing up, maybe mostly because of the pictures, but I also thought it was a great example of realistic fiction to share,  and the kids really liked it too.          

Fourth Grade: 

 

Mae Jemison by Jodie Shepherd

Fourth Grade is currently working on their yearly Biography research paper. This is a big project where certain research skills such as note taking, writing an organized research paper, and creating citations are introduced. Much of this project is possible due to the collaborations between the Fourth Grade team and myself. In one of our meetings we discussed that the students sometimes struggle with the concept of understanding what makes the person they are researching significant? That can sometimes be a tough question for a Fourth grader to answer, so in class we discussed this concept. Together we read a very short Rookie Biography about Mae Jemison. We brainstormed synonyms for the word significant, and after reading we discussed and wrote what truly made Mae Jemison significant.

         

Reading Programs: 

Posters for books 

Book reviews

"Wanted" Wall

As a stated in a previous post, our Pre-K through 2nd Graders this fall worked on reading the Texas 2X2 Books and our 3rd and 4th Graders read the Texas Bluebonnet books. They worked so hard as you can see above. We had a ton of kids promote books by writing reviews or creating posters for books, and just look at our Wanted Wall! These were the students that read 10 books and if and when they read all 20, they would earn a sheriff's badge on their picture. We almost didn't have enough room for all of the kids who achieved this goal! 

 In January we held our annual election where the kids could vote for their favorite book depending on the program they participated in. The winning books will be announced soon, and I plan to announce it officially to the kids, so I will be sure to report the results! I enjoyed that we included the entire Pre-School and Lower school in these reading programs this year, and I really think the kids had a blast and enjoyed the books.  Currently for the spring we are starting to introduce a new reading challenge so I will be sure to let you know about that once it is underway.