Weeks 18 and 19

Things sure have been busy in the Lower School Library. I am combining what I did the last two weeks in this post because we had a few days that messed up our schedule. We had a snow day, a late start, and Valentine's Day, so here are some of the books we were able to read.  

The Biggest Valentine Ever by Steven Kroll

Pete the Cat: Valentine's Day is Cool by Kimberly and James Dean 

Who Will Be My Valentine This Year? by Jerry Pallotta

All books read to various classes  

This year for Valentine's Day we read a variety of great new books to our CDC, Pre-K, Kinder, and Primer friends. Most of the stories are just fun and great conversation starters as to why we love this holiday. Out of all of the books I have to say that Pete the Cat was the biggest hit. He really is a cool cat so the kids love when I can share a story about one of his latest adventures.    

Stuck by Oliver Jeffers

AH HA! by Jeff Mack

Moo! by David LaRochelle 

With other classes we shared some of these great books above, and I plan to share these stories with almost all of the grade levels soon. These stories are great because they help practice the skill of making a prediction and drawing a conclusion. The last two are even cooler because they are only written with one word, which is so fun to read aloud. The kids are really good at predicting what will happen next. They can also look for clues in how the reader reads the words and by looking at the pictures to draw conclusions about what is happening.  So far all of the classes I have shared these with are so good at noticing the little details and they can easily infer what is happening. This is a crucial skill for all readers and they are really getting the hang of it. Of course it helps to practice these skills with fun books like the ones above. Definitely ones to check out if you have not!            

Week 17

What a great week in the library it was! Here is what we were up to.

Secret Pizza Party by Adam Rubin

Read to: CDC Multiage Class

Theme: Pizza!  

"Hi, Pizza Man!" by Virginia Walter

Read to: CDC

Theme: Pizza!

This week with the CDC Multiage class our theme was all about Pizza! Who doesn't love them some pizza?! We read these two books above and they the kids laughed out loud! Secret Pizza Party is a new book to our library and it is hilarious because it is all about a raccoon trying to get his hands on some pizza. After reading both books we learned a song about how to make pizza. For the part of the song when the baker tosses the pizza in the air, I passed out scarves and the kids pretended the scarves were their dough. It was a fun time had by all! 

The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino

Read to: Pre-K

Skills: Continuing to discuss Change Makers

In Pre-K they have continued talking about change makers in their classroom, so this week I decided to share a picture book biography about Jacques Cousteau. It is a book filled with cool facts about Jacques Cousteau, but it is not overwhelming for our Pre-K students because it is not text heavy and has neat pictures. The kids easily caught on to why Jacques Cousteau was considered a change maker.    

Amazing Animals by Liza Charlesworth

2nd Grade

Skills: What is nonfiction and what are some features of nonfiction texts? 

In 2nd grade they will soon be starting a research project, so before they began, the 2nd grade team and I decided it was time to review what nonfiction means, and features of nonfiction texts.  We began by defining what nonfiction means and then I showed them several actual examples of nonfiction texts. This included things like magazines, newspapers, biographies etc. We then began reading and going through the above big book. It is a great nonfiction book that highlights nonfiction text terms on each page so kids can see what the features look like and how they are used. We did the first couple of chapters and plan to do more this next week.

Martin and Mahalia: His Words, Her Song by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney

Read to: 3rd and 4th Grade

Skills: Discussing how Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahalia Jackson shared a message of peace and hope in the civil rights movement.

Last week we had a school holiday as we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr so I thought this was a perfect week to share this new book to our library.  Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahalia Jackson were partners in the civil rights movement. They both used their voices to make changes, inspiring people by using their gifts - he with his moving speeches and she with her songs. With this story I asked the students to think about these essential questions while we were read. 

What was the author(s) purpose for writing this? 

Why is this important? 

How does this affect me?  

These questions led us to some great conversations and discussions. With some classes I even managed to have time to share a you tube video of Mahalia singing. They loved it!