Week 2

Week 2 in the library got off to a great start by discussing book care with our younger students, and the meaning of fiction with our older students.

Mr. Wiggle's Book by Paula Craig and Carol Thompson

Read to Pre-K, Kinder, and Primer

Skills: Bookcare

With our Pre-K and Kinder students I stuck with an oldie but goodie book that I actually read last year, because it does such a great job of showing students the many different ways a book can be accidentally damaged. The kids always fall in love with Mr. Wiggles right away, and they begin to feel sorry for him and his damaged book. At the end he asks "will you be my friend and protect your library books from now on?" They always respond with an overwhelming, "YES!" So I know I have gotten the point across. Thanks Mr. Wiggle! What would I do without you?

With my slightly older students we discussed the same concept but I read them a different book that got the same point across while also adding a bit of humor. 

Never Let a Ghost Borrow Your Library Book:Book Care Guidelines From the Library Secret Service  

by Karen Casale

Read to: Primer, First, and Second Grade

Skills: Book Care

This book is so great for teaching kids how to take care of their library books as well as reminding them of good library manners. It also works for slightly older kids because it adds humor to the book care tips that are suggested. I am also realizing that any book that has the word "ghost" or a picture of a ghost in it is a big hit and it doesn't matter what time of year it is. Aren't kids funny?

With my 3rd and 4th Grade classes we went a different route and began to discuss the meaning of the word fiction. We also discussed how fiction is organized in the library and we played a game pretending to be the librarians as we worked to put fiction books in order. We discussed the word genre, and I explained that fiction is one of our main genres of books in our library collection. In this lesson I wanted the kids to understand what fiction meant, so we didn't go into more detail about the different types of fiction, but we will soon. We learned that fiction is organized by alphabetical order and practiced putting a few books in order before we broke into groups to try it on our own.

For the game they had to separate the books by our three main fiction shelves in our library, and then they had to put each section into ABC order.

  

For the first couple of classes I had all of books mixed up on the tables and the kids were to sort them and then put them in order. However, I could tell some were having a tough time with this so I smartened up and used some library carts and just had a few of the books in the wrong section. I  wanted them to understand the alphabetical order aspect of the lesson to help them when they are searching for library books. I learned that having the books strewn about the tables was a little overwhelming to the kids as I can understand, so I found a better way to do it. You live and learn! Overall, I think the kids got the hang of it and I plan to this same lesson, but on smaller scale, for my younger students soon.