Week 4 and 5

It has been a busy couple of weeks in the Lower School Library and I have already gotten behind in my blogging! Here is what we have been up to.

Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk

Read to: Pre-k and Kinder

Skills: The Library, and Author/Illustrators

This past week I read, Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk to the Pre-k and Kinder students. This is a book I discovered over the summer so it is a new book to our library.  It is a great book because it not only introduces kids to the library, but it is also about a little mouse who lives in the library and loves reading and writing books. With this book I thought it was the perfect opportunity to introduce our kids to our library mouse puppet. The character in the book is named Sam, but we decided our library mouse's name would be Morris. The kids LOVED meeting Morris! They are so funny when it comes to puppets. I even made sure Morris had a book of his own in his little home and I made sure to show them what book it was. (It was a miniature Golden Book of The Little Red Hen that I borrowed from my daughter! Ha!)  Here was our set up. 

Morris' book that he was "reading!"  

The kids wanted to know where Morris was this week, so I am going to have to bring him out again to play soon!

Yellow is My Color Star by Judy Horacek

Colors for Zena by Monica Wellington

Both books read to Pre-K

Skills: Colors

Currently the Pre-k students are studying all about colors so I thought it would be fun to share some new books that we have that discuss this topic. The first one talks about all of the primary and secondary colors, but the author shares that yellow is their favorite color of all. After we read this book, I passed out little color cards on rings to the children and had them hold up what their favorite color was. I made the cards using paint chip samples from the paint store, so it was free! Then we read the next book, Colors for Zena. In this book Zena discovers and shares many of the colors that she sees throughout the day, but she also talks about the colors that you can mix to make other colors. After reading this book we discussed what the primary colors were and what the secondary colors were, and I had them turn and talk with a partner to see if they could show me (using their color cards) which two colors make purple, green, or orange when combined. This was a harder concept for some, but I was told by their teacher that it was a good review, so I am glad we did it together!              

Chick-O-Saurus Rex by Lenore and Daniel Jennewein

Read to: Kindergarten

Skills: Fiction stories 

With my Kinder classes this week I began discussing what the word Fiction means. We then read, Chick-O-Saurus Rex as an example. Before, during, and after reading the story we discussed the many reasons why this book could be called a Fiction book.  The kids quickly caught on to the fact that animals were talking, a chicken was digging up fossils and looking at photo albums etc. We also  discovered a fun fact by reading the Author's Note in the back that scientists have found that the chicken really is the Tyrannosaurus Rex's closest living relative. It goes on to say that now chickens really can brag about their mighty lineage. So we were all very impressed to learn these cool new facts! 

What is Fiction and The Library Online Catalog

Taught to: 2nd Grade 

These past two weeks we spent doing the same Fiction lesson that I discussed in my last post and then we began reviewing how to access our online catalog with the 2nd grade classes. The online catalog is something we are going to spend some time going over as it is a great resource, but can be tough for our kids to use. They really have to understand how to search,  what to do once results come up, and then where to go to find the book etc, so it is not a lesson I can teach one time. We plan to continue this lesson next week as well, and throughout the year.  

 Texas Bluebonnet Reading Program

Discussed with 3rd and 4th grade 

With the 3rd and 4th grade classes we began discussing the Texas Bluebonnet Reading Program.   

"The Texas Bluebonnet Program is a unique program that encourages reading for pleasure and is aimed at students in grades 3-6. Each year, 20 books are chosen as the “Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List” by the TBA selection committee.

If students read a minimum of five books from the current master list (or have the books read aloud to them), they have the opportunity to vote for their favorite title during the month of January each year. The author of the book receiving the most votes statewide is declared the winner of the Texas Bluebonnet Award."  http://www.txla.org/TBA-about

After discussing the details with the students I showed them a few book trailers to get them excited about reading some of the books, and let me tell you they were more than just excited! They were so ready to get started reading them that there wasn't a single Bluebonnet book left on the shelf at the end of the day!  There are so many great books this year so I can't wait to see which book will be the winner. 

Finally, this past Thursday was our first late start day and the library was paired up with 1st grade. We decided to invite and host storyteller/puppeteer Sandy Shrout. Sandy is well known around the Dallas area and is such a great performer. She is so great with the kids, and all of her hand made puppets and props are fabulous. She told the story of Goldilocks and the Three Dinosuars and it was so funny! The first grade classes loved it and we had fun too! It was a great first late start day and we hope we can have her back soon so other classes will get to enjoy her as well.        

So that is what we have been up to in a nutshell! Lots of more fun things on the horizon so stay tuned! Have a great week ahead!