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!
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| 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!
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