Last Few Weeks of School

I can't believe this school year is coming to an end. Here is what we were up to during our last couple of weeks in May.

We started off the month celebrating Free Comic Book Day and May 4th which is "Star Wars Day." "May the 4th be With You!" So we thought it was a great time to discuss the genre of graphic novels. So many of our kids LOVE and are OBSESSED with graphic novels, but others may not really understand them or realize all of the cool learning opportunities that they hold! So Mrs. Young, our LS graphic novel expert, did a lesson with our 1st-4th graders on the subject.  The kids loved it and we all (including me) learned a lot!             

Duck & Goose Go to the Beach by Tad Hills

Flip Flop Bop by Matt Novak

Read to: CDC and Pre-K

Skills: Summer Fun!

With Summer on our brain I decided to read these two fun books about going to the beach and what you might wear to the beach, Flip Flops! The kids had fun and lots of them told me about beach trips that they had gone on or were planning to go on this summer. After reading, they then decorated and designed their very own pair of flip flops. I saw some very creative pairs of shoes that I sure would love to wear this summer!

Chalk by Bill Thomson

Doodleday by Ross Collins

Read to: Kinder and Primer

Skills: Focusing on the problem and solution in each story and comparing and contrasting the two stories. 

These two books were so fun to read! Both of these books have been around awhile, but they are all about drawings coming alive whether by magical chalk or if it is a day called, Doodleday! Both of the stories also have very clear problems that kids can easily identify, but the solutions are different so I of course wanted to emphasize that if the kids didn't catch it first. After reading both I had the kids draw something that if it came alive it would cause a problem. Then they had to exchange papers with a friend and each person then had a draw something that could solve their problem. They had fun! The next time I saw these classes so many of them asked, "Is today Doodleday?" Ha!         

It's Okay to Make Mistakes by Todd Parr 

The OK Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Read to: CDC, Pre-K, Kinder

Skills: Understanding that it is ok to be ok!

I was reintroduced to The Ok Book at a recent seminar I went to and we just happened to get Todd Parr's book It's Okay to Make Mistakes this year, so I wanted to share them with the kids at the same time. Our lesson was all about discussing mistakes we may have made and how we fixed them, as well as talking about things we are just ok at. I then found a fun activity page that kids could write or draw about something they are just ok at. Afterwards each of the classes made a class Ok book of their own.    

TumbleBook Library 

Shared with Pre-K and Kinder

The last week of school I shared this cool resource with our Pre-K and Kinder students if they want to do some reading over the summer, but don't have time to go to the library. It is called, Tumblebooks, and it is an online collection of animated books. We provide this database for our students so I wanted to be sure they knew about it. I have taught all of our other students about it, but just now had a chance to share it with our youngest ones.   

While I taught our youngest students about Tumblebooks,  I reviewed how to access our ebook collection with the 1st through 4th graders. 

Dog vs Cat by Chris Gall

This Book Just Ate My Dog by Richard Byrne

Read to: First Grade

I have been dying to read all of the below books with the classes because they are just fun books! With first grade we had a pet themed story time. The kids love all books by Chris Gall, and so they were excited about this newer one.  For the Richard Byrne book, every time I read it the kids would ask at the end, "So, did that book REALLY eat her dog? Looks that way! It is so funny how serious they get about it all!    

This is a Moose by Richard T. Morris 

Read to: 2nd and 3rd Grade

This is a Moose was another just plain silly read aloud. I love it when I can get the crowd rolling with a funny book! I won't spill the beans on why this book is so great but it is definitely one to check out this summer if you haven't read it. 

The Book With No Pictures by B.J Novak 

Audio book played for: 3rd and 4th Grade

And finally, The Book With No Pictures! This book has been out for a while, but we just purchased the audio book of it where B.J. Novak reads the book. I mean what is better than hearing the author read his own book? So, I played it for the 3rd and 4th graders and they loved it, even if they had heard it several times before.  

So we wrapped up this school year with some great read-alouds and activities. All in all it was a super ending to a super year. I hope you all have a great summer and read some fantastic books!      

Poetry Month Part 2

For the rest of poetry month we did some more cool activities so here is what we were up to in a nutshell.

Secret Pizza Party by Adam Rubin

Nothing Beats a Pizza by Loris Lesynski 

A Pizza the Size of the Sun by Jack Prelutsky 

All three read to: Kinder

Skills/Theme: Pizza Poetry!

I think we can pretty much agree that most of us enjoy eating pizza, so I decided to do a pizza themed story time with of course including some poetry all about pizza. We first read, Secret Pizza Party by Adam Rubin which most of the kids already knew and loved (it is one of my favorite's too), and then I chose a couple of fun poems about pizza to share from each of the poetry books above.  We all had a pizzariffic time!      

Riddle Rhymes by Charles Ghigna

Simms Taback's Great Big Book of Spacey Snakey Buggy Riddles by Simms Taback, Katy Hall, and Lisa Eisenberg 

Read to: Primer, 1st, and 2nd Grade

Skills: Riddles

With Primer, First, and Second grades we learned about riddles! I picked riddles from each of the above books and as I read them, I made it fun for the kids by not showing them the pictures. They then had to guess what I was describing. I have to say they were really good at guessing way before I had given them all of the details! I am not sure I was that quick at their age. However, then they had a chance to write their own riddle and exchange it with a friend, so each of them could guess what was being described. They came up with some great adjectives to describe their objects.     

Laugh-eteria by Douglas Florian

And just for fun and if time allowed I shared a couple of poems from this book with some of the classes because well, it is funny, and I enjoy all of Douglas Florian's poems! 

"I Am" Poems

Completed With the Third and Fourth Grade Classes

With Third and Fourth Grade we learned about and wrote "I Am" poems. Basically it is a poem about yourself, but instead of having to think about what to write you pretty much just fill in the blanks with adjectives that describe yourself. Pretty fun! I originally had wanted to turn this lesson into a selfie poem and thought it would be fun if the kids took a picture of themselves to include with their poem,  but I wasn't sure how to go about it and the thought of printing out all of the pictures did not seem appealing or Earth friendly so we kept it simple.          

Finally, this past Thursday, April 30th,  was National "Poem in Your Pocket Day!" I really talked it up this year and I was so pleased with the number of kids and adults that came to the library or stopped me to share their poems. One first grade class had even constructed paper pockets and had a wide variety of poems to choose from in their "pockets" to share! Here was the poem I had in my pocket. I shared it with anyone who would listen!

Overall, it was a super way to end a great Poetry Month! 

      

Poetry Month!

Wow! So much has happened since I last wrote! Poetry Month began in April, we attended our annual library conference in Austin Texas, and we hosted a "book tasting" in the library for our teachers and staff. So lots to talk about!

After the Easter holiday our school had a professional development day. As a staff we were given the opportunity to host a session for other teachers if we so desired, so the LS Library decided to host a "book tasting" along with our literacy specialist at our school. Basically what this meant was sharing many of the new books we have learned about and ordered this year, as well as sharing new knowledge that we have acquired at various trainings throughout the year. We decided to share a variety of fiction and nonfiction books and how they can easily be paired together, as well as what types of skills and activities you can do with the books.  Then we demonstrated how you can use a particular book to teach a complete literacy lesson or workshop.  It was pretty neat if I say so myself and we had candy in fun glasses to make it even more "tastier!" Ha! Here was our setup.

In the middle of preparing for that, we also had the opportunity to collaborate with a few of the second grade teachers and classes to complete a fun project. The second graders were learning about writing summaries so the teachers asked us to pull a variety of fun fiction books that the second graders could choose to read and write a review for. The students wrote their review for the book they chose and they also assigned the book a reward of their choice. When they were all done, the kids came to the library and using an app called, VoiceThread we helped them record their review. We then turned their recorded review into a QR code and placed the code on the front of the book as well as on a copy of the front of the book, so students, parents, and patrons, could download and listen to the reviews.  It was really fun and the kids did a super job. It was a cool project I was excited to help with!     

                           

And finally poetry month! For the first week of poetry month we hit the ground running reading and writing all kinds of poetry! We decided to have a Poet-Tree in our library this year so that throughout the month kids could hang the poetry that they write or create on the tree. So far it is really blooming with poetry! 

 With our younger students (Pre-k, Kinder, and Primer) we read and wrote sensory poems.  We started off learning and reviewing what our five senses were. We then discussed that when poets write poetry often times they are using all five of their senses to describe what they are hearing, smelling, seeing, touching, and tasting.  We read a few sample sensory poems, and then the kids tried their hand at writing one. With Pre-k we did one all together. I had set out a variety of different objects and the kids chose one to write about using as many words as they could to describe each sense. Their paper looked something like this (this is just an example) but it had all five senses on it (and not hearing twice!)        

 Kinder students studying their objects and writing about them using their senses.   

Doodle Dandies: Poems that Take Shape by J. Patrick Lewis 

Shared with: First and Second Grade

Skills: Shape Poetry

With first and second grade, we learned about shape poetry. Shape poetry has many other names such as concrete poetry and theme poetry. We read a few sample poems from this book and discussed what the author had to do to create poems like this. Then the kids tried writing their own. We gave the kids a variety of different shapes to choose from and after choosing a shape, they could write down words that described that shape or write a poem about it.   

With the third and fourth grade classes we learned about a type of poetry called, "Blackout Poetry." "Blackout poetry” is poetry made by redacting the words in a text with a permanent marker, leaving behind only a few choice words to make a poem." Together we watched a Prezi that I found that explained the process of creating this type of poetry and we then handed out a variety of copies of pages from various books or newspapers for the kids to create their own poem. The kids came up with some really cool ones. Below are just a few samples of poems that I found online, but this is what the final product looks like to give you a better picture.    

A third grader creating her Blackout Poem. 

Finally in the midst of poetry month I, along with some of the other librarians at my school, attended TLA, our annual Texas library conference. This year it was held in Austin and we had a great time! It is a perfect opportunity to meet authors, connect with other librarians, attend a variety of sessions on various topics, learn new things, and see new books and products! On one of these days we were there Christine and I were walking around the exhibits and we ran into Tom Angleberger, author of the Origami Yoda series and more! Christine got an autograph and I snapped a picture of them!       

We also stopped by this booth....Somedays I do feel like I am Wonder Woman even if I don't look like her! Ha!   

But I have to say my favorite part of the conference was The Texas Bluebonnet Luncheon that Christine and I attended. The luncheon is a ticketed event that you have to sign up for in advance, but they serve you a great lunch and you get to hear from the author and illustrator of the winning Bluebonnet book. This year, The Day the Crayons Quit won so the author, Drew Daywalt was there and so was the illustrator, Oliver Jeffers. They both gave amazing and hilarious speeches and it was just great fun! I also love this luncheon because librarians around Texas who participate in the Bluebonnet program are eligible to nominate a student at their school to be a part of the luncheon. If their student gets chosen then they get to come to the conference luncheon and introduce and represent the district they are from. They also get to meet the author and illustrator of the winning book! Some of the kids get to even introduce the author which is a neat honor. I am going to enter one of our kiddos next year I think!You never know! They might just get chosen!      

Christine and I figured there were at least 300-400 librarians and teachers at the luncheon. Wowzers! 

Drew Daywalt giving his acceptance speech.

Oliver Jeffers and Drew Daywalt 

Here is when Drew was saying, "Well, we figured this is the Bluebonnet luncheon so we brought our "blue bonnets" to wear.."  Too funny! 

So overall, it was a super conference and April is just flying by! More soon to show you how the rest of poetry month went!  Stay tuned!              

Week 22 and 23

These past two weeks have flown by and we have read some great literature so I wanted to be sure to share about it.

The month of March is National Women's History Month, so we spent the week after spring break reading books about women who have made a difference whether it be on the world, our country, our state, or our very own community. Here were some of the books we shared.

Week 22:

Sheila Ray, The Brave by Kevin Henkes

The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires

Both Books Read to: CDC and Pre-k  

I read the above two books with our younger students and just focused on girl protagonists who were brave, courageous, or who persevered in some way. Many of the women whom we celebrate during the month of March are women who had all of these qualities, but I felt like these books were more appropriate for demonstrating that concept to our younger students.   

Librarian of the Roof! by M.G King

Read to: Kinder, Primer, and First Grade

I did this lesson awhile back with Pre-k when they were discussing change makers. Go here to see what we did. However, this time, if we had time I also shared a couple of you tube news clips of this actual event, so the kids could see parts of the real thing because many were having a hard time believing it was a true story. They really enjoyed it as after reading it many kids came up to me and said, "I can't believe there was a librarian who really did that?!" Ha!         

Here Come the Girl Scouts! The Amazing All-True Story of Juliette 'Daisy' Gordon Low and Her Great Adventure by Shana Corey

Read to: Second Grade

Here Come the Girl Scouts! is the true story of the first girl scouts and their visionary leader, Juliette Gordon Low. I decided to share this story because I know many of the second grade girls participate in girl scouts, and I love how throughout the story on each page the author gives an inspirational quote. The boys enjoyed it too! A great read for Women's History Month!       

Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell by Tanya Lee Stone

Read to: Third and Fourth Grade  

Finally both Third and Fourth Grade are working on biography research projects at the moment so I wanted to share the story of an inspirational woman, Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor. This story is a simple, yet powerful picture book biography that was enjoyed by all. 

Week 23:

This week as we prepare for Poetry Month coming up in April, I wanted to review rhyming words with our youngest students. With our slightly older ones we focused and reviewed the elements of a fictional story.   

Billy and Milly, Short and Silly by Eve B. Feldman

Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas 

Read to: Pre-k and Kinder 

Skills: Rhyming Words 

Both of these stories are not only great for highlighting rhyming words but they sure are fun! The first one contains 13 short stories just using rhyming words. The kids can look and listen to the words that rhyme and do a bit of inferencing as they draw conclusions about what is happening in each story. The second story is about dust bunnies that like to rhyme. However, one of the bunnies, Bob, is having a hard time because he is distracted with something that is coming after them. Think of what dust bunnies might be most afraid of and you have a hilarious story that the kids love! I adore all of Jan Thomas' books! After reading we then played a fun rhyming game in which the kids were handed a card with a word on it and they had to read their word and then stand up and find someone who had a word that rhymed with theirs. They did a great job at this and I think they enjoyed getting to move a bit while at the same time, rhyming!     

Help! We Need a Title! by Herve Tullet

Read to: Primer

Skills: Parts of a Story 

The Story Starts Here! by Caroline Merola

Read to: First and Second Grade

Skills: Parts of a Story and Unconventional books  

I used both of the above stories to review the parts of a fiction story: Characters, Setting, Problem, Solution, and they both were somewhat unconventional books so we discussed what made them different. Help! We Need a Title! basically discusses and shows the process of writing and illustrating a story. Then in The Story Starts Here the author decides to have the reader begin the story from the back and while reading the reader has to turn the book upside down to basically solve the characters' problem. So, for I think the first time ever on my blog, I am not using this blog to review books, but I am going to go ahead and say that in my opinion these two books are not all that great (gasp!) as I didn't feel like they had much of a story line. Sorry! Just being honest here folks! HOWEVER, they both got some laughs from the kids and they showed the basics of what I was trying to review-parts of a story, so I guess I will give them an A-. 

In the meantime, I am getting pumped about beginning poetry month in April and can't wait to share all of the fun things we have planned. Stay tuned!  

  

Week 21- Reading Celebrations!

This past week was National Read Across America Day which falls on Dr. Seuss' Birthday, World Read Aloud Day, and also the week we decided to celebrate the 3rd and 4th grade classes that read the most Bluebonnet books. So we definitely did a lot of celebrating in the library this week!

Dr. Seuss books out on display on Dr. Seuss Day! 

As you might recall from my last post, the 3rd and 4th grade classes that read the most Bluebonnet books were awarded with a surprise, and that surprise was a party. So this week on Monday and Wednesday we celebrated the two classes that won when they came to the library. When the kids entered they walked the "blue" carpet, because come on, they are reading celebrities people! Then we had a little award ceremony where we gave prizes to the top readers of every class and then other fun things to other students that participated. Afterwards, the kids could play an array of games.  Our theme this year in the library is a bowling theme, so in keeping with our theme the kids could play board games, but they could also play Wii bowling! We collaborated with our school tech team to set it all up and make it happen. It worked beautifully and the kids loved it!    

Here are a few pics of our award ceremonies       

A 4th grade student giving an acceptance speech. Too funny! 

Then it was off to play the games!

Some kids decided to play the board games...     

And others were all about the Wii bowling!

Thankfully we had two Wii stations set up! 

Then Wednesday we celebrated World Read Aloud Day in the library and throughout the Lower School. In the library we had guest readers sign up to read to the library classes. It was so fun and the kids loved having someone new read to them!  All of the books our readers shared were of course about the love of books and reading so it was perfect!  

Third graders hearing a story read by Ms. Manning, a Kindergarten teacher.  

Primer students hearing a story by our music teacher, Mrs. Holmes

Multi-age students hearing a story by Mr. Ivory, one of our great facility operators.

Second graders hearing a story from Mrs. Stenberg, our literacy specialist. 

Pre-K hearing a story read by Mrs. Young, director of our alumni relations.

First grade hearing a story by Mrs. Majefski, our Lower School Counselor. 

Everyone did such a great job reading, I was super impressed as were the kids! It was such a fun day and I have some ideas up my sleeve that I want to incorporate next year to make it even more fun. Yay for books and reading!