Week 3, 4 and 5

Sorry I have been a little MIA from this little blogging world lately. Not sure if anyone is really reading anymore either.

Week 3 Halloween week :-)
Compare and Contrast Stellaluna with book vs movie
Owl Moon with craft activity
Mystery powerpoint (genre of the month)
Charlie Brown Halloween

Week 4 1st week of November
F/NF, working on NF text features
4th and 5th grade are making NF text feature booklets will post pictures soon

Week 5 Non Fiction text features galore
5th grade is working on a book report
Thanksgiving books and crafts

Not very exciting in my little library world. I am seriously trying to decide whether this is the right place for me.

Author Visit

I am very excited to announce that Jacqueline West will be visiting our library this Spring!!! She writes The Books of Elsewhere series. http://www.jacquelinewest.com/

I plan to work with our art teacher to create a project to welcome her to our school.

I am currently reading her first book and loving every little detail of it. The main characters parents just bought a new house and she has fun exploring all the nooks and crannies of it. She soon learns if she puts on spectacles she can travel through the paintings in the house. 3 cats protect the house but are they really on her side or will they turn on her? Make sure to read this exciting series to find out!

Week 2-2nd 9 weeks

We didn't have school Monday because of Fall Break! Yippee for a holiday to get some things done around the house and get some early Christmas shopping done.

5th grade- Using an idea from The Book Bug and David C. Barrow's Media Center we talked about internet safety and how we can protect ourselves on the internet. If you have time look at The Book Bugs blog she talks about some incredible websites here that are great for kids all ages. http://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/pause-and-think-online

4th grade- dictionary dude again thanks to the Book Bug

3rd grade- dictionary dude (learning specifically about guide words)

2nd grade- spider research project
http://stepintosecondgrade.blogspot.com/2013/10/spider-week-2013.html check out this blog
I gave each group a spider to research and they used the following websites to guide them in their research.
http://www.spiderroom.info/
www.spiderzrule.com
http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/spiders/facts.htm

1st grade- Last week we read Stellaluna and talk about bat facts...this week we watched the Stellaluna movie and compare and contrasted the two.

K5- Stellaluna movie

2nd 9 weeks-Week 1

K5- Parts of a book
I love having a SmartBoard in my room for library lessons!!! If you haven't ever used Smart Exchange it is full of so many wonderful resources. Just type in what you are looking for and it will come up with things related to your topic. I knew I had found a resource here last year that taught parts of a book as being similar to parts of your body.

For this lesson I first had the students label me....They came up with arms, legs, ears, eyes, hair, toes, mouth and nose of their own. We talked about all of these parts where on the front part of my body. I then turned around and had them tell me that this was the back part of my body. I was shocked and surprised when I pointed to my spine and one of the students shouted out...that's your spine.

After the students labeled me we went on to look at the parts of the book using the lesson I had found on Smart Exchange. It compares a cover to your skin, the title page to your face and the spine to this actual part of your body. I love that this lesson really relates to little kids because they can identify these parts of their body.

To finish up the lesson I found a worksheet where they had to label the parts of a book by tracing the words. The students always have a few free moments to look at books. I can really tell our book care lessons are working. They are treating the books the correct way. Yippee! Small victory. I am going to start allowing them to check out books the last week in October.

When do you start letting K5 students check out books?! What do you think is important to cover before they do begin the process?

1st grade- Stellaluna
I just love the story of Stellaluna at Halloween time. We made bats for our bulletin board outside the library because this month we are Batty for Books. The bat is actually a puppet and I had the students write on the outside. Stellaluna can eat fruit. Stellaluna can fly at night. Stellaluna is a mammal. We compare and contrasted Stellaluna to the bats in the story also.

2nd grade- Dictionary skills
I introduced the dictionary with a short PowerPoint. We discussed how the dictionary is organized in ABC order much like the books in our library. We talked about guide words at the top of the page. After the mini lesson they went to the dictionary and found 10 fall words. They had to write the word, tell the page they found it on and then write the guide words. This was a little tricky for some of my 2nd graders.

3rd and 4th grade- Dictionary dude, using the idea from The Book Bug we made dictionary dudes. You can find the idea here. http://mrsnthebookbug.blogspot.com/2013/09/dictionary-skills.html

5th grade- Finish explorer project and dictionary dude

End of 1st 9 weeks- Week 9

I am in Colorado celebrating my 5 year anniversary all week long! :-) Yippee!

K5- Goldie socks and the 3 Libearians
Teaching how to find a just right book
Compare to Goldilocks and the 3 Dinosaurs







1st grade- parts of a book label with sticky note
We are learning the parts of a book...title, author, illustrator, table of contents, glossary and index. This was a mini introduction to non-fiction text features

2nd grade- My Book about A Book
Learning the parts of a book, call numbers fiction/non-fiction

3rd grade- Author study Rick Riordan

4th grade- Author study Rick Riordan

5th grade- Explorer project and author study Rick Riordan

Week 8

I cannot believe that is already October. I am ready for the leaves to change colors, the weather to cool off and pumpkins and all things Fall.

This week in the library 3rd, 4th and 5th grade are working on dictionary skills. I got the idea from Mrs. N the book bug and we did her dictionary relay race. Before doing the race we reviewed dictionary skills with a PowerPoint. We discussed the importance of guide words and also knowing that one word can be used in different ways.

Next week, I will be out on a trip, but when I return we are going to make Dictionary Dude's. I can't wait.

2nd grade- learning about the non-fiction section of our library. During November we are going to learn about non-fiction text features. My second graders have been very interested in the non-fiction section this year. They are always allowed to check out here but it seems they have finally noticed this section of my library.

1st grade-parts of a book (author, illustator, spine, title, illustrations, etc.) We made a book using paper, cardboard, tape and all the necessary supplies. It was so fun to see the kids be independent for their learning. They labeled all the parts themselves. Even one of the students drew the illustration for the cover because I am a terrible artist.

K5-How to choose a just right book

I cannot believe the first 9 weeks is almost over!!! I will be in Colorado next week celebrating my 5 year anniversary!

Week 7-Book Fair

This week was our book fair. We use Scholastic book fairs and they are incredible. I just wanted to give a few quick details about my book fair and how to survive.

1) Advertise your book fair at least 2 weeks in advance. Our school has a weekly newsletter. 2 weeks before I promote book fair by telling the theme and asking for volunteers. One week before I include the schedule of when classes will visit the book fair.

2) If having a Scholastic book fair use the fair files!!! I am not creative by any means. I use the fair files for everything! For my teacher baskets I used a pharaoh template and just typed in each teachers name. I use the template for the schedule of when classes come.

3) Decorate...make sure your space is inviting. I have found the cheapest way to do this is with balloons. They will last you all week! This year I bought a small helium tank and blew up balloons each day. I also had balloons that lasted all week though too. I think they are called mylar or something similar to that.

4) Make sure you have plenty of change on hand. This is so important. Our book fair kicks off with Grandparents Day. We have 5 registers this day. I have noticed more and more people using cc. However, I always have 2 rolls of each coin for each register.

5) Set a reasonable budget for your fair. I never spend over 250 dollars on decorating supplies or set up. Use supplies from previous years. I always fold up the tablecloths I purchase and keep the ribbon from the balloons.

6) Get some 3M tape!!! Our book fair in the fall is held in our gym. Do you remember the cinder block walls of college?? The only way my posters stay up is with 3M tape. Make sure you budget for this.

7) Complete your financial files quickly. I know at the end of a book fair all you want to do is collapse. If you complete your financial form quickly you don't have to stress and worry about it later.

8) Make sure you have plenty of volunteers! If you don't make sure to call and text to recruit more.

9) Have a goal in mind of how much you would like to make!

10) HAVE FUN and Sell Sell Sell!!!

Week 6-Book Fair Preview/Set Up

Reading Oasis- Book Fair 2013 is here!!! Grandparents day activities are being planned and the cases for book fair arrive this week. This post is going to be short and sweet! Pictures will come soon of book fair!

Week 5

5th grade- Author of the Month-Mary Pope Osborne
The 5th graders did research about our author of the month using our class set of laptops.

4th grade- Fantasy PowerPoint/Book Fair video

3rd grade- Fantasy  PowerPoint/Book Fair video

2nd grade- Call number activity/ABC order

1st grade- Fantasy PowerPoint/Book Fair video

K5- I finished during the Interrupting Chicken activity with K5 that I blogged about last week. Since we had Labor Day one of my classes is behind the other now.

My other K5 class watched the Book Fair video. Our book fair starts next week September 20th-27th. I am so excited for another great fair. We made over 16,000 dollars last year. I am hoping for another great year this year.

This week has been super busy....I am swamped planning for our first book fair of the year. More to come later about our first Book Fair.

Week 4

5th grade- Presentations using KeyNote app

This week 5th grade finished their presentations on Parts of A Book. They did an excellent job using the iPads with Skitch and KeyNote. I am very proud of all their hard work! If you would like to know more about Skitch look for a post to come soon about how we used this app! I showed our headmaster his child's presentation and he loved it! This is the first year I have used iPads in the library and I couldn't be more proud of the hard work these children put into their final presentation. I even learned some things about KeyNote as they put their presentations together.

4th grade- Fantasy genre PowerPoint

This month of genre of literature is Fantasy. Last month we talked about Realistic Fiction. I used this PowerPoint to teach 4th grade about the fantasy genre. We used the NearPod app to watch the presentation. Can I just say I love this app!! After the PowerPoint we sorted picture cards based on fantasy and reality in groups. Finally they had to draw a picture of something that was realistic and something that was fantasy.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.palmdalesd.org%2Fcms%2Flib%2FCA01000370%2FCentricity%2FDomain%2F27%2FFantasy_vs_Reality.ppt&ei=fdYpUoybHqmT2gWsp4GgCA&usg=AFQjCNEzOJtCnCUfba8Meon7jHRtq1xHfw&sig2=o2lifgr4FSVqbKrpTaN_Xg&bvm=bv.51773540,d.b2I

3rd grade- Fantasy genre PowerPoint

I used the following PowerPoint to teach fantasy to my 3rd graders. We used iPads to look at the presentation using the NearPod app.  Afterwards we brainstormed together some books that were on their level to read that are fantasy. They came up with Harry Potter, The Lightening Thief series, Geronimo Stilton series and various others. As a whole group we sorted picture cards into fantasy/real categories. They did a great job. We will continue to talk about this genre throughout the month.
http://www.powershow.com/view/35c2-OTA2Y/Realism_and_Fantasy_powerpoint_ppt_presentation


2nd grade- Call # introduction

I found a SmartBoard activity about call numbers on Teachers Pay Teachers by Katherine Cool. This presentation was set up so nicely. In our library I do the last 3 letters of an author's last name. In the presentation she just did the first 2 letters. It is a great resource however and shows them the importance of how books are arranged in the library. We will spend September talking about call numbers and how books are organized on the shelf.

1st grade and K5- Interrupting Chicken


I read the story Interrupting Chicken to my K5 and 1st grade classes. In the story the young chicken keeps interrupting the story and telling how it will end. I love this book because it reminds my little ones to not tell the story even if they have heard it before. After reading the story we did the following activity from Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade blog. http://mrswheelerfirst.blogspot.com/2013/08/interrupting-chicken.html
We sorted cards based on interrupting chicken and a respectful student. Then they had to draw an example of both. They did a great job! At the beginning of the year...we talked about our jungle animals. One of my first graders drew a lion for interrupting because lions roar and an elephant for respectful student because elephants listen. Too cute!

Planning Ahead

I hope everyone had a very restful Labor Day weekend! Mine personally was jam packed but I like to keep busy...

I overnight babysat for a family whose students attend my school Saturday until Sunday evening. We had fun bowling, swimming and watching the LSU/TCU game. I live in Louisiana now where everyone bleeds purple and gold. However, I am a Texas girl through and through so I cheered for the Horned Frogs. In the end LSU won. It was a great weekend for football and I was a very happy girl that my Baylor Bears won! Sic' Em Bears.

Labor Day I spent working my second job at the toy store! :-)

I am usually a fly by the seat of your pants teacher. Yes I have an education degree! Yes, every professor said Never, Ever, Ever do this. However, I work well this way. This year it was a goal of mine to plan ahead. I have planned through the end of September and am so proud of myself. I can't believe it. We have a jam packed month of learning about our author Mary Pope Osborne, the fantasy genre of literature and Book Fair. I cannot believe how quickly August went by. I am hopefully September will be the same and am looking forward to my trip in October!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Week 3

5th grade- Nearpod and Skitch apps

My 5th grade class comes twice a week. I first assessed them on the parts of a book. I just wanted to get a basic idea for what they remembered from previous year's lessons in the library.

Tuesday I decided to try using the app NearPod with them as I presented. It was really nice because the students could look at their devices and follow along with me. I feel sometimes when they sit on the carpet and look at the SmartBoard they are not always engaged. I used this PowerPoint converted it to a PDF and then shared it on the app NearPod.  http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDAQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tonibuzzeo.com%2Fbookslibrarydoorspartsofabook.ppt&ei=4vAcUpWhOOHa2AXq1IGgCw&usg=AFQjCNEFfZUb6UI-2dBuP_Do_ksof9QkUw&sig2=pySFn1eM9nKlWBuwH1L2uA&bvm=bv.51156542,d.b2I
Yes my 5th graders know these basic parts of the book but it was a good review. Not a single one of them knew what an ISBN code was so...they all learned at least one new thing. I teach my 5th graders about prologue, epilogue and appendix this year but that will come later in September.

Using Skitch...Wednesday and Thursday my 5th graders used the app Skitch. They were given a choice of 3 picture books and 2 chapter books on their tables. They choose a book to do their parts of a book project on. They had to meet certain criteria pre-determined by me. They get a participation and conduct grade in library. I have expectations of how I want projects completed though.

They first had to take pictures of the parts of a book. Then they used the app Skitch to label the parts of a book. I love this app because it allows them to have some creativity with labeling. They can choose the color of their text, boxes, arrows, etc.

2nd, 3rd and 4th grade- David Shannon PowerPoint

Our author of the month is David Shannon. I used the following PowerPoint to introduce this author to our class. We talked about biography and what that term meant. We will study biographies later in the year. After the presentation we filed out an author study worksheet http://www.sanchezclass.com/reading-graphic-organizers.htm that I will keep in a folder. At the end of the year they will have an author study booklet with all the authors we studied this year.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CD8QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2F5thgradeauthorstudies.wikispaces.com%2Ffile%2Fview%2F211-David%2BShannon.ppt&ei=z1wfUpPdJfK72QXkioDYDw&usg=AFQjCNF0bbsUjK38525cTagIlI8dfI_m8Q&sig2=zi9kFd0CNPgkZ3R3FQPPXQ

2nd grade....did not fill out the author study worksheet. Instead I read the book Duck Rides a Bike to them and we sequenced the story.

This is an important first grade skill that we work a ton on, but it was a great review for them from last year. I still have a few that had trouble putting the story in order. We will continue to work on this skill.











1st grade- Book Care...bag of NO's

I opened my 1st grade lesson by reading The Library Dragon.  We discussed what type books would have dragons in them. (Fiction/Fairy Tales)

As I read the story we talked about how it is important to have story time in the library and why I do this each time they come in. I always start off by reading a book.

Then I continued my lesson with my bag of NO'S. I had a bag hidden from the children with things in it that we don't want around our library books ever. Last week we talked about book care so this was a review of what we need to keep away from our books to protect them. Each time I pulled something out of my bag...the students said NO NO NEVER if it was something they shouldn't have around library books.

We finished out the lesson by doing some worksheets from Library Skills about library citizenship.

K5- Library Lion

Library Lion is one of my favorite read alouds to do at the beginning of the school year! Our school mascot is the Lion so it fits perfectly. The kids LOVE to ROAR and act like LIONS! I love that Mr. McBee gets so upset over a lion being in the library but in the end realizes that he wasn't really causing problems at all. Miss Merriweather even in the end breaks the rules by running. Even though it talks about how it is OK to break the rules sometimes we have to remember when it is OK and not OK. We also talk about how not to be a tattletale and remember to be quiet in the library we can't ROAR!

The students colored a Library Lion sheet after we finished the story. I found this resource at a fellow bloggers website Library Patch. Thanks so much!

http://www.librarypatch.com/2013/07/library-orientation-for-kinders.html

Let Them Be Little...Photos from the first few weeks of school

 

First Grade....No David puppets

 

 

3rd grade using iPads

 

 

5th grade doing puzzles  





Great find...Nearpod App

Not only am I the librarian at our school I am also the technology director. This year with the generous help of our Parents' Club (PTA) we were able to purchase a class set of 10 Ipads. Luckily the largest class size we have is no more than 18 students. :-) I am very lucky!

The SmartBoard in my room is not in the best location. :-( If my students sit on the carpet for a presentation it is great. However, if I write on my SmartBoard and then the students have to go to desks and copy down answers or look back to the SmartBoard it doesnt' go well at all.

I have heard about NearPod at two conferences I have attended but never gotten the opportunity to actually use it with my students. *You must run it from a PC* it seems I have discovered!!! :-) I am going to do a presentation with my 5th graders doing using the app! They will be able to look at the Ipads and follow along with my presentation in the class. I control what slide they are looking at in my presentation so they can not get ahead of me at any time. I will let you know how it goes. Look for pictures coming soon of how we used this technology in the library this week!

I am so excited to try it out!!!

Week 2-August 19th

Disclaimer----some of these ideas are not mine but I will also tell where I found them!

Another great week in the books. :-)

K5- We continued to learn our rules with the help of our jungle friends. We learned about our author of the month David Shannon and made No David puppets! Thanks to this idea I found on Pinterest! http://www.kindergartenkindergarten.com/2010/07/getting-my-first-week-together.html

 

 

1st grade- Book Care....I love these wonderful Chester books. If you don't have them they are a great addition to any library. Chester learns all about the library and the right/wrong ways to treat books.

We then completed this activity I found on elementary routines website... We did the No No Never Game. I first modeled on the SmartBoard and then had the kids complete their own. They did a great job. http://elementarylibraryroutines.wikispaces.com/Book+Care

 

 

2nd grade- Parts of a book....Powerpoint...I found this by just doing a google search....for parts of a book. I used the medival knight one by Jordan School district. The kids loved it and then did a worksheet labeling the parts of a book.

 

3rd and 4th grade- completed doing QR code scavenger hunt.

 

5th grade- Author of the Month study...David Shannon Powerpoint and worksheet about the author.

Parts of a book...Powerpoint...using the book Library Doors. Next week the kids are going to be using iPads and Skitch and KeyNote to create presentations about the parts of a book! 

 

The Power of Words

Thank you Ms. O at http://www.msoreadsbooks.com/ for sharing. This video is awesome!

 

 

 

 

Have a great day!

Week 1 Officially Over

This year I am going to use my blog to talk about my lessons, ideas I have found and used and what worked and didn't work. I plan to blog once a week about my experiences as I begin my second year in the library!

My school officially started last Wednesday the 14th. I have now seen all of my classes for the first time. This was the hands down best first day I have had in my 5 years of teaching (I previously taught 3rd grade.)

Can I tell you I love PINTEREST!!! http://swerstysswapshop.blogspot.com/ is the best....and I got this idea from her! This year my theme for the library is WILD FOR BOOKS!! It is a jungle in here! I found 5 huge stuffed animals a giraffe, a panda, an elephant, a lion and a monkey. I started my lesson with K5-2nd graders by talking about how these animals had come in and destroyed my library this summer. They didn't know any of my rules and they were taking over. Each animal had a slight problem we had to solve. The giraffe had been running in my library and his baby ran off into the jungle. We had to search for his baby and we found him in the biography section. My panda was busy looking for bamboo and lost his baby. We found him at my circulation desk and talked about how this is where we would check out books for the year. My elephant's big floppy ears got in the way and we found his baby in my nonfiction section. My lion was busy roaring and we found his baby in my picture book section. Last but not least my monkey was busy swinging through my jungle looking for bananas and we found his baby in my chapter book (Junior Fiction/Fiction section). The kids had so much fun learning the rules. The babies had small Mr. Potato Head body parts attached to them and in the end Mr. Potato head was put together and we learned all the rules of the library. My students had so much fun moving around and learning the parts of the library. It is going to be a wild year but we are reading to start the adventure in the JUNGLE!

For my 3rd-5th graders we talked about basic rules and procedures and then went on a QR code scavenger hunt around my library. If you want me to attach the file just let me know. I would be more than glad to. We have a class set of 10 iPads in my library so my students had to share. They loved going around the library searching for clues as they remembered the sections of the library and my rules.

I am ready for the second week to begin. We will be learning about our author of the month David Shannon and making puppets. My older kids are making an author book this year as we learn about authors each month.

Stay tuned for next week. I will upload pictures from week 1 and talk about week 2. I hope some of these ideas where helpful! Thanks to  http://swerstysswapshop.blogspot.com/ for the ideas!

What are you Reading Monday...on Tuesday! Oops

Middle School the Worst Years of my Life. We have just a few short days remaining so I am reading this to my 5th graders.

Adult-Fun reading....Don't Look Twice.

What I've been up to....I'm App Happy

Along with being the librarian at my school....I am also our technology director. Over the past few months we have launched our iPad initiative. We currently have 10 iPads for our preschool and Kindergarten friends. We just ordered 8 more and I couldn't be more excited to put them in our students hands.

Today with 5th grade I used Croak It and I-gnima both free apps. They are writing a 5 sentence book review of a book they read this year. They will then record what they wrote with the app Croak It. We will send to my email account and then create QR codes. I can't wait to put them in the library books and have the students listen to reviews from our peers.

What apps do you use in the library?!

It's been a while....

Ok...I realize I have been gone for ever....

This first year in the library has been so overwhelming! I have been crazy busy organizing, shelving, weeding and creating lessons (looking on Pinterest and using other people's great ideas.)

My first graders have been working on seqencing stories and cause and effect.
2nd grade is working on cause and effect also with a very cute character Camilia Cream.
3rd grade is learing all about author's purpose.
4th and 5th grade are learning about timelines, Caldecott books and making Dewey Words clouds using Tagxedo.

I have been using the wonderful website GoodReads and charting what I have been reading lately. I can't wait to see how many books I read this first month of 2013.

I will post pictures soon of what is going on in the library....