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!