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!!!