Saturday, February 3, 2024
Groundhog Day, Intro to Dewey, Story Elements and Nonfiction Text Features
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I started working on displays this week. I created a Valentine's Day display with a combination of books about Valentine's Day, candy and love. It's an elementary school, so we don't have many love stories, but a few books about crushes. I also started pulling out my Black History Month books.
Last week I started a Google Classroom for my teachers with library resources. I received a great response to this. Most of my teachers joined, and many of them have given me positive responses to the resources I have added. This week I took the opportunity to create a Collections in Destiny to add Black History and books with black characters resources from our library.
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Lessons This Week
I really enjoyed most of the lessons this week. I struggle a bit with teaching Dewey (especially with my older students). I find no matter how many different ways I try and make it interesting It can be dull and boring. My hope is that once I know exactly how it was taught in years past, I can just review with fun activities, and I will only have to introduce to my younger grades for the first time. I have included links to my slides next to the descriptions of each lesson. If it was something I purchased, I have included a link to that.
Kindergarten and Autistic Support - This week we read to books about Groundhog Day. We read the books Grumpy Groundhog and Ten Grouchy Groundhogs. My students loved the rhyming in both books. We also sang the song Here's a Little Groundhog sung to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot.
Grade 1 - This week we read a story about Groundhog Day. I had my first graders on Groundhog Day, so this was perfect. We read the book Groundhog's Day Off and watched an informational video about groundhogs and Groundhog Day.
Grade 2 - This week we talked about story elements (characters, setting, problem, conflict). We read the book The Panda Problem. My students absolutely loved this book! They couldn't stop laughing and enjoyed this lesson
Grade 3 - This week we learned about Nonfiction Text Features. I took the beginning of class to review Nonfiction Text Features and then allowed students to use the clickable slide of nonfiction text features. The slide includes videos and games with information about nonfiction text features.
Grade 4 - We reviewed Fiction Call Numbers. I used the slides from a resource I purchased many years ago called Order in the Library. Unfortunately I cannot find a link to this resource, but I did include a link to the free Boom Cards. After completing this students worked on Boom Cards I found one on Fiction arrangement. Students seemed to enjoy this.
Grade 5 - We completed our intro to the Dewey Decimal System. I used slides I had purchased on TPT to introduce the topic and a video I found on You Tube. I was not one hundred percent happy with this lesson. I hope to improve this next year.
Sunday, January 28, 2024
Mittens, Jan Brett, Parts of a Book, Research Skills and Intro to Dewey
Welcome to another Blog post! I skipped last week, becuase we had two days with two hour delays and one day off due to winter storms. On our delay days, I only see students for book checkout.
This week I added a Makerspace to our space. I have been a huge Makerspace fan for many years now. My experience has included creating a makerspace at the middle, high school and middle school level. I firmly believe that a makerspace can be a very small area, as well as a large area. The most important thing is how students are using the tools in your space. Our current area consists of about ten different building toys/tools (Keva Planks, K'nex, Brain Flakes, Tynker Toys, Magnatiles, Plus Plus Blocks, Lego Duplo, Snap Circuits, Gears, and Legos with a Lego Wall). My students have really loved using this space. I plan to add more as time goes on. Some of these things were in the space prior to starting in the position. Many of the other things I had purchased in the past second hand. I allow students to use the materials after we are finished the lesson and they have checked out library books. My district is even promoting it on their website!
New Makerspace
Lessons For The Week
This week our library lessons focused on many different topics. I love the variety I get to include because of all the different grade levels (K-5) I get to see. As usual, the slides for most of my lessons are linked below
Kindergarten and Autistic Support - This week our theme was Mittens. We read some great books with the mittens theme and even sang a song about mittens.
Grade 1 - We finished up our Jan Brett unit this week by reading the Snowy Nap.
Grade 2 - We discussed the Parts of a book. I used a lesson from Mrs. ReaderPants. That lesson is linked.
Grade 3 - I did not see this group this week
Grade 4 - We finished up the research process. I started this a couple of weeks ago. This was a lesson I purchased from Staying Cool in the Library. Linked. I was able to show students World Book Encyclopedia and PebbleGo. We had a great discussion about finding reliable sources and why databases are a superior choice.
Grade 5 - We did a really cool lesson I found on TPT by Mrs. ReaderPants on the Dewey Decimal System where students were given cards of zoo animals and they had to decide how to organize the animals. This will serve as an intro to Dewey. We will do a full lesson on Dewey next week.
Bulldog Packs
My school's mascot is a bulldog - We are the Bulldogs! Once a month we take 45 minutes and have a fun time making, creating, or doing something. Our classes become a mix of many grades K-5. The older students work with the younger students. This month our focus was on games. I love to see my students working together and having a great time!
Saturday, January 13, 2024
A Fun But Tiring Week
This week proved to be a fun but tiring week. After a little over a week off for Winter Break and a four day week following that, five days straight felt very long. Like most elementary librarians, my schedule is filled with 5-6 classes a day. I am lucky to be given two preps per day, as well as time each morning, so my schedule seems to be steady but busy.
Mindfulness Night
On Wednesday evening, our school had a Mindfulness Night. This evening was all about SEL (Social Emotional Learning) and invited students and their parents to take part in various activities. In the media center, we put SEL related books out on tables and parents read to their children. As a new employee of the district, this was a wonderful opportunity to meet parents and families and encourage reading.
My Lessons This Week
My favorite part of the day is seeing my students smiling faces and placing books into their hands. Below you will find links to the slides for each lesson (unless a lesson was borrowed from someone else and would break copyright to share). In my school, I also teach 3-5 Gifted and Talented classes so I have included my plans for those classes.
Kindergarten - Hibernation Theme - In kindergarten I have been doing a theme each week. This week our theme was Hibernation. We read the story The Bear Snores On and a Loud Winter's Nap. We also sang the song Bear Is Sleeping to the tune of Frere Jacques and added it other animals who hibernate in the winter. This was so much fun! I really love adding songs to our storytime.
Grade 1 - We continued our Jan Brett unit by reading the story The Three Snow Bears. This seemed to be one of my students' favorites of the books we read by her so far. They enjoyed pointing out the differences between Goldilocks and the Three Bears and this version. To end our lesson we viewed a short National Geographic video about polar bears.
Grade 2 - This week we learned about the 5 finger rule. We read the story Goldisocks and the Three Libearians. My students really enjoyed this story. After reading, I demonstrated the 5 finger rule to my students and provided each student with a bookmark they could take home with them.
Grade 3 - This week we learned about parts of a book. I read my students the book A Book Is Just Like You. This is a perfect book to illustrate the parts of a book. After reading the story, my students completed a coloring sheet where they identified the title, author, illustrator, spine, and cover.
Grade 4 - This week I collaborated with my 4th grade teachers on a research project. I found an excellent research plan on Teachers Pay Teachers that really broke the research process down for students. We picked a topic and worked on filling the first part of the slides together. If you are interested in these slides, I have provided a link to the TPT product.
Grade 5 - This week we reviewed Nonfiction Call Numbers. I also used slides for this created on TPT and the link to the slides product is available above. Next, week I plan on creating various stations for students to practice what we have learned about fiction and nonfiction call numbers.
TAG (Gifted and Talented) - I see my TAG students two times a week. In 3rd grade, we learned about Codes and Ciphers, and are just about to start creating a project in Scratch. Did you know that as a teacher, you can get an educators Scratch account? This allows you to create accounts for all your students. In 4th grade, we started learning about Space Archeology. Students were able to view several videos, and respond in a Padlet to what they have learned about space archeology. They will then create a Google Slides presentation demonstrating knowledge of space archeology. In 5th grade, we continued researching our energy sources. Students had to research their energy source and are creating posters based on their energy source. We will complete this next week, and present on our findings.
This was a fun week! I am excited to continue some of these great units next week and am thankful for a long weekend filled with family and friends.
Friday, January 5, 2024
First Week Back After Break 1/2/24 - 1/5/24
Over Winter Break I did some serious thinking about my blog, and decided to keep more of a running log of my weeks. This will be a great resource that I can look back on in the future, and will also allow me to share lessons and slides.
My first day back started with an assembly. My principal put together a New Year, Better Behavior assembly. We noticed that our students were not doing a great job at following our school rules, and thought we needed to revamp this. Our school mascot is a bulldog, so we do a behavior incentive call Pawsitive Paw Prints. Teachers nominate students who are doing an excellent job to receive a paw print, and they receive an incentive. After 500 paw prints are earned, a schoolwide reward is given. In December, our students received a Rockin' Recess (an extra recess time). Our principal reminded students about this, and let our student body know we are resetting for the new year and trying to earn a brand new incentive. It was great to get the entire student body together
I had a lot of fun planning my lessons for the week. (Links to slides can be found below)
- Kindergarten and Autistic Support - We did a snow storytime. I have adopted a storytime similar to a storytime the public library might offer for preschool/K. I always create the storytime around a theme. Usually I include two books and at least one fingerplay or song. Sometimes I include the flannel board. This week we read Winter is For Snow and Bunny Slopes. We did a snowflake finger play "Five Little Snowflakes" I found some cute images online and printed them out on my printer. Next, I laminated them, and added velcro. I had students take turns adding the snowflakes to my flannel board. We also sang the song Snowflakes, Snowflakes Falling Downs. This was to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
- Grade 1 - Prior to break we started a Jan Brett Unit. Since I only have 30 minutes with my K-2 classes, I decided to skip a story this week and show students how to draw a hedgehog Jan Brett style. I showed them step by step how to draw a hedgehog, using my smartboard and my students followed along. After we finished they colored in their hedgehogs and choose their weekly llibrary books. I plan to hang these up in our hallway.
- Grade 2 - We reviewed book care. I introduced this topic by reading the story "What Happened to Marion's Book". As I read I asked students comprehension questions, and we discussed why some of the choices Marion was making in the book were not wise. Afterwards, we played a short smartboard game where students had to decide if a book care scenario was something they agree with or disagree. I found this on TPT, so I am unable to share those slides.
- Grade 3 - I did not see them this week, due to the day off.
- Grade 4/5 - I did a lesson on Fiction Call Numbers. I spent quite a bit of time introducing this topic, and showing students how our Fiction books are arranged. I found a really great Google Slides activity on TPT to teach this skill. I was able to share an online activity with students where they could fill in answers on a slide by clicking and dragging.
- TAG Grade 3 - I am still getting a grip on TAG (Talented and Gifted), but I think its going pretty good so far. We are doing a unit right now in Grade 3 TAG called Break the Code. We are learning about different types of codes (morse code, semaphore code, Braille, and next week ciphers). This week we learned about the history of communication. We watched a video together and then students were able to choose 2 different types of communication and watch a quick Brainpop video on each.
- TAG Grade 4 - Grade 4 TAG is in the middle of an archeology unit. This week we learned about the National Parks and students were able to complete four separate tasks online. Now that they finished this, we are able to send a form into the National Parks and they will receive a Jr. Park Ranger badge. I can't wait to present them with their badges!
- TAG Grade 5- Grade 5 TAG is in the middle of a Sustainable Solutions unit. This week I introduced them to different forms of energy. They are working in groups of 2-3 students to research a certain energy. Once they finish, their research, they will create a poster and present it to the class. Here is a copy of the page I created for students to write their notes.
First Grade Creating Hedgehog Pictures!
As you can see I had a very full week. In addition to teaching lessons, my big project this week was reorganizing my Nonfiction section. My goal was to add more shelves to my Fiction shelves. Since my shelves are mostly on wheels, its easy to move things around. I was able to add 2 shelving units (front and back) to my Fiction section. To accomplish this I condensed my Nonfiction section a bit.
Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
NJASL Conference and Villy Gandhi Award
I just attended the NJASL (New Jersey School Librarian's Association) conference in Atlantic City, NJ. I have been involved with this organization for many years now and it is always a wonderful time. This year was extra special for me, because I was selected to win the Villy Gandhi Award. The Villy Gandhi award was named after a previous NJASL librarian by the name of Villy Gandhi who was very involved with NJASL as well as AECT. The award is a joint scholarship through both AECT and NJASL and is given to a NJASL librarian who has taken an interest in technology in their career. In order to be considered for this award/scholarship I had to write an essay about myself, include my resume, and submit 3 letters of recommendation from my principal, supervisor and a colleague. Once I was selected for this award, I was able to attend the AECT Conference in Orlando, Florida in October. AECT (Association for Educational Communications and Technology) is a technology organization that focuses on the research behind technology. Although many of the individuals who participate in the conference are from higher education, there is a significant amount of people in the K-12 field. The conference lasted a Sunday-Thursday afternoon and had some of my favorite topics including technology tools, technology trends, and STEM. I was able to meet people from all over the world. I specifically found it so exciting to connect with so many people in different walks of life - all in careers related to technology. This award/scholarship allows me to work as a non-voting board member on NJASL and a board member on the TIL (Technology Integrated Learning) AECT sub-group. It's a great way for winners to dip their toe in the water and see if a future board position is right for them. I was formally recognized at both AECT's conference and NJASL's conference.
As usual, this NJASL conference included exciting sessions on library advocacy, technology trends and tools, literature recommendations, and important topics such as diversity. This year's theme was A World of Stories and included keynotes Ellen Oh, Derrick Barnes, and Vera Ahiyya. Their messages were all inspiring and have encouraged me that we really do need more diverse. books. We do need to do better in this area. Of course, this conference is a time to see friends, many of whom I have not seen since last year's conference. Monday morning I was asked by my friend and colleague, Leslie Blatt to come on stage. Leslie introduced me with such kind and complimentary words. I was so honored and humbled to receive this award. I have always loved literature and technology, so it has been a vital part of my instruction to include both. I hope that my future includes many more years of incorporating library skills, literature, and technology with children.
Saturday, December 2, 2023
Kindergarten Books and Reading Storytime
This week marked my debut in Cherry Hill School District, NJ. I was so happy to welcome Kindergarten to the beautiful media center. The previous librarian's last day was the end of September, and I was held to my contract in my previous district until Thanksgiving Break. Since Library is not a coverage for a prep, students only visited once or twice with their teacher for book checkout only.
My time with them is a quick 30 minutes, so not a lot of time to do a lot. I decided to pattern my kindergarten lessons after many storytimes I have seen at the public library. Fun exciting books, a couple of sing alongs, and fingerplays and of course book checkout.
My first lesson centered around books and reading and welcoming students back to the library. We began with the welcome song The More We Get Together. I changed up the second verse to The More We Read Together. I found this idea online, and thought it was such a cute idea. Our first story was Read It Don't Eat It by Ian Schoenherr. This is such a cute story for both Pre-K and K about how to take care of library books. As I read the story I reinforced with the students what is good book care behavior vs. bad.behavior
After this story we sang another song. Adding a song or fingerplay in between books is a great way to keep kids interested in storytime. We sang If You're a Reader and You Know It. This was sung to the well known song If You're Happy and You Know It. We switched up the Clap Your Hands part to Stomp Your Feet and later on Shout Hooray. The kids had such a good time!
For our last story, we read the story We Are In A Book by the fabulous Mo Willems. They really love the Elephant and Piggie books, and were giggling at all the funny parts.
To end storytime, I added a flannel board piece to storytime. I found a cute activity on Storytime Kate where the students recite the rhyme
Piggie Piggie Where Do You Hide
Are You Behind the _________ book.
Let's Peek Inside
To do this I created 6 different books out of felt, and an elephant and Piggie. I hid Piggie behind one of the books. Children took turns guessing which book Piggie was hidden behind.
After the flannel board game, students were able to each pick out a book and were given bookmarks I made on Canva to color with Elephant and Piggie.
Here is a copy of the bookmark
Here is a copy of my slideshow
Some pictures of my students working on coloring their bookmarks
Sunday, October 2, 2022
Connected Library Consortium
What is the Connected Consortium?
The Connected Consortium is a way to get ebooks for a great price. Any librarian in New Jersey and Pennsylvania is able to join this consortium. The price is based on grade level. Elementary, Middle, and High School/Secondary. Each school pays a cost based on their grade level and student population. My new school has an enrollment of around 450. We paid $500 for the school year. So far we received over 300 titles and about ten of each copy. The ebooks are stored in Mackin's wonderful program MackinVIA, and students and teachers able to access. Your school administrators and technology department can work with Mackin to manage login for students and teachers. Those titles are then shared between my school and anyone else who is part of the consortium.
What is MackinVIA?
MackinVIA is a holding site for all of your digital resources, and so much more. MackinVIA is free! Any school can have an account, and you do not need to be part of an ebook consortium to have MackinVIA. Its very easy to create an account. Just go to mackinvia.com
It's pretty easy to figure out from there. If you need help, your Mackin customer service person will be there to help you. MackinVIA provides many free resources that you can add. If you have any databases you subscribe to these can also be added to your MackinVIA. Here is a slideshow I created to explain MackinVIA.
Can I Add the Ebooks to My Current Catalog?
Yes! Mackin makes this easy by providing the MARC Records any time they add books to the consortium. When students click on the book in Destiny or whatever circulation/catalog system you have, the computer will open up a new window for MackinVIA.
I would love to hear about your state and how you purchase ebooks. Do you have a consortium you are part of? Even if you are not able to be part of an ebook consortium such as this, please consider Mackin for your future library needs.
To receive more information about the Connected Library Consortium, please visit https://connectedlibraryco.wixsite.com/connected/home
* I received no payment through Mackin or anyone who is employed by them. I am just a very happy customer, and hope to pass this information on to anyone who is unaware of their amazing services.
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