This was one of those weeks that just flew by!  Packed with meetings and busy times with my students.  Our Makerspace has been a huge hit with all of my students.  It's amazing how just adding some basic building tools has improved classroom management and revived the excitement in the space.  My 5th graders were so thrilled to have the lego wall back in the media center.  They haven't had a chance to use it since first grade (due to Covid). I love seeing how students are working together to create designs and socializing.  This week with my littles, I also added a coloring sheet station.  I hope to add more art pieces to that station in the future.

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.

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.