Library Without the Library, Part Two

Okay, so you know that old saying about the best laid plans...?

Getting hand, foot and mouth disease (ew) was not in my Planner!  How did that happen?  So the last week and most of this week has been taken up with a hodgepodge of substitute plans and half days and basically phoning it in.  Not how I like to wrap up the school year.

So, I guess you call this post Library Without the Library AND the Librarian!

Here's how I dealt with the dealt...cards I was...and not in any particular order.

Pale Male:  Citizen Hawk of New York

My firsties were working hard on their animal research projects, so I called in the book Pale Male:  Citizen Hawk of New York by Janet Shulman and illustrated by Meilo So for my substitute and then had her show them the Pale Male website.  Of course I didn't realize that the You Tube clips would be blocked at school so I guess you could call it a Pale Male Fail.  OH!  That's a good one.

For one of my other classes I took the sage advice of one of my Tweeps, @ontheshelf4kids , aka Ellen, who suggested that I have my substitute read any one of Willems' pigeon books and then use this handy cheat sheet to have them draw the pigeon.  Thank you, Ellen!  I can't wait to see how they came out.

And finally my second graders practiced their skills of estimation by using 600 Black Spots, a pop-up book by David A. Carter.  I cannot take credit for this excellent connection to the math curriculum.  That goes to one of my wonderful colleagues in my county.  You slowly open the book to each page and ask the students to estimate how black spots are on each page.

I also had my substitute just read some Really Good Books to my kids and, I must admit, I cancelled a couple of classes as well.  With state testing in the library, library in the classrooms and the librarian at home, we're just going to chalk this week up to experience!

Library in the Classroom - Week One

Here Come the Girl Scouts! by Shana Corey Illustrated by Hadley Hooper

This week begins the challenge of Library without the Library.  Our state testing has taken over THE WORLD {ehem}, so I get out to the classrooms for a change of scenery.  {<---positive spin}.


In Kindergarten, we will continue to collaborate on telling time to the hour.  Last week I did a pre-test of sorts by showing the students 8:00 am and 10:00 pm on a clock and asking them to write down the time.  Then they had to draw a picture of what they would be doing at each of those times.   We'll repeat the pre-test as a post-test after we've read a few new books in the Library that focus on time.


We are so fortunate to have author Monica Brown visiting our school in June.  I always seem to run out of time when preparing for these visits, so I'd better get cracking.  First grade and Multiage (1/2) will visit Monica Brown's website with me.  Before we do so, we'll write down things we'd like to know about Ms. Brown and then see if her website answers any of our questions.


I have been waiting several weeks to share Shana Corey's Here Come the Girl Scouts with my second graders.  I took some of Juliette Gordon Low's quotes from the books and put them onto strips of paper.  After handing them out to the students, I will ask them who they think said these quotes.  I am dying to hear their ideas.  After the big reveal, I will read Corey's book to them.


Third grade will most likely be sapped from taking their first SOL ever, so I'm sure a nice rousing game of Book-Tionary will fit the bill quite nicely.  Here will be my first five illustrations:  Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (warm up), The Name of this Book is Secret (don't ask me how I'll draw THAT!), Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and Scaredy Squirrel.  I'd better get practicing.


Fourth grade has come right off their spectacular Voki project (I'm a little behind in posting the finished products, eh hem) so I wanted them to get a look at an ebook called The Artifacts.  Truth be told, I know nothing about it but Ms. Reid wrote up such an intriguing post about it, that I have to investigate further. Thanks again, Ms. Reid, for another great lesson plan!


I'm not sure I will get a chance to see my fifth graders this week due to state testing.  : (


What do you do when there's library without the library?


Have a great week!

In the Classroom: Book-tionary

This is the time of year where planning for my library classes becomes a little bit of a sticky wicket.

With our state Standards of Learning (SOLs) testing (three weeks!), field trips, field day, a visiting author, school-wide assemblies, (you get the idea) our schedule is an ever-changing serendipitous discovery of...We Can't Come To Library!

You'd think this would make planning easier, but it does not.  You'd think I could say, "Hey, I'll just plan the rest of the year out, and if they don't show, my lesson is planned for the next week."  But I don't like library like that (most of the time).  I like to time my lessons with the seasons or what's going on in the classroom, or how close we are to hosting our visiting author or prepping my students for the visit from our public librarians.  If I'm going to the classroom (SOLs are given and taken in the Library - did I mention, three weeks!) I need to plan for a full half hour. I actually like this opportunity to spend a little extra time with my students without the pressure of fitting in book checkout (I do have longer chunks of time with my students but it feels different when I'm in the classroom without an "agenda").

Here is one activity that my students LOVE.  In fact, they might love it a little too much.  I call it  "Book-Tionary".  Creative, eh? : ) 

I use the whiteboard/dry erase board in the classroom and begin to draw a character or scene from a book.  The students have to guess the book I am drawing.  I usually begin with the pigeon from Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.  Once they catch on, it's mayhem.  My one rule is that they cannot call out - so when I look out over my little guys I see about 25 students turning red just trying not to blurt out the answer while their little arms are waving around like crazy. 

Allow for plenty of hang time to differentiate.  I also tell them that I probably will NOT call on the FIRST person who raises their hand.  Helps to take the pressure of those who need a little more time to think.  Come ready with a list of books (it's harder than you think to think on the fly).  With older students, I let them write down the title of a book they'd like me to draw; they love it when their book comes up and they get a good chuckle (okay, hearty laugh) at my artistic ability.

What do you do when you're blessed with a little extra time with your students?

It's the End of the Year As We Know It!

We're back from Spring Break and it is totally incredible how little time we have left before the end of the school year.  Well, yes, some days will seem long, but the time 'til the end of the year will seem to fly by, especially with almost three weeks of Standards of Learning (state) testing.

It's been a busy week; I cannot believe it was only a four-day one!!

After much gnashing of teeth and a little help from my Twitter friends, I created a Virginia version of "Over in the Meadow" and "Down East in the Ocean:  A Maine Counting Book" using the wild animal suggestions from my kindergarten students.  I'm thinking of spiffing it up and actually submitting it to an agent for review.  Of course it would be dedicated to my Kinders!  But ah, I'm getting ahead of myself! 

: )

With my first and second graders, I used the book "A Sock is a Pocket for Your Toes:  A Pocket Book".  Then we created our own pocket poems.  My students ROCKED it!!!  Some of the poems made me laugh, some made me say "Awwwww!", and one darn near made me cry!!  The format was simply:

A ________________________  is a pocket for your _____________________.

Try it with your primaries!  

Fourth grade continued with their Voki projects and thanks to @sducharme , the process went like a dream.  Here is one example of their Voki-ness:

MVP**
Voki by B.P.

So many other things went on in the Library this week, I've just about lost count.  Not to mention a County-wide librarians meeting and a staff meeting!  How was your week!?


Until next time,


Amy

Hey Diddle, Diddle - SmartBoard Poetry Activity

For several weeks I have been concentrating on nursery rhymes with my students with autism class.

I love this visually friendly version of Mother Goose
by Tomie DePaola

I decided it was time to get silly and create our own version of Hey Diddle, Diddle.

I created this SmartExchange resource where students can drop and drag images to make their own retold nursery rhyme!

Hope you find it useful!

Saturday Soup - CHOMP by Carl Hiaasen

Title:  Chomp

Year Published:  Available March 2012

Author:  Carl Hiaasen
You May Know Him: As the author of the very popular MG/YA series Hoot, Scat and Flush and author of many adult novels as well.
You May Find Him: At his website.

Review You May Not Have Seen:  Time for Kids review by Jack Wetzel

The Delta/Plus
I have a confession to make.  I abandoned Hoot.  Yes, I just could not get through this Newbery Honor Book.  Yet for some reason I picked up Scat (okay, that doesn't sound very good) and I loved it.  So I was curious when I received my ARC of Chomp.  Would I abandon it or would I love it?  And what was so different between Hoot and Scat that I could read through one but not the other?  And how do you get a job without experience, if you need experience to get a job?  But I digress...

Chomp is a hilarious addition to Hiaasen's other ecology-adventures Scat, Hoot and Flush.  This time we follow Wahoo and his animal-wrangling father Mickey Cray on their latest hire as animal handlers to the stars.  Unfortunately the job entails following the high-jinx of an adventure host in a sort of a ripped-from-the-Discovery-channel-esque spoof:  the intrepid explorer is "lost", this time in the Florida Everglades, along with an entire camera crew and catering caravan.  We are also introduced to Tuna, a girl who is searching to be rescued from a real-life drama involving an abusive father.

I loved Chomp and will recommend it to my fourth and fifth graders.  I'll tell them to be a bit patient with the sections that seem to get a little stuck in muck like the Everglades where this story takes place, but to definitely add another Hiaasen winner "To Be Read" list.

This book gets four out of five dog ears from me!


15 Second Sell in the Stacks
(This is when I'm in the stacks, a student shows me a book and says, "Have you read this, Ms. B.?"  I have about 15 seconds to "sell" it.)

"Ohmygosh.  Have you read {insert Hoot, Scat, or Flush}?  You'll totally love this one.  This kid and his dad are in charge of making sure this fool television star doesn't get eaten alive by some creature in the Florida Everglades.  Totally hilarious.  Get readin'!"

Thank you to my local independent bookstore One More Page Books for hooking me up with this ARC.

How to Cite a Book

A few days ago one of my fourth grade teachers asked me to teach a lesson on how to cite a book.

I have done this lesson before, but I decided to use the SmartBoard this time, and since I would be teaching the lesson close to Valentine's Day, I couldn't resist using a few hearts in my presentation.

It's not the fanciest lesson - I need to work on my "cuteness" factor, but I'm linking to the Notebook file in case you find it useful.

Students will be bringing a book that they are using for an upcoming report, and after I model creating a citation on the last page, they will try creating their own citation using their own book.

I welcome any suggestions, for course!

Happy Valentine's Day!