Memoirs of an Elf

It was the week before Christmas and all in the school, hardly a teacher was keeping their cool...

So in the library this week we have been having some fun with the book Memoirs of an Elf by Devin Scillian.  I found that Epic!  had the book available on their awesome website, so I have been sharing it on the Promethean board so the kids can see the wonderful pictures up close.

After we read the book, we have been having more fun by taking our own "elfies" with the app X-mas Selfie which is free on the app store.  Kindergarten and 1st grade thought it was so much fun!

National Computer Science Week!

My kindergarten and first graders are excited to be celebrating National Computer Science Week this week!  We are reading Doug Unplugged by Dan Yaccarino, another of the SC Picture Book Award Nominees this year.  Doug is a robot who is learning new things, which leads us into talking about how computers and robots work and are programmed.

After reading our book, the students are getting a taste of computer programming through the code.org website. We don't have time to do a whole hour of code, but the students are really enjoying getting a taste of it and then I am sending home the website so they can impress their parents with their coding skills.

Wordless Books

This week in the library I have been sharing a new favorite of mine - Journey by Aaron Becker with my kindergarten and first grade students.

I fell in love with this book last year when we were considering it for the SC Picture Book Award nominees for this year.  I have to admit that I hadn't ever used a wordless book for a read aloud in the library although I had teachers at a previous school I worked at who loved using them.  My daughter is a student member of the Book Award Committee and as we were reading all 200 of the nominees for the list, this was the book we had to read at least 20 times.

The wonderful thing about wordless books is that every time you read it you add different details and use different words to describe what is happening in the pictures.  I would read it to my daughter and she would read it back to me in her words.

My kindergarten and first grade students are loving this book.  They think it is hilarious when I ask them what is different about the book and show them a few pages until they realize it has no words.  I like to then close the book and say "well, how are we supposed to read it if it has no words?!?" and we talk about how the illustrations tell the story and we can describe (be the author) and use our own words!

I also absolutely love the story told in the book.  It is all about imagination and what you can do with just a piece of chalk.  The students are on the edge of their seats as the action in the book unfolds and they clap and cheer at the ending.