4th Grade Book Buying Club

This fall I had an open spot in my schedule during our clubs, so I asked if I could start a book buying club for 4th graders.  I had seen the awesome results that Andy Plemmons at Barrow Elementary School in Georgia had gotten by having students help with book buying in the library and I wanted to give it a try.

Students at our school get a list of choices and I ended up with 15 students who wanted to try me out. They were so excited when I told them at our first meeting that they would get a chance to spend $500 of my library budget on books that they chose.  We talked about what types of books to order, how to look up reviews to see if the book was good, and how to budget our money.

After they came up with a list and adjusted and reviewed it, I placed the book order.  Today, they got to meet one final time to unpack the box, set up a display, and choose a book to share on the news with the school to show what we have been doing!  This has been so much fun for me and the students and I can't wait for my second group to start in February!!

3rd Grade Book Tasting

Third graders are getting a taste of some different genres in the library this week and next to encourage them to try something different.  So often I see students check out the same thing over and over, so we are trying something new!

I pulled stacks of easy chapter books for mystery, humor, realistic fiction, biography, fantasy, and action/adventure.  Each table was a different genre.  I created a bookmark menu for them to write the title of the book they "tasted" at each table.  They got a few minutes at each table to choose a book, write the title, and read the first page or so to decide if they liked it or not.

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.

Book Character Parade!

My husband thinks I might have a slight addiction to Pinterest, but I found a wonderful idea by Cathy Knutson at Oak Hills Elementary Media Center that she shared on her blog  http://ohekidstech.blogspot.com/  that I am using on this short 2 day week in my library!  We are reading the book Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade by Melissa Sweet and then creating our own book character balloons with the ipads using the free app Doodle Buddy.  Cathy said she used YouDoodle, but I absolutely love how easy Doodle Buddy is to use.

After reading the book and pausing to talk about all of the wonderful teachable moments (like marionettes are a fancy word for puppets, what are immigrants, and how do ideas grow from something small to something so large) the students gathered at the tables to create their own book character floats. 

Author Visit

We were excited to welcome author J. Scott Savage to Bethel Elementary this week!  Back in May I got an email from his publisher saying he would be on tour this fall and asking if any schools in Greenville, SC would be interested in having him visit for free before his book signing at Barnes and Noble.  I jumped on it because I LOVE free author visits and the blurb about his presentation said he would be talking about creativity and how to come up with a story idea in less than 5 minutes using a hero, goal, obstacles, and consequences.  Our school theme this year is superheroes and it just fit so perfectly!

I am so glad we had him come visit!  He was great with my 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, very fun to listen to!  He shared about what it is like to be an author, showed his new book trailer, and walked the students through creating a fun story!  I went by Barnes and Noble for the signing (in the cold rain!) and saw so many students from school that it was obvious he made a wonderful impression on them!