Week of February 13

This week felt very much like a week of simplicity and joy in the library. We focused on books and reading and laughing--a perfect combo!

Even our recess clubs were back to the basics this week--we played with Legos and K'NEX! We...and I mean WE (I had to get in on this!) had fun building houses and cars and other creations.

Our preschoolers read their first wordless book this week--my favorite one, Chalk by Bill Thomson. 

AK kids listened to Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee. They all wanted to share their experiences with roller coasters and their reactions to this book were so funny!

Kindergarteners listened to Duck, Duck, Moose by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen. We used this to talk about characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end. I created an organizer to retell the story. Kids dragged pictures out of the "magic box" and sorted them out.

First graders listened to two more of the books from the Goldfinch list: The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires and Lion vs Rabbit by Alex Latimer. 

Second and third grade classes both listened to my new favorite book, The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey. It is just so funny, and totally worth the $4 I spent to have it on Kindle so that I could project the pictures for the kids. I read it out loud 8 times and I still laughed at certain parts! I also talked with our Scholastic book fair rep, and she told me that they'll be sending book 2 of The Bad Guys to our fair next week! 

About half of our 4th graders finished up their book trailers! As soon as I get the rest of them, I'm going to find a way to post them all on a page and share them. For their first video project, they are turning out really well!

The next two weeks will be consumed by book fair, so there won't be a regular post, but look for a post with the 4th grade videos, and a new regular post the week before Spring Break--March 11! We're going to start a Dr. Seuss tournament of books, and I can't wait! 

Week of February 6

Our recess clubs this week had fun making short stop motion videos! We used an iPad app called Stomo to create them. It is a pretty simple tool, but doesn't allow some of the features that the Hue Animation Studio software that we have does. Since recess is such a short time, simple was good! And, it's something that kids can do with just a camera and some simple video editing software. Here is what they came up with:

Preschoolers listened to a story called Opposnakes by Salina Yoon. It is a funny book of snakes who have opposites, so we talked about what the word opposite means. Kids had fun guessing what was going to come next!

AK students listened to the story called Leave Me Alone! that kindergarteners listened to a couple of weeks ago. The story is so funny!

Kindergarteners listened to a book called Mitchell Goes Bowling by Hallie Durand. After reading, they worked in a group of 3 to draw the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

First grade listened to two more stories from the Iowa Goldfinch Award list: Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio and Splat the Cat and the Cool School Trip by Rob Scotton. 

    

Second graders listened to the first few chapters of a chapter book: either Back to School, Mallory by Laurie B Friedman, Stink & the Shark Sleepover by Megan Macdonald, or The Chicken Squad by Doreen Cronin. We are also talking about which books fit into which genres, and how sometimes books could go into multiple genres. 

                     

                  

Third graders finished finding facts for their slideshows. They each had a slide about their famous persons childhood, their career, their accomplishments, and some fun facts, as well as a bibliography. 

We had a few fourth graders finish up their book trailers, but had some sound issues that we'll need to correct. They are turned out really well and I can't wait to share the final products!

Week of January 30

Our 3rd & 4th grade recess clubs enjoyed playing with Sphero and Ollie robots this week.

Our preschoolers read a lesser-known Mo Willems book called Cat the Cat, Who is That? I love the Cat the Cat books and they are perfect for preschool age kids! The other books in the series are even better than this one--I need to order them for Prairie Hill!

AK students listened to If You Give a Dog a Donut and If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. They had heard If You Give a Mouse a Cookie before, but not these two. I forget how wacky the books get later in the series. 

  

Kindergarteners listened to one of the new Caldecott honor books, Leave Me Alone by Vera Brosgal. It is a funny story about an old grandma who is trying to find some peace and quiet to do her knitting. She meets up with some funny characters and travels to some strange places. The kids have been focusing on characters & setting, so this book fit right in!

After reading, students used Chatterpix to tell about the woman in the story and all of the places she traveled. 

First graders loved listening to Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett. It is another one of the Iowa Goldfinch Award nominees. After reading, we again drew some pictures using Seesaw.

I'm working on introducing second graders to some chapter book series to get them hooked on, while also talking about genres and how books fit into different genres. This week, we read Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo. Every Mercy book quickly got checked out! 

Third graders learned about copyright, plagairism, and writing citations. We watched this video and then talked about how copyright protects anyone's original work. We used examples in music and movies and artwork, and how students would feel if someone took their work and used it without asking or giving credit. At the end, they wrote a citation for the book they'd been using for their biography research. In 3rd grade, we only require the title, author, and date of publication.

Fourth graders have begun recording their audio for their book trailer! We're almost there!