Week of October 1

This week started out with the kids getting Monday off and teachers having a day of learning. I spent my morning learning and discussing social emotional learning. It was a great meeting to learn more about addressing the needs of our students to help them learn best. We know that kids don't really succeed academically if their social and emotional needs aren't met, as well.

Tuesday afternoon, the librarian team went to Grant Wood AEA for a Future Ready Librarian training. We talked about what it looks like to be a leader in school as a school librarian.

Back at school, the preschoolers came to the library for the first time this year! They listened to a book about colors called Little Green Peas by Keith Baker. They also got to pick out a book to check out! I love seeing how much these littlest learners grow throughout the course of a year.

Kindergartners listened to two more ABC books this week: Oops, Pounce, Quick, Run by Mike Twohy and B is for Bear by Hannah Viano. Next week we will start brainstorming ideas for writing our own ABC book and start the writing and publishing process.

First graders listened to the story called We're All Wonders by RJ Palacio. This picture book is based on the book and movie Wonder. Many of the kids were familiar with the story already and knew that the big idea of the story is to choose kind. My goal was for the students to give each other compliments, and I found this wonderful (no pun intended) resource that has papers designed for kids to write compliments to one another. We started out by writing our names and starting to color it this week. Next week, we'll start writing the compliments. 

Second graders started learning about fables and folktales. In library, we focused on the fable "The Mouse at the Seashore" from Arnold Lobel's book of fables. It's a fable about a mouse who desperately wants to see the ocean, and despite his parents telling him that it's unsafe, he goes anyway. He faces many troubles but finally arrives at the ocean and realizes that the miles of trouble were worth it to achieve his goal. We summarized the story, talked about the feelings of the mouse throughout, and tried to determine the moral.

Third graders started Global Read Aloud by reading the first 4 chapters of A Boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold. They will start connecting with Mrs. Stroud's students in Illinois next week during computer lab. 

Fourth graders practiced using their Lexile measures to find good fit books. We talked about how finding good fit books can help us be better readers by giving enough of a challenge without being too difficult. We also have started watching book trailers to promote new books. This week we watched several book trailers for Mary Downing Hahn books, as she's a great mystery and ghost story author.