Flexible Schedule and Starting Over

So here's to keeping up with my blog (again)!  Next year, I'll be leaving our resource rotation and going to a flexible schedule.  I'm excited, but a little nervous about it.  I had to wait to announce it, so I haven't had too much time to work on teacher buy-in before the end of our school year.  So, I'm compiling a list of questions and ideas on a Google Doc to talk to my administrator as well as keeping all my ideas in one place (and not on various sticky notes that can get lost!).  I have the wonderful help of a Facebook Group - Learning Librarians - which is super helpful!  Out of our four elementary schools in our district, only two of us are going to the flex schedule, so we'll also be planning together.

That leads me to looking through lessons that I've done this past year and either tweaking them to include in my "presentations" to grade levels or in the case of Kindergarten and First, I'll be doing a weekly 30 minute read aloud/activity/check out with them.  We also have a preschool and autism self-contained classes in our building, so I'll be looking at those as well (although not "fixed" they've indicated to me they will want a weekly time slot!).

So, I decided why not review by blogging about it?  This way, I can share my ideas with you as well as "talk aloud" about it because who doesn't talk through their thoughts, right?

So, first up is my first "unit" with Kindergarten:  Introduction to the Library (which includes book care).  Most of these little rascals have never been in a public school setting before and not used to sitting for long periods of time at the beginning of the year (when I say long periods, I'm talking maybe 5 minutes).  We have steps we sit on in a "story room" in my library and yes, they have actually tried to roll down them before!  Yes, the beginning of the year with them (and strangely, also the end of the year), is truly like "herding cats."

So, to keep them engaged, I stick to a pattern I keep up all year.  We have a welcome song we sing when they enter, I introduce what we're doing to them (for the first days of course I introduce myself), we talk about what the library is, read a story, and then go to the tables to do an activity while I call individuals to check out.  My first year in the library, I learned VERY quickly to create name cards because they hardly know their last name, let alone their first!  However, if you call it, they will come!  We check out by "lunch number" (which is their student number) so I have that on their card as well.  This coming year, I will be doing self-checkout and in an attempt to get ahead, created cards during Spring Break which, unfortunately, came late and it was my last week of checkout so we didn't get the practice in I wanted!  But, they're all created and ready for next year (except for new students and incoming Kindergarteners), so it wasn't too much time wasted.  I'm still not sure if this is what I want to introduce to my Kinders, but I might use them so they can at least see them so hopefully by the second semester of first grade, they'll be able to come and check out books on their own!

So, back to the schedule.  We sing our song (I can't remember where I got it from but if you Google library songs, it'll come up I'm sure) which they love (and I do the same song for first grade) that I call "Clap and Sing Hello" (to the tune of "Farmer in the Dell").  It's a good way to settle them down.
I also have a "get ready to read" song but somehow made it too wild over the years so by the last month of school, I "forget" to sing it with them, but it's "If You're Ready for a Story".  Again, Google it but I don't think those are the names, just the first lines.  They love it, though!

So, my first unit:  Introduction to the Library
Week One:  What Is a Library?
Featuring:  Mr. Wiggles Book (sometimes I "edit" as I read depending on their reactions or attention span); and The Library by Julie Murray; Book Care Boo Boos (mentioned below)
*Note:  I sometimes change these books up over the years, depending on what I get in my collection but these are the two I used this past year*
We read the book The Library and discuss what we do at a library, if you've ever been to a public library, how we choose one book at our school library (because we have to share), how we bring books back, etc.
We then read a somewhat shortened version of Mr. Wiggles' Book (because they're starting to get squirmy) and I usually use a stuffed caterpillar (TY has one off of Amazon) to "tell" the story to keep their attention.  I shorten it because (of course) attention span and honestly, sometimes the book is downright depressing! 
We go over our "Book Boo Boos" poster and I talk to them about what will happen next (activity; check out).  They then work together on a sort about treating books "happy" or "sad" (based on the poster), and then color bookmarks to take home.  If we have time, they also cut them.  I created the Book Care Packet several years ago and put it up on TPT if you're interested.

Week Two:  A Perfectly Messed Up Story
Featuring:  A Perfectly Messed Up Story by Patrick McDonnell, vocabulary cards you can find free on TPT
I LOVE this book!  Even at this age, the kids get the humor in it although many want to touch the pages to make sure it's not real.  I always have a few who think I messed up the book as a lesson, but I tell them the author/illustrator made it that way to teach about how the characters feel about their stories being messed up.
As an activity for this one, students play a matching game with the vocabulary cards.  They have pictures on them of different parts of a book and library terms.  I like to use them because even though they're matching the pictures, at least they're being exposed to the words, right?  After, they are able to choose activities off a cart I have that I change over every once in a while that include things like puzzles, Hi Ho Cherry O (they love that), playdoh, Legos, other building blocks, Viewmasters, etc.

Week Three:  The Library Doors
Featuring:  The Library Doors by Toni Buzzeo
By now, it's a review for students and they're guessing the routine - welcome song, introduction, story, activity/check out.
For this lesson, we sing the "Wheels on the Bus" song together.  I then tell them I have a "musical" story for them and it uses the same tune but different words, all about the library!  I read it to them first, then we go back through and sing it together doing kind of an echo reading/singing.  If my voice is up for it, I'll sing it the first time (I do not have the greatest voice, but the kids don't complain!).
After, we head to our seats for our activity and checkout.  I also use the cart again this week, but I do explain to students that sometimes, we'll be doing other activities as well. 

Well, I hope you liked the first three weeks (our first unit) in Kindergarten.  I hope there's something you can use!  I'm off to pick up my son from graduation practice (ugh, how is he a senior and 18???) so next time, hopefully soon, I'll post our friendship unit - the second unit I did with K this past year - which honestly was sorely needed!  My plan is to share by grade levels what we did all year so hopefully by the end of the summer, if not before, I'll have K-5 done with maybe some PreK and Autism thrown in!

Comparing the Past and Present

It's another off week for me, which means a flexible schedule in the library.  These are fun because I get to teach a variety of things, make the teachers happy because I'm reviewing concepts (and it gives them a break!), and makes the kids happy because they still get to check out and do something fun!

This week with my Kindergarten and First Graders, we are looking at past and present.  We're also discovering QR Codes for the first time for some of them as well!  Students have had a lot of fun taking the tablets around and scanning cards to watch videos, see pictures, and see what the past was like!  I also have had a past/present picture sort waiting for them to do at one of the tables (complete with hula hoops that are labeled), as well as a cut/paste activity on comparing the past/present.  Plus, there's also the bonus of getting to check out this week!

For those of you that might be confused, our school has a STEM lab ("Innovation Lab") that meets 3 times during the nine weeks and it's during the library resource time.  So, my first week was kind of a dud with teachers signing up for a flexible schedule.  It was brand new to them and some of the sample lesson plans I sent out were a little ambitious and probably scared them off! (Mali marketplace, anyone?).  So, for the second week, I recruited teachers by making up a digital citizenship lesson a K class missed due to a field trip.....and when the word spread that it was like an extra planning period, well, my K-2 teachers went wild and all signed up!  They were really happy I asked THEM what to teach!  I was doing math patterns with my Kinders, pirate maps with the Firsties, weather with the second graders....you get the idea.  Now that we're on the 3rd week, I've been able to have a "soft opening" with my fourth and fifth graders with our Makerspace (planning to roll it all out after Thanksgiving), teaching past/present with K and 1, weather and economics with 2nd, character traits with 5th...you get the idea!

So I wanted to share my Past/Present packet with you because my kiddos have had so much fun with it this week so far!  Click on the title page to see more!

These are "hunt keys" I created for my kids so they could mark off the cards they scanned and watched

Caps and Patterns

I really wanted to post more than once a month, but that seems to be what my schedule is this year.  My apologies (and I won't even mention my Facebook page!  I told my husband he can take that over as much as he checks his!  Hah!).

Well, Book Fair is over for the Fall and I've had a day to recover!  Onward and forward, right?  This week, I don't get to see my kiddos because they're going to our new STEM Lab called the "Innovation Lab" and working on projects there.  So, 3 weeks out of the nine weeks, it happens, and it happens during Library Resource.  However, our TAG teacher who also runs the Innovation Lab does not need my help.  She does an awesome job with students and I feel like I sit there and babysit.  My first attempt at having a "flexible" schedule those weeks flopped.  No one signed up to come to the library.  Maybe it was the sample lesson plans I sent out?  I admit now, looking at them, they were a bit ambitious (having a "Mali Marketplace" for our 3rd graders, for example), but I was trying to get our teachers excited about using the library, me, the space, the resources.....and nada.  No one signed up.  However, this last time, I was talking to a Kindergarten teacher whose class had missed our Digital Citizenship lesson I co-taught with our ITRT.  We decided to make it up during this coming Innovation Week.

That's when it hit me!  Inviting teachers to sign up and basically hinting at an extra resource/planning time. I handle classes on a daily basis with no extra teacher (just like they do).  Also, my K and 1 teachers were saying how disappointed the kids were that they weren't in library and checking out books (not to mention a few parents complained!).  Bingo!  My K and 1 teachers are awesome and I have 6 out of the 11 (so far) signed up for this coming week and I'm teaching maps (pirate maps!) with first grade and math patterns with Kindergarten.  Both are concepts they've been working on in class, so it's not an introduction but rather an extension with a bonus of checking out books!  Win-win, right?

It also made me feel good that the teachers told me the kids missed coming to library and would be super excited about this coming week!

So, tomorrow starts my first K group so I've been working on what to do with patterns.  I'm using this nonfiction book to review patterns:

Then, I'm going to use the fantastic pictures in these books to have students point out patterns:

Finally, we're going to end with one of my dad's favorite read-alouds (the grandkids love his monkey impression!):


We have other pattern books in the library which are so fantastic - well, they're already checked out!  I immediately thought of Caps for Sale with patterns because a) I remember his caps having to be in a certain order and b) a sequel is coming out and is on preorder!!!  So exciting!

So, I spent this afternoon getting inspired and creative with caps and monkeys and came up with activities to use based on monkeys and caps!  I'm going to set up several stations for students to choose and complete:
a) using pattern blocks to create repeating patterns
b) sorting fall themed erasers and then creating patterns with them
c) color and cut out monkey patterns then gluing them to the vine page
d) create a pattern by coloring caps on a page

The last two can be found in my pack {here} at TPT or {here} at TN.  Stay tuned and I'll post the pirate map activities for the firsties this week!