Diving Into Some Books!

So, I'm all set up and ready to go for our school's very first Buy One, Get One Scholastic Book Fair!  Since I have my first one from the Fall under my belt, I feel a lot more confident with this one!  Our past week of practicing matching the money amounts went so great!  My K and 1 students were more or less matching numbers, while my older ones were having fun running around the library on a scavenger hunt to find those same numbers to match up!  All in all, it was a success on all levels, and as I told my older ones (when I got the "do we have to do it?" comments), it was good practice for the coming week.  As soon as they started it, they had a lot of fun and I got a lot of "awws"  when I told them they had to stop for checkout. (You can see my earlier post about the "matching" game).

So, after my things were delivered on Tuesday, and I felt I had the utmost strength in NOT going through every box like it was Christmas, I had the idea to set up on Thursday afternoon to do a preview day on Friday.  The flyers that are sent home for the BOGO fair are small and not very detailed, and this way I figured the students could see what was here to buy.  After getting the blessing of my resource team, our Preview Day went really well (and I might do it for the Fall fair from now on) as each class got a "walking preview" of the Fair ("looking with our eyes, not our hands") either at the beginning of Resource or the end of their Resource time.  It also helped build excitement for the Fair with the kids.  My students, after their walk thru, were in our Story Room where we did our lesson on "fractured fairy tales" (Mo Willems style) to keep them engaged.

I wanted to do a theme this time and decided on "Diving Into Reading", where students created different sea creature crafts.  Fortunately for me, our Spring Break was at the perfect time so I could come in and decorate.  This past week, the kids really had some positive comments about how the library was decorated with their artwork!  I'm glad they got to see it before the cases and things were put up.

So, today, the Fair officially starts and I have a feeling I'll have kids outside the door for "Open Library Time" with eyes wide and money in hand!  Good thing I have my library helpers this time around (and I will definitely start that program earlier next year!).  My helpers (4th and 5th graders) are helping with little ones finding books as well as working "security" to make sure nothing gets pocketed without getting paid for!  They are most excited!

I also created gift certificates with an ocean theme for those of our students (nominated by staff) who might not have money to come to the fair and purchase a book.  These are ready to go and in envelopes in the teachers' mailboxes!

So of course I took pictures of the grand display today (before little hands start scavenging thru!) that I thought I'd share!  My fingers are crossed that this fair will go smoothly and each child will end up with at least one book to take home!

Buy One Get One: Preparing Students for Book Fair!

So our school is hosting our first Buy One, Get One Scholastic Book Fair.  Being that this is my second book fair of the year, AND my second one as a Library Media Specialist, I wanted to make sure my students were prepared to understand what this means!

I, at first, thought it would be a difficult concept for my little ones.  I wanted to create an activity that would help them understand the whole concept. Then, after putting up the posters around the school the week before Spring Break, with even my fifth graders asking what buy one/get one was (and when I told them, they were like COOL!), I realized it's an activity for each of my grades!

So, today I created this activity which is a "Around the Room/Library" type activity since the kids think ANY write the room/count the room/scavenger hunt is WAY COOL.  We haven't done one since February with African American History Month, so they're ready for a new one!  (I really need to create some more, like for Women's History Month, etc.  Summer to do list!).

I had racked my brain for different activities, not sure what I wanted to do, and then realized once I started creating, I actually had 4 activities in one!  Check it out!

Students need to match amounts, just like they would do with books at the book fair.  I'll be reading selections to do with money and responsibility this week, from Alexander Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday to The Go-Around Dollar to The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Money.  I try to read selections available in our library for students to check out, or I might have borrowed my family's Dave Ramsey Junior children's series! :)

 

Thinking I had Spring Break to come up with a "cool" activity for my kids, I spent the week before Spring Break with an Ocean Theme, having the kids create different crafts and learning about different species.  After all, it's my second book fair and I wanted to theme it somehow!  After Monday, I realized that I need to plan better and talk with the Art Teacher about having them do crafts in HER room that week, because lesson/book + craft + checkout did NOT equal enough time!

But, we got through it.  It gave me an excuse to get on Pinterest and get creative.  Plus, the kids LOVED learning about the different animals.  Now, I have a huge stack of sea creatures waiting to decorate the library!

So I wouldn't overload on one animal (we do have 744 students!), I split some of the grades up on their animals.

PreK/Special Needs:  Read Rainbow Fish and decorate a fish with foam stickers.  My older Autism class read about lobsters and created those (thanks to the 3 assistants who travel with them!).

Kindergarten:  Jellyfish and Sea Stars.

First Grade:  Crabs and Divers (because someone needs to explore the ocean depths!)

Second Grade:  Sea Turtles and Stingrays

Third Grade:  Octopus and Sea Horses/Dragons (I originally was going to do the swirly paint with them, then after trying to do a sample the weekend before realized a) too messy and b) took forever to dry!  They just colored templates I found and had a great time doing it!  Not too much opportunity to color in third, so they enjoyed it!).

Fourth Grade:  Sharks - they created "shark jaws" and of course, had to decorate and have "bloody teeth" and "gums" and some even had a fish caught in the teeth!

Fifth Grade:  Jellyfish - but we did recycled jellyfish, so a  little different than the K classes.

I hope to a) be better at posting (sorry, March!) and b) post pictures of the finished decorated bookfair.  I was supposed to use this week for Spring Break to start decorating and, well, between dr appointments, family trips, and one lazy day....oh, and getting caught up in reorganizing my nonfiction section (neverending task), it didn't quite get done!  

Snow, St. Pats, and a FREEBIE

Oh my.  I'm at school and check out the weather outside!

So, this post will be brief!

I wanted to share with you some of the preparations we've made for St. Pat's Day tomorrow...or whenever we come back!

First, I updated my St. Pat's Scavenger Hunt!  My kiddos will come in the morning and see a clue at the back of our book we'll read first thing, which will lead them on a hunt for clues and solving math problems!

This past week, we wrote about what we'd do if we found a pot of gold.  We did A Cupcake for the Teacher's cute craftivity!

It inspired me to make one of my own!  I've always wanted to do one, but honestly, what is in my mind never seems to come out right on paper.  However, this one turned out pretty well!

In celebration of it being my first attempt at a craftivity (don't you love that word?) I declared it a FREEBIE!  Click on the picture to take you to TpT to download it (it's also available at Teacher's Notebook as well).

Can't believe it's snowing in mid-March...booo!  Better head off home before I'm stuck at school!  Yikes! :)

Snowed In and Missing Penguins (and maybe a few freebies)

Okay, so we did get the big snow storm and it knocked the power clean out of central VA!  Well, maybe not ALL, but enough that most of our schools STILL do not have power from Tuesday, and so we've been given basically a 5 day weekend.  Once again, I'm grateful for putting in that generator we did several years ago - especially to entertain the kiddos and for those cold nights!  I do NOT miss sleeping on air mattresses in front of our tiny fireplace, huddling together for warmth!

Part of me cheers about this missed time.  Time to do things, at home and for school!  The other part of me groans - my kids have a tough enough time coming back after a 3 day weekend -- what will Monday be like???

So, I've headed off to a friend's school, which is one of the few to have power, to access the network, Internet, and get a few things done.

After grading papers and writing prompts (as well as rearranging my lesson plan book to make up for 3 lost days!), I started on my sticky note pile.

Do you have one of these?  I love sticky notes and any time I get an idea, I jot it down and either stick it in or on top of my plan book (depending on the urgency).  So, I've been working my way through that today (while visions of a fraction unit dance in my head!).

Part of that list was to finally polish up the Polar Unit I've blogged so much about.  Easy peasy, right?  Oh no.  First, I thought somehow my Google Earth tour had malfunctioned - as in, erased all its little stops, videos, pics, etc.  FINALLY found the RIGHT version stuck in my science folder.  Whew!  So, finished "cleaning" and thought about powerpoints - in particular, the Antarctica one where the penguins frolicked and I had some pretty cool pics of a leopard seal.  GONE.  Did a file search.  My only saving grace is if its at home on my personal laptop. (fingers crossed!).  I had 17....17!!!.....different types of penguins with pics and names listed, and I remember just how long it took me to get it done!  ARGH!

Okay, so anyway, had to vent about my lost penguins since between that and the KMZ file fiasco, I gave up a good hour. :(

So on to what I DID accomplish so far....figure if you've held on this long to reading my post, I would throw in a couple freebies.

The first one uses time dice I purchased from teachersnotebook.com.  EXCELLENT buy.  
 
You gotta love those, right?  Only thing was, after using it in group, my kids REALLY wanted them for a center (and hey, when the kiddos want a center we've done in group, I'm happy to oblige, knowing they'll play it without distractions!).  So I created an activity sheet to go along with it.  Funny as it sounds, there's 2 versions:  one with colons, one without.  I have the collaborative class this year, and as such, I do a lot of leveling with my centers.  Some of mine are doing excellent with time and don't need those silly ol' colons.  Others, well, it helps them remember that there's an hour side and a minute side.

The next sticky note I tackled was for having something for time/money for the kiddos to put in their math journal.  I have not religiously stuck to it this year, but have been trying to put in things that will help them for 3rd grade and for summer remediation.  So, hence, came up with a time review sheet and two money activities:  they have to list how many of each coin make $1.00, and the second sheet they have to come up with 4 different ways to make $1.00.  We did posters of this in class, but I thought it would be nice for them to have it to reference in their journal.

I actually do have my students reference the journal during the year, especially during review times.  I keep them in a container underneath my table so there's no "I lost mine" in the black holes of some of their desks, but they can always borrow and return them!

To access these freebies, click on the pics and head over to Google Drive to download!