Catching Up

It's been a different year so far.  To quote one of my newest favorite characters, Iva Honeycutt, not "bad-different, interesting-different."  In my second year in the library, things are falling into place but I still find myself staying late, coming in early, and spending part of my weekends at school.  Granted, I have two kids with me loving to use the high-speed wifi (and sometimes a dog for companionship!), but I just wonder when I'll catch up!

This past week, we had a two-day visit with Candice Ransom, which was AWESOME!  She was able to come two days (Thursday and Friday), so we could work with smaller groups in the library (roughly, two resources classes per day for K-5).  I guess the "bad-different" part was that I was so engaged with her talk and the kids' writings that I completely forgot to take pictures!  I'll instead share some of the display and the two books I've been reading with my 2nd-5th graders in preparation for the visit (all the sticky notes are bookmarks for the different classes - we're still working on the books!).  I have to say, if you've never read Rebel McKenzie, it is now one of my favorite books!  Excellent for older elementary as well as the young adult audience.  Read it and you'll see :)

We've had some great lessons this year, but I still feel behind where I should be.  Have I introduced "Adopt-a-Shelf" yet?  No, and my shelves and the treatment of them shows that!  I JUST got the teachers to agree to send my former library helpers in this past week (we've been in school since August 12) due to the earlier start of the academic day (they only come 1 day/week).  After I "refresh" their training, I'll open up applications for new helpers for 3-5.  I also haven't introduced Virginia Readers Choice to my 4th and 5th.  I know they have until the beginning of April to read the books and vote, but the books are in and waiting on them! :)

What HAVE I done?  I think I did a pretty good job of introducing/reintroducing Dewey Decimal System to 2nd-5th, refreshed 3-5 and retaught 2 how to use our online catalog, Destiny.  We've done an author study in anticipation of Ms. Ransom's visit.  The first week of school we did a refresher on library rules and book care.  Why do I feel like this isn't enough for almost the beginning of October???

Ah well.  I sit looking at my "to-do" list and realize I need to get to the point!  One thing I've been working on today is uploading some of my younger students' lessons/activities.  We have 3 Autism classes and a 4 yr old PreK and a 2-3 yr old PreK.  Not exactly a Dewey audience!  However, I realized I had 6 lessons I had done with them that were pretty fun and successful, covering different skills, that I hadn't shared!  Please feel free to peruse them using the link to TPT (they're also on my TN site as well).  Be SURE to download "Gus, the Dinosaur Bus" since that is a freebie!

If you'd like to know more on what Candice Ransom did with the students (the focus was on writing - wish my teachers had sat in, it was amazing!), please let me know and I'll do a separate post on it!

Winter is A'Comin'.....

Well, it seems to be when it snows the day before Thanksgiving!  Yikes, not in Virginia, people!  We had 70s on Monday...what happened?  A friend of mine posted this perfect graphic:


Well, we're not the beach, but take that off, and it definitely describes the state!

I wanted to let you know some of the activities I've been working on for the kiddos.  We're going to be doing the "Hour of Code" for 2nd-5th this coming week (the next week, they're putting the "Holiday Shop" in the library, so we're doing coding - with the help of the ITRT - a week early).  I have 2 combined Autism classes, a PreK of 4 yr olds and a Special Needs PreK of 2 and 3 yr olds.  I've been in this long enough now I find that creating activities comes much easier than just finding things!

Of course, being a librarian, I pair everything with a book, so don't be surprised to find book recommendations in a lot of my newer packets!  I think books do such a good job of introducing topics.  It's been a habit of mine before, especially with History and Science, and even more now!

I know I've already shared the "Build a Snowman" packet with you.  For my special needs, having these sorts of activities are so important!  Expect to see some each season.  That being said, they need to know how to dress for winter, right?  That, and using some books to introduce winter created this freebie packet:

For my K and 1 students, I'm going to focus on Hibernation this week.  That's where this comes in:

It's not many pages, but I have at least 3 different activities prepared for the animal cards in this packet.  It'll definitely be enough for the kids to show me what they know, but also have some fun as well!  As always, packets are differentiated for different learners.
 
I hope you continue to stay warm.  Tomorrow is another 60 degree day with Tuesday being a high of 39....craziness!!!!

Oh, I've Seen Fire and I've Seen....Snow?

Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best take on the song title....but it seemed catchy! :)

I've really enjoyed making centers/activities for my autism and special needs PreK classes (2 and 3 year olds).  I've also kind of developed a pattern as well.  Since what they need is so different, it's taken me in a new direction.  We have been "dressing" kids for Fall, putting faces on scarecrows, and now we're dressing firefighters!  While my 2 and 3 year olds can't really "count the room," I added this activity on as well since my PreK (4 year olds) and K-1 Autism class really enjoy this activity!  In fact, once my first and Kinders saw them up, they wanted to do it, too!

So, once I saw that Krista Wallace at Creative Clips created a "Build a Snowman" clipart....well, knew I had to get that!  I probably will wait to use this activity in January, but got inspired by her clipart...that and looking through the shelves for Christmas/Winter picture books the students are already requesting!  (Of course, maybe that's because all my turkey books are checked out!).

I love the "Snowmen at Night" series, so I put that to the side and thought that would be a great read aloud for that lesson.  Pair that with "Snowmen All Year", and you have a nice review for seasons for K and 1 students!  Throw in a "Write the Room" and "Count the Room" (which work fantastically for Library centers!), and I've got activities for PreK-1 about snowmen!  (I can also see my 2nd graders wanting to do the "Write the Room" as well!).

So, I've included below the pictures of both activity packs.  Click on them if you'd like to see them up close and in more detail! :)

Pete the Cat and a Beard Had a Scarecrow?

Now, wouldn't that look funny?  However, it's just several activities I wanted to share with you that my PreKinders and Kinders have done in the past months.

We did a Pete the Cat study for Kindergarten.  It was a lot of fun and of course it was "all good."  I love Pete so much!  What a great role model for kids.  I had to get 2 copies of his new book, Pete the Cat and the New Guy, from our book fair to add to our collection! 

Our kinders start the year with a Pete hunt, using the Rocking In My School Shoes book.  It's such a fun way to learn the places around the school, I didn't even touch that book!  However, it gave a nice introduction to Pete that I built on.  Click on the images below to see more of our Pete activities. 

Pete and his sunglasses, we focused on emotions and how each character felt (and how we sometimes feel!).

For Pete and his white shoes, we focused on counting and colors (of course!), with a heavy focus on color sight words.

Pete and his four groovy buttons, we focused on the primary colors, identifying them, and counting buttons.

I also included all these, including future Pete book plans, in a bundle, or you can buy them individually.  I'll continue to add to that bundle, so all you'll have to do is to re-download it when I add something new! :)

Beards and scarecrows - haven't quite gotten to that, have I?  With my special needs Pre-K, it's all about coordination as well as identification of colors.  Work in two perfect books and we have ourselves some winners!  Grab some clothespins and identify colors with Si and dress a scarecrow for Fall!  Click on the pictures for more information.