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!  

Read the Most From Coast to Coast and Read Across America Week

You'd think after a week of snow days, I'd be more prepared, but nope, here I am at school again on a Sunday trying to get things done!  Well, some of that includes copying and getting things ready for this Friday and next week, so I guess I have some excuse!

Nevertheless, this Friday, we are participating in Renaissance Learning's "Read the Most from Coast to Coast."  You can find out more on their website {here}.  That will be our kickoff for Read Across America week.  We're extending it a week because frankly, I want it to go back to the way it was when we did it several years ago when it was BIG.  Being the library media specialist and part of the correlate that is putting on the whole show, I find myself mostly in charge! :)  One of our committee members brought up a good point that while Dr. Seuss is fun for the younger crowd, the fourth and fifth graders see the whole thing as babyish, so we're doing "Read Across America" week instead of "Dr. Seuss Week."  Still, we're dressing up as favorite characters and other things during the week, having quotes announced each morning from authors, and highlighting different genres.  One of our members also made a "choice board" so teachers could fit what they could into the curriculum.  After a week of missed school, it should be well appreciated!

While I'm still getting together my centers, lessons, etc for the library, I do have something I wanted to share with you!  With the "Read the Most" with "Across America," I thought it would be cute to do an interactive poster/board.  While not an original idea (I saw something on Pinterest), I thought it would go well with a reading challenge to our teachers based on the # of pages read during class.  We're throwing in math and graphing to the mix and providing teachers with different templates to use (younger grades can use the hundreds chart while older grades can create bar graphs or line graphs).  We're lucky enough to have a poster maker in our school, so I'll be taking "orders" this week to what type of graphs each teacher wants!

I'm also going to make a poster of the USA with cute cars that count for each 100 pages read.  I googled and found that from VA Beach, VA to San Jose, CA is almost 3,000 miles (2,990 to be exact), so hence the 3,000 goal.  I'm hoping we'll exceed that!  So, please click on the link {here} to access this file on Google Drive.  I won't be uploading it to my store at this point and wanted to offer it as a freebie to my readers!

So, between Virginia Readers Choice and other reading challenges, I hope to be posting and sharing more soon! (The Iditarod is coming up and I am so psyched to do something in the library about it!!!).

Discover the Room: A Black History Month Activity

First of all, I am a complete sucker for anything Educlips produces.  I'm surprised I don't have her whole collection!  She is an amazing clip artist (?) and comes up with some of the neatest ideas!  So, when I saw her items for Black History Month, I decided I need to buy them and come up with something!

Being in the library, it's nice that I can kind of pick and choose my lessons.  (Notice the "kind of" in there!).  For the month of February, I am focusing 4th and 5th grade on African-American history and so far, they have really enjoyed it!  This past week, we focused on segregation and read about the Greensboro Sit Ins (4th) and desegregation of schools (5th).  Here are some excellent books I used from our library:


So, tie that in with the clip art I purchased, and I came up with a "Discover the Room" activity.  I use Write the Room/Count the Room with my Kinders-Second Graders.  This was a nice "older" version I plan to use first with my 4th and 5th graders, but might also invite second and third to use as well (we're finishing up Virginia Readers Choice, so we'll be doing some of the Black History Month in about another week).

In the packet, besides the cards, I added a recording sheet as well as bookmarks where students write down 3 facts about a chosen person from the cards.  I thought that might be a fun culmination to our studies at the end of the month!    If you'd like to see more, click on the pictures above to take you to TPT or {here} for Teacher's Notebook.

Currently, Library Helpers, and Thoughts of Snow....

First up - Currently!  I haven't taken the time to do this the last couple of months so while my daughter's at OM (and I have high speed Internet!) I figured it was time for me to get back into the swing of things!

Meet Thor:  we got him as a companion for our beagle.  Seriously.  Our other beagle passed away last winter and poor Molly's been so lonely.  So, we took her to our local animal control after seeing this handsome fella on their Facebook page and they tolerated each other nicely.  Granted, sometimes Thor gets a little too nosy and Molly gives a growl as a warning.  Funny thing - this dog that our beagle can walk UNDER will listen to her and back off good naturedly. :)  He is such a gentle giant and has captured our hearts, especially my son's!

As for the big snow - don't hate me - but we've been losing out here in central VA!  Our ONE snow day this year was for maybe 2 inches that was gone by the next day.  Everywhere north has been getting slammed....please send some our way!  One good snow before the end of winter (preferably before March!).

Ruler of Books - hah hah, so obvious with my position this year!  I've been getting good feedback from teachers and students about library, which makes me happy :)  So far, no one dreads coming!  I started the year with so many ideas in my head that I finally had to tell myself that some would have to wait until the summer or next year to implement!  One that I don't need to wait any longer on is my library helpers.  I've opened it up to 4th and 5th grade (with 3rd coming in as soon as I feel my older kids are comfortable with their role) and it's been a great success!  Granted, they LOVE checking books in and out on the computer, but I have them also helping shelve books, straighten up the library, and do other clerical tasks that take so much time out of our day!  I haven't had a huge gap of time open up, mind you, but it's been nice to have help!  It's just me and a few parent volunteers during the week so it's nice to have the kids help.  Plus, it gives them a sense of pride and responsibility!

So after looking at samples online of what different libraries have used, I finally came up with my own form and, after much thought, a daily checklist.  I have my library helpers from 7:50-8:30 each day (my first group is special needs at 8:45).  The students help one day during the week (although some want to help more!).  The application and checklist is a freebie I've uploaded to my stores.  You can click {here} to take you to TpT or {here} for Teacher's Notebook.  I hope you can find use for it! :)

Virginia Readers Choice Isn't Necessarily Limited to Virginia!

So Virginia Reader's Choice - if you teach in Virginia, you may have heard of it.  Each year, the VSRA selects 10 books per category (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12) and students read and get to vote on their favorite.  It's a fun activity for students who love rooting for their favorite book!

This year is the first year I'll be promoting this as a Library Media Specialist.  Already, some of my fifth grade girls have read through most of the books (I put them out in the Fall), but I waited to introduce it until January.  Too many things going on this Fall, and I wanted to wait until after my professional conference.

There are LOTS of ideas out there for each book, but what I created was a packet with ballots, a Bingo type game, a "Memory Book" for my younger students (because you can't remember 10 books after reading #10!), as well as creating an Animoto video for the Primary level and finding book trailers for the 3-5 crowd!

I compiled it in a pack and shared with the other LMS in my district, but wanted to share it with you as well!  Click on the picture to take you to TPT.  If you are a TN user, it will be uploaded there soon!  Right now, I need to get off the computer and help my son celebrate his 14th birthday (as soon as he finishes this level of "Halo Reach").  Happy New Year to each of you and even if you're not a Virginia educator, these are some pretty cool books!  I hope to have book activities out there soon as well and add to the pack!  Check out the VSRA website for more details:  https://www.vsra.org/virginia-readers-choice/