October is the BEST

This time of the year is just my favorite at school.  I'm fortunate enough to have a Principal who allows the kids to do fun things and express their creative side.  I came to Donald 3 years ago and started the Storybook Pumpkin Patch.  Since then it has really grown.  This year we had the most storybook pumpkins ever.  I'm a real stickler when I tell them it has to be a storybook character and not a movie character and they must include the book.  Of course I'm willing to let them use a library book as well.  It is just so fun to see the ideas they come up with, with some help from mom and dad I'm sure.  I even had many kids use plastic pumpkins so we could keep them all year.

To go along with our Storybook theme each grade level had a different requirement for reading for the month of October.  Some required a certain number of books to be read and some required a certain number of minutes, but either way kids were reading up a storm.  On Friday October 30th we had Storybook Dress up day.  What a GREAT way to have a fun dress up day at school.  Many of the students switched classes and read to younger grades and many books and stories were shared.  Don't worry the teachers got into it as much as the kids did.  Can you guess who some of these characters are?

Don't worry we have some exciting things happening in November too.  Lets just start by saying our kids love to learn how to set the table and this Tom Turkey is already the center piece.

Getting into the Groove and READing

It's only the 5th week of school and I finally feel like I'm getting into the groove of things.  Maybe I should say the last 5 weeks have kinda been a blur, but that means we have been busy learning.  One of my favorite things to do is read aloud.  I think it is one of the most valuable things we can do with kids.  How many of you remember being read to as a child by a parent or a teacher?  I sure do and I think I might have even sat still for that.  Oh who am I kidding I never sat still for anything but I still loved it.

Last year I started 12 different novels one for each 3rd-5th grade class.  We only got to read about twice a month but that was ok the kids loved it and begged for it.  It took me all year to finish those novels and I think even the last day of school I was reading to a class walking down the hall.  We finished though and I'm so glad I took the time to do that.  So I was determined to do that again this year and I wanted to pick 12 different novels and get started right away.  I picked the books then let the classes vote on which one they wanted.  Sadly for the last group of kids they kinda got what was left but that was ok because they were all great books.  I thought I would share with you each book and which class is hearing it.  Already even after only 2 weeks the kids are into the books and we have had some great discussions.

I asked the kids if they knew why it was important to have a novel read aloud to them.  I got some great answers from "we need to sit still," "we need to learn to listen," but in truth the more a kid is read to the better writer they will be.  They can easily pick out super sentences that grab their attention and when they sit down to write that should come out in their writing.

So here goes, the 2015-2016 Books.

5th Grade
Mr. Claxton
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

Ms. Gieseker
Flying Solo by Ralph Fletcher

Mrs. Guajardo
Walls Within Walls by Maureen Sherry

Mrs. Johnson
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

4th Grade
Mrs. Krutak
Mick Harte was Here by Barbara Park

Miss. Bohon
The Land of Stories The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

Mrs. Radke
Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Miss Waldroup
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett

3rd Grade
Mrs. Grider
I Was a 3rd Grade Science Project by Mary Jane Auch

Ms. Head
Savvy by Ingrid Law

Miss. Nicholson
Regular Guy by Sarah Weeks

Ms. MacDonald
PICKLE The (Formerly) Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Middle School by Kim Baker

If you are interested in any of these books check them out!!1

Sensory Tubs

I feel pretty sure that some people might walk by our library and think "why are they playing?"  Came across a great article about play, so check it out.

http://www.playengland.org.uk/media/202623/best-play.pdf

The best quote I thought was this.

“Play is freely chosen, personally directed, intrinsically motivated behavior that actively engages the child”. This definition draws closely on the work of Bob Hughes and Frank King. Play can be further described as follows: "Play can be fun or serious. Through play children explore social, material and imaginary worlds and their relationship with them, elaborating all the while a flexible range of responses to the challenges they encounter. By playing, children learn and develop as individuals, and as members of the community".

I never in a million years thought that the 5th grade would love play with sensory tubs.  When we introduce students to sensory tubs we do it by introducing them with the 5 senses.  Of course we start in Kindergarten and move up.

We start with the 5 little senses people and of course the tasting sense is OUT.  We might be talking from experience here:-)  So whatever you do don't use any kind of peanut products in your sensory tubs.  

We also show them exactly how to use one, how they sometimes will drop them and how to clean them up.  We have little sweepers and dust pants hanging all around the library.

 This week we introduced the Apple Pie and the Rainforest sensory tubs.  Rainforest had all the little rainforest animals, sticks, coffee beans to smell like a rain forest.  Apple pie had little pom pom balls, pie pans, oatmeal, rice, apple scent and measuring cups.

Stay tuned for more.

Cozy Corners (Centers) Part 4

Let me start by saying this is very late in being posted.  I started this is February and saved it as a draft and came back to it. Sorry for the delay.

You know when you are working and think everything is going great then you see somebody else doing something different and that makes you want to change everything you are doing?  Well that has happened to me.  I attended TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association) Convention in February and saw many great sessions.  I loved getting to hear from librarians from around Texas and even some from around country.  I also was able to present at the Librarians Academy about our Cozy Corners.

I have been struggling with the new concept of "Makerspaces" and the benefits on them.  Well there were a ton of sessions on them at TCEA and I attended several of them.  Many makerspace activities seemed like "crafts" to me an I just kept wondering what the benefit was.  Well in two words "Design Thinking."  After I heard it put in these terms, thanks Robin, it made much more sense to me.  So how does this apply to the library?  Well let me name the ways.   You have heard of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and probably heard of activities that your children are doing in school.  You may also have heard it called STEAM, the A stands for Art.  There is a big push to make sure that the A is included.  After realizing that art is the "Art of Design" I don't see how the A can't be included.  To build anything there has to be a design and that requires art.  In keeping with this train of thought Makerspaces make sense to me.  I have struggled with when to "open" the makerspace activities because I'm in full rotation and the library never has any open flexible time except on certain Fridays.

Lets say I just put up a pile of cardboard and they said "The Challenge - Build a House" the kids would have no problem doing that.  In a true makerspace I would include all kinds of extras for them to build this house.  Markers, crayons, glue, scissors, papers and maybe even people to put inside the house.  Since this house is cardboard I don't need tools like saws, hammer and nails.

The kids love Lego's and giving them a Lego challenge has been awesome.  How about build a maze for a marble.  They turned out great and the students wanted to keep doing it.

Since the Lego challenge was such a hit we decided to do another one and this time it was building a bridge.

I can't 'wait to have more Design Challenges for the students.  They inspire and amaze me everyday!