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!

Cozy Corners (Centers) Part 3 - The Donald Puppet Theatre

So today I want to tell you about one of our special Cozy Corners.  We had several puppets and just had them on a puppet stand and the kids LOVE them.  Well a dad overheard my Principal say she wished we had a Puppet Theatre.  Little did we know this would turn into the best gift ever.  The dad came in and asked where we wanted it and we showed him and he measured the space.  He did want it to be able to pushed out of the way if we needed that.  Fast forward a month he comes back and says it may not fit where we wanted it.  That's ok we said.  Well the big day came and Oh My Gosh we had no idea what we were getting.

How AMAZING is this

Each side has story settings.

They knew my Principals favorite is Alice in Wonderland and mine is Harry Potter so they are both included.

These side windows are bulletin boards that can be taken out for puppets.

The box on the front as added for more storage and to stabilize the theatre.

We have more puppets than the stand holds so it is perfect.

Red Velvet curtains are being made now for all three windows and for the bottom of the sides to hide your feet.

Inside the theatre the kids see this quote - just amazing!

They made 6 backdrops and three can hang at one time.  

It's splendid!

We were blown away and may have even cried!!

So how jealous are you now?  It is on wheels and can be moved but we love it right where it is.  The kids have decided they like to use the side windows to advertise their show and make "movie posters" that include the cast.  It is a huge hit and we started to have to draw names to see who goes each time.
We can't thank the Simpson family enough for this generous gift to Donald Elementary.

Cozy Corners (Centers Part 2)

As promised this is part 2 of Cozy Corners, last week I said to start small and grow from there.  Some other centers we are using that cost very little.  While digging through old "stuff" in closets and workrooms we came across several of the clear overhead manipulatives that nobody uses anymore. Now if you still use an Overhead projector your kids might not find this very exciting but our younger kids have never seen an Overhead Projector.  We called our warehouse and asked if they had any sitting around, they did and sent us one the next day.  As I said last week we used the book drop cart and turned it into a puzzle table, so that leaves an open space where the cart was.  We put the overhead on a little scooter (it was in bad shape and the PE teacher gave it to us) and slid it in that space.  So the overhead cozy corner is now out of sight unless somebody is using it.  We put all the little manipulatives in a container and they kids project it on the wall and use it.  For fun sometimes we even put paper for them to trace the shapes on.  We have tangrams, counters, money and clocks for them to use.

Introducing the Overhead to Kindergarten

Playing with the Overhead

It projects perfectly onto the wall in front of it.

When not in use we just push it back and out of the way.  Pieces are stored in little drawers.

Felt Board Fun has been a huge hit.  Remember the days when we used it all the time to tell a story, well guess what the kids still love and they don't know much about it.  We found a set of felt characters from The Three Little Pigs and and thought we would use it during a read aloud.  The kids loved it so much off to Michaels and Hobby Lobby we went.  We bough cheap scraps of felt and cut out turkey feathers and turkey parts for our first Felt Board Fun.  Remember that easel we used last week for the big books, well we used the back side and put felt on it and bam we had a new Cozy Corner.

We used a plastic show box and bull clips to hold it on.  The clip on the lip of the box holds it there and they
can put the pieces of felt in the box.

Found these little kits at Michaels for under $5.00

Our Turkey - it was Grandparent luncheon and book fair so Grandpa was helping

I had a corner that wasn't really being used so I bought 6 yards of black felt - I don't sew so even trying to figure out felt was funny.  Stapled it up on the wall and we have a wall to do bigger things.  I even cut and painted all the tiles for Scrabble and the older kids like to play Scrabble.

Winter snowman and our year round tree that shows the seasons

In October we used the Skeleton with the book Bones by Steve Jenkins as a connection

"Do you wanna build a Snowman"  Of course they do.

Scrabble Wall.  

Doodle and Draw was also easy to get started and maintain.  We found a small white board in a closet and pulled it out with some dry erase markers and the kids love to write and draw on it.  If a color sheet can be found that goes with a read aloud story we will copy it and put it out for the younger kids.  I also found some Doodle and Draw books and plain white scratch paper, included some buckets or markers and crayons and there you go.  We put clip boards there so they can move around with their papers.  

White board

Doodle and Draw Cozy Corner

Some kids drawing, you can see the Big Book and Felt easel in the back

Color pages from Teddy Bear Picnic

The last Cozy Corner I want to share with you today is a Bigger than Life Shelving game.  We asked the kids to bring in cracker boxes and cereal boxes and we covered them with paper and made them look like a book.  We have them sort them into the Dewey Classification and then self them in the proper order.  I ended up some empty shelves after weeding so they actually do it on a real shelf.  We are going to have the older kids put them on the real shelf where they go mixed in with the real library books.   No cost at all for this Cozy Corner.

Shelf Me

Now I should tell you that we are a full iPad campus so all of my students have an iPad that they have at home and school everyday.  You will notice none of these Centers have anything to do with technology and we did that on purpose.  We use plenty of technology in projects and lessons.  

Cozy Corners (Centers) Part 1

If  you have a student at Donald then chances are you have heard of Cozy Corners, but what are they?    Basically they are Centers in the Library.  We started with just a few that seemed like the most natural thing.  Reading with Snuggles (stuffed animals,)  Reading books alone to each other and spelling words with letters.

We call our stuffed animals "Snuggles" and the kids love to read to them.

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Here you can see she is just reading to herself using a whisper phone.  Behind her you can see the laundry basket where we keep Big Books and the easel that is used to read them on.

If you shop at craft stores chances are you will find wooden letters  of all sizes and color.  We started collecting them and put them in a basket with ABC books and the kids would spell words from the book.  Now the boys built towers with them, but I'm sure they learned something:-)

The students of course loved this and so did we.  We have the kids for 50 minutes and checking out books and read aloud doesn't take that long so we added Cozy Corners.  As the months went on and we added more and more.  Things like Re-telling a story, Word Work,  Felt Board Fun and Sensory Tubs.  I'll talk about Sensory Tubs in another blog because they have taken on a life of their own.

You will notice in this retelling a story center that the pieces are made out of felt and paper.  We didn't have all the right characters so we just made them.

Several of my teachers use Daily Five so we made some rice bottles and put season words in them for the kids to find and write.  Coloring rice is super easy.  Put rice in a zip lock bag, squirt in some water color pain and mash it around.  When the rice is covered lay it on newspaper to dry.  Super easy

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You can start small then add to it as you get more funds, find bargains at garage sales or just rummage through closets and cabinets at school.

Library friends if you are looking to start centers then I would suggest start with what you have.  We discovered we had a ton of Big Books that teachers didn't use anymore and they were too big for kids to check out.  We set up an easel with a pointer and bam Center #1.  The kids love to act like the teacher and read to other students in the audience.  

Now how many of you have subscriptions to magazines that don't get used much?  Well make it into a center and maybe give the kids "Whisper Phones" and you have a center that was no work at all.   We even through in some special carpet squares to make it special.  

Do you still use the book drop?  I don't anymore so I had the book drop cart that was just taking up space so we turned it into a puzzle table.  It cost nothing and we had no trouble finding puzzles for the kids to put together.  The pieces don't even fall off because of the lip of the cart.  We did put some clear tape around the edge inside so the table wouldn't drop down.  

Start small and watch it grow.  I will talk more next week about more of our Cozy Corners.

Alan November

So I don't like to toot my own horn or say "Hey Hey look at me, look what I'm doing."
I also worry........
-Are the kids learning
-Am I doing enough
-Do the teachers think  the kids are just playing
-Do people think I'm just a babysitter for 50 minutes
-I saw another librarian doing that, I'm not doing that

The list can go on and on.  I was comfortable with the job I was doing when I was at the same school for 15 years and I knew the teachers respected and appreciated me.  Then I made the move to another school and had to start all over.  It was scary and it was a bad time for me in my personal life.  My father's health went down and I spent a lot of time in Mississippi taking care of him and then had to move him to an Assisted living place here.  So to say the least I don't think I was at the top of my game my first year at my new school.  I turned the library program upside down and things seemed to be going well.  The kids liked me, they liked coming to the library so I guess things are ok.

Fast Forward to October 2014 and Alan November came to our district to do some presentation for parents.  Parent U was a big hit and we heard lots of positive things.  He had 2 hours before his presentation and he chose to come to Donald.  Wow what a big deal.  As soon as he got in the building you see the library.  Well it just happened to be the start of our Story book Pumpkins on Parade.  That got his attention right away and he got out his phone and started taking pictures.  Before you know it he is in the library talking to me, taking pictures, and talking to the kids.  Now you would think he would be impressed with the fact that we were talking about Digital Citizenship and maybe he was but he was more impressed with the library, all the stuff we have, the creative play the kids can do and the fact that they were so engaged.

On top of that one of our Associate Superintendent was with Mr. November that day.  After stopping in the library with him she got so involved with what was going on in the library that she didn't even go visit any of the classrooms, she stayed with us.  She then told me that our library might be her new happy place and how impressed with what we were doing, how the library looked, and our Cozy Corners.  

After this day I felt very proud of what I have created at Donald, so for this month I'm not second guessing everything I am doing.  I'm still not going to toot my horn but I'm going to take the compliments and be proud of myself!!