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!

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.