Centers in the Library

Beginning in April with poetry month the 1st and 2nd grades have had an opportunity to try out working in library centers.  Library Centers were such a great hit that I am continuing them until the end of the school year.

What are Library Centers anyway?

Library Centers means kids are doing, making, moving and making their own choices. 

Library Centers are activities that students can choose to do that help them work on a variety of literacy skills including writing, building words and sentences with letter tiles, reading and information seeking and research skills.  The best part of Library Centers is that students are able to select an activity that they want to do and they are fully engaged in working.

I have been delighted with the outcome of our library centers. I enjoy reading the poems students write or create with book spine labels. I love seeing the fantastic facts they find in our databases that they want to share with other students.

Next year I hope to have centers for 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades and to add new centers throughout the year that get kids excited about learning.

Here are some snapshots from our centers:

5th Grade - Amelia Earhart websites

Website Evaluation: Amelia Earhart websites

The Museum of Flight:

http://www.museumofflight.org/exhibits/search-amelia-earhart

Amelia Earhart

The Official Site

http://www.ameliaearhart.com/

Wikipedia: Amelia Earhart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart

Biography.com

Amelia Earhart

http://www.biography.com/people/amelia-earhart-9283280#awesm=~oDkzgf4SWnW0dh

Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum

http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org/

Amelia Earhart

http://www.ellensplace.net/ae_eyrs.html

Amelia Earhart Found Alive

http://www.stevecleaver.com/2013/04/05/amelia-earhart-found-alive/

Amelia Earhart

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq3-1.htm

Amelia Earhart

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/earhart/aa_earhart_subj.html

Amelia Earhart

http://oldsite.lib.purdue.edu/spcol/aearhart/

Amelia Earhart

http://www.ninety-nines.org/index.cfm/amelia_earhart.htm

4th Grade States Project

Finding useful 2010 U.S. Census Data for your state:

The United States Census has a website with a lot of information.  Sometimes it might be too much information.  Here is a link to the 2010 Census Quick Facts page where you can search by state or by a specific town or city within your state.

Here is a page just for students on the Census website: Student State Facts.

April is National Poetry Month

I'm so excited about the fun possibilities of celebrating poetry in the library this month.

My goal is to have a good time with poetry.
To get students creating and collaborating as much as possible.

We have played with alliteration.
How long can you keep it up? "Oliver only octopus on ocean oleander oligarchy..."

We have created acrostic poems (picture coming soon).
(Some students started referring to these as "lacrosse stick" poems... hey, close enough)

We have made Table Top poetry
and spine label poetry
I Spy poetry
and
Storybird collaborative poetry
and my personal favorite
Haiku Book Reviews!

My goal: to help students experience the fun that can be had with painting with words and in puzzling out a meaningful collection of words that also happen to rhyme.

1st Grade Winter into Spring poems and pictures

5th Graders make Haiku (5-7-5) Book Reviews!

Pi Day!

March 14th - 3/14 - 3.14

Today is National Pi Day (or is that International?)

This is a Kindergartener at Upham celebrating Pi day!

... and this it he back.
How cool is that?

So today in library we talked about National Pi Day and answered

What is Pi?

And why is Pi such a cool number? (it is actually quite cool).

Here is the funny movie we watched about measuring pi with PIE!

Booktalking: getting readers hooked on books

Booktalking is not just something that librarians do.
This week we are getting 5th graders signed up to do booktalks to each other.
Here are some of the things we are talking about to make the booktalks great.

What is a Book Talk anyway?

Booktalks can take many different forms, but their main job is to convince someone to read a book

How to create a great booktalk?

1. Find a book you want to tell people about.
2. Read the book closely:

• Use stickies
• to jot down questions, predictions, connections, insights about characters or themes
• to note great passages to read aloud in your booktalk
• Take notes

3. Ask yourself:

• What makes this book stand out from others?
• Why did you like it? (for example: the characters were believable and you related to them or the plot was fast-moving and made you want to find out what happened next)
• Is there anything interesting about the author? (Many authors have websites you can check.)
• What is your opening hook to get readers interested?

And never ever give away the ending!!!

PTO New Book Fair in the Library

This week in the library the PTO is running the new book fair.  The library has been transformed into a hip independent book store.  I have to say I totally love the selection of titles.  Believe it or not I love having the book fair in the library.  Students come to the book fair with their classes and get a chance to walk around and look at books.  And talk about books. And recommend books to each other.  I love hearing what students are recommending and I am having a blast recommending books to students.  This is a fun week to just be totally into books - whether it is Jonathan's Stroud's latest or a beautiful picture book like Journey or a super cool graphic novel of Rick Riordon's The Titan's Curse.  It is all good.  One of the best book sharing moments for me was sitting with a few students as they flipped through the big red hardcover copy of the latest Guinness Book of World Records.  I absolutely adored that book when I was in elementary school.  We had a fun time getting grossed out or amazed with every turn of the page.

-Ms. J.