This Week @ the Library (11/28 - 12/2)

KINDERGARTEN

With only 3 weeks in between Thanksgiving and Winter Break, we'll be reading snow stories in kindergarten to get us reading for that cold, wet stuff. We'll start with one of my favorites - a retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jan Brett's The Three Snow Bears. Since most students know the Goldilocks version, we'll begin the library lesson with an oral retell by students, then read Brett's tale, and if time, we'll compare the two. Oh, the illustrations in this book (in all her books!) are just fantastic!


1ST & 2ND GRADE

First and second grade students have been reading nominees for the 2012 Monarch Award, a Readers' Choice Award for K-3 students in Illinois. Next on our list is Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. Look at the cover of the book - is it a duck? Or is it a rabbit? We try to figure it out in this story, but I won't give away the ending! I'll be using the SmartBoard with this book and borrowing a Notebook lesson from Librarian Tonya Ellis of East Elementary in the Jefferson City Public Schools. We librarians love to share. :)


3RD GRADE

It's time for our Fables unit in third grade! Today was our first day learning about fables - short stories that teach lessons through a moral. We read selections from Michael Hague's Aesop's Fables. Since the writing is concise but a bit advanced, I asked students to retell the stories using their own words and then tell me what they thought the moral of the story was. We read classics like "The Hare and the Tortoise," "The Lion and the Mouse," and "The Fox and the Grapes." Students enjoyed these quick stories so much that they asked for more fables next week!



4TH GRADE

From now until Winter Break, fourth grade students will be studying the poet Jack Prelutsky. This week, we'll read aloud from his collection called My Dog May Be a Genius and explore his website on the SmartBoard. If we have time, I've pulled all of his books that we own at the King School Library (over 20!), and I'll let students explore his works on their own.



5TH GRADE

This week, a children's librarian (hi Lynn!) from the Urbana Free Library will be visiting us at King to present booktalks to our fifth grade students. We always look forward to hearing from our local librarians! :)

This Week @ the Library (5/2 -5/6)

KINDERGARTEN

We are ending the school year with a Mo Willems author study in kindergarten. This week we read some beloved Elephant & Piggie stories - We Are in a Book! and Can I Play Too?

We love Elephant & Piggie stories in kindergarten! They're easy to read, funny, and show us how to be good friends.



1ST GRADE

Keena Ford is just starting second grade, and she is going through a lot of emotions. She's sad that she won't be in the same class as her best friend Eric, and she's afraid that she'll be spending most of the school year with Mr. Lemon, the time-out teacher. But when she meets her new teacher Ms. Campbell, she decides that she LOVES second grade. Until she makes a mistake that she has trouble fixing...

I'm reading Keena Ford and the Second Grade Mix-Up by Melissa Thomson aloud to our first grade classes, and they are loving it. They can definitely relate to Keena's truth-telling problem!


SECOND GRADE

For our end of the year readaloud in second grade, I am reading The Dream Stealer by Sid Fleischman. This is a whimsical story about a little girl named Susana and the bandit who steals her good dream one night. She is a fiesty gal who wants her dream back! She convinces Senor Dream Stealer to return her dream, but they must first fly to his castle far, far away.

It's a magical story that students are enjoying, with a little bit of mystery and a lot of spice.


THIRD GRADE

Third grade students got a primer in the Dewey Decimal System this week. We've been practicing using the online library catalog all year and especially using call numbers to find picture books and fiction books. This week I unveiled the mysteries of the "nonfiction" collection!




FOURTH GRADE

We are focusing on folktales from around the world to finish off the school year in fourth grade. This week we read Koi and the Kola Nuts, a Liberian Folktale retold by Verna Aardema. Koi, the youngest of the chief's sons, does not share in his brothers' inheritance when his father passes away, and instead is gifted nothing but a kola tree. Using his wits and his kind heart, Koi meets several animals on his travels who are in need of kola nuts for some purpose or another. Koi's generosity to these animals comes back to him when he needs help to win the hand of a chief's daughter in another town.



4TH/5TH GRADE

Students are just about finished writing their scripts for their book trailer projects. They teamed up into groups of 2-4, chose a picture book, and will be creating a book trailer using iMovie, intended for a kindergarten viewing audience. For the past two weeks, students have been working on writing scripts for their book trailers, the audio track which will accompany their images.

We can't wait to share these when we finish at the end of the year!


5TH GRADE
I missed fifth grade students this week, as they were on a field trip in Springfield. They too are creating book trailers and will need to work very hard to finish before school lets out!


P.S. This was our LAST week for library checkout. All books are due next week on students' regular checkout days.

This Week @ the Library (4/4 - 4/7)

KINDERGARTEN

We are celebrating the season of spring in kindergarten. To begin this new thematic unit, we read Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson. In this book, Bear wakes from his deep winter slumber, and he is HUNGRY! His forest friends help him find food until he is so full and so big that he can't fit in the opening of his cave. But Bear's a problem-solver - he decides to take a nap outside instead. :)

This week also marks the first week that kindergarten students are able to check out from some of the library bookshelves. We have been using a special cart of books until now, learning how to use a slider to keep the books in order. Students are excited about the wider selection of books!

1ST GRADE

Our Fractured Fairy Tales unit comes to a close this week. Last week, we read The Runaway Tortilla by Eric A. Kimmel, and this week we end with The Three Little Tamales, also by Kimmel. We are back at Tia Lupe and Tio Jose's taqueria, where the tamales are encouraged to run away lest they get eaten! The story follows the mold of The Three Little Pigs, and students were quick to point out the similarities in the two stories.


2ND GRADE

In second grade, we begin our Tomie dePaola author study with a reading of the classic Italian folktale, Strega Nona - or Grandma Witch. Strega Nona can make warts disappear, make husbands magically appear, and can grow hair on a bald man's head, but she is getting old and needs some help around the house. Enter Big Anthony, a well-meaning young man with one problem - he has trouble listening to directions. Strega Nona has one rule, and that is to never touch her magic pasta pot. Well, you can guess what Big Anthony does... :)

We'll be reading more Strega Nona stories in the coming weeks and some other books by Tomie dePaola, who was also the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award Winner in 2011.

3RD GRADE

We're continuing our Fables unit this week. Because our library workroom is under construction, I visited both third grade classrooms for this lesson. Students read aloud in pairs from Mary Hoberman's You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Fables to Read Together. Before students began reading to each other, we discussed what makes a good read-aloud, and they came up with some great points, like:

• Read slowly.
• Read in a loud, clear voice.
• Use expression. 

4TH GRADE

I also visited fourth grade this week, and I finished reading aloud Dona Flor by Pat Mora. While I read, students took notes on examples of Tall Tale Characteristics in this book, such as:

• The main character is bigger than life and/or has superhuman powers.
• There are many exaggerations.
• The main character has a problem to solve. 
• The main character solves the problem and/or defeats the "bad guy" by the end of the story. 

Dona Flor is a giant living in a peaceful town of humans. The townsfolk love her and appreciate her enormous size, visiting her whenever they get a chance. But the loud roar of a puma scares the people into their homes, not wanting to venture out for fear of encountering this large cat. Dona Flor investigates and finds that the people really have nothing to fear at all. You'll have to read it to find out why!


4TH/5TH GRADE

We wrapped up our Civil War unit in 4th/5th grade this week by finishing Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco. This class has spent quite a bit of time this year getting to know Ms. Polacco as an author, so I am pleased that we were able to read some of her Civil War stories too. 

For the second half of class, I shared with students a bibliography of Civil War Historical Fiction. They each received a blue bookmark with the titles I booktalked, and I passed the books around for students to browse. You can find the list of books on our online catalog's Resource List, entitled Civil War Historical Fiction. 



5TH GRADE

Fifth grade students engaged in discussions about Internet Safety this week. We talked about social networking sites such as Facebook and how to lock down their privacy settings to make sure students are not sharing too much information with the whole world. They had many questions, comments, and personal experiences to share, as we ventured into topics of parental responsibility, sharing photos and videos, keeping in touch with family and friends, and more. 

This Week @ the Library (3/28 - 4/1)

KINDERGARTEN

We wrapped up our Rosemary Wells author study with a math activity in the library. Each student chose their favorite Max & Ruby book that we read together and placed it on our bar graph on the SmartBoard. Then, we counted up all the students in the class and all of the book covers on the graph to make sure the numbers matched and that every student had a turn. Finally, we counted each book's results to see which Max & Ruby book was the class' favorite! 

Rosemary Wells Author Study

1ST GRADE

We are on our fourth week of our Fractured Fairy Tales unit. This week, we read The Runaway Tortilla by Eric A. Kimmel - a Texas twist to the classic Gingerbread Man story. 

2ND GRADE

Second grade students put on their detective caps this week and worked in groups to solve "Call Number Mysteries." We are working on learning how the library is organized and where to find specific books in the library. Do you know where to find a chapter book in the King School Library? Do you know what the call number starts with? They do!

3RD GRADE

We are on our third week of our Fables unit in third grade. This week we read Lousy Rotten Stinkin' Grapes by Margie Palatini, based on Aesop's fable "The Fox and the Grapes." We also read the pictures of The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney because this book had no words, only the sounds the animals made!

4TH GRADE

Fourth grade students are a few weeks into our Tall Tales unit. One class finished reading John Henry by Julius Lester, while another began reading Dona Flor: A Tall Tale About a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart by Pat Mora.

4TH/5TH GRADE

Our 4th/5th grade split class is reading Civil War stories in the library. This week, we started reading Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco, a historical fiction picture book about two very different Union soldiers who find themselves on the outskirts of the war. We'll finish up the book and this unit next week. 

5TH GRADE

Fifth grade students are also finishing up a Civil War unit. This week, we explored a nonfiction book called You Wouldn't Want to Be a Civil War Soldier by Thomas Ratliff. We learned about interesting details of a soldier's life such as where he would sleep, what he would eat, and what he would do in his free time. We also talked about the You Wouldn't Want to... series of books, many of which were checked out from the library this week. 

Have a great weekend!