Assign That Category - Grade 4 Dewey Continued

In our previous class, the students figured out the following Dewey categories by examining the books that lived in each section:

500s = science
700s = entertainment/hobbies (arts & recreation)
900s = history & geography

This time, their assignment was in reverse: figure out where certain topics would live. The following were the trickiest, since all of our brains don't work the same way as Melvil Dewey's. Where would YOU go to find the following?

1. You have to find out when dinosaurs lived. 
2. You are planning a trip to Hawaii. 
3. You need to identify a rock you found on vacation. 
4. You are doing a project about 16th century explorers.
5. You want to find information on some famous paintings. 

 Scroll down for answers.

 

Answers

1.  Dinosaurs = 500s (even though they lived a loooooooooong time ago ... the 900s are only about HUMAN history)
2. Vacation destinations = geography, or 900s (even though going on vacation is a recreational activity)
3. Rocks = 500s (even if you found one on vacation)
4. Explorers = 900s (even if you're doing a project for fun about them)
5. Paintings = 700s (even if they are old and the artists lived a long time ago)

Credit for lesson idea: Anne Oelke via LMNet

Book, Book, Book and Other Animal Sounds

The library often sounds a little like a zoo, but this past month, it also sounded like a farm! I read a selection of animal sounds books to the kindergarten classes:

scholastic.com

arthuralevinebooks.com

harpercollins.com

Students got a huge kick out of the story of Bark, George (thank you to fellow librarian Suzanne Jordan, who recommended it!).

To support their retelling skills, students colored and cut out the characters so they could bring them home and share story to their families. (You can click on the link to access and download more copies.)

Then we watched this puppet-show version of the story:

Because students' animal sounds sometimes got a little ... enthusiastic ... I taught them the conductor's cut-off signal. Which reminded me of The Sesame Street All-Animal Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa:

Second Grade Judges - Round 1

I've been monitoring Caldecott short lists and have selected a bunch of potential nominees to read to the second grade. Maybe between now and January 25th, we'll be able to pick the winner! Here are the ones that both classes at Stadium have voted to keep so far:  

Extra Yarn 
Author: Mac Barnett
Illustrator: Jon Klassen

"You can't knit a sweater for a tree!"
"Actually, you can ... "

See examples of Yarn Bombing ... There's even a Tumblr!

This is Not My Hat
Author/Illustrator: Jon Klassen

Z is for Moose
Author: Kelly Bingham
Illustrator: Paul O. Zelinsky

Make sure you watch the credits! Guess who voices Glove????

Grade 1 BUG research

As you may already have heard, the new Common Core standards emphasize informational text. It's never too early to start getting used to reading nonfiction books. In fact, several first graders at Garden City asked me earlier in the year to get more nonfiction for their section, because they prefer facts to stories. I've been working on it and welcome any donations!

In class recently, first grade students reviewed how to use a table of contents. They all received a book about bugs and then found the chapter that described how their bugs look. They drew a picture of their bug and wrote down at least one fact. Here is some of their work:

D. quite enjoyed sharing some "interesting" beetle facts with the rest of us!

Name that Category - Grade 4 Dewey

I don't expect my students to memorize any Dewey Decimal numbers - that's what the online catalog is for! I do, however, want them to get practice with categorization and classification - skills that are needed in the workplace. For example, in my prior life as a "mutual fund operations communications analyst," I developed filing systems and web site architectures. Being able to see how pieces fit together is important.

Grade 4 students worked together to examine the most popular Dewey categories: 500s, 700s, and 900s. They pulled books from each section, wrote down the topics, and then tried to figure out how the topics went together. Can you tell what the 500s are about??

Caldecott Voting - 2004 Style

2013 marks the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal. This annual award from American Library Association, goes to "the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children." Mrs. Haggerty, the art teacher, will be covering the artistic aspect of past award-winners with second-grade students. She asked if I would like to complement her lessons with the books themselves, which I thought was a great idea. Mrs. Steward, another Cranston school librarian, gave me some ideas on how to proceed.

After reviewing the list of past winners and honorees, I decided to start with the 2004 batch ... the year some of the second-graders were born. Here are the four books we read ... I covered up the medals on the covers so the kids wouldn't know which won what.

There was a CLEAR winner among Stadium and Garden City students. Here is the data, presented three ways. Which way do you think is the easiest to read?

Bar Chart

Data Table

Pie Chart

 

The actual winner of the ALA medal was my favorite: The Man Who Walked Between The Towers by Mordecai Gerstein, which is based on a true story. Here is the trailer for the recent documentary about the events, called "Man on Wire":

Most Borrowed Books - November

Source: wimpykid.com

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney
• Dork Diaries : Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl [2] by Rachel Russell
• Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
• The Alphabet Theatre Proudly Presents The Z was Zapped : a play in twenty-six acts by Chris Van Allsburg (still on list)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid : The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney
• I Spy Extreme Challenger: A Book of Picture Riddles by Jean Marzollo
• I Spy Fantasy: A Book of Picture Riddles by Jean Marzollo
• The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
• My Life as a Stuntboy by Janet Tahjian
• Sidekicks by Dan Santat
• The Thone of Fire by Rick Riordan (still on list)

Picture Book Month

I've been a bit behind with the blogging, so I'm a little late telling you that November was Picture Book Month.

However, I did manage to put together a display window at school, including a way for students to participate: they could fill out a slip of paper with their name and their favorite picture book and return it to me. Then I added their info - and a copy of the book - to the window.

Favorite titles included:

• The Z Was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg
• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

What is your favorite picture book? Add it to the comments below.

Grade 3 FICtion

Third graders now get to take out books from anywhere in the library ... but they're not sure how to find what they want. So we'll be learning how to use the online catalog and convert call number listings into shelf locations.

We started simple, with the fiction section. Every fiction call number has "FIC" as the first line, and then the first three letters of the author's last name as the second line.

For example, if I wrote a book, the call number would be

FIC
MOO

What would YOUR call number be?

Students figured out the call numbers for a list of books and and then created their very own for a fiction book they "wrote."

Here are some of their book covers:

Grade 6 Advertising Agency

After reading Balloons Over Broadway, Grade 6 students took a look at balloons then and now. They realized that today's Macy's Parade balloons are used as giant advertisements.

We then learned about three advertising tactics to be aware of: exaggeration, generalization, and scare tactics.

The students created their own ads using at least one of these tactics. Here are some of them:

Balloons Over Broadway

I am reading at least one RI Children's Book Award nominee to all of the students in grades 3-6. We started with Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet, which is about Tony Sarg, the inventor of the huge balloons that float through the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Then we worked on different activities with the different grades.

See some of the balloons through the decades.

• Grades 3 and 4: This packet of activities includes a maze and a template for drawing your own balloon.

• Grade 5: We discussed the concept of apprenticeship. Tony's apprentice was Bil Baird, who did the Lonely Goatherd marionnettes for "The Sound of Music." Bil's apprentice was none other than Jim Henson, inventor of the Muppets!

• Grade 6: When I asked students what they noticed about today's balloons v. ones from the past, they totally picked up on the fact that modern parades use them as advertising. So many of the characters floating down the streets are corporate mascots ... how many mascots do YOU recognize? We explored persuasive tactics in the following weeks.

Most Borrowed Books - October

• Big Nate Out Loud by Lincoln Peirce;
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid : a novel in cartoons by Jeff Kinney 
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid : The Ugly Truth (5) by Jeff Kinney 
• Dork Diaries : Tales from a not-so-talented pop star [3] by Rachel Russell
• The Alphabet Theatre Proudly Presents The Z was Zapped : a play in twenty-six acts by Chris Van Allsburg 
• The Thone of Fire by Rick Riordan
• The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas

Summarizing Rumpelstiltskin

In fifth grade this week, we practiced the Somebody / Wanted / But / So / Then method of summarizing a story. Here is what the students came up with for Rumplestiltskin (note: the afterword gave an alternate fate for R.; students picked the one they liked better).

• The girl's father wanted to please the king, so he said that his daughter knew how to spin gold, but she really didn't. So when the girl was crying, then a little man came to spin all the gold and wanted to have her baby. Then she found out the man's name and kept her baby.
  
  
• The poor miller wanted his daughter to have a good life, but the king made her spin straw into gold. So she sat and cried in the room. Then Rumpelstiltskin came in and helper her spin the straw to gold for her necklace.
  
  
• The king wanted gold, but the girl could not spin gold. So she began to weep and Rumpelstiltskin came. Then the girl told R. his name, and he ripped himself in half.
  
  
• The king wanted gold, but the girl didn't know how to make gold. So Rumpelstiltskin helped her. Then the queen had to guess the small guy's name, and she got it right and didn't have to give him her baby.
  
  
• Rumpelstiltskin wanted the queen's child because she owed him for the favors he did for her. But the queen had guessed his name correct[ly], so R. was surprised and angry. Then he hopped on his spoon and left the queen alone.
  
  
• Rumpelstiltskin wanted the baby, but the queen knew his name, so he stomped his feet and then ripped himself in half.
  
  
• Rumpelstiltskin wanted the queen's child but she did not want to give up her child. So R. gave her three nights to guess his name and keep the baby. Then R. flung himself on a spoon.
  
  
• Rumpelstiltskin wanted the girl's child, but she cried so harshly, so he let her guess his name. Then she guessed his name and kept her child.
  
  

Don't Let the Pigeon Touch the Books!

I have so much fun with the Stadium kindergartners! Right now, we are discussing book care in preparation for their first checkout. I decided to have them teach THE PIGEON some rules.

In case you haven't been introduced to the Pigeon yet, he is the star of a series of books by Mo Willems; the first one is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! We read that and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!, and I am happy to report that MOST students resisted his arguments.

Then we watched this video:

The students compiled a list of rules that the Pigeon should know. For example:

DO	DON'T
use clean hands	spit on the books
turn the pages gently	rip the pages
keep your book out of the bathtub	spill your food on the books
bring your book back to the library	give your book to a baby

In our next class, we drew our own Pigeons; Mo Willems has step-by-step instructions for drawing the Pigeon on his site. Then each student chose a rule to teach him. Here is some of their work:

FYI, the green coloring means that this Pigeon is an alien.

Horrors!

I have a lot of great student volunteers, but Serena P. deserves special recognition for the sheer number of hours she has logged. From looking up information in the catalog to processing magazines to talking me through copier mishaps to creating signage, she is a rock star! Below is an example of her handiwork ... scary books are so popular at Stadium, I may leave the display up after Halloween.

Opposites! Opposites!

After we read Go, Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman, Grade 1 students worked together to develop lists of opposites. They got some inspiration from this Sesame Street video, and had a stack of books to help with ideas as well.

Try this at home

Can your family fill in the table below with the missing words? Can you come up with more examples?

up
	cold
fast
	quiet
underneath
	sad

Most Borrowed Books - September

• Bone : Treasure Hunters by Jeff Smith 
• The Alphabet Theatre Proudly Presents Yhe Z was Zapped : a play in twenty-six acts by Chris Van Allsburg 
• The Dancing Pancake by Eileen Spinelli 
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid : Dog Days by Jeff Kinney 
• Discovery Girls magazine
• Falling up by Shel Silverstein 
• The New Kid on the Block : Poems by Jack Prelutsky 
• Babymouse : Queen of the World! by Jennifer Holm 
• The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (Series of Unfortunate Events) 
• Beware, the Snowman by R. L. Stine (Goosebumps)

RICBA Gives Kids the Vote

We're gearing up for Election Day in November, but did you know that students get the chance to vote in February? The Rhode Island Children’s Book Award (RICBA) goes to the book selected by students in grades 3-6 as their favorite from a list of 20 nominees.

Students who read 3 or more nominated books may vote in February. They will receive extra credit for each RICBA ratings sheet they submit; it asks them to record what the book was about and how they felt about it. They can also share their opinions on the official RICBA blog.

So far, after students had a chance to preview the nominees, Wonderstruck and Sidekicks have had the most holds placed. It will be interesting to see if one of them ends up winning! Side note: If you like Sidekicks, consider renting the movie “Mystery Men” … I see a lot of similarities.

To give everyone a head start, I'll be reading at least one nominee to each class. More to come in separate posts.

Suvey Says ...

Most students in grades 2 through 6 filled out surveys during their first library class so I could get to know their interests. Their top recommended books are:

Series 

• The 39 Clues 
• Bone 
• Charlie Bone 
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid 
• Harry Potter 
• The Hunger Games 
• Judy Moody / Stink 
• Junie B. Jones 
• Magic Tree House 
• Percy Jackson 
• Shredderman 

Titles 

• Bridge to Terabithia 
• The Dancing Pancake 
• Go, Dog, Go! 
• Green 
• Hatchet 
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret 
• The Magic Thief 
• Where the Sidewalk Ends 

Authors 

• Eric Carle 
• Kevin Henkes

Hello from your new librarian!

My name is Ms. Moore, and I’m thrilled to be a part of the Cranston Public Schools. Although one of my first jobs – at age 12 – was volunteering at the Children’s Room of my hometown library, it took me years of working in various communications roles to figure out that what I really wanted to be when I grew up was a school librarian.

So what goes on in the library besides checking out books? How about research? Learning to work in groups? Literary criticism? Math skills? That’s right … the library supports the work your children do in the classroom by reinforcing concepts covered in all subjects, from science to language arts.

In this blog, I will be sharing some of our lessons, as well as ways families can reinforce information literacy skills at home. I'll also keep you in the loop on new books, resources, and reading-related events.

I look forward to getting to know the families here at Stadium. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments at mmoore@cpsed.net or 401-270-8073.