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: