Happy Halloween!

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Creepy Carrots with K

simonandschuster.com

Just two years old, Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds has become an instant classic. It won a 2013 Caldecott Honor medal and a place in my curriculum. We read it at this time of year, when the students are getting psyched up for Halloween.

In the story, Jasper is being haunted by creeeeeeepy carrots ...or is he? Opinions varied during our discussion.

Here are the kids' versions of creepy carrots:

Room 4 Sorting - Books

Before checkout this week, second graders had to sort a pile of books on their tables (our theme for the year is arranging information). Nearly every group came up with a different set of categories, which made my day ... they were using their brains and teamwork! Category examples included:

• Cover materials: Hardcover and paperback 
• Size: Big and small 
• Text: Author's first initial 
• Topics: Animals and people 
• Genre: Fiction and nonfiction 
• Call number: E and BD (which was the big takeaway from the activity) 

Here are the kids from Room 4 with their books:

Grade 1 E Book Covers

First graders are learning about call numbers, which work like addresses for books. Although they're called "numbers," most only have letters ... kind of confusing. We're starting with the E (for Everyone) section. Every picture book call number has "E" as the first line, and then the first letter of the author's last name as the second line.

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

E
M

What would YOUR call number be?

Students figured out theirs and created an E book they "wrote." Here are some of their book covers:

RI Festival of Children's Books and Authors

Did you know that every October, well known children’s book authors and illustrators come to Rhode Island for a day of presentations, crafts, and booksignings? And that it only costs $5 to attend? And that your family might be able to get in for free if you return the drawing entry that went home in the library newsletter?

On Saturday, October 18, the Lincoln School in Providence will host the following authors and illustrators. Most of them have worked on A LOT of books, so I’m just going to list the ones that Stadium students would be most familiar with.

• Joseph Bruchac – Skeleton Man 
• Carmen Agra Deedy – The Library Dragon 
• Jeff Kinney – Diary of a Wimpy Kid 
• Herman Parish – new Amelia Bedelia books 
• Jon Scieszka – The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs 
• Bob Shea – Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great (which won our Mock Caldecott last year!) 
• David Wiesner – Tuesday 
• Chris Van Allsburg – The Z Was Zapped 

There will be books for sale! And lunch available from food trucks! And storytellers like Len Cabral! And FUN!

Songs of the Seasons

source: harpercollins.com

In kindergarten, the students helped me read an interactive book called Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson. We knocked on the trunk, jiggled the book, blew away fallen leaves, closed our eyes and counted to 10 ... and after every action, the tree had changed with the seasons!

We followed up the reading with a discussion of the seasons and how they encompass different months and holidays, like Halloween. I now know what all the kids are dressing up as (and was happy to hear that one will be a Ghostbuster ... nice to know they're still around).

Finally, we watched some old-school Sesame Street videos with songs about the seasons. Enjoy!

Room 11 Dewey Sorting

The Dewey Decimal system is a way of sorting nonfiction books. I don't expect my students to memorize specific numbers; that's what the online catalog is for. I do, however, want them to understand how certain topics go together. At least according to how Mr. Dewey thought they did.

Each table of fourth graders got a stack of books from a "hundreds." They had to work together to figure out how the subjects could be classified under one major label. Here are Room 11 kids in action. I don't want to give away the answers before Room 9 does the activity next week, but if you think you can figure them out, leave a comment below!

500s: planets, animals, plants, elements, ecosystems, electricity, weather ... 

700: sports, jokes, art, music, dancing, crafts ... 

900s: states, maps, wars, countries, medieval times ...