GINGERBREAD

 

The theme of the 12th 6-day cycle is GINGERBREAD MEN. 

 

The library was decorated with the BIGGEST gingerbread people Miss Jennifer and I could make. 

 

 

 

 

In K and First grades, the students watch a brief animation of  The Gingerbread Man read by actor John Krasinski.  

 

 

Gingerbread Man Loose in School was the book chosen for 2nd and 3rd grades.  Afterwards we made a gingerbread man to look exactly like the one in the book....which was illustrated by Mike Lowery. 

 

 

The 4th and 5th grades went to the story pit to be read stories. The 4th grade listened to The Library Gingerbread Man and the fifth grade listened to/saw the Gingerbread Man Superhero! - both books by Dotti Enderle.  And they were both AWESOME.  The Library Gingerbread Man was also an introduction to the Dewey Decimal System. 

 
                                        

back from Thanksgiving 2012

After Thanksgiving, the Library returned to "normal" lesson plans. PreK heard Little Bear's Special Friend by Claire Freedman; illustratrated by Dubravka Kolanovic. During check out time, they were given a snowman template to color/design, and created a snowman on the back so that they had the two friends together.

Grades K and 1 were introducted to the Caldecott Medal winner for 2012:

After discussing what a Caldecott Medal was all about, we sat down to "read" this picture book without words. Afterwards, the students made their own picture books and were given "Caldecott Medals" to cut out and past on their book if they worked hard on it and did a good job.


           
The second grade was introduced to author Cynthia Rylant as we read the first two books in the "Mr. Putter and Tabby" series. The books were a big hit (rightly so!) and many second graders checked out other books in the series when we done.


We finished up our leaf man projects in the 3rd grade.

Grade 4, along with Grade 5, worked on worksheets that will teach them how to use the catalog and another worksheet on "call numbers". We are still working on the call number/locating a book concept in 4th and 5th grades.

Thanksgiving in the library, 2012. TURKEYS!!

The 10th 6-day cycle was all about turkeys.


In PreK, we read The Best Thanksgiving Book and worked on a turkey coloring page.

In Kindergarten we read Dave Pilkey's  'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving and colored turkey pages.


The first grade made turkeys by coloring a circle (the feathers) and a head, neck, and legs.

 In the 2nd grade, we made pilgrim paper dolls.  It was a lot of fun and they turned out great.  Nobody wanted to leave theirs in the library for decorations - they all wanted to take theirs home with them.

Grades 3-5 worked together in groups of approximately 6 to make a "Mr. Potato Head Turkey."  As a group, they had to decide which "parts" they were going to use, what eyes, what hair, whether the turkey was a boy or a girl.  The story pit was covered in turkeys when we were done. Here's a picture of the story pit as the turkeys were being created:

After Halloween and "Super Storm Sandy": Week 9

All of my Halloween lesson plans were messed up and rerouted due to the two unexpected "Frankenstorm" days and some shortened schedules after that.  Jennifer and I carried on as best we could.  Now, because of Thanksgiving, we are going to have a crazy bout of lesson planning:  we will do Days 1, 2, and 3 of the "Week 9" plans but then we have to do Thanksgiving plans for Days 4, 5, and 6 and then Days 1, 2, and 3.  When we get back after Thanksgiving,w e will have a Day 4 - and we will continue on with the week 9 plans.

It isn't so confusing once you are doing it.  :)

Some of my observations about the last two weeks:

I found a great book to read to the Kindergarten classes:  Beatrice doesn't want to by Laura Numeroff (of If you give a mouse a cookie... fame).  While discussing possible activities to do after this book, Jennifer had a great idea - she suggested that the K students could write get well cards for Ms. Blume.  Ms. Blume, who is very nice and loved by everyone at SPES,  works in the main office and she is going to be out for 6 weeks or so. 

I read Horrible Harry in Classroom 2B to the second grade.  We read the first two chapters and then spent a library day making "Stub People" for Halloween.  We displayed these in the windows and I can honestly say that the second graders LOVED making stub people.  It was a great success.  They were begging to be able to take them home and when they came back for their next library day, they were still excited about them and still wanted to be able to take them home (which they did).  We will finish reading this "chapter book" during this 6 day cycle. I finished reading it to the one 2nd grade class I've had so far and they asked for Horrible Harry books after that.  They checked out all of the Horrible Harry books in the library! 

I am going to have my first 3rd class of this cycle on Monday morning and I'm excited about what I'm planning to do.  After showing them the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert, the third grade is going to make their own "leaf man" or "leaf animal".  Since I decided to do this yesterday after school, I've been noticing Fall leaves everywhere.  Even though I was leaving school after 4:30 yesterday, I started picking up likely leaves on the way to my car. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I noticed the tree right in front of the school and its great big beautiful leaves, so I pulled up and got out of my car and started picking them up off the ground. 

   
"Leafmouse" picture from the book.



I don't think I can pick up enough leaves and twigs and berries by Monday morning, though, and I read up on the author and she color copied her leaves because the originals dried up and didn't last.  I found a template of leaf outlines that I could have the 3rd graders color in Fall colors and cut out and assemble their own leaf person or animal or thing.  I will add more pictures of "leaf people" I find doing an image search.  These are creations made by people who were inspired by the book.

I think the leaf people are absolutely wonderful.  I am tempted to try to get real leaves - and the students parents can take pictures of them for the sad day when they dry up and leave.  I will take pictures of their work to show...

4th and 5th grades - we are still working on locating books in the library by call numbers.  I am determined that they will master this concept this year - both grades.  I wrote two worksheets for the 5th grade (and I may do them with the fourth as well).  There are only 13 computers in the class, so I made two groups and two worksheets.  The students who remained seated at the tables had to cut out a sheet of 20 spine labels that I made up and then arrange them into "sections in the library" and then put them in shelf order on a "shelf" and label the shelf as "fiction" etc.  The students at the computers had to use the library catalog to look up two books and answer some basic questions on them - like "what is the call number of this book?" and "what section of the library is this book located in?" 

On the back, they had to do a search using the "wild card" symbol - the asterisk.  This is important because I've had so many students looking for origami books, for example, but they don't know how to spell "origami".  This should help. 

Unfortunately, there wasn't time to have both groups switch. That will have to wait until after Thanksgiving.  There is never enough time to teach everything you want to teach them. After all of the work the 4th and 5th grades have been doing on call numbers and locating books, they deserve something fun in the library for Thanksgiving.  I might read them a story - let them go sit in the story pit and everything.  They loved that during week 1.  

You are never too old to be read a story. 

Halloween

We have been reading a lot of good books with a Halloween theme this 6 days leading up to Halloween. The 3rd grade, I read Bats in the Library by Brian Lies. I love this book, written in rhyme, mainly because of its pictures and the love of the library and reading that it portrays. We always spend  a lot of time looking at the pages that show different "scenes" from famous books or legends, with bats as the central characters.





 

 

I read A Job for Wittilda for the first time and then I read it to the 1st grade classes.  I really like this book and it was apparently popular because the book was in bad shape.  It had been taped together on almost every page.  I went looking for another copy to buy - and found that this book is not easy to get your hands on.  New copies on amazon were going for as high as $138.00.

 

                                 

 

The first grade was able to make some great inferences regarding this book.  We looked at the cover and thought about what it was telling us - that Wittilda is a witch and this book has something to do with A LOT of cats.  It is a great book and it was fun.

 

K classes looked at Dav Pilkey's Dragon's Halloween.  They thought it was hysterical when I pointed out that Dav Pilkey was also the author of the Captain Underpants books.

One of the illustrations by Brian Lies showing bats imagining themselves as King Arthur, Little Red Riding Hood, the Velveteen Rabbit, and the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland.

In 4th and 5th grades, we are still working on the catalog and call numbers and finding things in the library.  The 5th grade classes made Halloween "books" last time by decorating a cutout of a book showing the front cover and spine.  They did both a fiction book and a nonfiction book.  I provided some Halloween dewey decimal numbers.  I think this went a long way in showing every member of the classes what the call numbers were - each student had to bring theirs to me so I could check what they had done.  We are making a creepy bookcase in the story pit - a fiction and nonfiction shelf - and the classes will have to "shelve" their books properly on the shelves. This time, they will "shelve" their books on these "shelves."

 

The story pit, decorated for Halloween. 

 

 

 



Heading toward Halloween

We are just finishing up this year's 7th six-day resource rotation and starting the 8th, which takes us just past Halloween.              

During the 7th "week":

PreK - After reading Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems, the class colored a Pigeon and Duckling coloring page while we checked out books in small groups.

K and 1st grades renewed their acquaintance (or met for the first time!) Curious George as we read Curious George goes to the library.  Afterwards, while taking turns checking out books in small groups, the classes made their own Curious George bookmarks - which involved coloring, cutting, and visualizing the finished product.  All the bookmarks will be laminated and returned next time.

We started reading Horrible Harry in classroom 2B in the 2nd grades.  Chapter 2 of this book is "Horrible Harry, the Stub People, and Halloween".  Next week, for Halloween, the 2nd grade classes will be making their own "stub people" to invade the library, as Horrible Harry made a stub people army ("the scariest creatures on earth") to "bring doom to the classroom".

3rd grade students reviewed all the parts of a book - inside and outside.  We looked at a powerpoint about four parts inside a book:  The title page, Table of Contents, Glossary, and Index.  After an activity that involved cutting out labels to paste onto a book, they checked out books. This turned out to be a learning opportunity in more ways than one - many, many third graders learned the difference between "illustrator" and "illustration" with this exercise.


4  Fourth grade students went over the sections of the library and reviewed call numbers again.  To practice call numbers and "shelf order", each student wrote a big spine label depicting a Fiction book that they had written and then they got up and put themselves in shelf order (alphabetized by first three letters of the author's last name) as if they were the books on the shelves. 

5 - Making Fiction and Nonfiction "Halloween books" to practice and demonstrate knowlege of call numbers  - and also to decorate for Halloween.  Next time, in addition to reading a Halloween short story, the class will put their "books" into shelf order and "shelve" them on the shelves for their class.  I am labeling rows in the story pit with their teacher's names and whether it is a Fiction or Nonfiction shelf.

For next time:

 

Post Book Fair - Thank you

The Book Fair was packed up Friday after 4:00 PM and everything is boxed and waiting to be taken away Monday morning, October 15, 2012.  I think everyone working at the Book Fair agrees that it was very successful.  The library already has $600 worth of new books waiting to go on the shelves - books that were "purchased" from the Book Fair with the profits. 

The All for Books program was a great success as well, and we are very grateful to everyone that participated and helped to make the program successful.  With the donations, we were able to make sure that every single student purchased at least one book from the fair.

Even more than profits, though, the library scored big time with volunteers.  Mrs. Lynn Gray was at the Book Fair every single day, from the set up on Wednesday, October 3rd, until everything was packed away on Friday, October 12.  She completely handled the cash register and all sales and kept track of every student who purchased something.  She was the driving force behind the All for Books program, while I was occupied with 6 or 7 classes every day.  She has also agreed to come in once a week from now on and help Mrs. Barredo and myself with the myriad duties we have to do but have little time to give - like covering and processing books.

Books that were checked in and piled up the day Mrs. Barredo had to call in sick. 

In addition to Mrs. Gray, Meredith Hyder, a parent of two Sycamore Park students, worked day in and day out, only leaving the Book Fair if she had to substitute in another classroom.  She tirelessly assisted Mrs. Gray with all of the customers and spent any down time (and there was little of that!) helping Mrs. Barredo to shelve books.  I will include a picture of the amount of books that can accumulate over the course of two school days so that you can see the back log Mrs. Barredo has been trying to conquer.  Meredith Hyder turned out to be a shelving machine!  She says that she will come in and continue to help us with this massive job now that the book fair is over, and we could not be more grateful.

Other volunteers that were instrumental in helping run this book fair included my mother and sister (called in in desperation!), Kathleen Buchanan, Franca Sarmiento, Mr. __________ and _____________. 

Sycamore Park has turned out to be full of wonderful, special people, like Mr. Temple and Mrs. Wells.  They came in to the library to help and donated decorations and spent all of October 3rd taking turns taking all the library classes (6 of them!) so that Mrs. Barredo and  I could set up the Book Fair. 

Mrs. Joye in the computer lab was such a help, day in and day out.  When she had no other classes in the computer lab, she provided a place for the library classes to go when they finished with their wish lists at the Book Fair.  She tirelessly came over and helped us with the PreK, K, 1st and 2nd grade classes that needed assistance writing their wish lists.  It is awe inspiring to think of all the help Sycamore Park faculty and staff gave to make the Book Fair a success.

(Kathy Dwyer, too, deserves a thank you for pitching in the day she saw all of the books piled up on the counter...she jumped right in and started shelving books!  Mrs. Wells heard about the dilemma and she came in three different times to help shelve the back log.) 

I keep thinking of people who deserve a thank you - like all the help Mrs. Gray's granddaughter was the days she hung out with us until 4:00 PM.  Or the students that pitched in to help set up and then pack up.  The beautiful Mrs. Lawson, who came in the last day of the Book Fair and said, "Do you need a break?" and kept her PreK class in her room so that we could continue to work.  My first comment to Mrs. Lawson was, "I love you."  And later, Mrs. Barredo told me that when she saw Mrs. Lawson and was told that she was giving us that time, she also told Mrs.  Lawson that she loved her.  We do love you, Mrs. Lawson! 

It is overwhelming to think of the amount of people that pulled together to make this Book Fair happen. To all of you, I can sincerely say that this Book Fair would not have happened without you.

The Book Fair

The Book Fair is off to a great start.  On Thursday, October 4th, we had a teacher preview day and all students with Library on Resource Day 6 made wish lists at the Book Fair.  Last week, students previewed some books  in their age range that would be available in order to prepare for the Book Fair.

The dates and hours for the Fair are:

Friday, Oct. 5, 2012 -          7:45 AM to 4:00 PM

Monday, Oct. 8, 2012 -        7:45 AM to 6:30 PM  *Extended hours*

Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012 -       7:45 AM to 4:00 PM
Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012  7:45 AM to 4:00 PM
Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012 -    7:45 AM to 4:00 PM
Friday, Oct. 12, 2012 -         7:45 AM to 4:00 PM

Don't forget the Grandparent lunches - look for a schedule so that you can schedule lunch and book shopping with your grandchildren.  Dates for the Grandparent's lunches are October 8, 9, and 12.

   

 

We are participating in the All for Books program so that we can make sure that every Sycamore Park student is able to buy a book at the Book Fair.  Letters went home to families asking for a $1.00 donation.  We are making a display of "books" with the names of the donors on the books while the Fair is ongoing.

 

 

 

 

 

The Teacher Wishlist board is ready!  Teachers have been browsing the Book Fair and making note of books they would love to add to their classroom libraries.  If you are interested in donating a book to your child's classroom, you can take one of these notes off the board and purchase the book to be donated to the classroom.  The library will deliver the book to the teacher and let them know who donated it.

 

We are very grateful for all donations and to the volunteers who have made this Book Fair possible.

 



Fourth Library Time Sept 2012

As of next Wednesday, all students at Sycamore Park will have had four library classes this year. It seems like school just started and it is almost October.  The Book Fair will be here October 5 - 12.

The story pit has another new look.  In addition to the Eric Carle The Very Hungry Caterpillar rug, Mrs. Barredo's ten year old daughter made a wonderful banner, and it really makes the story pit stand out:

"I'm hungry for a good book!" banner by Mrs. Barredo's daughter.

All of the students at Sycamore Park are checking out books now, and the Pre-K classes will start this week. Mrs. Barredo and I are seeing many, many students in the library in the mornings because they are finishing their books and wanting more to read before their next library day.  We are very happy about this. I am very impressed with how many wonderful readers there are at Sycamore Park.

The Sycamore Park library is the very lucky recipient of a $500 grant from Target to order books for the library.  With this grant, we will be able to purchase more copies of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books (we can't keep enough copies in the library!) among many other books and a new 2012 Brittanica Student encyclopedia set for the reference section.  The students will be spending some time signing a "thank you" page for us to send to Target to thank them for this very needed and very appreciated grant so that we can buy more books. Each class will have a page to sign and we will put these together to make a thank you book.

"READING ACROSS AMERICA" reading incentive 2012-2013

Read Across America Reading Incentive Program at Sycamore Park

The reading specialists are working on a wonderful reading incentive program for this year.  We are calling it "Read Across America" and it will not only spark interest in reading, but teach students about the famous landmarks and people from different states.

Stay tuned for more information about "Read Across America" at Sycamore Park.

CHECKING OUT BOOKS

The most popular fiction series in the Sycamore Park Library!

Grades K-5 are now checking out books.  I am new to Sycamore Park, but I think the school has done an amazing job creating enthusiastic readers.  In all classes, only very few students are claiming that they don't like to read. I can say without a doubt that the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is the number one draw, followed by series fiction such as Babymouse and Captain Underpants. I think the library budget will be wisely spent on purchasing even more Diary of a Wimpy Kid books because they are checked out as soon as they are returned - there is not even time to reshelve them before they are gone again.

It is critical that students in elementary grades learn that reading is fun and worthwhile - maybe even fun enough to compete with video games.    

Books that make reading fun....

 I found an interesting article online about the importance of reading.  I couldn't say this any better, so I will show it to you. It said:

Why is reading important?

It is how we discover new things. Reading is vital in developing a good self image.

Being able to read is a crucial skill in being able to function in today's society. It is important because it develops the mind and develops the imagination.

A person who knows how to read can educate themselves in any area of life they are interested in.

Non readers or poor readers often have low opinions of themselves and their abilities. They feel isolated and behaviour problems can surface. As we live in an age overflowing with information, reading is the main way to take advantage of it.

"Reading, like no other medium, can transform your life in a flash, and you never know which book, at which time in your life, might be the one that rocks your world and inspires you to grow in ways you never thought possible."
---Burke Hedges.

 

You can check out this article here:  http://www.squidoo.com/why-reading-is-important

 

Books should be returned on their next Library resource day so that they may check out a new book(s) at that time.  Students in Grades 2-5 can check out 2 books at a time, while grades PreK-1 may check out one.

In the past several weeks, all grades have been working on taking care of books, being responsible with books, and the importance of keeping the library in order (always use shelfmarkers!)  Now the older grades (3-5) are beginning to learn about the library catalog.  Library catalogs are almost always accessible online from anywhere - home or school.  Learning how to effectively use library catalogs is a necessary skill, especially now in this information age.  For research papers and homework while in school to life outside of school, knowing how to access credible information is very important. With e-books and online databases, learning what is available through a library's website and catalog means the difference literally between being "information literate" or being illiterate when it comes to the wide world of information that is pressing in on all sides. 

You can access Sycamore Park's library catalog from anywhere - any place you have internet access.  You can google "Sycamore Park Elementary School" or go to Culpeper County's website and go to Sycamore Park's website from there. Once on Sycamore Park's website, just click on "library" on the left side of the page.   You can choose the "home" tab or the "catalog" tab.

The 2nd library resource day: caterpillars, hedgehogs and elves

The new Eric Carle The Very Hungry Caterpillar rug is finally in and is creating  a new look in the story pit.  In honor of the new rug, the Pre-K classes heard and saw a super large version of the book. Then, we read Read It, Don't Eat It by Ian Schoenherr to learn about taking care of books. 




The 4th and 5th grades started checking out books during this cycle of resource days, and all other classes will be checking out books on their next library day. Pre-K through 1st grade can check out one book while grades 2 through 5 may check out two.  Parents, please ask your student what books they chose and discuss their books with them.  Students should be encouraged to read on a daily basis! 

In addition to checking out books, 4th and 5th grade students were reacquainted with library rules and policies and the use of "shelf markers." Students created their own shelf marker, along with a "library folder" that they can keep all of their library work in for the year. 

Students in K-2 heard What happened to Marion's book by Brook Berg, with illustrations by Nathan Alberg. This book is about a hedgehog who LOVES books - but has an unfortunate experience with one that teaches her about book care.  She learns, in particular, not to eat around books or put them in the bathtub or washing machine.  After discussing book care, the classes colored and cut out bookmarks featuring Marion in anticipation of checking out books during their next library resource day.  Using a bookmark, rather than bending and creasing pages, is another form of proper book care.

Marion, the hedgehog
 

Third grade students also discussed book care after reading The Shelf Elf by Jackie Mims Hopikins and they created library folders. 

K through 5 classes also reviewed the use of shelf markers and keeping their library in order by watching a youtube video about "Sammy the Shelfmarker".  The video was a hit with all of the grade levels.