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.