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.