Spooktacular

With Halloween just around the corner, I searched for some silly/spooky stories to read aloud. Between my own collection and the one at my local public library, I had a full bag of books, and I had fun reading through them all to find the ones that would work best with each grade level.

Since I had 4th and 5th graders help out with my last display, I wanted to have different students help me out with a new display. I found the perfect tie-in with one of my recent favorites for this time of year, Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds.

Holidays = Prep Time

It was perfect timing to have a day off for the Columbus Day holiday. After chatting with my colleagues last week, I was really excited to have the extra day to do some thoughtful planning for the rest of the month. I felt incredibly refreshed going into the week this week, confident in my plans for the rest of the month.

New Display: National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month

I love the challenge of coming up with new and different book displays for the library. I remembered that October was National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, and thought this would be a great way to showcase books about this important and relevant cause.

I did a mix of chapter books and picture books and added in some books about acceptance in addition to stories specifically about bullies. I incorporated books from this section into my K and 1 classes (Llama Llama and the Bully Goat and One), and mentioned them to the other grades in advance of their checkout time.

It's probably not likely that students would have come in specifically asking about a book about bullying but by having them presented to them in an easy-to-browse way, they flew off the shelf. It was a very powerful reminder for me about the importance of providing students with meaningful, relevant, timely displays of library resources.

October!

I've made it through my first month, phew! I'm getting into the groove, though I wish I were learning names more quickly. I keep thinking how much easier it will be next year when I only have to learn one grade's names!

I had a few challenges this week with some particularly chatty/active classes and it made me so grateful to have seasoned librarians in my district to lean on for support/ideas. I met with both of them, who offered me excellent advice on structuring my lessons and managing my classes.

One of the biggest pieces of advice was to keep it simple, which I don't think I have totally been doing. Some of my classes earlier in the week didn't flow as well as they could have, and I think simplifying the activities and my expectations might be wise, especially until I have more experience working with each class. But like my blog title suggests, becoming the LMS I want to be is very much a work in progress - what would the challenge be if everything was easy peasy right off the bat?

On to the week's activities...

Getting a baseline

Being new to the school and to the profession is doubly challenging - I am both figuring out what students have learned in previous years in library class, while also trying to figure out what works for me in teaching library skills (and what each age level is ready for).

This week, my lessons centered on getting a baseline of some library skills that I think students should know by the end of the year, except for kindergarten, who had one.last.book care lesson before finally getting to check out a book. 

Kindergartners heard We are Going on a Book Hunt and then received a practice library book to complete and take care of. If the majority of students bring their book back next week, the whole class will get to have their first check out. Exciting stuff! 

One of the tasks in the practice book was to draw a picture of me. These are a few of my favorites!

1st graders heard Abuela by Arthur Dorros, in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Before beginning the book, we reviewed key parts of book in preparation for end-of-class library activity, a matching exercise. 

2nd and 3rd graders heard Biblioburro by Jeanette Winter and then watched a short YouTube clip of the real-life Luis Soriano. 2nd graders located the author and illustrator for 3 books that were on their table, and 3rd grade did a call number ordering activity

4th graders heard Our Librarian Doesn't Tell Us Anything by librarian-turned-bestselling author Toni Buzzeo. They had a chance to show off their Destiny searching skills through a number of task cards that they brainstormed in pairs and shared with the class. I hope all our 4th graders will be library success stories by the end of the year! 

I switched up the format for 5th grade and introduced a short research project utilizing Biography in Context, a database that our students have free access to through via multiple Massachusetts agencies. We did a sample search for an author and then students paired up and chose an author to research on their own. My hope is that the fun facts that they uncover about their authors will help populate my author displays over the course of the year.