Mock Caldecott (Mostly) Success

The past month was really busy with my 2nd and 3rd graders as we did a Mock Caldecott unit modeled after the one posted on the Mr Schu Reads blog.

Given timing and attention span of my students, I shortened the list to 11 - I just didn't think I could devote more than 3 library classes to this without them totally losing steam - and timed it so that we finished our "voting" the week before the official announcement was made.

To begin, each student received their own "My Mock Caldecott Ballot" which contained the cover art of each book we were reading and a 4 question rating guide. This was time-consuming with the double-sided printing, collating, and stapling, but with advance planning, it was totally doable.

I kicked off the unit with a very brief history of the Award and then spent more time on the 4 criteria real Caldecott judges use to decide if a book should win the award. I simplified the questions from the ballot on an anchor chart at the front of the room, as well.

Ballot and sample rating - love the color commentary!

From there, we went through 3-4 books per class and students rated as we went. I realized on class 3, that it was going to be a lot of tallying for me, so I had them add them up at the end. Next time, I will remember to include that in the instructions from the get-go.

On to the results...

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.

FALL into a good book

It's not feeling too much like fall yet in New England, but I still love looking at the display my 4th and 5th grade students helped create during their first week of library class this year. I supplied the tree, and they added leaves with their book recommendations on them. Students often head to this area after they've checked out their books, so hopefully some of the suggestions will inspire a new book check out!