Greetings!
Just twenty days until Christmas! I love Christmas stories and Christmas music. Last year at about this time I shared some of my favorite books. This year I have an idea for you. As you read your favorite book, do what you can to illustrate it either on a board or set up a diorama. I read a book titled “The Story of Holly and Ivy”. In that book, part of the story takes place in a toy shop and I decorate my display case to look just like that toy shop. I have done it every other year and now students in older grades come by and have fond memories of the story.
It may be that you have students read a Christmas book and for their book report could be to bring items or set up a diorama to illustrate that book. I like this because the teacher does not have to decorate so extensively, the students love to do it, and they also take it down and haul it away. I also like tying a display to a book or books.
What book or books do you read that might lend themselves to helping to decorate your classroom?
Have a great week.
Audrey
Monday, December 5, 2016
Monday, November 28, 2016
Coloring Books and Drawing Books
Greetings!
I am sure you are aware of the increase in popularity of coloring books. It seems that most magazines I get have a coloring page and coloring books for adults are everywhere. We have so much technology at our fingertips and I even find myself playing on my phone when I don’t really need to be on it. I can see how defaulting to a coloring book is something to do with my hands rather than playing on my phone.
Coloring books are not really ‘library materials’, but I bought one last year planning to make copies to hand out to the students. I read the copyright information and learned that I was not allowed to make copies, so decided to put it in the library and allow students to actually color in it! I have a note in the front that tells them they can color a page and when they are finished, they should put their name and the date in it. It has been relatively popular and is often checked out.
Some of the benefits of drawing and coloring include improved motor skills, stimulates creativity, better handwriting, improves focus and hand to eye coordination, stimulates self-expression, and helps stress relief.
Take a look in your library or classroom. Do you have any of the new coloring books or drawing books? If not, why not add some? You can bet that they will be checked out and used often.
Have a great week.
Audrey
I am sure you are aware of the increase in popularity of coloring books. It seems that most magazines I get have a coloring page and coloring books for adults are everywhere. We have so much technology at our fingertips and I even find myself playing on my phone when I don’t really need to be on it. I can see how defaulting to a coloring book is something to do with my hands rather than playing on my phone.
Coloring books are not really ‘library materials’, but I bought one last year planning to make copies to hand out to the students. I read the copyright information and learned that I was not allowed to make copies, so decided to put it in the library and allow students to actually color in it! I have a note in the front that tells them they can color a page and when they are finished, they should put their name and the date in it. It has been relatively popular and is often checked out.
Some of the benefits of drawing and coloring include improved motor skills, stimulates creativity, better handwriting, improves focus and hand to eye coordination, stimulates self-expression, and helps stress relief.
Take a look in your library or classroom. Do you have any of the new coloring books or drawing books? If not, why not add some? You can bet that they will be checked out and used often.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Coloring Books and Drawing Books
Greetings!
I am sure you are aware of the increase in popularity of coloring books. It seems that most magazines I get have a coloring page and coloring books for adults are everywhere. We have so much technology at our fingertips and I even find myself playing on my phone when I don’t really need to be on it. I can see how defaulting to a coloring book is something to do with my hands rather than playing on my phone.
Coloring books are not really ‘library materials’, but I bought one last year planning to make copies to hand out to the students. I read the copyright information and learned that I was not allowed to make copies, so decided to put it in the library and allow students to actually color in it! I have a note in the front that tells them they can color a page and when they are finished, they should put their name and the date in it. It has been relatively popular and is often checked out.
Some of the benefits of drawing and coloring include improved motor skills, stimulates creativity, better handwriting, improves focus and hand to eye coordination, stimulates self-expression, and helps stress relief.
Take a look in your library or classroom. Do you have any of the new coloring books or drawing books? If not, why not add some? You can bet that they will be checked out and used often.
Have a great week.
Audrey
I am sure you are aware of the increase in popularity of coloring books. It seems that most magazines I get have a coloring page and coloring books for adults are everywhere. We have so much technology at our fingertips and I even find myself playing on my phone when I don’t really need to be on it. I can see how defaulting to a coloring book is something to do with my hands rather than playing on my phone.
Coloring books are not really ‘library materials’, but I bought one last year planning to make copies to hand out to the students. I read the copyright information and learned that I was not allowed to make copies, so decided to put it in the library and allow students to actually color in it! I have a note in the front that tells them they can color a page and when they are finished, they should put their name and the date in it. It has been relatively popular and is often checked out.
Some of the benefits of drawing and coloring include improved motor skills, stimulates creativity, better handwriting, improves focus and hand to eye coordination, stimulates self-expression, and helps stress relief.
Take a look in your library or classroom. Do you have any of the new coloring books or drawing books? If not, why not add some? You can bet that they will be checked out and used often.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Monday, November 21, 2016
Hour of Code
Hello,
I have a very quick message for you this week. Mark in your lesson plans that December 5 – 9 is the week for Hour of Code. There are a lot of options for ‘games’ that help students learn coding. It would be good for you to play a bit on some of them and choose one or two for your students to do at school. I see four reasons for doing this.
1. Students can be overwhelmed with so many choices
2. Many students will try parts of this game and parts of that game and never really accomplish anything.
3. Students who are all working on the same program can help each other when needed.
4. Concerned parents can be assured that their student isn’t playing a violent game since the games have been handpicked by you for the school.
I noticed a few of the games that have names that suggest violence, but there are a lot of better options to choose from. Check out the website for more information.
I hope you all have a restful and relaxing Thanksgiving vacation.
Audrey
I have a very quick message for you this week. Mark in your lesson plans that December 5 – 9 is the week for Hour of Code. There are a lot of options for ‘games’ that help students learn coding. It would be good for you to play a bit on some of them and choose one or two for your students to do at school. I see four reasons for doing this.
1. Students can be overwhelmed with so many choices
2. Many students will try parts of this game and parts of that game and never really accomplish anything.
3. Students who are all working on the same program can help each other when needed.
4. Concerned parents can be assured that their student isn’t playing a violent game since the games have been handpicked by you for the school.
I noticed a few of the games that have names that suggest violence, but there are a lot of better options to choose from. Check out the website for more information.
I hope you all have a restful and relaxing Thanksgiving vacation.
Audrey
Monday, November 14, 2016
Washington Children's Choice Books
Greetings!
I have special activities for each level at our school. For the children in grades 1 and 2, I began reading select books from the Washington Children’s Choice Award list. I look over the current list and began selecting the books I want and crossing off the ones I don’t want. I read reviews on Amazon.com or GoodReads.com to get a pretty good idea of whether or not a book is right for our school and purchase the ones that look good. Most of the books are newer titles and we have found some real treasures over the years.
I started the Washington Children’s Choice program at Rogers in 2005 and we really enjoy it. During the library story time, I read one of the choices from the list. After reading all of the books, we have a voting day where each student votes for his or her favorite book. I line the books up and do a quick book talk to remind students of the story. Then each student gets a ballot and a pencil and they vote. I tally up the votes for each book and send our votes in. We also choose which one OUR school liked the best.
This year the list contains 20 books, and I have chosen 14 of them to read and keep at Rogers. I am going to share some of them with you and I may continue next week.
Grandma in Blue with Red Hat by Scott Menchin, pictures by Harry Bliss.
A young boy learns about what makes art special and is inspired to create his own masterpiece. Some children say that art is beautiful, it makes them laugh, it is different, it tells a story, and the boy connects all of these ideas with his grandmother who is beautiful, makes him laugh, is different, and tells a story, too. This is a sweet story about family and also includes some art, as well.
Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas by Lynne Cox, illustrated by Brian Floca.
This is the true story of an elephant seal that found her way to the river by Christchurch, New Zealand. She decided that that was where she belonged and even though she was relocated from the area, she returned again and again to live in her river in Christchurch. Finally, the town decided instead of trying to keep Elizabeth safe by relocating her, they would keep her safe by putting up a sign by the spot in the road where she liked to relax to keep motorists from harming her. The book also contains information about elephant seals and a website where you can find photos of the real Elizabeth, the elephant seal.
Job Wanted by Teresa Bateman, illustrated by Chris Sheban.
This is a fun little story about a dog who wants to get a job at the farm. The farmer says that dogs just eat and don’t give anything back, so no job. The dog asks if there is an opening for a cow. The farmer scratched his head and says, “Sure. But you’re not a cow.” The dog replies, “We’ll see about that. I’ll start work tomorrow.”
The next day the dog rounds up all the cattle in place for milking which saves the farmer a lot of time. Every day the dog does something to help the farmer and finally the farmer decided that there is one job opening that might work. The farm needs a good farm dog.
I, Fly: The Buzz About Flies and How Awesome They Are by Bridget Heos, illustrated by Jennifer Plecas.
The illustrations are cartoonish which may lead you to believe that this is just a made up story, but this book is about real information about flies and their life cycle. Of course, this is from the fly’s viewpoint, so he talks about the adorable little maggots, but I actually learned something about flies while reading this.
A Perfectly Messed-up Story written and illustrated by Patrick Mcdonnell.
This is the story of Louie who goes skipping merrily along until he comes to a blotch of jelly on the page. The illustrations are drawings, but the jelly looks like it was photographed and actually appears to be real jelly. Then a blotch of peanut butter is plopped in the story, fingerprints, orange juice, and crayons markings. All of these ruin Louie’s story and he feels like he is just a messy old book that will end up in some garage sale.
This is a great book to read and then talk about the proper care of books.
I’m New Here written and illustrated by Anne Sibley O’Brien.
Imagine what it would feel like to go to school somewhere where you don’t know the language, or the customs, or have any friends. This book opens with a page that says, “I am new here.” A little girl is standing there and a speech balloon says, “Class, this is Maria.” We are introduced in the same way to Jin, and Fatimah. The children each remember what school was like back home.
Back home I knew the language. Here there are new words. I can’t understand them.
Back home I could read and write. Here there are new letters.
Back home I was part of the class. I knew just what to do. Here there are new ways. I cannot find my place.
Here I am alone. Here I am confused. Here I am sad.
Then the story continues as each child learns to speak the language, write the new words, and learning the new ways of their new school. Slowly, but surely they begin to make friends, find their place, and fit in. The book ends with the positive feelings of “Here there are new beginnings. Here there is a place for me. Here is a new home.”
If you have students that are new to your school from another country, this simple story may help your students understand what it is like to be new at a school.
Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick, illustrated by Sophie Blackall.
You might think this is about Winnie-the-Pooh, but it actually begins before that. Harry Colebourn is a veterinarian who is going to war in 1914 to care for the horses. He sees a cub and rescues her from a trapper and names her Winnie after his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Winnie becomes the mascot of the regiment until she is too big to move out with them. Harry takes her to the London Zoo and leaves her there. Winnie has a good life and is very popular with all the people who come to see here, but one little boy especially, falls in love with her. His name is Christopher Robin Milne and he names his stuffed bear, Winnie-the-Pooh.
The author is the great granddaughter of Harry Colebourn and is telling her family story in this book. Photos of Winnie and Harry, and even Christopher Robin are included which adds greatly to the story. This book won the 2016 Caldecott Medal.
I hope you fine something here that you will love to add to your library. Have a great week.
Audrey
I have special activities for each level at our school. For the children in grades 1 and 2, I began reading select books from the Washington Children’s Choice Award list. I look over the current list and began selecting the books I want and crossing off the ones I don’t want. I read reviews on Amazon.com or GoodReads.com to get a pretty good idea of whether or not a book is right for our school and purchase the ones that look good. Most of the books are newer titles and we have found some real treasures over the years.
I started the Washington Children’s Choice program at Rogers in 2005 and we really enjoy it. During the library story time, I read one of the choices from the list. After reading all of the books, we have a voting day where each student votes for his or her favorite book. I line the books up and do a quick book talk to remind students of the story. Then each student gets a ballot and a pencil and they vote. I tally up the votes for each book and send our votes in. We also choose which one OUR school liked the best.
This year the list contains 20 books, and I have chosen 14 of them to read and keep at Rogers. I am going to share some of them with you and I may continue next week.
Grandma in Blue with Red Hat by Scott Menchin, pictures by Harry Bliss.
A young boy learns about what makes art special and is inspired to create his own masterpiece. Some children say that art is beautiful, it makes them laugh, it is different, it tells a story, and the boy connects all of these ideas with his grandmother who is beautiful, makes him laugh, is different, and tells a story, too. This is a sweet story about family and also includes some art, as well.
Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas by Lynne Cox, illustrated by Brian Floca.
This is the true story of an elephant seal that found her way to the river by Christchurch, New Zealand. She decided that that was where she belonged and even though she was relocated from the area, she returned again and again to live in her river in Christchurch. Finally, the town decided instead of trying to keep Elizabeth safe by relocating her, they would keep her safe by putting up a sign by the spot in the road where she liked to relax to keep motorists from harming her. The book also contains information about elephant seals and a website where you can find photos of the real Elizabeth, the elephant seal.
Job Wanted by Teresa Bateman, illustrated by Chris Sheban.
This is a fun little story about a dog who wants to get a job at the farm. The farmer says that dogs just eat and don’t give anything back, so no job. The dog asks if there is an opening for a cow. The farmer scratched his head and says, “Sure. But you’re not a cow.” The dog replies, “We’ll see about that. I’ll start work tomorrow.”
The next day the dog rounds up all the cattle in place for milking which saves the farmer a lot of time. Every day the dog does something to help the farmer and finally the farmer decided that there is one job opening that might work. The farm needs a good farm dog.
I, Fly: The Buzz About Flies and How Awesome They Are by Bridget Heos, illustrated by Jennifer Plecas.
The illustrations are cartoonish which may lead you to believe that this is just a made up story, but this book is about real information about flies and their life cycle. Of course, this is from the fly’s viewpoint, so he talks about the adorable little maggots, but I actually learned something about flies while reading this.
A Perfectly Messed-up Story written and illustrated by Patrick Mcdonnell.
This is the story of Louie who goes skipping merrily along until he comes to a blotch of jelly on the page. The illustrations are drawings, but the jelly looks like it was photographed and actually appears to be real jelly. Then a blotch of peanut butter is plopped in the story, fingerprints, orange juice, and crayons markings. All of these ruin Louie’s story and he feels like he is just a messy old book that will end up in some garage sale.
This is a great book to read and then talk about the proper care of books.
I’m New Here written and illustrated by Anne Sibley O’Brien.
Imagine what it would feel like to go to school somewhere where you don’t know the language, or the customs, or have any friends. This book opens with a page that says, “I am new here.” A little girl is standing there and a speech balloon says, “Class, this is Maria.” We are introduced in the same way to Jin, and Fatimah. The children each remember what school was like back home.
Back home I knew the language. Here there are new words. I can’t understand them.
Back home I could read and write. Here there are new letters.
Back home I was part of the class. I knew just what to do. Here there are new ways. I cannot find my place.
Here I am alone. Here I am confused. Here I am sad.
Then the story continues as each child learns to speak the language, write the new words, and learning the new ways of their new school. Slowly, but surely they begin to make friends, find their place, and fit in. The book ends with the positive feelings of “Here there are new beginnings. Here there is a place for me. Here is a new home.”
If you have students that are new to your school from another country, this simple story may help your students understand what it is like to be new at a school.
Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick, illustrated by Sophie Blackall.
You might think this is about Winnie-the-Pooh, but it actually begins before that. Harry Colebourn is a veterinarian who is going to war in 1914 to care for the horses. He sees a cub and rescues her from a trapper and names her Winnie after his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Winnie becomes the mascot of the regiment until she is too big to move out with them. Harry takes her to the London Zoo and leaves her there. Winnie has a good life and is very popular with all the people who come to see here, but one little boy especially, falls in love with her. His name is Christopher Robin Milne and he names his stuffed bear, Winnie-the-Pooh.
The author is the great granddaughter of Harry Colebourn and is telling her family story in this book. Photos of Winnie and Harry, and even Christopher Robin are included which adds greatly to the story. This book won the 2016 Caldecott Medal.
I hope you fine something here that you will love to add to your library. Have a great week.
Audrey
Monday, November 7, 2016
Reading Aloud Hints
Greetings,
I love to read aloud to groups of children. I will blow my own horn here since most of you have not met me and do not know my strengths. This is one of my strengths. I am an excellent oral reader. Over the years I have heard many people read aloud and I have come to the realization that few of them are excellent oral readers. If you are an excellent oral reader, then you are probably doing all the things I will be talking about. Congratulations! You could just stop reading right here. However, if you continue reading, you could help me and add any tips I may have missed.
When reading aloud to children (or anyone) choose a book that you like. You will enjoy it more and therefore will be more involved and read it better.
First, read the book through. Look for hard words and learn to pronounce them correctly. Also, learn what the word means and be able to explain it to the age you are reading. If not, you may be a bit embarrassed when a first grader asks, “What does ‘miry clay’ mean? For me it is something that I know intuitively, but I need some time to come up with the descriptive words that a young child would understand better. If I have to stop and stumble around, I feel a bit foolish that I can’t explain it right away. So, to avoid this, look it up ahead of time and find a description for children to understand. Write it on a small post-it and stick it in the book right by the word. If no one asks, give the explanation anyway. Just imagine how brilliant you will appear to the children! “Our teachers knows all the words in the dictionary!” If you don’t have time, keep a dictionary beside you. When asked for a meaning, say, “Let’s look it up and see what the dictionary says.” Now you are modeling good reading skills. When we see a word we don’t know, we stop and look it up. It adds to the story. Again, you still look brilliant.
Second, use your voice to add interest. Think of it as a performance, since that really is what it is. No one wants to hear a monotone voice reading. As you read, watch for different punctuation marks that indicate pauses, breaks, excitement, questions, and so forth. Use your voice to show these things. If the character whispers, you whisper. If the character is yelling, raise your voice. If the character is crying, show that in your voice. If the character is very young, change your voice to mimic that. Speak somewhat higher and a little childishly. If a man is talking, lower your voice a bit. I’m sure you get the idea.
Third, set a timer and then read the book aloud. This accomplishes two things. It lets you know how much time you will need to actually read the book. If you know ahead of time that you won’t be able to finish the story in one sitting, you can find a good place to stop. Also, it is good practice for the words and phrases that might be problematic, and good practice to use your voice to add interest to the story.
You are the model for the children in your classroom. If you don’t use expression in your reading, how can you expect them to do it? They need to hear it from you.
I hope there is something here that has been helpful to you. Good luck in your reading.
Have a great week!
Audrey
PS. Food for thought. What do you think you (and I) might do to improve your oral Bible reading? We tend to have a particular way we read the Bible because we have heard it read that way all our lives. However, it can be a little boring. What can we do to help change this idea?
I love to read aloud to groups of children. I will blow my own horn here since most of you have not met me and do not know my strengths. This is one of my strengths. I am an excellent oral reader. Over the years I have heard many people read aloud and I have come to the realization that few of them are excellent oral readers. If you are an excellent oral reader, then you are probably doing all the things I will be talking about. Congratulations! You could just stop reading right here. However, if you continue reading, you could help me and add any tips I may have missed.
When reading aloud to children (or anyone) choose a book that you like. You will enjoy it more and therefore will be more involved and read it better.
First, read the book through. Look for hard words and learn to pronounce them correctly. Also, learn what the word means and be able to explain it to the age you are reading. If not, you may be a bit embarrassed when a first grader asks, “What does ‘miry clay’ mean? For me it is something that I know intuitively, but I need some time to come up with the descriptive words that a young child would understand better. If I have to stop and stumble around, I feel a bit foolish that I can’t explain it right away. So, to avoid this, look it up ahead of time and find a description for children to understand. Write it on a small post-it and stick it in the book right by the word. If no one asks, give the explanation anyway. Just imagine how brilliant you will appear to the children! “Our teachers knows all the words in the dictionary!” If you don’t have time, keep a dictionary beside you. When asked for a meaning, say, “Let’s look it up and see what the dictionary says.” Now you are modeling good reading skills. When we see a word we don’t know, we stop and look it up. It adds to the story. Again, you still look brilliant.
Second, use your voice to add interest. Think of it as a performance, since that really is what it is. No one wants to hear a monotone voice reading. As you read, watch for different punctuation marks that indicate pauses, breaks, excitement, questions, and so forth. Use your voice to show these things. If the character whispers, you whisper. If the character is yelling, raise your voice. If the character is crying, show that in your voice. If the character is very young, change your voice to mimic that. Speak somewhat higher and a little childishly. If a man is talking, lower your voice a bit. I’m sure you get the idea.
Third, set a timer and then read the book aloud. This accomplishes two things. It lets you know how much time you will need to actually read the book. If you know ahead of time that you won’t be able to finish the story in one sitting, you can find a good place to stop. Also, it is good practice for the words and phrases that might be problematic, and good practice to use your voice to add interest to the story.
You are the model for the children in your classroom. If you don’t use expression in your reading, how can you expect them to do it? They need to hear it from you.
I hope there is something here that has been helpful to you. Good luck in your reading.
Have a great week!
Audrey
PS. Food for thought. What do you think you (and I) might do to improve your oral Bible reading? We tend to have a particular way we read the Bible because we have heard it read that way all our lives. However, it can be a little boring. What can we do to help change this idea?
Monday, October 31, 2016
Scholastic Book Fair Books
Hello,
Our Scholastic Book Fair is running this week and I found a few titles that I thought you might like.
There are a number of books about war which seem to be very attractive to the boys at our school. One is a true story about Danish teenage boys are unhappy that the adults do not resist the Nazi occupation, so they start their own ‘Nazi Resistance’ Club named after Winston Churchill. They sabotage the Nazis and are eventually discovered and imprisoned. This gets the adults going, so they began to also resist. The title is The Boys Who Challenged Hitler.
Choosing Courage tells true stories of courageous acts, and War Dogs gives information and stories about the dogs who help our soldiers in the field.
Deborah Hopkinson is well-known for her research into her non-fiction books. If I see her name on a book, I purchase it knowing it will be interesting and also true. At our book fair, there are two books by her; Titanic and Courage and Defiance. Courage and Defiance is about spies, saboteurs, and survivors in World War 2 in Denmark. I assume you can guess what the Titanic book is about, but this book contains stories about the survivors of the Titanic, as well as information. I may have told you about this one in a previous post.
There is one World War 2 novel that has a great cover. The Enemy Above is about a boy who has been hiding and trying not to be discovered, but finally has had enough and doesn’t try to hide any longer. It sounded quite exciting.
There are three picture books that I especially like. Born in the Wild has lovely illustrations about baby wild animals along with short paragraphs that give information about each baby animal. The end of the book has a few pages with more information on each animal for the parent reader. Bugs in my Hair is about a child who gets lice. It is funny, informative, and may help students learn more about lice and how NOT to get it! The illustrations are comical and the words are as well. It would be a good class book that may help the stigma of lice lessen. Finding Winnie is the true story of that famous bear, Winnie the Pooh. We learn the background of Christopher Robin and how he became fascinated with Winnie.
The last one is 365 Things to do With Lego Bricks. Legos are a big thing here and I have a lot of books about Legos. They all are out to students most of the time, but this one is new, so I guess I will be adding it to our collection.
I hope you enjoy these books. If you have a Scholastic book fair at your school, you will be able to take a closer look. If you don’t have Scholastic book fair, check your local public schools. They might host one and you would be welcome to visit their fair and buy books. You can also get these through the Scholastic site or pretty much any book store.
Enjoy!
Audrey
Our Scholastic Book Fair is running this week and I found a few titles that I thought you might like.
There are a number of books about war which seem to be very attractive to the boys at our school. One is a true story about Danish teenage boys are unhappy that the adults do not resist the Nazi occupation, so they start their own ‘Nazi Resistance’ Club named after Winston Churchill. They sabotage the Nazis and are eventually discovered and imprisoned. This gets the adults going, so they began to also resist. The title is The Boys Who Challenged Hitler.
Choosing Courage tells true stories of courageous acts, and War Dogs gives information and stories about the dogs who help our soldiers in the field.
Deborah Hopkinson is well-known for her research into her non-fiction books. If I see her name on a book, I purchase it knowing it will be interesting and also true. At our book fair, there are two books by her; Titanic and Courage and Defiance. Courage and Defiance is about spies, saboteurs, and survivors in World War 2 in Denmark. I assume you can guess what the Titanic book is about, but this book contains stories about the survivors of the Titanic, as well as information. I may have told you about this one in a previous post.
There is one World War 2 novel that has a great cover. The Enemy Above is about a boy who has been hiding and trying not to be discovered, but finally has had enough and doesn’t try to hide any longer. It sounded quite exciting.
There are three picture books that I especially like. Born in the Wild has lovely illustrations about baby wild animals along with short paragraphs that give information about each baby animal. The end of the book has a few pages with more information on each animal for the parent reader. Bugs in my Hair is about a child who gets lice. It is funny, informative, and may help students learn more about lice and how NOT to get it! The illustrations are comical and the words are as well. It would be a good class book that may help the stigma of lice lessen. Finding Winnie is the true story of that famous bear, Winnie the Pooh. We learn the background of Christopher Robin and how he became fascinated with Winnie.
The last one is 365 Things to do With Lego Bricks. Legos are a big thing here and I have a lot of books about Legos. They all are out to students most of the time, but this one is new, so I guess I will be adding it to our collection.
I hope you enjoy these books. If you have a Scholastic book fair at your school, you will be able to take a closer look. If you don’t have Scholastic book fair, check your local public schools. They might host one and you would be welcome to visit their fair and buy books. You can also get these through the Scholastic site or pretty much any book store.
Enjoy!
Audrey
Monday, October 24, 2016
Movies in the Library?
Greetings!
We have had a number of VHS tapes in our school library that were used years ago by teachers who wanted something special for a class party or just before vacation or to illustrate a lit set that they had read. About 5 or more years ago, I began to buy only DVDs rather than VHS because fewer and fewer teachers could play VHS in their classrooms. I began replacing the ones that teachers used regularly and added more that were requested, and now I have a decent DVD section for our teachers to use.
I have a nice collection of Reading Rainbow DVDs for teachers to use. I also have some Bill Nye, Science Guy plus other science subjects that teachers have requested. A couple of years ago, our junior high science teachers asked if I had any movies about DNA, cells, and diseases. I searched and found some that were age-appropriate and added them to our collection.
Most of the DVDs I acquired through Library Video, an educational resource. If you order from them, you will receive regular catalogs. I believe that you can also click and view clips from some of the movies.
Feature Films for Families has many feature length movies that have been ‘cleaned up’ for family viewing. Scenes that may contain language issues or sex issues have been altered or deleted. They advertise they have family movies with family values. It is another option for choosing movies with good themes. When I checked their website, I noticed a link to request a free DVD.
I know that there is a lot of material available through YouTube and it is quick to view from there. You might also check out TeacherTube that is geared toward educational sources.
So what happened to our old VHS tapes? A few years ago, I moved most of the VHS movies to a more central location in the library and allowed students to check them out. Each year we have noticed that fewer kids check them out and this year I am replacing them with DVDs for children and families to check out. I took the VHS tapes and evaluated each one for content to see if the exact title might still be a good option to have in the library. Then I searched in Library Video for titles. After a number of misses, I then went to Amazon.com and was able to find most of the titles available. This taught me to search multiple sites to find what I wanted and to price check. Amazon.com was either very similar or cheaper. (Plus – I am a Prime member and got free shipping!)
If you come to visit my library, you will find very few VHS tapes. They are the ones that I have been unable to replace in DVD format, but I haven’t given up yet!
Have a great week!
Audrey
Sources for movies:
1. Library Video – for educational and entertainment DVDs
2. Feature Films for Families - http://www.familytv.com/
3. Amazon.com - if you know what you are looking for
4. Commonsensemedia.com - to review movies and evaluate appropriateness
We have had a number of VHS tapes in our school library that were used years ago by teachers who wanted something special for a class party or just before vacation or to illustrate a lit set that they had read. About 5 or more years ago, I began to buy only DVDs rather than VHS because fewer and fewer teachers could play VHS in their classrooms. I began replacing the ones that teachers used regularly and added more that were requested, and now I have a decent DVD section for our teachers to use.
I have a nice collection of Reading Rainbow DVDs for teachers to use. I also have some Bill Nye, Science Guy plus other science subjects that teachers have requested. A couple of years ago, our junior high science teachers asked if I had any movies about DNA, cells, and diseases. I searched and found some that were age-appropriate and added them to our collection.
Most of the DVDs I acquired through Library Video, an educational resource. If you order from them, you will receive regular catalogs. I believe that you can also click and view clips from some of the movies.
Feature Films for Families has many feature length movies that have been ‘cleaned up’ for family viewing. Scenes that may contain language issues or sex issues have been altered or deleted. They advertise they have family movies with family values. It is another option for choosing movies with good themes. When I checked their website, I noticed a link to request a free DVD.
I know that there is a lot of material available through YouTube and it is quick to view from there. You might also check out TeacherTube that is geared toward educational sources.
So what happened to our old VHS tapes? A few years ago, I moved most of the VHS movies to a more central location in the library and allowed students to check them out. Each year we have noticed that fewer kids check them out and this year I am replacing them with DVDs for children and families to check out. I took the VHS tapes and evaluated each one for content to see if the exact title might still be a good option to have in the library. Then I searched in Library Video for titles. After a number of misses, I then went to Amazon.com and was able to find most of the titles available. This taught me to search multiple sites to find what I wanted and to price check. Amazon.com was either very similar or cheaper. (Plus – I am a Prime member and got free shipping!)
If you come to visit my library, you will find very few VHS tapes. They are the ones that I have been unable to replace in DVD format, but I haven’t given up yet!
Have a great week!
Audrey
Sources for movies:
1. Library Video – for educational and entertainment DVDs
2. Feature Films for Families - http://www.familytv.com/
3. Amazon.com - if you know what you are looking for
4. Commonsensemedia.com - to review movies and evaluate appropriateness
Monday, October 17, 2016
Ideas for Weeding Your Library
Hello,
Last week I was in Seattle for a conference titled “101 Best Strategies to Increase the Effectiveness of Your School Library Program”. It was a BER (Bureau of Education and Research) seminar. If you have never been to one of these, I urge you to attend one if at all possible. They have wonderful presenters and they are quite entertaining.
Deborah Ford was the presenter for this seminar. I have had the pleasure of attending one of her BER Seminars previously, so I knew this would be good.
She spoke to us about the importance of weeding our libraries and identifying our worst areas. One great idea that I took away was to buy while you weed. When you find a book that is important to your library, but is either too tattered or missing pages, or too old, put it on your list to buy an updated copy.
Since weeding is such a difficult job for most of us, Deb suggests we have a five-year plan. This would take the library in sections to weed and renew titles as needed, instead of trying to do it all at once. That actually makes a lot more sense and isn’t so overwhelming.
Another idea about weeding is to enlist experts for help. For example, it may be hard to know what is worthwhile in the chemistry section. If you teach in a small school, you may have a parent who is a chemist. Why not ask them to come in and check out that section and help you weed it? If you are in a larger school, find the science teacher and ask him or her to go through those sections to evaluate what is worthy of shelf space or not. Put the books on a table to make it easier for them and ask them for 5 – 10 minutes of their time to look them over. This also has the added benefit of letting your science teacher know what resources the library has. Maybe those books will be used a bit more often.
If you are unsure of yourself weeding your library and really don’t know what to weed, check out my blog. Sdalibrarian.blogspot.com. In 2015 I wrote weekly posts beginning in January with a quick weeding criteria, then in March, April, and May with one section at a time. My posts describe the section and what to weed out. Feel free to follow me or at least bookmark the site so you can refer to it as needed. Just so you know, I put on the blog the same thing I post to you each week. It is a place to find all my weekly emails since I began in 2009.
I hope you have a great week.
Audrey
Last week I was in Seattle for a conference titled “101 Best Strategies to Increase the Effectiveness of Your School Library Program”. It was a BER (Bureau of Education and Research) seminar. If you have never been to one of these, I urge you to attend one if at all possible. They have wonderful presenters and they are quite entertaining.
Deborah Ford was the presenter for this seminar. I have had the pleasure of attending one of her BER Seminars previously, so I knew this would be good.
She spoke to us about the importance of weeding our libraries and identifying our worst areas. One great idea that I took away was to buy while you weed. When you find a book that is important to your library, but is either too tattered or missing pages, or too old, put it on your list to buy an updated copy.
Since weeding is such a difficult job for most of us, Deb suggests we have a five-year plan. This would take the library in sections to weed and renew titles as needed, instead of trying to do it all at once. That actually makes a lot more sense and isn’t so overwhelming.
Another idea about weeding is to enlist experts for help. For example, it may be hard to know what is worthwhile in the chemistry section. If you teach in a small school, you may have a parent who is a chemist. Why not ask them to come in and check out that section and help you weed it? If you are in a larger school, find the science teacher and ask him or her to go through those sections to evaluate what is worthy of shelf space or not. Put the books on a table to make it easier for them and ask them for 5 – 10 minutes of their time to look them over. This also has the added benefit of letting your science teacher know what resources the library has. Maybe those books will be used a bit more often.
If you are unsure of yourself weeding your library and really don’t know what to weed, check out my blog. Sdalibrarian.blogspot.com. In 2015 I wrote weekly posts beginning in January with a quick weeding criteria, then in March, April, and May with one section at a time. My posts describe the section and what to weed out. Feel free to follow me or at least bookmark the site so you can refer to it as needed. Just so you know, I put on the blog the same thing I post to you each week. It is a place to find all my weekly emails since I began in 2009.
I hope you have a great week.
Audrey
Monday, October 3, 2016
Library Collection Guidelines
Hello!
I am often asked if there is a guideline that specifies how many of each kind of book should we have in our libraries. There is, but remember that it is just a guideline.
Today I am going to have a quick review of Dewey and approximately how many books you should have in each section.
The 000s consist of general information. This is information that cannot be catalogued in one section. Examples would include Question and Answer books with questions on a variety of subjects. I show our students one and comment that the book has questions on astronomy, animals, plants, buildings, history, holidays, and more, so where would be put it? In general information. This section would have about 2 – 5% of your K – 8 library. For a small library of about 4000 books, this would be about 80 – 200 books.
The 100s about books on philosophy, or books about me. We use the terms ‘how I think and feel’ to help describe this section. This is the smallest section consisting of 0.5% of the library or about 20 books. Some titles we have read like this: How Do I Deal with Lying?, and How Do I Deal with Competitiveness?
In the 200s, we have books about religion. Bible stories, books about Bible characters, books about other religions, Adventist books, devotionals, and such belong here. In our schools, we will have many more than the guidelines suggest, so don’t worry. The suggestion is about 1 – 2% or about 40 – 80 books.
The 300s are the Social Science books. There are many categories in this section including holidays, military, careers, recycling, education, folklore, and more. This section should have about 5 – 10% of your library. That would be approximately 200 – 400 books, so it is a medium-size section.
In the 400s, we find books about Language including dictionaries, English grammar, and other languages. We like the First 100 Words in . . . series. Those books are great to use to learn words since they have pictures of common items with the foreign word by the picture. A few years ago I asked the students what languages they would like to see in our library and added some of their ideas. Try to have about 0.5% here, about 20 books.
Pure Science is the 500s. This is one of our larger sections. Check each of the sciences and try to have books for each subject. We have books on Science Fairs, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, mammals, birds, insects, fish, fossils, dinosaurs, math, plants, and more. This section should include about 10% of your library, or 400 books.
Applied Science also should include about the same number of books – 400. The 600s include pets, buildings, food, cookbooks, medicine, cars and other vehicles, trains, ships, inventions, survival, agriculture, manufacturing, toys, and more.
The 700s are Fine Arts and Recreation including crafts, hobbies, art, artists, music, sports, and games, riddles, joke books, and more. About 5% of the library or 200 books in this section are the guidelines.
The 800s include poetry and literature or stories. This is most likely your largest section taking about 25% of your library. Check your shelves and see if you have poetry books. That is often a section that is either missing or quite low when I visit other libraries. Make sure that the poetry books have kid-friendly books available. Shel Silverstein is a good choice, but there are other books that work nicely, too. All the fiction or chapter story books go here. You’ll have about 1000 here.
The 900s are the History, Geography, and Biography books. This would be about 20% of your library or 800 books. Our library separates the Biography into its own section, and I believe that makes it easier for children to find biographies, and I recommend you do the same.
That ends the Dewey section, but you still need a healthy picture book section. Some people call these ‘Easy’ books, but for a number of years librarians have changed the term to ‘Everybody’ books because they are for everybody. The guidelines suggest about 25% of your library consist of picture books so that would be about 1000.
Now, I am well aware that these percentages do NOT add up to 100%. They are guidelines. I would suggest that you check your libraries and see if there are any areas where you are quite low or missing subjects and work to fill in any gaps or holes you might have.
If you need suggestions for your gaps, please contact me. You might not be the only one. I may be able to help.
Have a great week!
Audrey
I am often asked if there is a guideline that specifies how many of each kind of book should we have in our libraries. There is, but remember that it is just a guideline.
Today I am going to have a quick review of Dewey and approximately how many books you should have in each section.
The 000s consist of general information. This is information that cannot be catalogued in one section. Examples would include Question and Answer books with questions on a variety of subjects. I show our students one and comment that the book has questions on astronomy, animals, plants, buildings, history, holidays, and more, so where would be put it? In general information. This section would have about 2 – 5% of your K – 8 library. For a small library of about 4000 books, this would be about 80 – 200 books.
The 100s about books on philosophy, or books about me. We use the terms ‘how I think and feel’ to help describe this section. This is the smallest section consisting of 0.5% of the library or about 20 books. Some titles we have read like this: How Do I Deal with Lying?, and How Do I Deal with Competitiveness?
In the 200s, we have books about religion. Bible stories, books about Bible characters, books about other religions, Adventist books, devotionals, and such belong here. In our schools, we will have many more than the guidelines suggest, so don’t worry. The suggestion is about 1 – 2% or about 40 – 80 books.
The 300s are the Social Science books. There are many categories in this section including holidays, military, careers, recycling, education, folklore, and more. This section should have about 5 – 10% of your library. That would be approximately 200 – 400 books, so it is a medium-size section.
In the 400s, we find books about Language including dictionaries, English grammar, and other languages. We like the First 100 Words in . . . series. Those books are great to use to learn words since they have pictures of common items with the foreign word by the picture. A few years ago I asked the students what languages they would like to see in our library and added some of their ideas. Try to have about 0.5% here, about 20 books.
Pure Science is the 500s. This is one of our larger sections. Check each of the sciences and try to have books for each subject. We have books on Science Fairs, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, mammals, birds, insects, fish, fossils, dinosaurs, math, plants, and more. This section should include about 10% of your library, or 400 books.
Applied Science also should include about the same number of books – 400. The 600s include pets, buildings, food, cookbooks, medicine, cars and other vehicles, trains, ships, inventions, survival, agriculture, manufacturing, toys, and more.
The 700s are Fine Arts and Recreation including crafts, hobbies, art, artists, music, sports, and games, riddles, joke books, and more. About 5% of the library or 200 books in this section are the guidelines.
The 800s include poetry and literature or stories. This is most likely your largest section taking about 25% of your library. Check your shelves and see if you have poetry books. That is often a section that is either missing or quite low when I visit other libraries. Make sure that the poetry books have kid-friendly books available. Shel Silverstein is a good choice, but there are other books that work nicely, too. All the fiction or chapter story books go here. You’ll have about 1000 here.
The 900s are the History, Geography, and Biography books. This would be about 20% of your library or 800 books. Our library separates the Biography into its own section, and I believe that makes it easier for children to find biographies, and I recommend you do the same.
That ends the Dewey section, but you still need a healthy picture book section. Some people call these ‘Easy’ books, but for a number of years librarians have changed the term to ‘Everybody’ books because they are for everybody. The guidelines suggest about 25% of your library consist of picture books so that would be about 1000.
Now, I am well aware that these percentages do NOT add up to 100%. They are guidelines. I would suggest that you check your libraries and see if there are any areas where you are quite low or missing subjects and work to fill in any gaps or holes you might have.
If you need suggestions for your gaps, please contact me. You might not be the only one. I may be able to help.
Have a great week!
Audrey
Monday, September 26, 2016
New Books
Greetings!
Some of you have been asking for new books. I have three to share with you today that we are using for our Sunflower Award. I am partnering with our seventh and eighth grade language arts teacher who is giving advanced reading credit to any and all students who read a minimum of twelve of our Sunflower books. These three are all published in 2016, so they are quite new and most likely your students will not have read them. Although we are saving them for the seventh and eighth graders, you will likely have students in the fifth and sixth grades that will enjoy them, as well.
Kid Owner by Tim Green
Take Ryan, 12-year-old boy who wants to play middle school football, add in a mother who does not want her son to play football. Then add in a father that Ryan never knew who unexpectedly dies and leaves to Ryan the Dallas Cowboys football team. Of course, Ryan is thrilled beyond belief, but owning the Cowboys does not bring him friendship. He now has many more complicated problems to deal with and then to top it off, he must deal with a jealous stepmother and half-brother he knew nothing about. His stepmother wants her son to have the Cowboys and is working the legal system to get this inheritance changed. What will happen to Ryan? Will he remain the ‘kid owner’ or will the football team be taken from him?
A Bandit’s Tale: The Muddled Misadventures of a Pickpocket by Deborah Hopkinson
Rocco, an 11-year-old boy, is sold by his parents to a *padrone and brought to the United States from Italy to work in the streets. His family believes the padrone is honorable man and do not realize that Rocco must entertain people in the streets trying to earn money. The padrone takes the money and if Rocco and the other boys do not bring in at least a dollar a day, they are beaten, starved, and punished in other ways. Rocco meets a pickpocket and thinks that he would be better off if he begins to include this new method of earning money. Is Rocco a poor boy sold to a villain or is he a scoundrel who deserves what he gets?
This story by Deborah Hopkinson takes the reader back to nineteenth century New York where we learn what it was like to live back then. Child labor, immigration, animal cruelty are all topics that are addressed in this story.
*a contract labor system that many immigrants used to find employment in the United States.
Sweet Home Alaska by Carole Estby Dagg
Terpsichore loves Laura Ingalls Wilder books and wants to be a pioneer. Her chance comes when the family decide to move from Wisconsin to Alaska to be pioneers. Terpsichore is loving this new adventure and falls in love with Alaska. The only problem is her mother who is homesick for Wisconsin and polite society. Terpsichore hatches a plan to convince her mother that Alaska can be a wonderful, civilized home.
This story is based on Alaska’s real life Palmer Colony.
I will have more in a few weeks. I just need to get them read, first. Thank goodness I have some parents who help read them for me!
Have a great week!
Audrey
Some of you have been asking for new books. I have three to share with you today that we are using for our Sunflower Award. I am partnering with our seventh and eighth grade language arts teacher who is giving advanced reading credit to any and all students who read a minimum of twelve of our Sunflower books. These three are all published in 2016, so they are quite new and most likely your students will not have read them. Although we are saving them for the seventh and eighth graders, you will likely have students in the fifth and sixth grades that will enjoy them, as well.
Kid Owner by Tim Green
Take Ryan, 12-year-old boy who wants to play middle school football, add in a mother who does not want her son to play football. Then add in a father that Ryan never knew who unexpectedly dies and leaves to Ryan the Dallas Cowboys football team. Of course, Ryan is thrilled beyond belief, but owning the Cowboys does not bring him friendship. He now has many more complicated problems to deal with and then to top it off, he must deal with a jealous stepmother and half-brother he knew nothing about. His stepmother wants her son to have the Cowboys and is working the legal system to get this inheritance changed. What will happen to Ryan? Will he remain the ‘kid owner’ or will the football team be taken from him?
A Bandit’s Tale: The Muddled Misadventures of a Pickpocket by Deborah Hopkinson
Rocco, an 11-year-old boy, is sold by his parents to a *padrone and brought to the United States from Italy to work in the streets. His family believes the padrone is honorable man and do not realize that Rocco must entertain people in the streets trying to earn money. The padrone takes the money and if Rocco and the other boys do not bring in at least a dollar a day, they are beaten, starved, and punished in other ways. Rocco meets a pickpocket and thinks that he would be better off if he begins to include this new method of earning money. Is Rocco a poor boy sold to a villain or is he a scoundrel who deserves what he gets?
This story by Deborah Hopkinson takes the reader back to nineteenth century New York where we learn what it was like to live back then. Child labor, immigration, animal cruelty are all topics that are addressed in this story.
*a contract labor system that many immigrants used to find employment in the United States.
Sweet Home Alaska by Carole Estby Dagg
Terpsichore loves Laura Ingalls Wilder books and wants to be a pioneer. Her chance comes when the family decide to move from Wisconsin to Alaska to be pioneers. Terpsichore is loving this new adventure and falls in love with Alaska. The only problem is her mother who is homesick for Wisconsin and polite society. Terpsichore hatches a plan to convince her mother that Alaska can be a wonderful, civilized home.
This story is based on Alaska’s real life Palmer Colony.
I will have more in a few weeks. I just need to get them read, first. Thank goodness I have some parents who help read them for me!
Have a great week!
Audrey
Monday, September 19, 2016
Motivating Reading
Greetings!
I have a real burden for encouraging children to read in their leisure time. I discovered I was really good at this when I first started teaching in a two teacher school in Tallahassee, FL. . I had seventeen students in grades 5 – 8. All my students could read, but only one or two really would read. I implemented three simple and easy things in my classroom and by the end of the year all but one student (who had learning differences) were reading well and enjoyed it. Over the four years I was there, parents and grandparents came to me and expressed their appreciation for helping their children learn to enjoy reading.
My three simple and easy things are simple and easy because they do not require any lesson plans, very little preparation, and students learn quickly to love reading which really makes them lifelong readers.
What are these simple and easy things? I have mentioned these in previous posts, but I also believe that it does not hurt to repeat them every now and then.
Simple Thing 1: I had a Sustained Silent Reading time every day. Call it what you like, but have it every day. Schedule it like your other classes. Do not treat it like a leftover activity that you’ll do if you have time. If you are running low on time, shorten your time for that day, but please do not skip it if at all possible. By putting it on the schedule, you are silently telling students that this is important. If you skip it regularly, you send the message that it is not very important. If it is not on the schedule, it can be easy to forget. (My ‘rules’ for the silent reading time are listed at the end of this email.)
In my classes, this time is silent and students and I are reading. Students get ready by getting enough books or reading material to have at their desks so they don’t have to get up and get more. If you allow students to get up to get more, they distract others and little reading is done. When you first start this, there will be some students who do not judge what they will need and do run out. I am reading my book, too, but I watch for these students out of the corner of my eye. I have done one of two things. I myself get up and give them a few books. I have also stopped my timer – I have to set a timer or I will not stop in time – allow the student to go get books, then I ask if everyone is ready to resume our reading time, and start the timer again. This helps students to realize that the time is important and students seldom run out of books the next time. I also ask before we begin, if everyone thinks they have enough for the reading time.
With my students in grades 5 – 8, I started this with just 10 minutes. After a couple of weeks, it was routine and we talked about adding another 5 minutes. We worked up to 20 minutes by the end of a month or so, and kept it there. With my 3rd graders, I started with 5 minutes and at the end of a week or two I added another 5 minutes, and we worked up to 20 minutes every day by the end of two months or so. Believe it or not, they loved it. Extra reading time was a prize they asked for and worked toward as a class. We had special Reading Days about once a month usually on a Friday morning. Students could bring a pillow or blanket and snuggle under their desks and we’d read for 30 minutes. Can you imagine your students asking for extra reading time? It can happen.
Simple Thing 2: I read aloud to them every day. I read for worship from a book, I read after lunch from another book, and I read in between times when it worked out. Now, I am a good oral reader. Not everyone is skilled at this. I understand, but children of all ages need to hear books ready by an accomplished reader. If you don’t feel comfortable with reading or don’t feel that you do it well, you can begin with listening as a classroom to books on tape read by professional readers. If you have an Audible subscription, you can get lots of books there. If you feel that you cannot afford this, it may be that some of your parents will purchase books on tape for the school. Check out your local public library and see what they have. Check out used bookstores. It may be that you find books on tape there, too.
Simple Thing 3: I took them to the library. At my school in Tallahassee, we did not have a large school library, so I piled some in my car and another parent piled some in her car – (that was so long ago, that we were not yet required to have seatbelts on every child!) and we drove the 3 miles to the public library. Every student got a library card and for the two students who did not live in town, I put their books on my card. We went every two weeks and they checked out books. This was difficult to arrange, but it showed yet again that books are important.
When I taught 3rd grade, we had a school library and students had a weekly library time. Teachers were not required to stay with the students, but I usually did. I helped them find books to read and I also checked out. I modeled the behavior I wanted them to have. I stood in line along with them to check out and read my books during our silent reading time. I checked out all kinds of books and when I had one that I thought the students would like I would be a little bit sneaky. I would read silently at my desk during our silent reading time and when I got to a funny part, I would giggle just a tiny bit, just loud enough for them to hear. They would look up at me, and I would silently shake with laughter with my hand over my mouth. They all knew that it was a silent time, but when the timer rang, they were bursting with questions. I would just laugh out loud and read a little bit of the book, and it never failed that a few of them wanted to read my book. I made them wait until we went to the library to check out again.
If you do not have the opportunity or time for regular field trips to the local public library and do not have a school library, then make sure your classroom library is good. Find books at used bookstores, Goodwill, thrift shops, garage sales, anywhere you can.
These three simple things really are three ways to emphasize one main idea. Reading is fun and is important for everyone.
My Silent Reading ‘Rules’
1. Everyone in the classroom reads for the specified time. This includes students, the teacher, student teachers, and visitors.
2. There is no talking during the time period so we do not distract others from reading.
3. Set a timer so I, the teacher, will not have to keep looking at the time.
4. Everyone reads self-selected books. I discourage magazines, because usually students will not actually read, but will instead flip through the pages and browse. This is a time for READING. Browsing can happen other times.
5. If you have younger students who cannot yet read, then have them get a basket or a pile of books to look through. They may need to have quite a few books – possibly 25 or more. By participating in the silent reading time, they are learning the procedure of choosing books and silently ‘reading’ for fun. Another option is to have the non-readers sit in the classroom library and be able to pull one book, then another during the reading time. Personally, I prefer them choosing a stack of books rather than sitting in the library. They are prepared for the ‘silent reading class if they have their basket or stack of books just like the older students.
I would encourage you to find 10 – 15 minutes a day to implement a silent reading time. Try it for a year and see how much your students’ progress.
Have a great week!
Audrey
Currently reading:
Betsy’s Wedding by Maud Hart Lovelace
Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good by Jan Karon
Kid Owner by Tim Green
Country Living by Ellen G. White
I have a real burden for encouraging children to read in their leisure time. I discovered I was really good at this when I first started teaching in a two teacher school in Tallahassee, FL. . I had seventeen students in grades 5 – 8. All my students could read, but only one or two really would read. I implemented three simple and easy things in my classroom and by the end of the year all but one student (who had learning differences) were reading well and enjoyed it. Over the four years I was there, parents and grandparents came to me and expressed their appreciation for helping their children learn to enjoy reading.
My three simple and easy things are simple and easy because they do not require any lesson plans, very little preparation, and students learn quickly to love reading which really makes them lifelong readers.
What are these simple and easy things? I have mentioned these in previous posts, but I also believe that it does not hurt to repeat them every now and then.
Simple Thing 1: I had a Sustained Silent Reading time every day. Call it what you like, but have it every day. Schedule it like your other classes. Do not treat it like a leftover activity that you’ll do if you have time. If you are running low on time, shorten your time for that day, but please do not skip it if at all possible. By putting it on the schedule, you are silently telling students that this is important. If you skip it regularly, you send the message that it is not very important. If it is not on the schedule, it can be easy to forget. (My ‘rules’ for the silent reading time are listed at the end of this email.)
In my classes, this time is silent and students and I are reading. Students get ready by getting enough books or reading material to have at their desks so they don’t have to get up and get more. If you allow students to get up to get more, they distract others and little reading is done. When you first start this, there will be some students who do not judge what they will need and do run out. I am reading my book, too, but I watch for these students out of the corner of my eye. I have done one of two things. I myself get up and give them a few books. I have also stopped my timer – I have to set a timer or I will not stop in time – allow the student to go get books, then I ask if everyone is ready to resume our reading time, and start the timer again. This helps students to realize that the time is important and students seldom run out of books the next time. I also ask before we begin, if everyone thinks they have enough for the reading time.
With my students in grades 5 – 8, I started this with just 10 minutes. After a couple of weeks, it was routine and we talked about adding another 5 minutes. We worked up to 20 minutes by the end of a month or so, and kept it there. With my 3rd graders, I started with 5 minutes and at the end of a week or two I added another 5 minutes, and we worked up to 20 minutes every day by the end of two months or so. Believe it or not, they loved it. Extra reading time was a prize they asked for and worked toward as a class. We had special Reading Days about once a month usually on a Friday morning. Students could bring a pillow or blanket and snuggle under their desks and we’d read for 30 minutes. Can you imagine your students asking for extra reading time? It can happen.
Simple Thing 2: I read aloud to them every day. I read for worship from a book, I read after lunch from another book, and I read in between times when it worked out. Now, I am a good oral reader. Not everyone is skilled at this. I understand, but children of all ages need to hear books ready by an accomplished reader. If you don’t feel comfortable with reading or don’t feel that you do it well, you can begin with listening as a classroom to books on tape read by professional readers. If you have an Audible subscription, you can get lots of books there. If you feel that you cannot afford this, it may be that some of your parents will purchase books on tape for the school. Check out your local public library and see what they have. Check out used bookstores. It may be that you find books on tape there, too.
Simple Thing 3: I took them to the library. At my school in Tallahassee, we did not have a large school library, so I piled some in my car and another parent piled some in her car – (that was so long ago, that we were not yet required to have seatbelts on every child!) and we drove the 3 miles to the public library. Every student got a library card and for the two students who did not live in town, I put their books on my card. We went every two weeks and they checked out books. This was difficult to arrange, but it showed yet again that books are important.
When I taught 3rd grade, we had a school library and students had a weekly library time. Teachers were not required to stay with the students, but I usually did. I helped them find books to read and I also checked out. I modeled the behavior I wanted them to have. I stood in line along with them to check out and read my books during our silent reading time. I checked out all kinds of books and when I had one that I thought the students would like I would be a little bit sneaky. I would read silently at my desk during our silent reading time and when I got to a funny part, I would giggle just a tiny bit, just loud enough for them to hear. They would look up at me, and I would silently shake with laughter with my hand over my mouth. They all knew that it was a silent time, but when the timer rang, they were bursting with questions. I would just laugh out loud and read a little bit of the book, and it never failed that a few of them wanted to read my book. I made them wait until we went to the library to check out again.
If you do not have the opportunity or time for regular field trips to the local public library and do not have a school library, then make sure your classroom library is good. Find books at used bookstores, Goodwill, thrift shops, garage sales, anywhere you can.
These three simple things really are three ways to emphasize one main idea. Reading is fun and is important for everyone.
My Silent Reading ‘Rules’
1. Everyone in the classroom reads for the specified time. This includes students, the teacher, student teachers, and visitors.
2. There is no talking during the time period so we do not distract others from reading.
3. Set a timer so I, the teacher, will not have to keep looking at the time.
4. Everyone reads self-selected books. I discourage magazines, because usually students will not actually read, but will instead flip through the pages and browse. This is a time for READING. Browsing can happen other times.
5. If you have younger students who cannot yet read, then have them get a basket or a pile of books to look through. They may need to have quite a few books – possibly 25 or more. By participating in the silent reading time, they are learning the procedure of choosing books and silently ‘reading’ for fun. Another option is to have the non-readers sit in the classroom library and be able to pull one book, then another during the reading time. Personally, I prefer them choosing a stack of books rather than sitting in the library. They are prepared for the ‘silent reading class if they have their basket or stack of books just like the older students.
I would encourage you to find 10 – 15 minutes a day to implement a silent reading time. Try it for a year and see how much your students’ progress.
Have a great week!
Audrey
Currently reading:
Betsy’s Wedding by Maud Hart Lovelace
Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good by Jan Karon
Kid Owner by Tim Green
Country Living by Ellen G. White
Monday, May 16, 2016
Sunflower 2016 Winner
Hello,
I mentioned our Sunflower Award earlier in the school year and gave a list of book titles we are reading for this. Our winner for 2016 is:
The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. (2015)
Ada was born with a club foot. Her mother is ashamed of her twisted foot and does not let Ada out of the apartment, so for ten years, Ada has been stuck there. War comes and the British children are being sent to the country to be safe. Ada’s younger brother Jamie is to go to the train station. Ada knows that her life is bad enough now with a mother who treats her cruelly, and without her brother, it will be worse, so she sneaks out and joins him. They are placed with Susan who does not seem to want them, but she does her duty to feed and clothe them and take care of them. Ada sees a pony in the pasture and learns to ride, so finally she is able to move like the wind rather than crawl around. Over time the children and Susan bond and learn to love each other.
Parts of this story are difficult to read since the children’s mother is really very cruel to Ada. Ada’s resourcefulness and grit help her get through it and the story ends well for the children.
This book won a Newbery Honor this year along with other awards and is a New York Times bestseller.
Our runner up came in very close, just a couple of votes between the two. I actually did not get a change to read it myself, but my adult reader loved it and a couple of my student readers were having difficulty choosing between it and our winner.
The runner up is:
Diary of A Waitress: the Not-so-Glamorous Life of a Harvey Girl by Carolyn Meyer
Years ago Judy Garland was in a movie about The Harvey Girls and told the story of young girls who helped settle the West by working in Harvey Restaurants along the railroads. You may have seen this movie at some point. This is another story of a girl who decided to become a Harvey girl. It is a view of a historical part of our country that we hear little about. I kept trying to read it, but both copies of our book were out for the students to read. Now, I can finally get a copy again and finish the book!
Have a great week.
Audrey
Currently Reading:
I, Q: The White House by Roland Smith
The Last Boy at St. Edith’s by Lee Gjertsen Malone
The Centurion’s Wife by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl (Audible)
The Intrusion of Jimmy by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible)
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
I mentioned our Sunflower Award earlier in the school year and gave a list of book titles we are reading for this. Our winner for 2016 is:
The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. (2015)
Ada was born with a club foot. Her mother is ashamed of her twisted foot and does not let Ada out of the apartment, so for ten years, Ada has been stuck there. War comes and the British children are being sent to the country to be safe. Ada’s younger brother Jamie is to go to the train station. Ada knows that her life is bad enough now with a mother who treats her cruelly, and without her brother, it will be worse, so she sneaks out and joins him. They are placed with Susan who does not seem to want them, but she does her duty to feed and clothe them and take care of them. Ada sees a pony in the pasture and learns to ride, so finally she is able to move like the wind rather than crawl around. Over time the children and Susan bond and learn to love each other.
Parts of this story are difficult to read since the children’s mother is really very cruel to Ada. Ada’s resourcefulness and grit help her get through it and the story ends well for the children.
This book won a Newbery Honor this year along with other awards and is a New York Times bestseller.
Our runner up came in very close, just a couple of votes between the two. I actually did not get a change to read it myself, but my adult reader loved it and a couple of my student readers were having difficulty choosing between it and our winner.
The runner up is:
Diary of A Waitress: the Not-so-Glamorous Life of a Harvey Girl by Carolyn Meyer
Years ago Judy Garland was in a movie about The Harvey Girls and told the story of young girls who helped settle the West by working in Harvey Restaurants along the railroads. You may have seen this movie at some point. This is another story of a girl who decided to become a Harvey girl. It is a view of a historical part of our country that we hear little about. I kept trying to read it, but both copies of our book were out for the students to read. Now, I can finally get a copy again and finish the book!
Have a great week.
Audrey
Currently Reading:
I, Q: The White House by Roland Smith
The Last Boy at St. Edith’s by Lee Gjertsen Malone
The Centurion’s Wife by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl (Audible)
The Intrusion of Jimmy by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible)
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
Monday, May 9, 2016
Old Magazines
Hello,
Every now and then I am asked “How long should I keep magazines issues?” or “What do I do with old magazines?”
There is a general rule for magazines as to how long to keep them. The rule is to keep them for 3 – 5 years, then discard. For the most part, this is a great rule. However, I offer some exceptions for you.
1. Certain periodicals such as Cobblestone and Faces are great resources for the curriculum, so I would keep them around like a textbook or other resource. We have copies of Cobblestone from when it was first published in 1980. Some people would also include National Geographic in this list, too.
2. There may be certain magazines that are popular with your students and they don’t care how old it is. Magazines like American Girl, Radio Control Car Action, Ranger Rick, and others just stay around here until they fall apart. We actually mend these until it is hopeless.
What can you do with old magazines? It used to be that children made posters and projects using pictures from magazines, but I seldom see this happening any longer. Children tend to get the pictures they want from the internet these days instead of magazines. Look for art projects or other activities using magazines and recycle them in your school in this way, or just discard them from the computer and put them on a table with a sign that says “FREE”. We do this here and they disappear quickly. I also put our weeded books out for free and they disappear, too.
On another note:
Someone also gave me another idea. He asked if I had ever done a post to highlight SDA authors. I have not, so I am asking you for your ideas on this. What SDA authors do you know or use in your school? What books have they written? Do they answer letters, or visit schools, or SKYPE? We can put together a list of authors for a reference.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Obsession of Victoria Gracen by Grace Livingston Hill
The Last Boy at St. Edith’s by Lee Gjertsen Malone
Every now and then I am asked “How long should I keep magazines issues?” or “What do I do with old magazines?”
There is a general rule for magazines as to how long to keep them. The rule is to keep them for 3 – 5 years, then discard. For the most part, this is a great rule. However, I offer some exceptions for you.
1. Certain periodicals such as Cobblestone and Faces are great resources for the curriculum, so I would keep them around like a textbook or other resource. We have copies of Cobblestone from when it was first published in 1980. Some people would also include National Geographic in this list, too.
2. There may be certain magazines that are popular with your students and they don’t care how old it is. Magazines like American Girl, Radio Control Car Action, Ranger Rick, and others just stay around here until they fall apart. We actually mend these until it is hopeless.
What can you do with old magazines? It used to be that children made posters and projects using pictures from magazines, but I seldom see this happening any longer. Children tend to get the pictures they want from the internet these days instead of magazines. Look for art projects or other activities using magazines and recycle them in your school in this way, or just discard them from the computer and put them on a table with a sign that says “FREE”. We do this here and they disappear quickly. I also put our weeded books out for free and they disappear, too.
On another note:
Someone also gave me another idea. He asked if I had ever done a post to highlight SDA authors. I have not, so I am asking you for your ideas on this. What SDA authors do you know or use in your school? What books have they written? Do they answer letters, or visit schools, or SKYPE? We can put together a list of authors for a reference.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Obsession of Victoria Gracen by Grace Livingston Hill
The Last Boy at St. Edith’s by Lee Gjertsen Malone
Monday, May 2, 2016
50 Books All (Adventist) Kids Should Read
Hello,
I love lists. I love checking things off my list. I particularly enjoy lists of books to read. If you do an internet search for books all kids should read, you will find hundreds of them and most of them will be different. It is just someone’s opinion. In looking over the lists, I would see many books that aren’t books we want in our libraries, so I decided to begin to create one for Adventist Schools.
Nearly two years ago, I send out a request for ideas of books that kids should read or be familiar with and I got some book ideas from you.
I have listed the books in a table with the title, author, grade level, and if they are Adventist published or not. I had hoped for 50 and actually got 52 and more.
Title Author Age/Grade SDA
1 The Very Hungry Caterpillar Carle, Eric Pre K – 2 N
2 Ramona the Pest Cleary, Beverly 3 – 5 N
3 Anne of Green Gables Montgomery, L. M. 5 – 8 N
4 My Side of the Mountain George, Jean Craighead 5 – 8 N
5 Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl Frank, Anne 6 – 8 N
6 To Kill a Mockingbird Lee, Harper 7 – 8 N
7 Swift Arrow Edwards, Josephine Cunnington 4 – 8 Y
8 My Bible Friends set Degering, Etta B Pre K - 2 Y
9 Messiah Thomas, Jerry D 6 – 8 Y
10 Little Women Alcott, Louisa May 5 – 8 N
11 Girl of the Limberlost Porter, Gene Stratton 7 – 8 N
12 Childhood of Famous Americans – at least a few Various authors 3 – 5 N
13 The Cay Taylor, Theodore 3 - 7 N
14 Johnny Tremain Forbes, Esther 5 – 8 N
15 Sam Campbell’s books Campbell, Sam 5 - 8 N, Y
16 Joseph Fivash, Terri 7 – 8 Y
17 The Hiding Place Ten Boom, Corrie 7 – 8 N
18 The Miracle Worker Gibson, William 5 - 8 N
19 The Adventist Girl series books Various authors 3 – 6 Y
20 Where the Red Fern Grows Rawls, Wilson 5 - 8 N
21 Caddie Woodlawn Brink, Carol Ryrie 5 – 8 N
22 Jungle Thorn Youngberg, Norma 5 – 8 Y
23 Nyla and the White Crocodile Youngberg, Norma 5 – 8 Y
24 Hatchet Paulsen, Gary 4 – 8 N
25 Any book by Eric B. Hare Hare, Eric B 5 - 8 Y
26 Snow Treasure Mcswiggan, Marie 5 - 8 N
27 Treasures of the Snow St. John, Patricia 4 - 8
28 The Witch of Blackbird Pond Speare, Elizaabeth George Speare 5 – 8 N
29 Treasure Island Stevenson, Robert Louis 5 – 8 N
30 Swiss Family Robinson Wyss, Johann David N
31 The Secret Garden Burnett, Frances Hodgson 4 – 8 N
32 Pollyanna Porter, Eleanor H. 4 – 8 N
33 The Chronicles of Narnia Lewis, C. S. 5 - 8 N
34 Little House series Wilder, Laura Ingalls 3 – 8 N
35 Red Scarf Girl Jiang, Ji-li 5 - 8 N
36 Clever Queen Hare, Eric B 5 - 8 Y
37 Heidi Spyri, Johanna 5 – 8 N
38 Harold and the Purple Crayon Johnson, Crockett K - 2 N
39 Ramona the Pest Cleary, Beverly 3 – 5 N
40 Where the Sidewalk Ends Siverstein, Shel 3 – 8 N
41 Bridge to Terabithia Paterson, Katherine 5 – 8 N
42 Bud, Not Buddy Curtis, Christopher Paul 5 – 8 N
43 Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Blume, Judy 4 – 6 N
44 Esperanza Rising Ryan, Pam Munoz 5 – 8 N
45 I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World Yousafzai, Malala 5 – 8 N
46 Frindle Clements, Andrew 3 – 8 N
47 The Boxcar Children Warner, Gertrude, Chandler 2 - 4 N
48 Mr. Popper’s Penguins Atwater, Florence 2 – 5 N
49 Island of the Blue Dolphins O’Dell, Scott 5 – 8 N
50 Julie of the Wolves George, Jean Craighead 5 – 8 N
51 The Year of the Book Cheng, Andrea 3 – 6 N
52 Red Butterfly Sonnichsen, Al. L. 5 – 8 N
Thank you to those who helped create this list. I hope you enjoy it!
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible book)
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
I love lists. I love checking things off my list. I particularly enjoy lists of books to read. If you do an internet search for books all kids should read, you will find hundreds of them and most of them will be different. It is just someone’s opinion. In looking over the lists, I would see many books that aren’t books we want in our libraries, so I decided to begin to create one for Adventist Schools.
Nearly two years ago, I send out a request for ideas of books that kids should read or be familiar with and I got some book ideas from you.
I have listed the books in a table with the title, author, grade level, and if they are Adventist published or not. I had hoped for 50 and actually got 52 and more.
Title Author Age/Grade SDA
1 The Very Hungry Caterpillar Carle, Eric Pre K – 2 N
2 Ramona the Pest Cleary, Beverly 3 – 5 N
3 Anne of Green Gables Montgomery, L. M. 5 – 8 N
4 My Side of the Mountain George, Jean Craighead 5 – 8 N
5 Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl Frank, Anne 6 – 8 N
6 To Kill a Mockingbird Lee, Harper 7 – 8 N
7 Swift Arrow Edwards, Josephine Cunnington 4 – 8 Y
8 My Bible Friends set Degering, Etta B Pre K - 2 Y
9 Messiah Thomas, Jerry D 6 – 8 Y
10 Little Women Alcott, Louisa May 5 – 8 N
11 Girl of the Limberlost Porter, Gene Stratton 7 – 8 N
12 Childhood of Famous Americans – at least a few Various authors 3 – 5 N
13 The Cay Taylor, Theodore 3 - 7 N
14 Johnny Tremain Forbes, Esther 5 – 8 N
15 Sam Campbell’s books Campbell, Sam 5 - 8 N, Y
16 Joseph Fivash, Terri 7 – 8 Y
17 The Hiding Place Ten Boom, Corrie 7 – 8 N
18 The Miracle Worker Gibson, William 5 - 8 N
19 The Adventist Girl series books Various authors 3 – 6 Y
20 Where the Red Fern Grows Rawls, Wilson 5 - 8 N
21 Caddie Woodlawn Brink, Carol Ryrie 5 – 8 N
22 Jungle Thorn Youngberg, Norma 5 – 8 Y
23 Nyla and the White Crocodile Youngberg, Norma 5 – 8 Y
24 Hatchet Paulsen, Gary 4 – 8 N
25 Any book by Eric B. Hare Hare, Eric B 5 - 8 Y
26 Snow Treasure Mcswiggan, Marie 5 - 8 N
27 Treasures of the Snow St. John, Patricia 4 - 8
28 The Witch of Blackbird Pond Speare, Elizaabeth George Speare 5 – 8 N
29 Treasure Island Stevenson, Robert Louis 5 – 8 N
30 Swiss Family Robinson Wyss, Johann David N
31 The Secret Garden Burnett, Frances Hodgson 4 – 8 N
32 Pollyanna Porter, Eleanor H. 4 – 8 N
33 The Chronicles of Narnia Lewis, C. S. 5 - 8 N
34 Little House series Wilder, Laura Ingalls 3 – 8 N
35 Red Scarf Girl Jiang, Ji-li 5 - 8 N
36 Clever Queen Hare, Eric B 5 - 8 Y
37 Heidi Spyri, Johanna 5 – 8 N
38 Harold and the Purple Crayon Johnson, Crockett K - 2 N
39 Ramona the Pest Cleary, Beverly 3 – 5 N
40 Where the Sidewalk Ends Siverstein, Shel 3 – 8 N
41 Bridge to Terabithia Paterson, Katherine 5 – 8 N
42 Bud, Not Buddy Curtis, Christopher Paul 5 – 8 N
43 Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Blume, Judy 4 – 6 N
44 Esperanza Rising Ryan, Pam Munoz 5 – 8 N
45 I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World Yousafzai, Malala 5 – 8 N
46 Frindle Clements, Andrew 3 – 8 N
47 The Boxcar Children Warner, Gertrude, Chandler 2 - 4 N
48 Mr. Popper’s Penguins Atwater, Florence 2 – 5 N
49 Island of the Blue Dolphins O’Dell, Scott 5 – 8 N
50 Julie of the Wolves George, Jean Craighead 5 – 8 N
51 The Year of the Book Cheng, Andrea 3 – 6 N
52 Red Butterfly Sonnichsen, Al. L. 5 – 8 N
Thank you to those who helped create this list. I hope you enjoy it!
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible book)
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
National Parks Display
Hello,
I had a brilliant idea and I just wanted to share this with you since I only have brilliant ideas a very few times each year!
Since 2016 is the centennial of the National Parks program, I am getting a display ready that will last through next December. I am putting up a map of the National Parks in the library. I bought some pins with colored flags and we will mark each park that someone in our school has visited. I’ll write names or initials on the flag of the pin. I’m trying to decide how to verify an actual park visit. Maybe I’ll have a short form for students to take home and have parents sign, or maybe it isn’t necessary. Still thinking about that, so if you have any thought or ideas for me, please let me know.
I also bought a couple of books about the national parks and I’ll have them in a prominent area for students to check out. My map has been delayed, so I can’t show you what it looks like, so look for that coming in a week or so.
If this sounds like something your school would enjoy working on, I’d like to encourage you to do it along with me.
Have a great week,
Audrey
I had a brilliant idea and I just wanted to share this with you since I only have brilliant ideas a very few times each year!
Since 2016 is the centennial of the National Parks program, I am getting a display ready that will last through next December. I am putting up a map of the National Parks in the library. I bought some pins with colored flags and we will mark each park that someone in our school has visited. I’ll write names or initials on the flag of the pin. I’m trying to decide how to verify an actual park visit. Maybe I’ll have a short form for students to take home and have parents sign, or maybe it isn’t necessary. Still thinking about that, so if you have any thought or ideas for me, please let me know.
I also bought a couple of books about the national parks and I’ll have them in a prominent area for students to check out. My map has been delayed, so I can’t show you what it looks like, so look for that coming in a week or so.
If this sounds like something your school would enjoy working on, I’d like to encourage you to do it along with me.
Have a great week,
Audrey
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
National Parks Display Idea
Hello,
I had a brilliant idea and I just wanted to share this with you since I only have brilliant ideas a very few times each year!
Since 2016 is the centennial of the National Parks program, I am getting a display ready that will last through next December. I am putting up a map of the National Parks in the library. I bought some pins with colored flags and we will mark each park that someone in our school has visited. I’ll write names or initials on the flag of the pin. I’m trying to decide how to verify an actual park visit. Maybe I’ll have a short form for students to take home and have parents sign, or maybe it isn’t necessary. Still thinking about that, so if you have any thought or ideas for me, please let me know.
I also bought a couple of books about the national parks and I’ll have them in a prominent area for students to check out. My map has been delayed, so I can’t show you what it looks like, so look for that coming in a week or so.
If this sounds like something your school would enjoy working on, I’d like to encourage you to do it along with me.
Have a great week,
Audrey
I had a brilliant idea and I just wanted to share this with you since I only have brilliant ideas a very few times each year!
Since 2016 is the centennial of the National Parks program, I am getting a display ready that will last through next December. I am putting up a map of the National Parks in the library. I bought some pins with colored flags and we will mark each park that someone in our school has visited. I’ll write names or initials on the flag of the pin. I’m trying to decide how to verify an actual park visit. Maybe I’ll have a short form for students to take home and have parents sign, or maybe it isn’t necessary. Still thinking about that, so if you have any thought or ideas for me, please let me know.
I also bought a couple of books about the national parks and I’ll have them in a prominent area for students to check out. My map has been delayed, so I can’t show you what it looks like, so look for that coming in a week or so.
If this sounds like something your school would enjoy working on, I’d like to encourage you to do it along with me.
Have a great week,
Audrey
Monday, April 18, 2016
A Website and a Book
Hello,
I have some things that you might be interested in, but they don’t really go together. The only thing they have in common is that they are both new to me!
One is a website that has information, activities and cool things to do in respect to climate. I looked over the Carbon Travels section and did notice one place that mentions ‘millions of years ago’, but the information is updated and interesting. At first I thought the site was for young children since it is brightly colored and has font that is somewhat juvenile, but it looks like it will work for grades 3 – 8. The review on Common Sense Media says Grades 3 – 6. There is a lot of reading, so children will need to be able to read fairly well or work with a partner.
Subjects include Weather and Climate, Air, Ocean, Fresh Water, Carbon’s Travels, Energy, Plants and Animals, Technology and Big Questions. Big Questions discusses “What is ‘global climate change?”, “What is the Greenhouse Effect?”, What is happening in the ocean?”, “What else do we need to find out?”, “What is the big deal with carbon?”, “How do we know the climate is changing?”, and “What can we do to help?”
http://climatekids.nasa.gov/
The other is a book about a few people who helped establish our National Parks. My husband and I are ‘collecting’ National Parks, and when I saw a preview of this book, I requested a galley to look it over.
The title is Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service by Annette Bay Pimentel. It is the true story of Tie Sing, a Chinese American mountain man who fed thirty people for ten days in the wilderness. He was hired by Stephen Mather to cook for his group of influential men on this camping trip hoping to influence them to help create our National Parks. Tie Sing planned diligently, but he could not know that problems with the donkeys carrying the food would happen causing Tie to completely change his menus not once but twice. Tie creatively made fortune cookies on the last night with fortunes reading “Long may you search the mountains” or Long may you build the paths through the mountains” and more. This is a picture book with watercolor paintings throughout. At the end is more information including photos of the people on the camping trip plus little bios of some of the men. If you visit Yosemite National Park, you can hike to Sing Peak which is named for Tie Sing.
Look for this book coming out on August 2, 2016. It is a great tribute to the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service created by Congress on August 25, 1916.
Have a great week!
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible book)
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
I have some things that you might be interested in, but they don’t really go together. The only thing they have in common is that they are both new to me!
One is a website that has information, activities and cool things to do in respect to climate. I looked over the Carbon Travels section and did notice one place that mentions ‘millions of years ago’, but the information is updated and interesting. At first I thought the site was for young children since it is brightly colored and has font that is somewhat juvenile, but it looks like it will work for grades 3 – 8. The review on Common Sense Media says Grades 3 – 6. There is a lot of reading, so children will need to be able to read fairly well or work with a partner.
Subjects include Weather and Climate, Air, Ocean, Fresh Water, Carbon’s Travels, Energy, Plants and Animals, Technology and Big Questions. Big Questions discusses “What is ‘global climate change?”, “What is the Greenhouse Effect?”, What is happening in the ocean?”, “What else do we need to find out?”, “What is the big deal with carbon?”, “How do we know the climate is changing?”, and “What can we do to help?”
http://climatekids.nasa.gov/
The other is a book about a few people who helped establish our National Parks. My husband and I are ‘collecting’ National Parks, and when I saw a preview of this book, I requested a galley to look it over.
The title is Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service by Annette Bay Pimentel. It is the true story of Tie Sing, a Chinese American mountain man who fed thirty people for ten days in the wilderness. He was hired by Stephen Mather to cook for his group of influential men on this camping trip hoping to influence them to help create our National Parks. Tie Sing planned diligently, but he could not know that problems with the donkeys carrying the food would happen causing Tie to completely change his menus not once but twice. Tie creatively made fortune cookies on the last night with fortunes reading “Long may you search the mountains” or Long may you build the paths through the mountains” and more. This is a picture book with watercolor paintings throughout. At the end is more information including photos of the people on the camping trip plus little bios of some of the men. If you visit Yosemite National Park, you can hike to Sing Peak which is named for Tie Sing.
Look for this book coming out on August 2, 2016. It is a great tribute to the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service created by Congress on August 25, 1916.
Have a great week!
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible book)
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
Monday, April 11, 2016
Book Talks
Hello,
I have a group of students that seem to think checking books out of our school library is not cool enough. They want to go to the public library to get their books. This past week, I decided to do some book talks for them during their library class. I found 6 – 8 books in our library that were age appropriate and interesting. I realized that I really did not have enough time to write book talks for all of those books before their class time, so I did the next best thing. I went to the internet and typed in the title of each book and the term ‘book talk’. I found a couple of great sites and printed out the book talks for each book.
I typically use Amazon.com to check out information about books and this is a good place to start. Amazon has summaries of the books and if needed they can be tweaked slightly to make a good book talk. http://www.amazon.com/
One site was Teen Ink. This is a literary magazine for teens and teens write the book reviews. I used one review from this site. If you decide to use this site, read the review and make sure that it is a good fit for your school. https://www.teenink.com/reviews/book_reviews/
My best source the other day was a site that I use personally – GoodReads.com Their reviews/book summaries worked very well for me. https://www.goodreads.com/
In searching for book reviews sources today, I came across some by children on SchoolTube. If you aren’t familiar with SchoolTube, I understand that it is YouTube for scholastic purposes. The ones that I saw were by children and were quite short, so you could show quite a few of them in a short time. I also had the thought that students might decide to create their own book talks and post them. You can also find book talks on YouTube. http://www.schooltube.com/search/?term=book+talks
Scholastic has book talks for their books, too. Each book fair that we host here has a resource section where tons of information and help can be found. Book talks are there, too. You just print out the ones you need. Even if you don’t host Scholastic book fairs, you can type in Scholastic book talks and find them. http://www.scholastic.com/teacher/ab/booktalks.htm; http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/tradebooks/booktalks.htm#discussion
If you wish to either teach students how to prepare their own book talks or make it a bit easier to create them yourself, ALA (American Library Association) has a lesson plan plus template and even a rubric for this purpose. http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/conferencesandevents/ecollab/lpd/StudentCreatedBookTalks.pdf
By the way, after I gave the book talks, those students came rushing to my table to grab the books I had just promoted. I felt pretty good about that.
Have a great week!
Audrey
PS. For each book talk I used, I copied the source at the bottom of the review both to cite it and to remember where I got it from.
Currently Reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
Gunn’s Golden Rules by Tim Gunn
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible book)
I have a group of students that seem to think checking books out of our school library is not cool enough. They want to go to the public library to get their books. This past week, I decided to do some book talks for them during their library class. I found 6 – 8 books in our library that were age appropriate and interesting. I realized that I really did not have enough time to write book talks for all of those books before their class time, so I did the next best thing. I went to the internet and typed in the title of each book and the term ‘book talk’. I found a couple of great sites and printed out the book talks for each book.
I typically use Amazon.com to check out information about books and this is a good place to start. Amazon has summaries of the books and if needed they can be tweaked slightly to make a good book talk. http://www.amazon.com/
One site was Teen Ink. This is a literary magazine for teens and teens write the book reviews. I used one review from this site. If you decide to use this site, read the review and make sure that it is a good fit for your school. https://www.teenink.com/reviews/book_reviews/
My best source the other day was a site that I use personally – GoodReads.com Their reviews/book summaries worked very well for me. https://www.goodreads.com/
In searching for book reviews sources today, I came across some by children on SchoolTube. If you aren’t familiar with SchoolTube, I understand that it is YouTube for scholastic purposes. The ones that I saw were by children and were quite short, so you could show quite a few of them in a short time. I also had the thought that students might decide to create their own book talks and post them. You can also find book talks on YouTube. http://www.schooltube.com/search/?term=book+talks
Scholastic has book talks for their books, too. Each book fair that we host here has a resource section where tons of information and help can be found. Book talks are there, too. You just print out the ones you need. Even if you don’t host Scholastic book fairs, you can type in Scholastic book talks and find them. http://www.scholastic.com/teacher/ab/booktalks.htm; http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/tradebooks/booktalks.htm#discussion
If you wish to either teach students how to prepare their own book talks or make it a bit easier to create them yourself, ALA (American Library Association) has a lesson plan plus template and even a rubric for this purpose. http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/conferencesandevents/ecollab/lpd/StudentCreatedBookTalks.pdf
By the way, after I gave the book talks, those students came rushing to my table to grab the books I had just promoted. I felt pretty good about that.
Have a great week!
Audrey
PS. For each book talk I used, I copied the source at the bottom of the review both to cite it and to remember where I got it from.
Currently Reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
Gunn’s Golden Rules by Tim Gunn
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible book)
Monday, April 4, 2016
New Books
Hello,
Here are a few new books you might like.
Tree of Wonder by Kate Messner, illustrated by Simona Mulazzani. This is a book about a tree in the rainforest and the creatures that make their homes in the tree. The book begins with 1 Almendro tree, 2 Great Green Macaws, 4 Keel-billed Toucans, and continues multiplying 8 more times. In the back is more information and websites about the Almendro tree and extra rainforest math problems. One of the problems is this: There are four Great Green Macaws shown in the illustration on pages 4 – 5. When the eggs hatch, how many birds will there be all together? There are also book suggestions and a movie suggestion for more rainforest information.
I chose the poison dart frog page because they are so colorful and I wanted you to see the visual of 256 frogs in the sidebar. I also like that there is easier text and more informational text. Great for a reading buddy situation.
Beatrix Potter and Her Paint Box by David McPhail. A simple biography of the author/illustrator of Peter Rabbit plus many other books for children. Beatrix Potter was born nearly 150 years ago this coming July and her books still remain popular. McPhail has used watercolors to illustrate this book which is a lovely nod to Beatrix’s own illustrations.
Traveling Butterflies by Susumu Shingu. If you study the life cycle of a monarch butterfly, this is a great resource to have. The book begins with a picture of eggs on a leaf, and continues through the different stages of a butterfly through their migration south.
Edible Science Experiments You Can Eat by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen and Carol Tennant. If your kids like science experiments and eating, they will enjoy this book. Each experiment give the science of what is happening. There is a list of supplies needed, a difficulty level, time needed, and instructions. Vocabulary words may be found on many pages. Photographs help to show some of the steps in each experiment and children are shown wearing lab coats and goggles when appropriate.
Clean Sweep! Frank Zamboni’s Ice Machine by Monica Kulling, illustrated by Renné Benoit. Here is the story in picture book format of the Zamboni ice machine and how it came to be invented. Use this in a unit on inventors, the Winter Olympics, ice skating, or just for fun. There are a list of fun facts at the end of the book. One of the is that a Zamboni machine, with a top speed of 9 miles per hour, was driven across Canada from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia, a trip that took four months.
The last set of books I want to share with you today is actually three books that work well together. In a preview box, I found among other things, three different sets of books. One set had six biographies written on a low reading level. The series is found under the title “Amazing Inventors & Innovators. The books in that series include George Eastman, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Samuel Morse, and The Wright Brothers.
Another set of books was titles Amazing super Simple Inventions and each one has projects for children to do. Super Simple Aircraft Projects, Super Simple, Automobile Projects, Camera Projects, Phonograph Projects, Telegraph Projects, and Telephone Projects. One of our 5th and 6th grade teachers was interested in these projects.
The third set of books was about inventions. Aircraft, automobiles, cameras, phonograph, telegraphs, and telephones.
I admit that it took me a while to realize that the three sets were linked to each other. They would make great units. Read the biography of George Eastman, read about the invention of the camera, and then have your class do some or all of the camera projects. The books have different authors, but the publisher is ABDO. I do wish the publisher would have combined these three books into one and published six books rather than eighteen, but apparently they didn’t think to ask me.
I hope you see something that interests you. Have a great week.
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery
Gunn’s Golden Rules by Tim Gunn
Here are a few new books you might like.
Tree of Wonder by Kate Messner, illustrated by Simona Mulazzani. This is a book about a tree in the rainforest and the creatures that make their homes in the tree. The book begins with 1 Almendro tree, 2 Great Green Macaws, 4 Keel-billed Toucans, and continues multiplying 8 more times. In the back is more information and websites about the Almendro tree and extra rainforest math problems. One of the problems is this: There are four Great Green Macaws shown in the illustration on pages 4 – 5. When the eggs hatch, how many birds will there be all together? There are also book suggestions and a movie suggestion for more rainforest information.
I chose the poison dart frog page because they are so colorful and I wanted you to see the visual of 256 frogs in the sidebar. I also like that there is easier text and more informational text. Great for a reading buddy situation.
Beatrix Potter and Her Paint Box by David McPhail. A simple biography of the author/illustrator of Peter Rabbit plus many other books for children. Beatrix Potter was born nearly 150 years ago this coming July and her books still remain popular. McPhail has used watercolors to illustrate this book which is a lovely nod to Beatrix’s own illustrations.
Traveling Butterflies by Susumu Shingu. If you study the life cycle of a monarch butterfly, this is a great resource to have. The book begins with a picture of eggs on a leaf, and continues through the different stages of a butterfly through their migration south.
Edible Science Experiments You Can Eat by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen and Carol Tennant. If your kids like science experiments and eating, they will enjoy this book. Each experiment give the science of what is happening. There is a list of supplies needed, a difficulty level, time needed, and instructions. Vocabulary words may be found on many pages. Photographs help to show some of the steps in each experiment and children are shown wearing lab coats and goggles when appropriate.
Clean Sweep! Frank Zamboni’s Ice Machine by Monica Kulling, illustrated by Renné Benoit. Here is the story in picture book format of the Zamboni ice machine and how it came to be invented. Use this in a unit on inventors, the Winter Olympics, ice skating, or just for fun. There are a list of fun facts at the end of the book. One of the is that a Zamboni machine, with a top speed of 9 miles per hour, was driven across Canada from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia, a trip that took four months.
The last set of books I want to share with you today is actually three books that work well together. In a preview box, I found among other things, three different sets of books. One set had six biographies written on a low reading level. The series is found under the title “Amazing Inventors & Innovators. The books in that series include George Eastman, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Samuel Morse, and The Wright Brothers.
Another set of books was titles Amazing super Simple Inventions and each one has projects for children to do. Super Simple Aircraft Projects, Super Simple, Automobile Projects, Camera Projects, Phonograph Projects, Telegraph Projects, and Telephone Projects. One of our 5th and 6th grade teachers was interested in these projects.
The third set of books was about inventions. Aircraft, automobiles, cameras, phonograph, telegraphs, and telephones.
I admit that it took me a while to realize that the three sets were linked to each other. They would make great units. Read the biography of George Eastman, read about the invention of the camera, and then have your class do some or all of the camera projects. The books have different authors, but the publisher is ABDO. I do wish the publisher would have combined these three books into one and published six books rather than eighteen, but apparently they didn’t think to ask me.
I hope you see something that interests you. Have a great week.
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery
Gunn’s Golden Rules by Tim Gunn
Monday, March 28, 2016
Display Ideas
Hello,
When you walk into a library, how do you feel? Do you feel calm, comforted to see so many books and know that there is much to choose from or do you feel intimidated and just grab something quickly or even turn around and walk out? I always loved to see so many books available and felt at peace when walking into a library. I was excited to see what they had in THIS library that other libraries I had been into might not have had. However, many children actually are intimidated by so many books to choose from. What can we do to help these children?
One of the best ways to help children is to make smaller displays regularly of books that they might find interesting, or displays to support your curriculum. When children see displays that are attractive, they are drawn to them and it is much easier to choose a book from a small sample than to try to find the same book on a big shelf. You can also take the time to walk around with a child and help them find the books they want or need.
As children get older, you can start teaching them to use the card catalog (if you still have one) or the computer to find the subject or title they want. Believe it or not, they don’t automatically know how to do this and need to be taught.
I am getting ready to take down a display we had of our Iditarod books we put up in early March. I’m planning three more displays to have in the library and my display case. One will be on Earth Day, one will be on Robotics, and one will be to celebrate Beverly Cleary’s 100th birthday coming on April 12. You can show a very recent clip from ‘Good Morning America’ to your students or find others to show. Check out YouTube for other ideas to promote Beverly Cleary and her books.
I hope you had a great spring vacation.
Audrey
Currently reading:
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
Jane of Lantern Hill by L. M. Montgomery
When you walk into a library, how do you feel? Do you feel calm, comforted to see so many books and know that there is much to choose from or do you feel intimidated and just grab something quickly or even turn around and walk out? I always loved to see so many books available and felt at peace when walking into a library. I was excited to see what they had in THIS library that other libraries I had been into might not have had. However, many children actually are intimidated by so many books to choose from. What can we do to help these children?
One of the best ways to help children is to make smaller displays regularly of books that they might find interesting, or displays to support your curriculum. When children see displays that are attractive, they are drawn to them and it is much easier to choose a book from a small sample than to try to find the same book on a big shelf. You can also take the time to walk around with a child and help them find the books they want or need.
As children get older, you can start teaching them to use the card catalog (if you still have one) or the computer to find the subject or title they want. Believe it or not, they don’t automatically know how to do this and need to be taught.
I am getting ready to take down a display we had of our Iditarod books we put up in early March. I’m planning three more displays to have in the library and my display case. One will be on Earth Day, one will be on Robotics, and one will be to celebrate Beverly Cleary’s 100th birthday coming on April 12. You can show a very recent clip from ‘Good Morning America’ to your students or find others to show. Check out YouTube for other ideas to promote Beverly Cleary and her books.
I hope you had a great spring vacation.
Audrey
Currently reading:
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
Jane of Lantern Hill by L. M. Montgomery
Monday, March 14, 2016
Biographies
Hello!
What does your biography section look like? Do you have a lot of the Childhood of Famous Americans series and not much else? Are they beat up and unattractive?
Check out the biography section and see what grade levels are represented. When you study science, make sure you have science biographies. Some schools have large sports biography sections. It can be hard to know WHO to put in the biography section. Here are some guidelines and then some suggestions.
Guideline 1: Make sure you have a number of presidents of the United States represented. I would hope that most (if not all) of them are represented.
Guideline 2: Check that there are biographies on all reading levels, even beginning readers.
Guideline 3: Look for biographies on people who are good role models and who will be known throughout the years. Think about Malala, Mother Teresa, Mark Zuckerman, Bill Gates, etc. It may be that your community has someone who is important. There might be a biography written about them.
Guideline 4: Sports people are fine, but many of them are short term as far as popularity goes. If you have a lot of sports biographies, you may need to weed often and purchase often to keep it updated.
Guideline 5: There are sets of Christian biographies that focus on Christian leaders. We put the Trailblazer series in our biography section. Also look for the Heroes of the Faith series. The ones we have in our library are white with a maroon strip at the top. People included in this set are John Bunyan, Fanny Crosby, Jim Elliot, Billy Graham, C. S. Lewis, David Livingstone, Martin Luther, D. L. Moody, Samuel Morris, John Newton, Charles Spurgeon, Corrie ten Boom, Mother Teresa, Sojourner Truth, and John Wesley. There are more, but this list will give you some ideas of what the series is like.
Guideline 6: Check to see if you have biographies on Ellen G. White. There may also be biographies on other SDA leaders to include, too.
Suggestions: If you need to update your lower reading level biographies, I would urge you to consider a set we have gotten this year. Brad Meltzer has begun to write biographies for young readers. He started writing them after going to the store with his young daughter and finding lots of ‘princess’ shirts and clothing. He began to wonder where the strong women role models were for his daughter. When he didn’t see what he wanted, he began to write them. His series is titled “Ordinary People Change the World”. Titles so far are “I Am Amelia Earhart, I am Lucille Ball, I am Abraham Lincoln, I am Rosa Parks, I am Albert Einstein, I am Jackie Robinson, I am Helen Keller, and I am Martin Luther King, Jr.” Coming next September will be “I am George Washington, and I am Jane Goodall.” The illustrations are cartoonish and there are speech bubbles in the text, but the information is solid and our first and second graders love them. I have also given them to lower readers in third and even fourth grade.
Another set we got is published by Scholastic and is called Rookie Biographies.
I hope you enjoy your biographies and consider updating them from time to time.
Have a great Spring Vacation!
Audrey
Currently reading:
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Millionaires by Brad Meltzer
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit
These High, Green Hills by Jan Karon (Book 3 of the Mitford series)
What does your biography section look like? Do you have a lot of the Childhood of Famous Americans series and not much else? Are they beat up and unattractive?
Check out the biography section and see what grade levels are represented. When you study science, make sure you have science biographies. Some schools have large sports biography sections. It can be hard to know WHO to put in the biography section. Here are some guidelines and then some suggestions.
Guideline 1: Make sure you have a number of presidents of the United States represented. I would hope that most (if not all) of them are represented.
Guideline 2: Check that there are biographies on all reading levels, even beginning readers.
Guideline 3: Look for biographies on people who are good role models and who will be known throughout the years. Think about Malala, Mother Teresa, Mark Zuckerman, Bill Gates, etc. It may be that your community has someone who is important. There might be a biography written about them.
Guideline 4: Sports people are fine, but many of them are short term as far as popularity goes. If you have a lot of sports biographies, you may need to weed often and purchase often to keep it updated.
Guideline 5: There are sets of Christian biographies that focus on Christian leaders. We put the Trailblazer series in our biography section. Also look for the Heroes of the Faith series. The ones we have in our library are white with a maroon strip at the top. People included in this set are John Bunyan, Fanny Crosby, Jim Elliot, Billy Graham, C. S. Lewis, David Livingstone, Martin Luther, D. L. Moody, Samuel Morris, John Newton, Charles Spurgeon, Corrie ten Boom, Mother Teresa, Sojourner Truth, and John Wesley. There are more, but this list will give you some ideas of what the series is like.
Guideline 6: Check to see if you have biographies on Ellen G. White. There may also be biographies on other SDA leaders to include, too.
Suggestions: If you need to update your lower reading level biographies, I would urge you to consider a set we have gotten this year. Brad Meltzer has begun to write biographies for young readers. He started writing them after going to the store with his young daughter and finding lots of ‘princess’ shirts and clothing. He began to wonder where the strong women role models were for his daughter. When he didn’t see what he wanted, he began to write them. His series is titled “Ordinary People Change the World”. Titles so far are “I Am Amelia Earhart, I am Lucille Ball, I am Abraham Lincoln, I am Rosa Parks, I am Albert Einstein, I am Jackie Robinson, I am Helen Keller, and I am Martin Luther King, Jr.” Coming next September will be “I am George Washington, and I am Jane Goodall.” The illustrations are cartoonish and there are speech bubbles in the text, but the information is solid and our first and second graders love them. I have also given them to lower readers in third and even fourth grade.
Another set we got is published by Scholastic and is called Rookie Biographies.
I hope you enjoy your biographies and consider updating them from time to time.
Have a great Spring Vacation!
Audrey
Currently reading:
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Millionaires by Brad Meltzer
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit
These High, Green Hills by Jan Karon (Book 3 of the Mitford series)
Monday, March 7, 2016
Ideas to Promote Use of the Library
Hello!
A few years ago I found some ideas for encouraging reading that sounded pretty easy and fun. Some of these ideas are things that you could have parents or students set up for you which also promotes ‘buy in’ to reading. I found these ideas in some of my library journals and books.
Enjoy them. If you have other ideas, please let me know and I’ll add them to this list.
1. Inside some gift cards these days there is a little cell that can be used to record a message. You can use this technology to do ‘book talks’. Print a small cover of the book and place the cell with the recorded message behind the cover to make your own book talks. Students just push the button and hear a short book talk about the book. You could let students record book talks for books. A great book report idea! You can buy just sound chips from various resources if you are interested.
2. Signage for libraries can be very expensive, but you can make your own with a large coffee can, a yardstick, pebbles or rocks, spray paint, and paper. Spray the outside of the coffee can and both sides of the yardstick. Fill the can partway with the pebbles or rocks. Attach a sign to one end of the yardstick and stick the other end into the pebbles. Put these types of sign on table or shelving or wherever works in your library. These can be changed easily when needed.
3. Have a hard time getting your boys to read? Try what one school did. They took pictures of the adult males on campus reading a book and made a bulletin board titled “Real Men Read Books”. This really increased interest in reading and the boys began asking the men about the books they were reading. What if you are a small school and don’t have many adult males on staff? Use pastors, parents, or older siblings. I would advise that you have these males hold books from your library, possibly books that they enjoyed as a young person.
4. Encourage reading by using vendor’s catalogs. Vendors’ catalogs have small pictures of the covers of their books. Cut out all the pictures of books that the library owns or just books that you feel would be appropriate, laminate them and glue them to clothes pins or large paper clips. They can be used for bookmarks, genre sorts, library skills games or whatever you can think of. Don’t have vendor’s catalogs? Try using the book jacket. I usually cover the book jacket in plastic and affix to the book. But if you don’t use those book jackets, cut the cover off, then laminate and hang with clothes pins along a line in your library to call attention to the books and promote them.
5. One school had a Junior Prom Etiquette check day. Students were invited to bring their lunches to the library and different situations were reenacted such as introducing their date to their parents, table manners, and tips for awkward situations. We might not have the same situation, but our students can still profit from learning more about manners. Showcase books on manners and etiquette and have students act out etiquette tips and situations.
6. If your school allows students to use their cell phones or tablets, try using QR codes. You can type a book report or record a sound byte for a book, then attach a QR code to the URL. Readers can just aim their phones at the QR code and get the information. You may have seen these in magazines where an advertisement has a QR code to direct you to their websites. If you don’t know how to do this, let your older children figure it out. Once you’ve done a few, it will be very easy to do.
I hope you have a great week.
Audrey
Currently Reading:
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Millionaires by Brad Meltzer
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit
These High, Green Hills by Jan Karon (Book 3 of the Mitford series)
A few years ago I found some ideas for encouraging reading that sounded pretty easy and fun. Some of these ideas are things that you could have parents or students set up for you which also promotes ‘buy in’ to reading. I found these ideas in some of my library journals and books.
Enjoy them. If you have other ideas, please let me know and I’ll add them to this list.
1. Inside some gift cards these days there is a little cell that can be used to record a message. You can use this technology to do ‘book talks’. Print a small cover of the book and place the cell with the recorded message behind the cover to make your own book talks. Students just push the button and hear a short book talk about the book. You could let students record book talks for books. A great book report idea! You can buy just sound chips from various resources if you are interested.
2. Signage for libraries can be very expensive, but you can make your own with a large coffee can, a yardstick, pebbles or rocks, spray paint, and paper. Spray the outside of the coffee can and both sides of the yardstick. Fill the can partway with the pebbles or rocks. Attach a sign to one end of the yardstick and stick the other end into the pebbles. Put these types of sign on table or shelving or wherever works in your library. These can be changed easily when needed.
3. Have a hard time getting your boys to read? Try what one school did. They took pictures of the adult males on campus reading a book and made a bulletin board titled “Real Men Read Books”. This really increased interest in reading and the boys began asking the men about the books they were reading. What if you are a small school and don’t have many adult males on staff? Use pastors, parents, or older siblings. I would advise that you have these males hold books from your library, possibly books that they enjoyed as a young person.
4. Encourage reading by using vendor’s catalogs. Vendors’ catalogs have small pictures of the covers of their books. Cut out all the pictures of books that the library owns or just books that you feel would be appropriate, laminate them and glue them to clothes pins or large paper clips. They can be used for bookmarks, genre sorts, library skills games or whatever you can think of. Don’t have vendor’s catalogs? Try using the book jacket. I usually cover the book jacket in plastic and affix to the book. But if you don’t use those book jackets, cut the cover off, then laminate and hang with clothes pins along a line in your library to call attention to the books and promote them.
5. One school had a Junior Prom Etiquette check day. Students were invited to bring their lunches to the library and different situations were reenacted such as introducing their date to their parents, table manners, and tips for awkward situations. We might not have the same situation, but our students can still profit from learning more about manners. Showcase books on manners and etiquette and have students act out etiquette tips and situations.
6. If your school allows students to use their cell phones or tablets, try using QR codes. You can type a book report or record a sound byte for a book, then attach a QR code to the URL. Readers can just aim their phones at the QR code and get the information. You may have seen these in magazines where an advertisement has a QR code to direct you to their websites. If you don’t know how to do this, let your older children figure it out. Once you’ve done a few, it will be very easy to do.
I hope you have a great week.
Audrey
Currently Reading:
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Millionaires by Brad Meltzer
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit
These High, Green Hills by Jan Karon (Book 3 of the Mitford series)
Monday, February 29, 2016
Making Bookmarks
Hello,
I like to have bookmarks on hand for the students to take when they come to the library. It can get costly, though. Tammy Worcester gave a presentation at a conference and one of the ideas was how to make your own bookmarks using Powerpoint slides.
Open up Powerpoint and change the slide to a blank slide. (Enjoy the pictures on the side. I have dual monitors and when I capture a screen shot, it also captures the second monitor picture.)
Next, click and turn on the ruler option. Mine looks like this. I went to the View tab and clicked Ruler.
Draw a line down the center. Go to the Insert Tab, and click Shapes. Choose the Line or the Line with an arrow and draw your center line.
Then, draw two more lines on each side dividing them equally making four equal sections.
Next, insert text boxes into one section and design your bookmark. Use clip art and students won’t need to cite sources. Copy and paste your bookmark into the other sections, or design each bookmark to be different.
I like to print them onto cardstock and then cut them apart on the lines. This is a good idea for book reports, too. Students can make bookmarks to encourage others to read the book they read.
At times a book I read has a recipe in it and I am usually asked for the recipe since only one student can check out the book. I have put the recipe on bookmarks for students to take. What information do your students need to study? Make a bookmark or have them make one.
If you want double-sided bookmarks, just add a second slide divided in exactly the same place, create your second side and print it double-sided.
I hope you enjoy this creative idea and also an extra day this year. Happy Leap Year Day!
Audrey
I like to have bookmarks on hand for the students to take when they come to the library. It can get costly, though. Tammy Worcester gave a presentation at a conference and one of the ideas was how to make your own bookmarks using Powerpoint slides.
Open up Powerpoint and change the slide to a blank slide. (Enjoy the pictures on the side. I have dual monitors and when I capture a screen shot, it also captures the second monitor picture.)
Next, click and turn on the ruler option. Mine looks like this. I went to the View tab and clicked Ruler.
Draw a line down the center. Go to the Insert Tab, and click Shapes. Choose the Line or the Line with an arrow and draw your center line.
Then, draw two more lines on each side dividing them equally making four equal sections.
Next, insert text boxes into one section and design your bookmark. Use clip art and students won’t need to cite sources. Copy and paste your bookmark into the other sections, or design each bookmark to be different.
I like to print them onto cardstock and then cut them apart on the lines. This is a good idea for book reports, too. Students can make bookmarks to encourage others to read the book they read.
At times a book I read has a recipe in it and I am usually asked for the recipe since only one student can check out the book. I have put the recipe on bookmarks for students to take. What information do your students need to study? Make a bookmark or have them make one.
If you want double-sided bookmarks, just add a second slide divided in exactly the same place, create your second side and print it double-sided.
I hope you enjoy this creative idea and also an extra day this year. Happy Leap Year Day!
Audrey
Monday, February 22, 2016
New Books, and I Mean NEW
Hello!
I have some new books for you. I told you about the Sunflower Award that I do here at Rogers. I only have a handful of students who are actually reading the books, but I’m glad to have some great stories for those few readers. I am now reading the books I plan to use for next year. All of these books have been published in 2016.
Pax by Sara Pennypacker. I just finished one called Pax by Sara Pennypacker. You might recognize her for her Clementine series, which are fun books, too. This book is very different from those, though. I was curious about it because there is a lot of buzz in the library publications about it. When I first saw the book, I thought it looked nice, but not my style. After seeing it multiple times and having a friend who teaches English ask me about it, I finally decided to order it and read it. I am so glad I did.
Pax is about a fox and a young boy. War comes to the area and the father enlists. Mother has died, so Peter, the boy, is sent to live with grandfather. Grandfather won’t tolerate a pet fox, so father makes Peter release Pax into the wild. Pax has been raised as a pet dog, so he isn’t accustomed to being alone in the wild, and Peter knows this. The story moves chapter by chapter between Pax and Peter. While I read a chapter about Pax, I was wondering how Peter was doing, and then reading about Peter, hoped Pax was OK.
If you decide to get a copy, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
The Skeleton Tree by Iain Lawrence. For those who enjoy a good survival story. This takes the story of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen to a new level. In this story, twelve-year-old Chris starts on a sailing trip with his uncle. He discovers that an older boy, Frank, is also along. Within 48 hours, the boat sinks and Chris and Frank are the only survivors. They have no radio, no food, not much of anything. Frank seems to hate Chris but they need to get along if they are going to survive. In the wilderness of Alaska, there are many problems to overcome, the least of which is the weather. This book has a twist that I wasn’t expecting which makes things really interesting.
Ruby Lee and Me by Shannon Hitchcock. The year is 1969 and integration has come to Sarah Beth Willis’ town. Her best friend in the summertime is Ruby Lee, a black girl, but when school begins, their friendship will not be the same. Black children and white children are not best friends at school. Sarah just doesn’t see how or why this should be. But there are a lot of changes for Sarah this year. Her little sister, Robin, has been in a very bad accident and Sarah believes it was her fault. The family has to sell their home and move to a smaller one in town in order to pay hospital bills. Sarah has to adjust to all these changes plus a new school and a new teacher. At the end of the book, the reader discovers that the story is true. It is the author’s story.
Lizzie and the Lost Baby by Cheryl Blackford. During World War 2, children who lived in London were sent to the country to stay with strangers there in order to keep them safe. Lizzie and her brother end up in a foster home where the people aren’t unkind, but don’t really want them. One of the people they stay with appears to be crazy. Nearby are a family of Travelers, or gypsies. They have their own problems and due to one problem, a baby is left alone. Lizzie finds the baby and tries to help by taking the baby to her foster parents. The crazy lady believes this is her baby who died a few years before, and she keeps the baby. Meanwhile, the gypsies are searching for their lost child. Soon, Lizzie meets with Elijah, the brother of the lost baby. She realizes who the baby belongs to, but now is unsure of what to do. Should she give the baby back to Elijah, or should she just keep quiet about it?
I hope you have a great week.
Audrey
Currently Reading
The Head of Kay’s by P. G. Wodehouse
In a French Kitchen by Susan Herrmann Loomis
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit
This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
I have some new books for you. I told you about the Sunflower Award that I do here at Rogers. I only have a handful of students who are actually reading the books, but I’m glad to have some great stories for those few readers. I am now reading the books I plan to use for next year. All of these books have been published in 2016.
Pax by Sara Pennypacker. I just finished one called Pax by Sara Pennypacker. You might recognize her for her Clementine series, which are fun books, too. This book is very different from those, though. I was curious about it because there is a lot of buzz in the library publications about it. When I first saw the book, I thought it looked nice, but not my style. After seeing it multiple times and having a friend who teaches English ask me about it, I finally decided to order it and read it. I am so glad I did.
Pax is about a fox and a young boy. War comes to the area and the father enlists. Mother has died, so Peter, the boy, is sent to live with grandfather. Grandfather won’t tolerate a pet fox, so father makes Peter release Pax into the wild. Pax has been raised as a pet dog, so he isn’t accustomed to being alone in the wild, and Peter knows this. The story moves chapter by chapter between Pax and Peter. While I read a chapter about Pax, I was wondering how Peter was doing, and then reading about Peter, hoped Pax was OK.
If you decide to get a copy, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
The Skeleton Tree by Iain Lawrence. For those who enjoy a good survival story. This takes the story of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen to a new level. In this story, twelve-year-old Chris starts on a sailing trip with his uncle. He discovers that an older boy, Frank, is also along. Within 48 hours, the boat sinks and Chris and Frank are the only survivors. They have no radio, no food, not much of anything. Frank seems to hate Chris but they need to get along if they are going to survive. In the wilderness of Alaska, there are many problems to overcome, the least of which is the weather. This book has a twist that I wasn’t expecting which makes things really interesting.
Ruby Lee and Me by Shannon Hitchcock. The year is 1969 and integration has come to Sarah Beth Willis’ town. Her best friend in the summertime is Ruby Lee, a black girl, but when school begins, their friendship will not be the same. Black children and white children are not best friends at school. Sarah just doesn’t see how or why this should be. But there are a lot of changes for Sarah this year. Her little sister, Robin, has been in a very bad accident and Sarah believes it was her fault. The family has to sell their home and move to a smaller one in town in order to pay hospital bills. Sarah has to adjust to all these changes plus a new school and a new teacher. At the end of the book, the reader discovers that the story is true. It is the author’s story.
Lizzie and the Lost Baby by Cheryl Blackford. During World War 2, children who lived in London were sent to the country to stay with strangers there in order to keep them safe. Lizzie and her brother end up in a foster home where the people aren’t unkind, but don’t really want them. One of the people they stay with appears to be crazy. Nearby are a family of Travelers, or gypsies. They have their own problems and due to one problem, a baby is left alone. Lizzie finds the baby and tries to help by taking the baby to her foster parents. The crazy lady believes this is her baby who died a few years before, and she keeps the baby. Meanwhile, the gypsies are searching for their lost child. Soon, Lizzie meets with Elijah, the brother of the lost baby. She realizes who the baby belongs to, but now is unsure of what to do. Should she give the baby back to Elijah, or should she just keep quiet about it?
I hope you have a great week.
Audrey
Currently Reading
The Head of Kay’s by P. G. Wodehouse
In a French Kitchen by Susan Herrmann Loomis
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit
This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
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