Audrey Wood Author Study

First grade students have been reading many of Audrey and Don Wood's picture books as we did an in depth author study.  We began our author study by learning all about Audrey's life as a child.  Audrey and Don have an amazing website that shares lots of background information.  Here is the link http://www.audreywood.com/.

The first book I shared with the students was "King Bidgood's in the Bathtub"  This book is a Caldecott Honor book because of such wonderfully detailed pictures.  We read and listened to the song to go along with the story. The song is so catching I was singing it for days.  But my most favorite part was acting the story out for the class.  We had a variety of "Kings" that wouldn't get out of the bathtub. (Miss Nitzel, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Bruha, Mrs. Gonzalez) I wish I would have remembered to take a photo.

Some of our other favorites were Piggies (we made 5 Piggy puppets), Silly Sally (we made a class book), and Napping house (flannel board).
We read Heckedy Peg last as it has a different feel than most of her other books.  Some children loved it and others were terribly scared of the witch. We also read "Alphabet Adventure" which was illustrated by Audrey's son Bruce Wood.

Overall the students enjoyed reading books by Audrey.  Many students have figured out where the "wood" books are on the shelves and hunt them down.

2nd Grade Reads Magic Tree House

Second graders spent most of September and October enjoying the first book in the Magic Tree House series called "Dinosaurs Before Dark" written by Mary Pope Osborne.  I read the book aloud to them.  As Jack and Annie went on their first adventure, they met a Pteranodon.  2nd graders learned what a Pteranodon really looked like.  We read a non-fiction book that contained lots of information about Pteranodon's, they had a wing span of 28 feet, their head was 7 feet long, their body was fuzzy and they had no teeth yet mostly ate fish.

Mrs. Keck and I folded an origami Pternaodon to hang above our cart filled with fiction and non-fiction books about dinosaurs.  I have to admit that for most of the month all of the quality dinosaur books were checked out, in part due to the dinosaur display.

To end our dinosaur unit, students were divided into groups of 2 or 3 and were assigned a dinosaur to research.  We used the site "PebbleGo" to fill out a fact sheet about their dinosaur.  After all 9 dinosaurs were researched, we complied the factual information and created a podcast that shared all we learned.  I have been having difficulty sharing our podcast, yet the students have listened to them.  We visited the site www.magictreehouse.com where the children completed a few online missions.   The Magic Tree House series is a hot item now. Students are very interested in seeing where Jack and Annie travel next.

READING FOR FUN

It has been quite awhile since I have spent time sharing what has been happening in the library, so  tonight I am going to try and catch up.  Students come to our library once every 3 days.  One time I have a library lesson planned for them and the next time they come is a check out day. I usually try to read them a picture book to go along with what we are studying, or sometimes just pick a book off the shelf just for fun.  There are so many good books, and so little time.  Kdg and 1st grade students check out 1 book.  2nd, 3rd and 4th may check out 2 books.  I am really trying to stress "RENEW" this year.  It seems like students want to keep their books indefinitely (Why am I complaining that they are keeping their books??).  Yet the longer they keep them, the more likely they are to get lost. So I am asking that they bring their books back to the library so I see them and can renew them for another 10 days.  After students check out their books they are invited to spread out in the library and enjoy some "quiet" reading time.  Here are a few photos of students I caught reading.  Way to go!

Dot Day 2012

Crete Elementary School participated in International Dot Day this week. All 1st graders who visited the Library this week read the story "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds.  We talked about making our mark in the world.  Then students were able to be as creative as they wanted with crayons, markers, watercolors, tissue paper, construction paper and stickers to create their very own dot.  Each dot was unique and all 130+ of them are hanging in the Library for our school to view.

Go for the Gold!

In honor of the London 2012 Olympics this summer, all summer school students learned about the Olympics.  We learned all about the Olympic rings, we know what the color on the rings stand for.  Students were so observant they started finding the rings all over (on Coke cans and PopTart wrappers and all over TV).  We read "Koala Lou" by Mem Fox which is all about the Busch Olympics. We ended our summer school with our own Olympic Field Day.  We marched through the gym while listening to the Olympic theme song, then headed to the field to participate in athletic events.

Fun was had by all!  I decided to start the year off by decorating the front case with books all about the Olympics. We wrote acrostic poems about the Olympics, so I have those hanging on the wall right outside the Library. I plan to keep this up throughout the month of August.

Happy New School Year!  My first week went by so quickly. I was able to meet all 28 classes, which is over 600 students. My theme in the library this year is "Signs of Success" using many different street signs.  Some of the sayings are "Ask question" "Make good choices" "Learning Zone" "Ready Set Read"

First Grade Frog Fun

In the Library in May, the first grade classes were reading all about frogs.  We read both fiction and non- fiction. We researched frogs using books from our library and the internet.  Ask any first grader and they will be able to share a frog fact with you.

Here are a few of our favorite frog books:

My name is Mrs. Moore and I am the school librarian at Crete Elementary.

Looking forward to sharing all that happens at the Crete Elementary Library!