Third Grade Studies the Dictionary!

One of our third grade library skills is to alphabetize and learn how to use a dictionary.  Each 3rd grade student received their own dictionary from a local service group, so this was a perfect time to practice our dictionary skills in the Library.  Each child wrote their own entry for the dictionary. They were to write their name, dividing it into syllables, then write their name phonetically,  then write 2 definitions that would describe them.  After we had all 120 entries, we made a life size dictionary that we hung in the hallway.  It was fun to see the students standing in the hallway, looking for their own name and reading about their friends.  We spent the next 2 class periods using our dictionary to answer questions such as: What are the guide words on page 4?  What is one definition of the entry Brock?  Does the entry Luis come between the guide words of Manuel and Taylor?  It was great hands on practice for the students.  Here are a few pictures of our dictionary unit. 

Creepy Carrots!

Kindergartners had a great time with the book "Creepy Carrots" by Aaron Reynolds.  This is a new book for our library and was a huge success.  This was one of our October books!

                      

 

We read the story, did a flannel board carrot poem and then each child created their own creepy carrot.  They turned out super cute.  Some had wiggley eyes, some had teeth and some didn't.   So as you walk into the library you are greeted by many carrots, and as you wander around there are creepy carrots everywhere.  Even the older students have had fun looking for the creepy carrots!

CHOOSE KIND!

Where has the time gone! It seems like school just began, yet Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  The Elementary Library has been as busy as usual.  Here is a quick look at what is happening in the library.  One of the themes in the library this year is "Choose Kind" from the book "Wonder" written by R.J. Palacio.  What a wonderful story as well as motto that all students need to remember.

Our outside cases include "Characters Welcome" and "Lasso up a Good Book".  After we celebrated Western day at the Elementary we realized how many good cowboy books that we needed to display.  Many students have commented on Woody being in the case HOWDY PARTNER!

4th Grade Speed Reviews

Years ago when I was at a Library conference I heard about an idea called "Speed Reviews".   This is where a student does a 1 minute book talk about the chapter book they just read.  The goal is to get other students interested in their book so they might want to check that book out. One of the benefits to a "Speed Review" is that the student only has to give the review to one person and not have to stand in front of the class, I think it makes the presenter more at ease.

The 4th graders were given 5-6 weeks to read a chapter book, write a detailed synopsis of the book and print the book cover and title to use as a visual aid.  The students only have 1 minute to try and "sell" their book to their friend.  As I walked around the room I was able to quickly tell which students finished their book and were able to tell about it.  I had quite a few quality speed reviews this year, just a different way to do a book report.

Dr Seuss Celebration

This year for Read Across America Day in March we celebrated by having the students play a "Cat in the Hat Guessing Game" on CNN (our weekly news show). We took pictures of staff at the Elementary (custodian, secretary, principal, special teachers, etc.)  that all students come into contact with.  The staff wore a cat in the hat hat and held a book over their face, so only their eyes were showing.  Then the class had to guess who the "Cat" was.  After turning their guesses into the library, they were given a stack of "Dr. Seuss" bookmarks to celebrate the day. Fun was had by all.

           







 Martin Luther King Day of Service


Today Crete Elementary celebrated Martin Luther King's Day of Service. It was a super neat experience for the school community.  We have been gathering canned food for 2 weeks to be donated to our local food bank. We also spent part of our afternoon tying fleece blankets to be given away to families in need. Our school came together at the end of the day to celebrate our service to others.  With 150 blankets spread on the gym floor, and 1480 cans of food towering in the center our school celebrated the gift of giving.  Each student was given a t-shirt in honor of MLK. I was proud to be part of such a giving school. Way to go Crete Elementary!

Skype with Barbara O'Connor

Crete Elementary was so fortunate to have the opportunity to Skype with the author Barbara O'Connor today.  She gave an amazing presentation to our 4th grade students.  We asked many questions about the book "The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester" and then inquired about being an author.  Barbara was energetic, funny and inspiring.  We are very lucky she took time out of her day to speak with us.  Students are excited to read her new book "On the Road to Mr. Mineo's".

Golden Sower Award

In honor the Golden Sower Nominees for the Upper Grades 4-6 we created a corner display to encourage our 4th graders to read the 10 Golden Sower Books.  The sower is tossing out his seeds (books) in order to grow an amazing flower (Golden Sower Award).  I tried to encourage students to read these 10 books by giving book talks and watching a few book trailers.   Below is a list of the 10 books and their authors:

Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea

Everything for a Dog by Ann M. Martin

Familiars, The by Adam J. Epstein and Andrew Jacobson; illustrated by Peter Chan and Kei Acedera

Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester, The by Barbara O' Connor

Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur

Lucky: Maris, Mantle, and My Best Summer Ever by Wes Tooke

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

Storm Mountain by Tom Birdseye

Walls Within Walls by Maureen Sherry; illustrated by Adam Stower

Wildfire Run by Dee Garretson

If you go to the Nebraska Golden Sower Award site you will find lots of information about these books.http://www.goldensower.org/index.htm

Out of the whole list I successfully read 9 of the 10 books.  I am not much into fantasy books so "The Familiars" was not a favorite of mine.  I did enjoy "Out of My Mind" it brought tears to my eyes.  I chose to read "The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester" by Barbara O'Connor aloud to all my 4th graders.  It took us approximately 10 class periods to finish the book.  We learned all about submarines and bullfrogs while we were reading the book.  I contacted Barbara about the possibility of Skyping her to learn more about the book and she graciously agreed. So on Friday, Jan 18 we will visit with her over the internet.  Students had a chance to learn more about Barbara by visiting her website and watching a short author video on her.  I can't wait to share this experience with the students on Friday!

        Elmer the Elephant  By David McKee

I was very excited to received 8 paperback books all about

Elmer the Elephant from "Books Are Fun".  I decided to

create my own elephant unit focused all around Elmer the Elephant.

Elmer is a very unique patchwork elephant that is always joking and

tricking his friends.  One day he is tired of always being different and decides to trick his friends by turning himself gray like all the other elephants.  Elmer scares his friends and they say "Too bad Elmer isn't here to see this"  As the rain falls, Elmer turns back Elmer color.  So in honor of this special day, the other elephants decorate themselves colorful like Elmer and Elmer decorates himself elephant color and they have an Elmer day parade.

The 2nd grade students talked about being unique, the other way to spell it "You"nique, and how it is important to be yourself.  Then all students were able to create their own uniquely decorated elephant for our Elmer Day Parade.

We read many other books by David McKee, Elmer Again, Elmer in the Snow, and Elmer and Grandpa Eldo.  We learned about characters (Rose, Wilber, Grandpa Eldo) and talked about the different settings of the stories.

My favorite activity of our Elmer unit was reading the Pop up book titled:

It had wonderful pop-ups throughout the story.  So a perfect culmination project was for each student to create their own pop-up with 2 characters and a setting.  I had the basic cuts for the pop-up ready to go. It took 2 class periods to complete this project (1 hr total).  The first day we read the "Elmer Pop-Up Book" and colored our 2 elephants and the 2nd class period we finished decorating the scenes and added our our creative unique touches.  Many students had an owl popping out of the tree or a snake popping out of the grass.  All 120 pop-ups were amazing. Here is a look at our process and our finished products.

What a wonderful time the students had with this project.  We invited the office staff in to share in our celebration.  We read them our "Elmer poem" and took a tour of our pop-up projects.

Here is the Elmer poem Gloria and I wrote for the students;

Elmer the Elephant is funny
Elmer the Elephant is cool
Elmer the Elephant is silly
We can read about Elmer at school.

Elmer the Elephant is colorful
Elmer the Elephant is bold
Elmer the Elephant can do anything
Reading about Elmer never gets old

Book Wreath

Here I am in January trying to catch up on what happened in December.  Linda (our MS/HS librarian) and I were able to attend our ESU #6 Media Meeting in December.  As we shared ideas and talked about the possibility of e-books/e-readers in our libraries, we also tackled a cool craft.  Using an old paperback book, we cut the spine off of the book, rolled each page and hot glued it to a styrofoam or wood circle.  Depending on how the pages were rolled, each wreath turned out unique and different. I brought my wreath to school and wrapped a ribbon around it for the holidays. Merry Christmas!

Here is a link to pinterest if you would like to try it:

http://pinterest.com/pin/112308584429826873/