Mercer Mayer Author Study

I introduced the author Mercer Mayer to our first grade students this fall.  We began by learning all about Mercer's life and reading a few of his first books.  We read: "There's an alligator under my bed" and also "There's a monster in my closet"  I found a video on YouTube that is actually Mercer Mayer singing and playing his guitar to the book "There's an alligator under my bed"  It is a super cute song and the children enjoyed getting to see Mercer sing.  We then began to read "Little Critter" books.  All first graders made their own "Little Critter" puppet.  On the back of the puppet we added 4 facts that we learned about the author and illustrator Mercer Mayer.

We ended our Mercer Mayer unit by exploring a few apps on the ipad about Little Critter.  Students were able to read "Just Me and My Friend" and "My trip" which are both Little Critter apps.  The Little Critter books have been a hit with our first graders.

 

Babymouse, Oh Babymouse!

 

 

The 3rd graders did a quick unit on graphic novels.  We are lucky to have a large graphic novel section at the Intermediate building and I wanted students to know where to find them.  I created a Babymouse display over in the corner next to the graphic novels.  I showed the 3rd graders the Babymouse website and gave them a chance to explore and learn more about Babymouse.  We also spent 15 minutes doing a quiet read so that students could really get into the baby mouse books, and to be honest, every since then I can not keep the Babymouse books on the shelf.  Students learned about Babymouse's friend Wilson and her nemesis Felicia.  They also had a chance to create the words to a premade Babymouse cartoon that I found on the website.  So much FUN!

Book Displays

One of my favorite things to do is advertise the books that we have at our library.  Here are a few of the displays I have used so far this year.  
At the Elementary:

"Gear up for a Good Book" is our fall front window display.  With the help of Mrs. Keck we found many different types of sporting equipment with sporty books to go along with them.

 

"ABC all these neat books?"  The other bookcase was the home for lots of alphabet books.

At the Intermediate Building:

I started the year reading the book "Don't let a ghost borrow your library book"  The book is focused around the LSS (otherwise known as the Library Secret Service)  Mrs. Faltin and I dressed as the LSS with dark glasses, an ear bud, an official badge, and blazer.  We tried to impose the importance of good book care with our students.  The students made glasses that stated a library book rule and picture. It was fun to decorate with all their decorated glasses.

 "These books BLUE me away!"  Mrs. Lauenroth helped with our bookshelf display of many new books in our library with a blue cover.  It actually was amazing to see how many BLUE books we actually had.

"If you Liked the movie, You will Love the book!"  Using some old filmstrip film and a few movie popcorn buckets we are showing off many of the books we have that are also movies.  Books such as "Because of Winn Dixie", "Stuart Little", "Diary of a Wimpy Kid", "Coraline", "Freaky Friday" and many many more.  

 

Intermediate School Up and Running

I love my job! Even though I am busy, busy, busy, I truly can say my job is the best.  Every morning I start my day at the Elementary teaching Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Then at lunchtime I drive up the hill to the Intermediate building to spend the rest of my day teaching third and fourth grade.  As a bonus, I get to spend the last 20 minutes of my day checking out books to the fifth grade.  Now that is called busy!  It feels good to have the Intermediate building feeling more like my space. At first I felt like I was teaching in someone else's classroom.  But after the first quarter I am finally feeling like it is more mine.  I labeled the library to help students know where the books are.  I started with the signs: Fiction and Non-fiction.  Then I also added: Easy, Series, Spanish, Graphic Novels and Biographies.

A School full of SUPERHEROES

Our Elementary school wide theme this year (2016-2017) is superheroes.  The halls are decorated, the superhero curtains are up and superheroes themselves are walking the halls.  So I decided to start the library off with the superhero theme as well.  We made a stand up superhero that students can stand behind to take their picture.

Each student was able to take their picture home, and we hung some on the wall with reminders of "Super Library Manners"
I started the year reading "Superheroes ABC's" and "Ten Rules of being a Superhero".  Students made superheroes out of tongue depressors and reviewed how to be a super friend in the library.

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NEW BEGINNINGS AT CRETE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

This summer was a time for new beginnings at Crete Public Schools.  With our new high school opening this last January, the summer was a time to reorganized the rest of the buildings.  My role will be changing as I will be the school librarian at the K-2 Elementary Building in the mornings, and will be at the 3-5 Intermediate Building in the afternoons.  So my summer was spent sorting, organizing and preparing to split our libraries.

The Intermediate School was fortunate enough, to be able to purchase a entire start up collection of books (about 6,000).  We placed the order in February and the books arrived July 1st.  So most of the month of July was spent opening boxes and thinking about arranging the books in both building.

After hours and hours both libraries are arranged and ready for business.  I am looking forward to my new adventure as a school librarian in 2 amazing places!

Reading is the "THING" to Do!

We celebrated Read Across America Day 2016 (Dr Seuss' Birthday) using the theme "Reading is the THING to Do".  Everyone at Crete Elementary was asked to wear a red shirt and then we attached a Thing # onto their shirt.  We had around 765 "Things" walking around the school.  Mrs. Gonzalez and Mrs. Wendelin went all out and dressed like Thing One and Thing Two.

 

All classes were assigned a buddy reading classroom and our whole school read to each other to start the day.  It was fun to see all the things (teachers, students, custodians, secretaries, kitchen) participate in Read Across America Day.