Don't Be an Interrupting Chicken!

This week I started the Caldecott Unit for second grade.  I first introduced a powerpoint to introduce the history of the award and then shared one of my favorite crowd pleasers,

Don't Be an Interrupting Chicken!

Skim and Scan!

This week I introduced students to the concepts of skimming and scanning.  Our students have been hard war work this year becoming close readers, and now they are going to practice these other reading skills for different purposes. Here is the link to the lesson plan.

One is a Feast for Mouse

This was a short week in the library but some of the Kindergartners got to listen to the fun story, One is a Feast for Mouse: A Thanksgiving Tale, written by Judy Cox.  After listening to the story the students practiced their sequencing skills with this worksheet.

The History of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Balloons

This week I read Balloons Over Broadway, by Melissa Sweet to grades 2-4.  This is a an entertaining story of how Tony Sarg used his inventiveness as a puppeteer to create the magnificent balloons of the Macy's Day Parade.  After the story I shared some of the following videos:

 

Here is the Activity Kit to accompany the book.
To learn more about Melissa Sweet and her books go to her website!

Below are some of the students' balloon creations from the Activity Kit!

Swamp Angel

This week second grade listened to the adventurous story of Angelica Longrider.  This is a fun twist on a legend like Paul Bunyan.  The student will love listening to the amazing feats of this tall-tale heroine that takes place in the Appalachian region.

First, we studied the cover art and discovered how the illustrations suggested that this story was a Tall Tale.  Then, I asked the class if they knew what a swamp was and why the book was titled "Swamp Angel".   This story elicits a lot of giggles and is a great tie-in to their tall tale unit.  Click on the activities link below to accompany the book.  The students enjoyed seeing the constellation of Ursa Major, or "Great Bear" on the Smart Board.

Activities

Leave a Message!

This week the Fifth Grade listened to a voice mail message and had to write down the important parts of the message.  I told them it was a message left by a substitute teacher and that the message was for me.  I replayed the message for them three times, explaining that I do the same thing when taking a message for my husband.  You can't click "pause", but you can hit "replay"!  

Before playing the message we reviewed how to record fact fragments, using abbreviations and bullets, and throwing away "trash" words like articles and prepositions.  After they too took their notes they composed a final message to leave for me to read.  To see the worksheet click here.

Students first made a rough draft of their notes and then composed a neater message for me to read!

Fact Fragment Frenzy!

This week Fifth Grade went to this link Fact Fragment Frenzy.  They first listened to the demo to understand how to effectively take notes.  We discussed last week's note-taking lesson on Amelia Earhart and we talked about not including articles or prepositions in our note taking.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

This week Kindergarten practiced sequencing with a familiar favorite, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie!  This is our first Author Study unit of the year.  After sharing the story the class helped re-tell the story.  Then, each table got their own GIANT cookie and worked as a team to place their sequence cards in the correct order.

Be BOLD!

This week the First Graders are learning a new non-fiction text feature: BOLD PRINT!  We briefly talked about glossaries, which will be next week's text feature.  Students had a blast locating bold print words in their non-fiction book.  When they tried to pronounce their word they realized that it was a hard word and an important one to learn!

Note-Taking

This week the Fifth Graders are practicing their note-taking skills.  Fifth Grade lessons are gearing them up for their Big 6 Research Project.  After discussing plagiarism, citing your sources, and being responsible on the Internet, students are now learning the importance of paraphrasing.  I found a really good lesson on Education World called "Incredible Shrinking Notes".  Here is the link: http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/03/lp322-02.shtml

When I joked about having to use the tiniest post-it note as their final post-it (found below), their jaws dropped.  Of course, students thought it would be funny and I let them put one interesting fact or main idea on the post-it!

Literacy Club

First Grade Non-Fiction Text Features!

First Grade is learning a different non-fiction text feature in library class!  After the activity students were excited to find the Table of Contents in their very own books!

Goldilocks and Just One Bear

Students continued listening to fractured fairy tales and this week was another twisted tale of Goldilocks!  I found a great activity to help students retell the beginning, middle, and end of the story.  The website is here.

R.I.P. Dead Words!

This week Third Grade practiced using a Thesaurus as part of our unit on Reference Resources.  

Cite Your Source!

This week the Fifth Graders are learning what it means to "cite your source".  We reviewed the concepts of plagiarism, bibliography, and attribution.  Students had to find a non-fiction book and paraphrase a fact from the book.  Then, they had to cite their source by filling in the template.  Some of my classes had pre-selected non-fiction books at their tables in the interest of time.  Students found the title page and the verso (opposite of the title page) to locate publishing information.
I reminded kids that the copyright date means the same thing as "year of publication".  Once they find the "little c with a circle around it", they can usually find the publisher right next to it.  I told them that publishers usually have the words "Press" or "Inc." next to their name.  Even though many middle school students use online citation makers I think it is important for students to find the information themselves and understand the basics of making a citation.  Here are some examples:

Click here for the printable.

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

Thanks to this cool blog I used one of my favorite Halloween stories to teach prediction.

Click here for the printable!