We were lucky enough to have a couple authors reschedule Skype calls for book club and tech club. In book club, we read Moving Target by Christina Gonzalez. We had a great conversation with Ms. Gonzalez about how book characters can become like a friend or acquaintance. Ms. Gonzalez also talked about how true historical facts inspired her book. The kids enjoyed seeing Ms. Gonzalez's dog as well. In Tech Club, we did a Kahoot game where students discussed robot myths and facts based on Jennifer Swanson's book Everything Robotics. Even though we did this game a while ago, students were excited to talk about robots with Ms. Swanson. Ms. Swanson and the students discussed how a fishing robot would work, as well as the research process for writing science books/creating expedition projects. I thought it was cool that students could figure out what a "robonaut" is - just from their knowledge of how suffixes work!
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It was great to be back at WBS after maternity leave. In 4th grade, we looked at different book trailers for Maine Student Book Award books 2017-2018. We covered the standard "I can appreciate the value of reading a variety of genres, formats and points of view."
Students read a discussion question out loud before viewing the trailer. Next, we watched the trailer. Finally, we looked at a word bank of hashtags. Students used index cards to write a hashtag description of each book. This led to a great conversation about every librarian's favorite topic: keywords! Here's a photo of our display in progress.
In 1st and 2nd grade, kiddos had the opportunity to actually build houses based on their written designs with marshmallows and toothpicks.
In 3rd grade, kids added speech bubbles to wordless picture books to meet the standard I can understand wordless picture books and write speech bubbles to show my understanding. (CSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.2
Determine the main ideas of information presented visually.) This idea comes from Lynne Plourde via Mrs. Parker. This was a really fun activity. Students enjoyed reading the books the following week their classmates wrote. I thought one student really captured that in the book Wave by Suzi Lee there is a conversation between the girl and the wave. We imagined what the wave might be saying to the girl. I couldn't possible show off all the great work, but I can post a slideshow.
Overall a great couple of weeks back! I have a bad case of baby brain and am finding I need routines as much as kids. I'm looking forward to cleaning up the library over the summer to make sure our checkout routines "flow". Enjoy your summer and happy trails, Mrs. Rosenberg
Another snow day! Can you even believe it?! Now I remember why I thought living in Guatemala for a year was a good idea ... In 1st grade, we read the Chickadee Award book I'm New Here by a Maine author Anne Sibley O'Brien. This is a story about three children who move to the United States from other countries. At first the children feel lonely, confused and sad, but soon they learn English, make friends and feel at home. Students practiced locating maps and learned about timelines. Students constructed a timeline around each character's story to show the beginning, middle and end. We also practiced using the words first, next, and last to retell each character's story. In Mrs. Bosso's class we also practiced summarizing the story with beginning, middle and end as well as first, next and last. During exploratory, students were able to make a timeline of their own about important things that happened in their lives (for example, Funtown Splashtown, getting slushies, and vacation to Florida!)
In 3rd grade, we continued talking about opinion writing in the context of another Chickadee book: Land Shark. This book is about a boy who wants a shark for his birthday. There are lots of words in a different font throughout the book that the author wants the reader to emphasize. Students did a fabulous job helping me to read these words with expression. We even found a secret message in just the tall font letters. Students had a choice of unscrambling an opinion paragraph so that it was "Hamburger Style" or writing their own opinion paragraph requesting an unusual pet. I was so pleased many students chose the more demanding task of writing and came up with some great paragraphs. In 2nd grade, we began by guessing which classmate wrote which "Everything is better with ..." statement. (These ranged from "Everything is better with God and Jesus" to "Everything is better with ketchup" to "Everything is better with puppies and kitties.") I was impressed by how well this class knows eachother! We also read land shark. Students practiced retelling the story with drawings and words (using a word bank). Finally in another 5th grade class, I announced the winners in the Guess Who? character contest. Two students guessed 7 out of 10 characters correctly and won a book, Infamous Ratsos (donated by www.curiouscity.net/ ) a 2017 Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) Honor Book. Congratulations kids! I hope these girls remember to enter contests/ apply for scholarships going forward! Next, we did a lesson on figurative language: metaphor, simile and personification using examples from songs. Students completed a short Kahoot! quiz to show their understanding after our conversation. It has taken a little while to fine tune use of Kahoot! but this lesson worked. I have to be sure to keep Kahoot! short and practice beforehand a bit longer, so students aren't tempted to guess when we get to the fun game. It was a busy week at the library! In Kindergarten, students practiced describing characters. We read Mother Bruce by Ryan Higgins which is a funny story about a bear who gets adopted by goslings. We brainstormed about the things Bruce (the bear) likes and doesn't like. Next we labeled pictures of things Bruce likes and doesn't like. We did this with sticky notes. In first grade, students also listened to Mother Bruce and practiced describing characters. Instead of one or two words, students wrote a whole list of things Bruce liked and didn't like. Bruce liked some things you'd expect a bear to like (honey, salmon, eggs) but there were also some surprises (Bruce likes creating fancy recipes). Well done first grade! In 5th grade, we continued with Adopt-a-Shelf. Students adopted a fiction shelf and we reviewed call numbers. As part of this activity, students chose a book to "book talk." This allowed students to practice their browsing strategies (read the front flap, the back of the book look at the book cover, ask a friend for a recommendation). I loved hearing about the books students like or think look good. Here is a picture of the signs kids made. In 3rd grade, students continued to practice their writing skills by unscrambling opinion paragraphs based on the book A Lucky Author Has a Dog so that these paragraphs are "Hamburger Style". In 2nd grade, we also read the Chickadee Award book A Lucky Author Has a Dog. Students shared examples of facts and opinions. Students created their own opinion statements with the sentence stem "Everything is better with ..." Students also tried guessing which 3rd grader wrote which opinion statement. Lots of fun! Finally, in 1st grade exploratory we finally got to use the paper airplanes we made after reading Float a wordless Chickadee Award book about a little boy who creates a paper boat and a paper airplane. We practiced measuring how far our airplanes flew. I always find it pretty thrilling when I can teach a math standard in the context of library lessons! It was nice to have a week uninterrupted by snow days and late starts! Thanks mother nature. In kindergarten, students compared two texts about the same topic - hockey! One book was Henry Holton Takes the Ice, a Chickadee Award book, another title was a nonfiction book about hockey. Students completed a verbal exit ticket making an observation about what was the same and what was different about the two books. Third grade also read Henry Holton Takes the Ice and did a short quiz identifying the nonfiction text feature: glossary. In 4th grade, students learned how to write a paragraph "Hamburger Style". We practiced creating "Answer Sandwiches" with paragraphs about our feelings about the Patriot's win and what we did over February break. That got everyone ready to write about their Maine animal. Here are some pictures of paragraphs students wrote! In 1st grade, students identified which books are in the Chickadee Award Program. Each student got a picture of one of these books. Students found their partner and shared something they did over break. Students reviewed what authors do and what illustrators do. At the end of the book, it says "Everything is better with a dog." Students made their own opinion sentences such as "Everything is better with cheese." I enjoyed learning more about what West Bath Students care about! In 5th grade, I introduced our "Adopt-a-Shelf" program. I am needing a little extra help taking care of shelves. In groups of two, students chose a shelf to adopt. They created beautiful signs for the shelf, and made sure all the books were put away neatly on their shelf. Students became more familiar with where books are located in the library and learned how to use the Dewey Decimal System to find books. I'm so pleased students are taking pride in their library and feel ownership of the space! The library is theirs, not mine, and I want them to feel the space is theirs to use and improve. I'm noticing students need some help "unpacking the shelves" - finding books to read - so next week, students will adopt fiction shelves and learn some browsing strategies so they can find more books they want to read! In 1st grade exploratory we caught up on Chickadee Books (Hippos are Huge) and did an activity to practice telling the difference between fiction and nonfiction books. Each student got a fiction or nonfiction book cover. Students did a great job describing the pictures on their book covers and deciding if the book was fiction or nonfiction. Students had to explain why they made the choices they did. Finally in 2nd grade we learned to create bar graphs to show our classmate's favorite Dr. Seuss book! It was a fun and productive week and I'm looking forward to another week of learning with West Bath School.
In 5th grade, we worked on recognizing figurative language: metaphors, similes and personification.
Students created statements such as "Happiness is ... the SuperBowl win Sunday." I had fun guessing what happiness was for each student! Next, we reviewed figurative language in songs. I like this video especially for that.
In Mrs. Sawyer's class, we were lucky enough to have a Skype visit with the author Tamra Wight. I think connecting with authors can help students see how their work in the classroom takes place in the "real world". Expeditionary Learning emphasizes the importance of work with a purpose - rather than "busywork" - and students share their work with their community during celebrations of learning. Kids and Ms. Wight "talked shop" about the process of revising work to get it ready for publication. Students even shared their Maine Animal Riddle book with Ms. Wight! In 1st grade exploratory, students read a story told with two words. Kids really had to pay attention to the pictures to understand what was going on in this story! Next students brainstormed words that rhyme with "look" and "out". Students created these words using playdough. I love being able to teach sight words in the context of a story! Language comes alive when we care about the story, I think. In 5th grade, students used Kahoot! again this week for a quiz on genres. Sometimes I find a lesson flops and I revise it so I can be more successful later in the week. This was one of those weeks when my Wednesday class didn't go as smoothly as the Thursday class! Every day, I learn from my mistakes how to be a more effective teacher. In 3rd grade and 2nd grade, students listened to the Chickadee Award book Hippos are Huge! Next students unscrambled a paragraph about hippos from the book to create an "Answer Sandwich". This lesson was a little too hard for 2nd grade! I was so impressed with their expedition work, I thought they could do it, but I had to learn the hard way!
Better late than never I say! I want to share with families what we've been up to in library! Students in 1st grade learned to read with expression in library using the book Ah ha! by one of my favorite authors for this age, Jeff Mack. This book only has three words (Ah ha! Aahh! and Haha!) so you really have to pay close attention to the characters' expressions to figure out how to read the story expressively. Students read the story to me, so I could relax a bit. Students also identified how the characters felt in a graphic organizer after reading. So much fun! In 1st grade exploratory, we worked with graph paper to show data (number information) about how many "cooties" there were on each page of Even Monsters. In 5th grade, students reviewed vocabulary they learned while earning their Digital Passport with CommonSense Media. We did this using a game called Kahoot! The game takes some getting used to, but once we settled in, kids loved it. Students also asked me to enable all the games on Digital Passport so they can play them in their free time. I thought that was super promising! Students are really starting to internalize ideas about responsible cyber citizenship.
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The Information Literacy Cafe