Month: February 2014

Kindergarten– Participation stories this month. We will begin with “Tony Chestnut” a chant and moving activity we learned last week.   Our first story is Wide Mouth Frog and we will share it with puppets.    We will discuss the nature of Folk Tales: They are stories that are passed form generation to generation.  They can be written in different ways by different authors but the characters and plot are basically the same.  Folk tales are usually about Animals and most of the time they talk.

After our story we will learn a new chant titled, “Baby Jaws” From Judy Freeman book Once Upon a Time. Page 49.

First Grade-We will read the tall tale ”  First grade will create tall tales. Tall tales are simple and hilarious, yet younger students sometimes don’t get their sense of humor.  Today, students will construct instant absurd tall tales while reinforcing Who, What, Where, When , Why.   I will hand out 1/2 sheet of paper to each student.  First student will write their answer and fold the paper flap to hide it . They will pass their paper on to the next student.  Here are the questions we will write about

Who- a fictional person from books, real life or movies i.e. Stinky Cheese man, Annie, Harriet the Spy, Donald Duck

Did what- Describe an activity using an action verb such as Climbed Mount Everest or baked a cake

With Whom- Think of another real or fictional person’s name and use the preposition ” with” such as “with Cinderella” or “with George Washington”

Where- Think of a place or a location and start with a preposition like ” in” or “on” , such as “on the back of a chicken”

When- Give a time such as “Last tuesday” or in 1776

Why- Give a reason starting with the word “because” such as ” because roses are red and violets are blue” or ” because I said so”

and all the people said… : Think of a quote or for the smaller ones they can make up an ending,  and start it with the words “And all the people said,”

Students then pass it on one more time and unfold their papers to read their tall tales . They may perform their tales in  readers theater if time.

 

Second Grade– I will show students how to use Destiny visual search this week. They will search with key word and look for their book in the stacks. They will go to Scholastic Reading Counts and they will pull up their progress reports.

Third Grade- When Students arrive this week, I will immediately review fiction call #’s.  I will have them locate and stand by the shelf where the book they authored would be shelved. After they check their books in, they will place their book on the correct shelf.  This will take some time and practice.  After students are checked out, they are to go to their Reading Counts reports and we will look at their progress to their annual goal.

Fourth and Fifth Grade–  Students will re-create their Voki character from last week and we will add audio today and save our projects to Google Drive.

I will be attending the METC Conference in St. Charles on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I will have a wonderful substitute teacher in the library on those two days.

Kindergarten=   We will read  The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  This 1963 Caldecott award winning book will be appropriate for us as we have had several days off from school because of the snow.  We will read the book from the smart board at the website  We Give Books.

• Read the words to the story on each page, moving your finger under the words as you read.
• Give students enough time to look at each of the pictures. After you have read the story, say: This book is about a boy named Peter who plays in the snow. What does snow feel like? What can you do with snow?

We will discuss the characters in the book.  What are they feeling?  How do the illustrations help us know that?   Do you feel the same as the character when it begins snowing?  Do you become excited? Do you like snow days? How would you feel if there were no snow days?

 Discuss what they like to do on snow days and share. Tell students one my favorite things to do in the snow is to have a snowball fight.  I will have a cooler full of snowballs. (paper snowballs) .  Students will be divided into two teams and line up on opposite sides of the room with an absolute middle line, set the timer and they can begin throwing at each other. Below the waist please. When the timer ends we will melt the snowballs by opening the ones that have fallen on their side and reading the question on the inside.  Each team works together to answer a question about the book.  Each team gets one point for each correct answer.   The winning team receives a reward.  ( This activity is adapted from Jennifer Siderius at TPT)

After they have played they may come back to the smartboard to play a Snowy Day game and hear the story read to them again as an aminated version.

 

First Grade-Second Grade=  We will talk about call numbers and how they are important to use if we want to find a book in the library.  We will look at the lower part of the spine to find the call number. The F at the top of the call number means the book is a fiction book.  The letters at the bottom are the first three letters of the authors last name.  We will look at the books they have ready to check in and see how this works.  We will also do some examples from the white board.

After check out we will read , by Jan Brett.  

We will discuss the book and look at its call number F/Bre. Wear mittens and explain that it would be horrible to loose one of my mittens on a cold day like this.  That is what happened in The Mitten by Jan Brett.  This book is an adaption of a Ukrainian Folk Tale. Folk tales often have animals as the main characters.

At one end of the room is a clothesline with mittens hanging. Each child will be given the matching mitten.  On the line are the names of children’s book authors,  and the students are given a matching mitten where the call number is written. Students are to match the mitten to its mate.  Divide into two teams.  One member from each team searches the clothes line to find the mate and return to their line.  When all mittens are chose, we review and reward one point for every correct match.

Third Grade= Tuesday’s class will be reading a persuasion essay to me that they wrote in class about having more magazines in the library.   I will talk about the procedure for ordering magazines and where the funds come from.  I will also give them a grade using a 6 point rubric   Tuesday- Friday classes will review call number basics on the smart board using a  power point presentation as our guide.

Fourth and Fifth grade=  Students will watch the Voki Character/Book Talk at the beginning of this blog. Students will write about a favorite book in the library.  They must include the title and author.  They are to write about the book as if they were doing a book talk and trying to interest a friend in reading the book.  When reading their writing, it cannot last more than 60 seconds. Students will need to give enough description so to entice another reader.   We will then use these to create a VOKI character.  I will give them their log ins and passwords.  These will also be written down on their writing paper. If there is time they can begin creating their VOKI.

 

 

Kindergarten – We will read Rumplestilskin from MeeGenius web site.  We will look at the different versions we have in the library.  We will talk about the characteristics of Fairy Tales.We will talk about how we can learn about more fairy tales in the library.

First and Second Grade.- We will work on our 3rd quarter writing prompt this week.  Students will write about their favorite book or story.  They will follow a 6 point rubric provided.  After they’ve checked out their books for the day, we will talk about the 100th day of school.  We will enjoy reading 100 Ways to Celebrate 100 Days by Bruce Goldstone. .  I will challenge them to think about doing each of these things that add up to 100 . If there is time, we will also read 100th Day of School by Angela Madearis and they can quiz on the book/.

3rd Grade – We will work on our 3rd grade writing prompt today.  Students will write about their favorite book.  Title and author needed.  They will follow the writing prompt rubric for special classes. Students on Monday and Tuesday will present speeches to me that they’ve written in their classroom about , ” Why we need more magazines in the library”.  Students Wednesday through Friday will have time with me on the smart board as we talk further about fiction and nonfiction call numbers.  We will use a power point presentation to guide us.

4th and 5th grade- Today students will write about their favorite book. They must include the title and author.  They must as if they are preparing a book talk, and these must be no more than  one minute long.  Next week we will put these into a VOKI. An example is on this blog.