Story Laboratory Book Fair

It's book fair week! This spring's Scholastic Book Fair theme is "Story Laboratory." I am so fortunate to have great parent volunteers to help set up and decorate. They created an amazing robot, which we placed right inside the media center doors.

After we set up, I held a teacher preview after school. During this event, teachers are invited to check out the books and create a wish list for families who would like to purchase books to add to classroom libraries. I served guaca-moldy and chips, earwax salad (watergate salad), oozing cupcakes, fresh flesh roll-ups, read-ioactive (gummy) worms, and sludge punch to all of the staff members who came to the preview.  

Students came in for previews the next day. They were greeted with with a message from the robot.  One of our custodians recorded a message using an app that changed his voice to that of a robot's. I played the message for kids as they came through. The message told the kids how to fill out their wish lists and to keep the books tidy. The younger kids loved it and even the older kids had fun guessing whose voice it was.  

Yesterday, I overheard a precious conversation between two first grade boys about their favorite Captain Underpants book. I love how the book fair excites kids about books and reading!

2013 Reading Goal

After I set a 2013 reading goal for myself, I wanted to share it with my students. I hope that sharing my reading goals will encourage my students to set their own goals and to read more. 

Around the same time I contemplated displaying my reading goal, I was inspired by this post from the Book Bug in which she shared a book goal chart she created for her media center. I created a grid in Microsoft Word, added the numbers from 1 through 120, and then enlarged it using our poster maker. I created a title in Print Shop and added it to the top, announcing my goal to students and staff. Each time I finish a book, I print a small picture of the book cover and add it to the poster. 

The display has generated a good bit of attention so far. A group of incredulous third graders recently asked, "You like Lunch Lady too?!"

Second Grade Common Core Lesson

I recently collaborated with a second grade teacher on a Common Core standard new to us. The standard we taught was CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.6: Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud. 

When the students came to the media center, the classroom teacher read aloud Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner. We discussed with the students the different voices she used to portray each character and how the voices helped us to understand which character was speaking in addition to making the story more interesting to hear.

Before the lesson, I created a video with clips of different characters. The video included John Wayne, Grandma from Mama's Family, Tommy from The Rugrats, a drill sergeant, and Simon Cowell. After reading Skippyjon Jones, we showed the video and asked the students to describe the voice of the character. We discussed how the actor changed his/her voice to portray a character and how the scene would not have been as effective without the voice change.

The classroom teacher and I adapted several short stories from a book of reader's theater scripts in advance of the lesson. Then we explained to students that they would be receiving one of the stories. They would have time to practice the script before coming back to the media center to record themselves reading. Before distributing the scripts, we talked about the characters in each and how they might talk. The stories included The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Three Little Pigs. 

The classroom teacher provided time in class for students to practice, and they returned to the media center to film themselves about a week later. We gathered Flip cameras from other teachers and divided the students in groups of three. The students took turns holding the camera and reading their stories. The teacher then uploaded the videos to the class blog for parents to see. The students enjoyed watching the videos and comparing the different versions of the same story.

Nick Bruel Author Visit

Author/illustrator Nick Bruel visited my school on January 16! My students love his Bad Kitty books so much, they are almost always checked out. As soon as I hung posters promoting his visit, our students and staff were buzzing with excitement!

Before his visit, I invited each class in kindergarten through fourth grade to visit the media center for a Nick Bruel storytime. We read Bob and Otto, Who Is Melvin Bubble, and Poor Puppy. Who Is Melvin Bubble is my favorite ever read-aloud! My students roared with laughter during this book.
 
During his presentations, Mr. Bruel read his book Bad Kitty to the students. Then he told students how his books start with a title and led them through a story writing activity starting with a title they generated and using their ideas. Several of our students later brought me their drawings and stories, inspired from this activity.

Thank you to FoxTale Book Shoppe for coordinating Nick Bruel's visit to our school!

Book Tasting

Recently, I held a book tasting in the media center for my sixth graders. These students often seem settled in their reading preferences and find it difficult to choose a different type of book. I wanted to expose them to the many great books in our media center that they may not discover on their own. The first step was decorating the media center to make it feel more like a fancy restaurant and less like school. So I arranged the tables at an angle in front of the Promethean Board, which displayed the fire from www.blazinglogs.com. I put white (plastic) tablecloths on the tables. Each table held a vase with poinsettias and two battery powered tealight candles. Before each class arrived, I set the table with a place setting/recording sheet (see below) at each chair. I also connected my iPhone to a speaker and played the Count Basie station on Pandora. 

As students arrived, I welcomed them to the Library Cafe and explained that would would be sampling some of the finest books our media center has to offer. I led them to the tables and told them to seat themselves with people who would not get them kicked out of the restaurant and allowed students to seat themselves while I prepared the books. I pulled the books from the shelves in advance and grouped them according to the needs of each class. To serve the books to students, I placed them on a silver tray and brought them to students at their tables. The kids loved being served, so I will definitely do this again. But next time, I will have something on the table for the kids to do while they are waiting for their books.

Students were given directions to read the front and back covers and a page or two from each book.  Then they silently traded books with someone at their table. After five minutes, students moved to the next table and sampled the books there. As students found a book they enjoyed, they wrote the title and call number on the sheet below so that they could check the book out later. I also encouraged students to add these titles to their personal lists on Destiny in case they lost them.

Students were given time at the end to check out books and many of them did! I am hoping our students will continue to check out new books.

Merry Christmas!

Eric Litwin Author Visit

On Monday, December 3, Eric Litwin of Pete the Cat fame visited Indian Knoll Elementary School. Our staff and students enjoyed his performances! He sang songs from his CDs and of course treated us to his Pete the Cat stories. Mr. Eric kept all of us entertained from the beginning to the end, using lots of call and response and audience participation techniques to engage us. Here are some pictures from our groovy afternoon with Mr. Eric.