It was another full week in my library. With my littles up through first grade we read Blue and Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. For our activity this week we illustrated three books. My two kinder classes did Green and my first grade did either Gold or Blue. Students told me what kind of color they wanted – shiny, glittery, etc. – following the pattern of the books read. This was a little bit of a stretch for some of them. Since I do this for three years, by the time they get to first grade they usually have a pretty good grasp of what is expected.
We continued on our Caldecott unit with grades 2 – 5, again focusing on wordless books. At the start of the lesson I showed the the Reading Rockets interview with Tomie dePaola answering the question “What Makes a Good Picture Book?”
For second and third grades I again used the “Wordless Book Story Chart” worksheet found on the Library Sparks web site. I found YouTube videos of the books I wanted to use with these two grades which made it easier for the students to see the pictures. I also showed them the books page-by-page following the video. In second grade, Tuesday by David Weisner was the book we looked at on YouTube and then “read.” I was glad I found a YouTube video of The Red Book by Barbara Lehman since it is a smaller book and really hard for a class of students to see.
I changed it up a bit this week for fourth and fifth grades. I put them in groups of 3-4. Each group had to choose a book from the stack at their table and then fill out my Caldecott Criteria Questions worksheet. A copy of this worksheet is available for signing up for my mailing list. Each group then had to make a presentation to the class as to whether or not their book should have won the Caldecott. I used Flotsam by David Weisner, The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney, Tuesday by Davie Weisner, The Red Book by Barbara Lehman, Journey and Quest by Aaron Becker, A Ball for Daisy by Christopher Raschka, Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell, and Hot Air by Marjorie Priceman. It was interesting to hear the students viewpoint on whether or not a book should have won the Caldecott. Sometimes I wonder if the Caldecott committee really understands what kids like – my kids wonder the same thing.
I had quite a few extra classes this week. Fifth grade actually came three extra times. They had to finish up their research on their body projects. Then, they came mid-week to work on researching the five themes of geography for their assigned Asian countries. Finally, they came on Friday to continue work on their web site evaluation in preparation for their Internet Mysteries project. My ninth graders came twice to research for a project on electromagnetism. I enjoy it when the science teachers come to do research. It seems like traditionally it is history and English teacher who use the library for research so it is a nice change when it is for a science class.
Because is was the end of the month I also completed my monthly report for my administrator. Elementary checked out about 500 books during January while faculty and secondary student combined had around 60. I need to figure out how to increase that number.
Don’t forget to grab my Caldecott Criteria worksheet by signing up for my mailing list.
What went on in your library last week? Like this post and comment below to let me know. I’d love to hear from you.
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Blue
Green
Tuesday
The Red Book (Caldecott Honor Book)
Flotsam
The Lion & the Mouse
Journey (Aaron Becker’s Wordless Trilogy)
Quest (Aaron Becker’s Wordless Trilogy)
A Ball for Daisy (Caldecott Medal – Winner Title(s))
Wolf in the Snow
Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride (Caldecott Honor Book)
