Week 3 in the school library is history. Here’s what library time looked like for me this past week.
My third through fifth graders started with the first lesson of the Digital Citizenship curriculum from Common Sense Media. With the third grade we talked about responsibility to self, family and friends, and the larger community when we are online. The fourth graders and I discussed strong passwords. Talking Safely Online was the topic for fifth graders – discussing what is safe to share when online. Common Sense Media provides some handouts to send home, which I do. Especially in this area, I think it is important to keep the parents informed of our discussions.
With the second graders, we talked about the order of fiction books – alphabetical by the author’s last name. I created a worksheet which you can get here when you sign up for my mailing list. We also read The Library by Sarah Stewart.
Shelf Elf by Jackie Mims Hopkins was the story for my kinder and first grade classes. We’re still working on library rules and book care rules as well as procedures. After book check out, the students had coloring pages to complete featuring some of our rules.
I only had one extra class for research this week. The fifth graders came into finish their research they started last week for their My Side of the Mountain project.
Since it was the start of a new month, I completed by August Monthly report for my Head of School. He is a numbers guy, so I share things like – circulation numbers by class, visits to the library, stats on computer use, etc. I also share what I’m teaching and the tasks I’ve completed in the past month. These reports are a great way to keep the library activities on his mind.
Usually I have 2-5 high school students serve as student aides. This semester, for a variety of reasons, I don’t have any. The work is still there, I just don’t have anyone to help with it this year. I’m working on figuring out how their tasks are going to get done this semester. For the time being, I will be doing things like: cleaning, sharpening pencils, and making copies. My very part time paid aide has taken over shelving books in between helping me with classes. But that means she no longer has time for the tasks she has previously done for me. Right now we are working on figuring out what this year’s normal is going to look like.
Links to resources mentioned in this post:
Digital Citizenship curriculum from Common Sense Media
Email list sign up for free download of Fiction Spine Order worksheet.
Amazon Affiliate Links related to this post. Purchasing through these links will not cost you more, but will help support this blog.
The Library
The Shelf Elf
My Side of the Mountain
A Guide for Using My Side of the Mountain in the Classroom (Literature Units)
Do you have student aides? What kind of tasks do they do for you?
