Thursday, September 23, 2010

The 2010-2011 School Year is Underway!

As of today, we have the first month of the new school behind us. I have met with all of the children now and by the end of this week, will have met with the students in grades 2-5 twice. Because our student population is larger than ever and we have more class sections than ever, I have had to continue utilizing a three week library schedule this year. I dislike the many days between library visits because the children often forget what we have discussed in the previous lesson and I have often forgotten the new children's names.

There are blocks of time between classes where teachers can sign up to exchange books or to come for a special research project or video conferencing activity. I look forward to engaging each grade level in some kind of research and some kind of distance learning opportunity.

We are doing Bluebonnet, Accelerated Reader and RIF again this year. I need to put together my RIF order over the coming weekend. I have read two of this year's Bluebonnet books to the third, fourth and fifth grade students. The first title I read was 14 Cows for America written by Carmen Agra Deedy in collaboration with Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah, which I read during the week of the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attack we call 9/11. I showed a slide presentation with photographs from 9/11 to the children after reading the book with them.
This week I have been reading The Hinky-Pink, an old Italian folktale retold by Megan McDonald. The children are making their own hinky-pinks with pom-poms and wiggly eyes. We are also talking about the library rules and I am showing the kids a PowerPoint with the library rules outlined. Where time has allowed, I have shared the Mackin Book Talk website with the kids and they have gone onto the site and rated the two Bluebonnets we have read so far.

With the second graders I have read The Shelf Elf, the children have watched a slide presentation with the rules for using the library, and then they have made a Skoob, the shelf elf, bookmark. We are going to be participating in a video conferencing activity around Skoob in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Finally, the PK, K and first grade children listened to stories about babies, and we compared the way we care for library materials and behave in the library with the way we care for a baby. The PK and K children colored pastel paper babies and the first graders made origami diapers.

The first official day of fall is today and the library is decked out for the season. I love this time of year and look forward to a beautiful autumn.