Alphabet and Call Numbers...How the Library Works

This past week our library was all a buzz about the alphabet and call numbers. Our students worked on these skills to help them become more proficient in their resource location abilities. Sometimes students don't understand that learning the alphabet proficiently leads to practical applications throughout their school years and beyond.

PreK and PPCD

This week we sang the alphabet song with Sesame Street and read Alphabatics by Suse McDonald. Students then completed a scavenger hunt among themselves to find either the capital or lowercase letter that match the one they were given. It was great to see our littles working together and helping each other to find their matches! 

Kinder

We read Alphabatics by Suse McDonald and closely watched our beloved alphabet letters change into images that represented each letter. The students increasingly became observant and aware of the growing changes the further we read and discussed the illustrations. Kinder students worked with their alphabet and practiced identifying letter that came before and after given letters. 

First Grade

First grade students enjoyed listening to Alpha Oops and discussing the possibilities of life with an alphabet that was in a different order than what we know. Students then worked with partners to collaboratively place words in alphabetical order by the first letter. 

Second Grade

The week our second graders completed their Creepy Carrot fence from their planned construction of the previous week. We had a great number of successes and some failures; however, we have learned that failures are a part of the STEM process as with any other scientific process. Students reflected on what worked, what didn't, and what they thought they could do differently to improve their designs.  All had a good time and experienced computational thinking at its fullest!  

Third Grade

Third grade was introduced to the Traveling Mural Project by Shannon Miller a librarian for Van Meter Schools  in Iowa. This project was inspired by Maybe Something Beautiful, a story about how one neighborhood went from drab to fab with mural paintings led by Raphael Lopez and his wife. Our students will be creating a 10 ft mural to represent Alkek's school motto: Be Kind - Work Hard - Dream Big. Then the mural will be cut into 1 ft sections and mailed off to 9 other schools across the country; in return we will be receiving 9 pieces back. We will put these pieces together and display them in the hallway. This is our way of making a world wide impact!  

 

Fourth and Fifth Grade

Students completed their library scavenger hunt by practicing the usage of call numbers to assist them in locating resources within the library. Not only did they get the chance to practice the use of call numbers, but they found many books they did not know our library housed. 

Book Fair is Coming!

This week students are previewing the book fair and all it has to offer! Our arctic reading igloo is also complete! Thank you for all of the jug donations that made it possible! 

From Pumpkins to Carrots

Bringing Literature to Life

Children's literature is exciting and inspiring, bringing a breath of fresh air into our sometimes stale life. Phenomenal illustrations and story plots that make connecting memories easy. This week in the library we pull stories from a personal childhood favorite...Halloween. With the largest day for candy retrievals and moments to pretend to be someone we are not, I decided to bring some aspects of this historic holiday into our learning this week. Each grade level had an activity tied to a children's picture book to promote engagement and life from within. 

Pumpkin Counting - Kinder

This week our kinder students worked on ordering their numbers from 1 to 5 using elements from our song we sang, "Five Little Pumpkins". They practiced counting forward, backwards, matching corresponding pumpkin amounts, and matched number words. 

       

Sequential Scarecrows - First

First graders listened to the story The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams and helped me through the movements to represent the articles of clothing that the little old lady kept running into along her path. Once our story was over we focused on identifying sequential adverbs and listing them for use. Students then collaboratively worked to build their own scarecrows and use sequential adverbs to identify the order of the clothing articles that appeared in the story. 

Constructing Fences - Second

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and had become prominent in classrooms and libraries across the country to help promote problem solving and computational thinking. STEM also requires students to focus on the particular listed skills in a different way than they normally use them...real world application of them if you will. The second graders listened to Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and learned what Jasper the rabbit did to keep the carrots of Crackenhopper field from following him. Then the students worked in self-selected teams to devise their plans for how they too would construct a fence to keep the creepy carrots in with only the use of popsicle sticks and wooden clothespins. Next visit, students will construct their fences and then record their explanations and outcomes using Flipgrid.

Graphic Novel Elements - Third

Third graders started listening to The Dragon Slayer last week. They got to experience making homemade tortillas as well. This week we learned the different elements of what makes a story a graphic novel and the names of different text features of a graphic novel. We also discussed the elements of folktales and practiced identifying the morals and lessons they teach us.

Locating Resources - Fourth and Fifth 

Being able to locate resources in the library is an essential skill and one that will be used for the rest of a student's life. This week wrapped up fourth and fifth graders working in groups to practice using call numbers to locate specific resources within the library. They learned how to read call numbers, how to use call numbers to locate resources, and they learned about the different types of resources we have available to them in the library. This next week they will work on their math skills in preparation for the coming book fair! 

Fresh Paint!

Our library windows got some fresh paint to liven up the hallways for the fall season!

Library Statistics:

Circulation: 755 booksOver Due materials: 114 books (What happens when I don't get to send out overdue slips! Yikes!)
Lunch Aloud attendees: approximately 70 students 3-5