Week 26 was yet another short week (for me – not for everyone)…here’s what we did and why it was a short week for me.
5th graders wrapped up their Harlem Renaissance lessons with a Cafe. I set my library up similar to a restaurant…flowers on the tables, plates, glasses, etc. We played music from the Harlem Renaissance and put up the murals they created last week. I cooked red beans and rice and cornbread and served lemonade (I also did a quick mini-lesson on Soul Food and why those were the items on the menu). As students were eating, they shared poetry they wrote inspired by what they’ve learned. They did an AWESOME job! I really loved learning about the Harlem Renaissance this way (I think they did too). We spent all month on it and I think the students really got a better idea of what the time period was about…better than in the past, when they just focused on one person.
My Media Technology class got to explore Kerpoof on Tuesday. I only saw them once this week, so I needed to do something that we could just visit once and then move on to something else. They get to keep their log in cards, so hopefully they will explore it more at home!
All students voted for their favorite South Carolina Picture Book Award Nominee and South Carolina Children’s Book Award Nominee this week. With my 1st – 5th graders, we used a Google Form to vote. My Kindergarten students circled their favorite on a ballot we made with all of the covers of the books. The winners were no surprise to me! Pete the Cat: Rocking in my School Shoes was our Picture Book Winner and Wonder was our Children’s Book Winner. I’ll find out who won for the entire state next week at the South Carolina Association of School Librarians Annual Conference. After Kindergarten voted, we played Book Award Bingo. I got this idea a few years ago from a friend and I have done it every year since. I create a Bingo board with the covers of the book award nominees and then just call out titles until someone has Bingo. Very easy and fun.
On Wednesday, I did a “Book Taste” with one 4th grade class (well, two classes…this teacher has a morning class and an afternoon class). It was all picture books…the teacher was noticing that his students aren’t checking out picture books or books from our Everybody Fiction section very often. We wanted to show them that there are wonderful books in that section for them and even some that are better for their age group than the little guys. I had a form they filled out with title, call number, notes to self, and a box for answering Yes or No to if they would like to check the book out. They spent 2 minutes with each book and then passed it on to the next person. I let them check the books out that day and a lot of them took me up on the offer! Hopefully, they will continue to check out picture books!
Much of my week was also spent getting ready for NEXT week – it is Read Across America Week and World Read Aloud Day (on Wednesday). LOTS to look forward to!
I was not at school on Thursday and Friday because I was at the last meeting of Foundations of School Leadership. This has been a class/program I have been doing for the past year. We met 4 times throughout the year for 2 days each time. The folks in the program are Teacher Leaders in their schools…there were some administrators in the group, but most were classroom teachers from all over the state. It is a really great program and it was wonderful to spend time with like-minded people. I will miss it!
How was your week?
VBF
Library Goddess 