Happy Valentine's Day

What a fun week in the library! Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. The library is very festive, with shiny hearts hanging from every corner. The students have had fun this week being a part of the decorating. The fifth graders were given the chance to write their favorite books or book series on my "We <3 Books" bulletin board. It has been interesting reading everyone's favorite. I was surprised that I didn't have many duplicates of books. I love that the students at my school are individuals and they know what they like to read.

I forgot to take a picture, but outside the library I have a large tree. I call it my tree of kindness, and the first graders have been adding their acts of kindness to the tree. We read BEAR GETS SICK by Karma Wilson. We made text-to-self connections and compared how the animals helped Bear to how people have helped us. They also learned the meaning of the word 'compassion'. 

These books about BEAR are some of my favorite picture books. 

My second graders listened to the story THE VALENTINES BEARS by Eve Bunting. They made text-to-text connections and noticed that the illustrator of this story, Jan Brett, is also an author of a book they had read in the past. This was actually not the lesson that I had intended, but I went with it when the students noticed and recognized her name. So, we talked about the illustrations and how they were similar to her illustrations in THE MITTEN. I love it when the students guide the lesson. 

Fourth grade and fifth grade are both learning steps to research and how to correctly cite their sources. I am over the top excited that next week I will be collaborating with the fourth grade ELA teacher! Fourth grade will be coming to the library next week to do research over Texas Battles, and together with the ELA teacher, I will be helping the students conduct their research. I hope that by doing this, more teachers will jump on board and allow me to collaborate with them more often. Stay tuned for my post next week to see how it goes!