Engineers and Literacy in Art

1st Grade Engineers

This past week, I read THE LITTLE RED FORT by Brenda Maier to the kindergarten classes.

While reading the book, we made a text-to-text connection, then compared this story to THE LITTLE RED HEN. After reading the story, students went to tables with various materials and were given the tasks to build a fort. 

Who knew forts could have wheels. This little one told me his fort would be mobile. 

This sweet face! She is having so much fun. 

Literacy in Art

If your art teacher is amazing like the art teacher I get to collaborate with every day, then give them this idea!! Our art teacher decided this year to make a display of some of her favorite books from the library, all having to do with art. The students can pull the card of a book they would like to have and bring it to the library. We help them find it, they check it out. When they return the book, we return the book to the art room to be displayed again. 

Family Engagement Month

The month of November is a time to celebrate and encourage Family Engagement in schools. A successful partnership between the family and school is important for our children. While family engagement should be encouraged all year long, we celebrate our accomplishments during the month of November.

To celebrate family engagement in the library, I invited parents of kindergarteners and first graders to the library for story time, an activity, and checkout time. I asked parents to RSVP to their child's library time so that I could have a parent account created for them before that day.

I read aloud I AM NOT A CHAIR by Ross Burach, which had the kids and parents laughing out loud. After the story, parents and their child went to tables where there were different materials set out, plus little toy rabbits. The challenge was for the parent and child to build a chair for the rabbit to sit in instead of sitting on the girraffe.

These kinders built a tower, but it still held the rabbit. 

I adore how this chair looks like the giraffe from the story! 

The parents also had the opportunity to be a part of their child's library choice for the week, plus with their parent account check out up to 5 extra books to read at home.

The turn out was amazing, and the parents loved being a part of library time. 

Imaginary Pets with Kindergarten

Lehrhaupt, Adam. I WILL NOT EAT YOU.
illustrated by Scott Magoon. Simon & Schuster. 2017.

One of my favorite days of the week is the day that Kindergarten comes to the library. They are so fun and they really are drawn into the books. Today, I read I WILL NOT EAT YOU by Adam Lehrhaupt. This is an amazing read aloud story, so if you don't have it in your library, get it soon!

We started off making a prediction of what the animal is in the cave that we see on the front cover. Most of the kindergarteners thought it was a bear, but we don't find out until the middle of the book.

We find out on the first page that the animal in the cave's name is Theodore. Different animals come to his cave and make sounds at him. The students enjoy making the sounds along with me. The first animal is a little bird, so the kids get to tweet tweet. I think their favorite was the lion. They let out a loud roar for me!

Finally, a litte boy dressed as a knight on a stick horse comes to Theodore's cave. Theodore thinks of eating the little boy, but after the boy pokes him and runs around, the boy begins to laugh. Well you know laughter is contagious, so Theodore also begins to laugh. Instead of eating the boy he plays with the boy.

That brought us to our second skill, fantasy versus realistic. The kids decided that Theodore, being a dragon, was a figment of the little boys imagination. I asked them what made them think this, and it was because the boy was dressed as a knight, so he needed a dragon to fight.

Each kindergartener then drew the animal they would have as their imaginary play pet. I had a few dragons, lots of unicorns, a narwhal, an elephant, and a few lions.

This girl has a pegasus as her imaginary pet. 

This young lady wants Gerald to play with.

Lots of the girls drew unicorns. I love the rainbow this girl added. 

Giggles and Eggs

We just had a four day week, which usually seems to creep by when we have a short week. However, things are a little different in the library. I saw 5 days worth of classes in only 4 days, and the day before a holiday is always BUSY! Everyone seems to want a brand new book before the long weekend. That's fine though, it makes the days go by fast, and I love that my students love to read so much.

Willems, Mo. NAKED MOLE RAT GETS
DRESSED. Disney-Hyperion, January 2009.

Lots of fun was had this past week, and lots of giggles in first grade and kindergarten! In my kinder classes, we have been doing an author study over Mo Willems. The students were very familiar with Piggy & Elephant, and the Pigeon. I decided I would introduce them to two other Mo Willems characters. Last week, I read KNUFFLE BUNNY FREE, and this week I introduced them to the hilarious NAKED MOLE RAT GETS DRESSED. We learned that there are three things you must know about naked mole rats:

1. They are a little bit rat.
2. They are a little bit mole.
3. They are all naked. 

My sweet kindergarteners nearly fell over laughing so hard. Next week, they will vote on their favorite Mo Willems book that we have read this year. 

First graders were introduced to the Texas 2x2 Reading List. We read MOTHER BRUCE by Ryan T. Higgins, which is about a grumpy bear that hates cute little animals, but loves eggs. Unfortunately some of his eggs hatch and he is mistaken for their mother. What is a bear to do? This is a silly, delightful story, with illustrations that complement the story. We laughed and laughed at the funny antics in this fun new book. 

Second grade made text-to-text connections with a poem and a nonfiction book. I chose a poem from THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR CELEBRATIONS compiled by Sylvia Vardell & Janet Wong. Just two years ago, I was a student in Sylvia Vardell's poetry class where I learned about pairing poetry with books in the classroom and the library. If you do not have this book in your library, I highly recommend it! It contains fabulous poems, along with activities and picture books to pair with the poems.

The poem I chose was titled BREAK AN EGG by Stephanie Hemphill. I paired the poem with the nonfiction book, CHICKENS AREN'T THE ONLY ONES by Ruth Heller. It teaches about animals, besides chickens that lay eggs. The students made connections between the poem and the book, then they made text-to-self connections and discussed ways that they use eggs for their Easter celebrations.

I cannot believe that we are already to the end of March! Where did this year go? Next week, I will be assisting in monitoring the STAAR test for our 4th and 5th graders. Before we know it, this school year will have ended and I will have survived my first year as a librarian!