Fall in Love with a Book

February is going strong in the AAE library! I have had lots of fun with the activities and displays this month. I broke in my new Cricut, and made a saying for the circulation desk.

Blind Date with a Book 

This year, I thought I would try the "blind date with a book" display. I really didn't think it would be as popular, but I had over 70 of these checked out. My student aides helped me decorate the bags, instead of using wrapping paper. Using the bags made it so easy. 

On the front of the bag I wrote the barcode number so we could check out the book, and I wrote some words and phrases to describe the book inside without giving away the surprise. The students were told to not open the book until they got home, then when they return the book their name is entered into a drawing. 

Speed Dating with Books

In the past, I have done book tasting with my elementary students, but I thought I would try something different with 7th graders. So, I found the idea on Pinterest to do "Speed Dating". It is the same as book tasting, just with a different theme. I threw some red plastic tablecloths on the table, and put a centerpiece in the middle. I decided to categorize the tables by genre, so I made a genre sign for each table as well. 

During the activity, students moved around to the different tables. The directions were to:

1. At your table, look at the book covers and see what appeals to you. 
2. For 3 minutes, spend time with a book to get to know it. Read the summary on the back or the back jacket, or read the first couple of pages. 
3. If you find a book you want to spend more time with, take it with you. You can always change your mind if you find a better book along the way. 

While students browsed the books at the tables, I played oldie love songs. They loved it, especially when SWEET CAROLINE by Neil Diamond played. 

Mindfulness 

Students in middle school today are really stressed and have a lot of school work they have to do. I try to relieve that stress as much as possible by providing them a quiet, relaxing place to come to. This particular morning I set out coloring pages and provided markers. 

It makes my heart happy that so many of our students enjoy coming to the library and know that they have a relaxing place to come to when they need to chill out. 

P. Zonka and Pysanky Eggs with Kindergarten

Paschkis, Julie. P. Zonka Lays an
Egg. Peachtree, 2015.

P. Zonka is a hen who spends her days daydreaming and admiring nature around her. With all the beauty around her, she has never taken the time to lay an egg. The other hens think that P. Zonka is just plain lazy. Finally, P. Zonka decides to give this egg laying a try. To everyone's amazement, her eggs are dazzling!

With Easter coming just around the corner, this book is a perfect read aloud. The illustrations are beautiful, and the rooster, Gloria, makes for a hilarious addition to the story. The kids love it when the reader makes the loud "Cock-a-doodle-doo" sound. 

Psyanky 

After reading the story, I tell the students about the Ukranian tradition of making psyanky, which is a Ukranian Easter Egg. The decorations are always elaborate on, and often depict different aspects of nature. In P. Zonka's egg, you can see the red tulips, yellow sunshine, sky dark blue at midnight, and the green grass that she admired so often. 

Then, students were able to decorate their own eggs. Some students used patterns and geometric shapes, while others used P. Zonka's ideas and drew their favorite flowers and things in nature. 

This student drew here friends and the sun. 

You can find more activities, as well as this one, in this event kit by the publisher.  This download also has a description of psyanky.

Holidays Around the World with 3rd Grade

WHAT?!?! Christmas is almost here!! What happened to the year? The library has been very busy the past 2 weeks with holiday madness! Students working hard to reach their reading goal, and lots of research for assignments.

The third grade teachers asked if we could work together on Holidays around the world. This is my absolute favorite time of year, and one of my favorite units I taught as a classroom teacher. SO, I was more than excited to work with the students on this project.

The students chose a particular country to research the traditions and customs for their Christmas holiday or Winter holiday. I pulled a series of nonfiction books for them to research first. We went over the research steps and they recalled that we had to organize our research. So, together we came up with an organizer and in groups they came up with questions they needed to answer in order to complete their project.

First they searched through the books and organized the new found information on their charts. After using the nonfiction books, students were allowed to search on websites. We use Santa.net and Northpole.com, both websites I reviewed before hand. I even had a student ask me if the information was reliable!! It makes me so happy when they listen to my lessons!!

The next day, the class came in to begin work on their project. Each group was given an option of their final product to showcase their country's traditions. Students could choose to create a poster, book, Google Slide show, Diorama, or a video. I was surprised that most groups chose differently.

This group decided to create a Google Slide presentation about Christmas traditions in Sweden. They are using the ChromeBooks we have in the library. 

These students are working on a book while using the iPad to find relevant information. 

This table is working on a poster.

I had another group create a diorama, but they weren't finished at the end of our time. They wouldn't let me take a picture since it wasn't finished, but I was AMAZED at their work. 

I can't wait to see what happens at the Hillside Library in 2017! 

Holiday Resources

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Holidays at Hillside

The semester is nearly complete. WOW! These past months have flown by, and I have nearly completed a semester of being a school librarian. I have loved every minute of my new position, and I cannot wait to see what the next semester has in store for me at Hillside Academy.

The library is decorated for the holidays, and I must say it looks amazing. My fifth grade junior library assistants helped me put up the tree, and even decorated the tree skirt. I let them each sign their name so I will remember over the years who made the tree skirt. 

The library has received some gifts for this holiday season. We just received 3 new large bean bag chairs and a beautiful rug for our reading area. I have to rearrange some shelves soon to make room for the rug, but it will be ready soon. The bean bag chairs are already getting a lot of use. 

We also finally received our eBooks in the Hillside catalog. The students were so excited when I told them about the eBooks, and already I have almost half of the eBooks in use and checked out now. It made my heart happy that the kids were so excited about books. 

Alright, let's talk books now! Kindergarten has been comparing stories in the library. In their classes, kinder students have been reading and listening to different Gingerbread stories, such as The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Man, and The Gingerbread Girl.  In the library, I read the kinder students The Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires, then we discussed the similarities and differences. 

First graders compared stories and made text-to-self connections in the library this month. We read the famous poem by Clement Moore, The Night Before Christmas. The students were upset that Rudolph was not in the story, so we had a discussion about how the poem was written before Santa found Rudolph and asked him to lead his sleigh. The following week, I read Texas Night Before Christmas by James Rice. The kids laughed at my southern Texan accent. After they finished giggling, we compared the two versions of the story. 

This is one of my favorite versions. The illustrations are beautiful!

Last Friday, the students had their house holiday parties. Each house had hot chocolate, made an ornament, and was able to invite their parents. The best part of my day was being able to go to my kids' house parties and seeing their bright smiles during the school day.