Be Happy

If you've ever rolled out of bed and felt grumpy the moment you got up, then you have to blame it on the "grouchies." Debbie Wagenbach's story The Grouchies gave Class 1-5 a perfect tale of how the grouchies can follow you around all day and make everyone miserable.  Through rhymes, which students identified right away, and a cute little chant by the "grouchies," we learned that we shouldn't listen to the grouchies if we want to have a good day.  Hopefully, the children will keep the smiley face clouds around them instead.

Google Image

Using Google Forms

gogI just learned how I can use Google forms to get our school communities' input on books they would like us to purchase for next year.  Now when someone visits our OPAC they can see the Wish List Form right on the homepage.  All they have to do is write the title, author or type of  books they are interested in and Google automatically generates a spreadsheet for me to look over at any time.  Now it's time to introduce this new feature to library visitors.

Mo Willems Never Dissappoints

Image retrieved from Amazon.com

Who can grab a PreK class' attention and keep a hold of it with very few words and hardly any pictures? You guessed it, Mo Willems. He is the fantastic author of a couple of my favorite characters, Elephant and Piggie.

 The four year olds in PreK-1 already know about Willems' pigeon on  "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," but today I wanted to introduce them to Mo Willems' other very entertaining characters. So I pulled "I Love My New Toy!" off the shelf and as expected....the children loved it.  Something about the way Piggie and Elephant express themselves with the simplest facial changes and body language, help even the youngest of the students understand how Piggie and Elephant feel about the "broken toy."

By the end of the story several students kept repeating "break!...snap!" in unison.  To continue feeding their interest we visited Mo Willems' interactive website. Click Here to have some fun.  Thanks, Mo Willems!

A Class Full of Published Authors

Finally Published!

Congratulations to Class 1-4!

---

After spending some time in the library researching information about animals we have finally received a published copy of their class created "All About Animals" non-fiction book.


Students worked in groups of 4 and used a number of resources in the library. After discussing the characteristics of specific categories of animals they had the opportunity to learn more by browsing through our large collection of animal books. One of their favorite parts of the research process seemed to be when they used the PebbleGo database online. Not only were they able to record facts about their animal, they were also able to view little video snippets of the animal in action.


After a couple of months of researching in the library, Ms. Simon sorted and finalized all of the pages and then send them to be published. We used the Student Treasures Publishing company and they did a wonderful job binding Class 1-4's book.  Some students even purchased their own copy.  Now all we need is a celebration! Be on the lookout for that!

Ms. Simon reads "All About Animals" 

Everyone Loves a Treat

The NYC Department of Education’s Library Services Department has the most phenomenal staff. Not only are they supportive and constantly provide numerous workshops for school librarians, occasionally they offer us nice little treats to share with our students. Thanks to Ms. Dominguez, today I received a box of brand new Dr. Seuss books and all I had to do was explain in writing how our school community celebrates Dr. Seuss. As you can see from my past post right here in this blog our students deserve these new books because they are fans! I can't wait to share the books with them.

Celebrating Dr. Seuss

Everyone knows Dr. Seuss is one of the most entertaining authors of children's books.  Every year during the first week of March we honor Dr. Seuss by spending the day in our pajamas while reading his stories and taking part in a number of activities.  Students who visited the library were able to buddy up with a friend and find a cozy area to read a couple of his most well known titles like, The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham.  I also read out loud one of my favorites, Bartholomew and the Oobleck.  Students had fun thinking of adjectives to describe oobleck and then created a list of objects that may have the same characteristics...a list that included some very common objects, like gum or clay and some "not so common," gross objects like....well I am sure you can only imagine. 

The only thing missing from the lesson was actually making "oobleck".  One library period is not enough time to create the sticky oobleck so I decided to have my ELL students from the Saturday Academy create "oobleck".  Ms. Chan and Ms. Vasquez were extremely helpful in making sure all of the ingredients and tools were available for the students.  It was a messy, but exciting activity for the students because they were better able to describe "oobleck" after they had the opportunity to touch it and see it for themselves.