1st Grade Library Detectives

First graders at Heritage Elementary and Dallas Center Elementary have watched several book trailers this year featuring different detective series books, such as the Inspector Flytrap books, the Nate the Great series, and the Chicken Squad mysteries.






To continue our look at detectives, students did some of their own sleuthing around the libraries in both schools. We first read aloud a book from another great children's detective--Scooby Doo!

We talked about the work Scooby and the gang did while trying to solve the case and then compared it to the work in Nate the Great: The Case of the Fleeing Fang.

Nate the Great reminds us beginning detectives that you need to think, notice, work together, and remember when you work to solve a case. It was just these four things our 1st grade detectives did when they approached their first task: to decode different reading messages around the library.

Students first practiced decoding a message in the back of the Nate the Great book, then they set off in partner groups armed with the secret code (made from using the special characters in Google docs), magnifying glasses (because why not?!), and the paper (which included the visual hint as to location) to record their message.

          

Once students had begun their sleuthing, we continued with a scavenger hunt-type activity that had students first finding the clues around the library then finding books on the shelves that matched their clues.

Again, students worked with their same detective partners and used the magnifying glasses to help them in their search. Students recorded several different responses for the clues, as there were many books matching the clues from which to choose.

With all of the students' work around the libraries, they've become more comfortable looking for items throughout the space, and a few even wrote their own secret codes! Some great additional outcomes after an engaging few days in the library!

Iowa Children's Choice Award Books & ThingLink

It's that time again--time for us to explore the state award books and start reading our way through the list. To promote the titles and raise interest, this year's titles are featured in ThingLink images that connect to book trailers.

Check out these Iowa Children's Choice Award nominees:




Enjoy the trailers--and when you're ready to try one of the nominees, be sure to stop by the library and check out a copy. Remember, you're eligible to vote for the building and state-wide winner when you read at least two books from the list. See you soon!

1-Thing Wednesday: Pinterest Book Recommendation Board

Occasionally during the year we take the time to highlight new books or recommend old favorites using Pinterest. Both book trailers and cover images of K - 5 books are there if you're looking for something to read! Want to take a look? You can access the board by clicking in the caption below.

CLICK HERE to access the Pinterest board.

Want to see something added that you think others would like to read onto the board? Let Mrs. Ellis know, and maybe you'll see it there!

1-Thing Wednesday: Featuring New Books!

Many new books will greet students when they return in August. Want a sneek peek at a few of our favorites?

Popular author Gordon Korman's new book is realistic fiction and features Chase, who remembers nothing after falling from his roof. As he begins his school year, Chase comes to understand that the person he was before the fall isn't anything like the person he is now. Will the influence of his friends sway him to return to his juvenile delinquent/bullying ways? Or will he take the opportunity to restart and become a different person?

For fans of author Sharon Creech, she has a new realistic fiction book titled Moo that follows Reena and Luke as they try to settle into a new life in Maine.

You can see the trailer below:

The last featured title is also realistic fiction. The Courage Test by James Preller tells the story of Will and his father as they set out to follow parts of the historic Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Like Lewis and Clark, Will and his father meet a native American (who just happens to be his father's friend from college) and a girl who's been away from her family and is trying to reunite with them (like Sacagawea). Along the way readers see a new relationship develop between Will and his dad--a dad who has begun a new life after divorcing from Will's mom. As the two make their way to the Pacific Ocean, Will discovers he has his own challenges to face, just like Lewis and Clark.

Do one of these realistic fiction titles seem like a book you'd like to read this fall? Be sure to ask about them when school starts!

Book Trailer Resource

The winners of our recent Scholastic Book Fair All for Books competition were awarded with a popcorn party in the library recently. Rather than follow the scheduled lesson that day, Class 5P enjoyed popcorn and book trailers that day! All book trailers came from my Book Trailers and Digital Storytelling board on Pinterest. (CLICK HERE to access the board.)

Based on their enthusiasm, I'm eager to to see titles like Artemis Fowl, Boundless, and Fablehaven return to frequent circulation, and students were also buzzing about newer titles like Raymie Nightingale and Crenshaw.

Happy reading!

New Release--Elephant & Piggie

Our friends Elephant & Piggie are in a new book to be released on Oct. 27, 2015. Are you ready?! The new book is called I Really Like Slop!

The author Mo Willems is featured in a book trailer for the book--check it out:

Be on the lookout--we'll be adding the book soon to our libraries! Happy reading!

Titles with Trailers Tuesdays: The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel

Now that school is out for the summer, we can all head to our public libraries to participate in their summer reading programs! Both the Dallas Center Roy R. Estle Public Library and Grimes Public Library are participating in the Every Hero Has a Story summer reading program. On Tuesdays, we'll feature a book along with its trailer to encourage summer reading. Today's first ever Title with Trailer Tuesday features Kenneth Oppel's newest book The Boundless.

The Boundless is a miles-long train on its first trip, a cross-country event to bring its creator, who has since passed, to his final resting place. On board is Will Everett, the son of the man now in charge. Will comes to have a key in his possession, and this makes him a target for others who want what the key can unlock. To protect himself, Will joins the circus also on the train and puts his trust in the ringmaster Mr. Dorian and the escape artist Maren, a girl his own age. Can he trust them, or are they also interested in the key he carries?

5th Grade WIN Time Projects

It's time again to feature 5th graders' WIN time work! The most recent work spotlights favorite books and uses PowToon, a free app associated with Google.

Students watched a PowToon tutorial on YouTube and familiarized themselves with the buttons and options when creating a project. Then, students identified a favorite book and created a book trailer.  You can see their work below--enjoy!

More 5th Grade WIN Group Book Trailers

With the success of a recent WIN Group Animoto book trailer, the next group of students also completed book trailers for three more books: Deep, Dark, and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn, Wild Life by Cynthia DeFelice, and The Candymakers by Wendy Mass.

Check it out!

Animoto Book Trailers

For most of November, students in the 5th grade reading group worked on putting together an Animoto project. Working in partner groups, student first chose a book, then found images from iClipArt to correspond with their descriptions related to the story.

You can check out their completed project here: 5th WIN Oct-Nov2013. Enjoy!

Celebrating Halloween with Owls!

One of the popular topics in the library is owls, and what better time to celebrate owls than Halloween!

If you're interested in nonfiction books about owls, you might find one of these in our libraries:

Or maybe you'd like a fiction story with owls? You might try one of these chapter books, like Hiaasen's Hoot or Lasky's Guardians of Ga'Hoole series.

Finally, to celebrate the holiday, you might want to take a look at a children's book--maybe one of our favorites, Owl Babies, by Waddell. You can even enjoy an animated version of the story!

We Hosted a Book Tasting!

After seeing several book tastings on Pinterest, we decided to give it a try! We'd been wanting to showcase different genres with kids, and this seemed like a good approach. Since mysteries and graphic  novels are also popular with our kids, we added those to our book tasting as well.

We found red-and-white checked plates and put paper on the tables to look like tablecloths. Then we pulled several books in the different genres/categories we wanted to feature: realistic fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, and graphic novels.

You can grab the genre bookmarks from HERE.

Next, we created a "menu" that kids would fill out at they listened to book talks and watched book trailers. (While we liked this version before starting the tasting, we decided we needed a simpler approach and are already thinking about how to revise it for future book tastings.)

Click HERE for source information

During the book tasting, we talked about the different genres, book talked some examples, and featured a book trailer or two. All of this we put into a Google presentation to make the lesson run more smoothly:

Students had time to browse the books at their tables after the book talks and trailers to write down titles that interested them, and we'll keep their sheets so they can refer back to them when they're looking for a book during check out.