With our second graders, we've been spending some time talking about different Goldilocks stories as we work on the Core standard RL.2.9: Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella
stories) by different authors or from different cultures. We began with Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians by Jackie Mims Hopkins.
We even have our own "gold-y socks" to wear with this lesson! :)
This book also gives us the opportunity to talk with students about Just Right books, and they completed a ticket out the door to tell us about the Just Right book they just checked out.
When we came back to the lesson on the next cycle, students listened to two more Goldilocks stories--Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall and Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems.
Students reviewed how to complete a Venn diagram, and then they completed a Venn diagram--either of their own or as a full class--to compare and contrast any two of the Goldie Socks/Goldilocks stories.
Last year we discovered this really magical video called "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore". It is a video that encourages thinking and connections, explores the power of reading and books and also the importance of stories, and leaves all viewers with a sense of something magical. Here is the video below:
After the success of this short film--it won an Academy Award--it was turned into a book- which is equally wonderful:
Here is how we incorporated it into our library lessons for our 4th graders.
Session One: We talked about how readers are thinkers--and that same type of thinking can apply in another area of our lives: viewing. This video will have kids asking questions and making connections right from the start, so while we are watching, we have them jot down thoughts on a sheet of paper of their CONNECTIONS, QUESTIONS, and INFERENCES (things they notice) as they were watching.
Session Two: Share the app. The app that goes along with this book is the most interesting, engaging and interactive app I have seen for a book yet. I used Reflector to reflect the app from my iPhone as I projected it up to the screen. As we walked through the book with the app, we talked about the connections, questions and inferences we had from the week before. Here are some pictures:
Ticket out: As a table group, students wrote an inference, or new learning that they had from the video and book. I had them write it on a sentence strip. See below for some examples.
It was one of those lessons that I'm pretty sure will stick with the kids, and it reinforces the importance of reading and all of the stories we have for them in the library.
The kindergartners have been talking about book care expectations. We read a book from the blog Kindergarten. . . Kindergarten; it was called Forest Friends go to School by Kathryn Warner, and it featured several pages of book pages that have been mistreated.
After reading and talking about the pages in the book, kindergartners created a class T-chart showing ways that we should treat our library books and the ways we should not treat them.
Since the school year has started, we have been busy adding displays to the library!
Since starting this position, I've been surprised at how much I enjoy this part of my job. I love to use books and characters as inspiration. Below are pictures of some of the displays......
Hungry for books!
Bad Case of Stripes Door
Hedgehogs from 2nd grade book care lesson (see post below!)
Pete the Cat door- inspiration from Pinterest!
Spotted- Great Readers- not sure if you can spot all of the character shadows in the display.
I got these great signs from Carolyn at RiskingFailure - Teachers Pay Teachers
Marion the Hedgehog, the main character in our story, is based on a true story, so we also visited Marion's official website to learn more about her past and her role as an author.
Finally, students worked in pairs to write a book care expectation on a hedgehog spine that later became part of a library display. Check out some of the students' work below:
At the start of the year, we take a lot of time to talk with our kindergartner and 1st grade students about book care and library expectations. Out of our "bag of tricks," we pulled items that would be good to use with our library books, as well as items we should probably keep away from our books.
Kindergarteners listened to No, David! by David Shannon as a way to reinforce making good and not-so-good decisions. We completed a handout about those decisions with our library books, too!
Our first graders took a look at several videos that featured our book friends as they shared their library expectations and book care suggestions. We heard from Al the Alligator, Scaredy Squirrel, and Skippyjon Jones!
After each video, students wrote about or drew a picture for one main idea about book care or library expectations--check out a few below:
To start of the year, we talked with students about how to take good care of their library books. We read the book Never Let a Ghost Borrow Your Library Book by Karen Casale.
After reading the book, we asked students to consider themselves "deputized" as members of the Library Secret Service, and as such, we needed them to reinforce any of the Very Official Guidelines (VOGs) from the book.
Here are some of the students' book care suggestions:
Several of them are now on display with our LSS agent:
