Doin' Dewey

Fourth and fifth graders in several buildings have recently been learning about the Dewey Decimal System and practicing finding books in the nonfiction section of our libraries.  Here's a brief look at the DDS activities.

Day 1
Before starting our conversation about the DDS, we discussed various collections we already have at home, like DVDs, video games, clothes, and yes, even books! Students offered different ideas about how to arrange these collections: by gaming systems, popularity, release date, color, height, or no arrangement at all. We then talked about the arrangement in libraries--that Melville Dewey's system of arranging books became the way by which nearly all libraries arrange their nonfiction books. We followed up the conversation with the book Do You Know Dewey? by Brian Cleary.

We further explored the DDS with a Kahoot! It is a public Kahoot! so others who are interested can access it online.

Day 2

This day had students up and moving around in the nonfiction section of our libraries, searching for books that satisfied different task cards. On Teachers Pay Teachers, this particular bundle of DDS/nonfiction task cards was especially great--it's from Staying Cool in the Library and available for purchase at TPT.

Students worked in groups of 3-4 to search for the books in our catalogs, to find the books on the shelves, and to record their findings on an answer sheet.

Day 3

Finally, students demonstrated what they learned about the DDS on a Google Form quiz that they accessed through Google Classroom.

As they wrapped up with their, students could also visit a variety of sites to learn more about the DDS. Click on the caption to access the document and the links within.

LINK to document

Students found the rap quite entertaining and the concentration game much more challenging than the 16 cards led them to believe it would be!