This week in the library

This was a week to catch-up.  Most of the classes continued on with the lesson from last week.

Pre-K

Last week we spent more time on the library side and didn't have much time on the computers.  I reviewed the concept of fiction and non-fiction books.  We read How to Share with a Bear by Eric Pinder.  Prior to reading the story we talked about building blanket forts and what kinds of things the students like to do in their forts.  In hind sight it would have been fun to try and recreate a form of blanket fort that we could all fit in to read the story.  I'll have to consider how I could manage that for another time.

Kindergarten

We reviewed the differences between a real field trip and an online field trip.  The students did great remembering the 3 rules of going online.
1. Ask permission.
2. Only talk to people you know.
3. Only go to just right websites.

1st Grade

The students finished their snowman glyphs.  I will be putting them on display in the hallway.  When they were done they had fun with the keyboarding games.

2nd and 3rd Grade

The students had their second and last day doing Hour of Code.  Due to the cold temperature we have a lot of indoor recess.  Living in North Dakota our guideline is if the windchill is -10 degrees we have to stay inside.  I reminded the students that during indoor recess this would be a great time for programming.  On my website, OGElab.weebly.com I have a link to a variety of programming games and websites.

4th Grade

I really wanted to do Hour of Code, but to time my lessons to our calendar I needed to go ahead with my website evaluation lesson.  This week we went over internet vocabulary and the parts of a URL.  We spent time looking at the different domain suffixes and what they can tell us about the website.

5th Grade

We continued on with their projects.  I have several conferences to do.  I like it when presentations are spaced out a little better so I don't have so many students to conference with at once.  However, they do have a better chance to form new groups when they wrap up their projects at the same time.

This Week in the Library

Pre-K

We started out in the library with the book, Turtle's Penguin Day by Valerie Gorbechev.  We are discussing if what happened in the story really happened in real life (hint: no it can't - turtles don't dress up in costume or go to school).  Even though the story is made up, we still learned a little about penguins.  After sharing things that we learned, then we paged through a few non-fiction penguin books and discussed the differences between the books.  I stopped and read short passages on pages that they seem to be interested in.

Now, it's time to get up and move. We sing a penguin version of the song, "Did you ever see a Lassie?"
Did you ever see a penguin, a penguin, a penguin,
Did you ever see a penguin waddle this way and that way,
Waddle this way and that way,
Waddle this way and that way,
Did you ever see a penguin, waddle this way and that?

Of course we have to waddle back and forth as we sing.  We also swim, slide on our bellies (very carefully watching out for heads and feet), and hop (because we had read about the Rock Hopper penguins).

In the computer lab we are continuing with ABCmouse.com.  The students start out with the Learning Path, and then when there is about 10-15 minutes left, they can explore the site.  The last 5-8 minutes they put away their headphones and choose a book from some that I have pre-selected for them.

Kindergarten

We are doing the digital citizenship lesson "Going Places Safely," from Common Sense media.  I've broken the lesson up into 2 parts.  We did the preliminary discussion comparing going on a field trip to going online and watched the video component of the lesson.  We were starting to run out of time to do the virtual field trip, so I saved that for next time rather than trying to rush through it.  I did have the students do the handout that accompanies the lesson.  One side is a coloring sheet about having an adult with you when you go online.  The other side, the students draw a picture on a monitor of somewhere they would like to go online.

Next week we will do a quick review and then take our time looking at zoo live video feeds (or if the animals are shy many of the zoos also have videos available) and complete a Venn diagram comparing live field trips to online field trips.

1st Grade

We didn't make it in the lab last month due to learning about how Christmas is celebrated in other countries, so we did a snowman glyph utilizing KidPix.  When they are finished we will print their work to hang in the hallway.  After all the Christmas decorations are down it is looking a bit bare.  Only a few students finished, so we saved their work to finish next week.

When they finish their glyph they can follow the links on my website to do keyboarding activities.  At this age I just want them to have some experience finding where all those alphabet letters are hiding on the keyboard.  I don't even mention home row.

2nd Grade

We also did Christmas around the world in second grade, so we missed the official Hour of Code day.  The nice thing about doing Hour of Code now is that the websites aren't typically as busy (and potentially slow).  Last year was the first year I did it at this grade level and it worked pretty good.  I just purchased dash and dot robots, so now we can have them as a follow-up center to extend the students programming options.

3rd Grade

I debated for far too long on what we would start the new year with.  Luckily they come to the library on Friday so I had time to change my mind 3 or 4 times.  Last year I had the students do a QR scavenger hunt on New Year's traditions, but we didn't have library the week before Christmas break so we missed doing the Hour of Code.  I'd really like to do that now, but spring testing will be cutting into my available lessons.  We have a HUGE research project this semester on ancient Egypt.  I usually teach note-taking during fall testing, but since I was doing the testing this year we didn't get to it.  I need to do those lessons so we can get this research project done and finished before I get tied up with spring testing.  Since by the time we had library the new year didn't seem too new, I skipped the New Year traditions lesson.  I still didn't want to do a serious lesson, so we had fun with the Hour of Code.

4th Grade

I'm feeling the pinch of testing with fourth grade lessons as well.  I'd like to do Hour of Code, but I still want to cover website evaluation and online databases, and we never did finish the second part of our Monster project from October.  It got pushed back due to testing, my capstone project was with them and I had to get those lessons in to write my paper, and then it was time for our Thesaurus Christmas Carol project.   I mapped out my units and it fit best to start online databases.  Due to testing we haven't been able to do some of the more fun units I like to do.

5th Grade

Genius Hour!!!!  I was really worried how this was going to work out, but once we got some bugs worked out, the students are doing great.  I had hoped that we would be able to wrap up projects prior to Christmas break, so we wouldn't lose momentum on the projects.  Most of the students were able to present the last week or 2 before break.  There are a only a few groups that haven't.

I started video-taping their presentations.  It makes it much easier for them to see areas that they could improve on.  We would like to have a showcase night for parents to come and see some of the projects.  At this point the students need to identify a past project that they would like to polish for this, or pick a new project.

Only one of the fifth grade sections was able to have library due to a field trip.  We were treated to a magic show by one group of boys.  Another group finished their green screen video project, but we ran out of time to watch it.

Another New Year - Another attempt to keep up with my blog

Even though my blogging has been sporadic this school year, I still think I have posted more than in previous years.  One advantage that I have going into 2016, is that I have finally finished my masters program so I don't have to do extra homework on top of prepping for my classes.  It would make sense then that I have more time to devote to my blog.  We'll see how that goes.

Christmas break is officially over.  I go back to work tomorrow.  I didn't even do a fraction of what I had hoped to do over break.  The dash and dot robots I purchased for the library are still in the box.  My centers still need to be cut out.  Although I did go in to the school twice over break, I didn't touch my huge pile of cataloging and processing that needs to be done.

I did clean up and organize my back work room and the resource room.  At the beginning of the school year I didn't allow myself to go home until my work area was tidy.  Well, by December that went by the wayside.  I hired my first student library aides (they have chosen to call themselves Library Prefects), and I needed to make my work area into something that didn't resemble an archaeological dig.  It's one thing for me to find something in that mess, much less sending a student in.

The resource room also got a face lift of sorts.  Due to lack of space a lot of junk found its way into the room.  I divided the rather small room into 3 functional areas: a place for organized resources, a lounge area, and a video recording area.  I'll have to post some pictures later this week.

I'm very excited about the video area.  My fifth grade classes are doing Genius Hour for library this year (and yes, I will soon finally get to writing about it).  They have been doing some video projects and it has been a royal pain to get things set up for them, and then take it down again for the next class.  Now they have an area that is all set up and can stay set up!

MAP Testing

So I found this in my drafts - apparently I never finished writing it, but thought I would go ahead and post what anyway.  This was written in October - yikes, has it been that long since I've updated my blog...

It's that wonderful time of the year that the library gets closed down so we can do online testing. In the past I've done a combination of doing lessons in the classroom (and at times in a storage room!). I also hauled around a cart with books for checkout, which was highly disappointing to the students as the selection was rather limited.  I tried to rearrange schedules to have classes visit the library for checkout or to finish up existing projects.  I usually ran myself ragged trying to fit it all in while usually helping students with accommodations.  This would go on for 4 weeks.  Yech!  We do MAP testing twice a year, so that is 8 weeks of frustration every year.  And last year we started doing our state standardized tests online as well, so that was another 2-3 weeks of not having my space to work out of.

So this year I volunteered to be more involved with the testing, and have ended up pretty much in charge.  We have added 15 laptops and borrowed 3 more from our middle school.  Now, I can proctor a group in the library, while our counselor proctors another group in their classroom.  This is cutting our testing time in half.  I'm not visiting classrooms, but have still managed to find times that classes can come into checkout.

So, no, the students aren't getting a library lesson during this time, but we significantly cutting down the time devoting resources to testing.  Now the counselor isn't tied up for a month just doing testing. Our para who is helping administer test for students with accommodations, can get back to helping classroom teachers much sooner.

Basically, instead of messing up everyone's schedule for 4 weeks, we are all working together to get back to normal in 2 weeks.  This is definitely worth it.  Even though previously I was doing lessons in the classroom during this time, I think my lessons go better and are more worthwhile when I have the library resources available.

So we are half way through testing and I think it has gone pretty well.  I'm all about charts, so I have a daily schedule that shows what tests are happening and where, what accommodations we need to have ready, and what students need to make-up a test.  I have another chart that lists every classroom. We keep track of students that need to finish (I try and remember to jot down how many questions they had completed, so we know how much time they may still need.). Once a class has completely finished a test, we color it in with a highlighter.  It's very satisfying to see that yellow take over the paper, and to have a quick visual to see what students need to come back for testing.

I created a chart for each class.  Actually, it is a chart that I use when assessing students.  Since much of what I assess is dependent on being an independent user of resources, I keep these charts handy, so I can mark off when I see students have mastered a task.

I have a clipboard for  the lab and one for the computer cart.  Each day I gather the daily schedule, the classroom tracking sheets for classes being tested, and a copy of the directions that need to be read prior to each test, and the rte scores.  I also prominently wrote the support hotline number for easy reference.  At the end of the day there is a short meeting to review status and to go over the next day's schedule, so there are no surprises.  I contact teachers to schedule makeup testing that works with their schedule.

This Week in the Library (or rather, last week)

Whew! I made it.  We celebrated Grandparents' Day on Friday with a program and a LOT of visitors to the school.  That means that this week was crazy busy getting the building ready (think spring cleaning on a big time scale).

Pre-K
Last week we read Mr. Wiggle's Book to learn how to take care of the library books we were checking out that day.  This week I continued with a library theme.  After our story-time song we read Book, Book, Book by Deborah Bruss.  The children had fun making the animal noises.  After we read the book we go back through to see how it was that the bullfrog had already "readit, readit, readit."

For our game I had laminated 10 different colored book die cuts and put magnets on the back.  I put them on the white board.  As we sang the song, the student that was named would come up and pick out a book and take it to their seat.  I would have the kids say what color was taken and then how many books were left.

10 Books in the Library
10 little books in the library,
10 little books as great as can be,
Along comes _________ to check one out.
Now we have ________ books in the library.

Since we have been talking about returning our library books, of course, we have to return these books as well.

We have 0 books in the library
We need more so we can read
Along comes __________
to bring his/hers back
Now we have_______ books in the library

I feel bad that I can't credit where some of these songs have come from, especially as a librarian that expects her students to cite their sources!  When I first was gathering my materials I had no idea that I would someday be blogging about it, so I didn't keep track.  With this song, I'm pretty sure I made up the returning books part, but it's been so long ago, I'm not certain.

We only had time for one more story before picking out books, so I read A Library Book for Bear by Bonny Becker.

1st Grade
Poor kids.  We did the NWEA MAP familiarization test in preparation for testing that starts next week.  This year we only have 2 sections of 1st grade.  In my first class we had a fire drill (very exciting - they did fantastic especially since I didn't tell them it was coming).  Because of the interruption several didn't finish it, but they get the main concept.

2nd Grade
We continued with our Word project.  This week we changed the font and printed our document.

3rd Grade
They also continued with their Word project.  The focus this week was on how to insert pictures.

4th Grade
I am doing our version of the Monster project.  I call it Make My Monster.  We start by having the students create a monster in KidPix and print it.  We discussed that they will have to write a description of their monster for a student in the other 4th grade class to recreate, so make sure that what they are drawing is describable.  I had hoped that we could connect with another school to exchange descriptions, but I waited too long to get something lined up.  I may do the project again later in the year now that we have practiced our descriptive writing.  I just like to do my project around Halloween and have them displayed in the halls when all the parents are in volunteering at parties.

5th Grade
Trust me, it's coming...They just deserve more than I have time to write about.

So What's the Deal with Pre-K

I haven't talked much about this group yet.  We have a very, VERY large pre-k department for the size of our school.  There are 7 classes of 10 kids.  Two classes are 3 days a week, but the others are 5 days a week.  They are all a full day program.  For us that means 8:25-3:05.

Right now I am seeing the students for 30 minutes.  We start with a story-time song that I stole from the internet somewhere.  My version goes like this:
If you're ready for a story clap your hands (repeat)
If you're ready for story, if you're ready for a story, if you're ready for a story clap your hands.

Other verses - jump up high (we say "wheee" as we jump), turn around (just once), do all three.  The final verse:
If you're ready for a story take a seat.
If you're ready for a story stay in your seat.
If you're ready for a story, make your hands all nice and neat,
If you're ready for a story, stay in your seat.

Originally each line was "take a seat," but one year I had a group of kids that would jump up so they could sit back down.  It sounds kind of cute thinking about it now, but at the time it drove me bonkers.  Probably because they would get so silly it was hard to get them to focus again.

Then I read a story.  I usually have some kind of a theme that ties things together.  To break things up we will play a game, do a finger rhyme, or get up and dance and sing.  We follow that up with another story.  Depending on the length of the various books and activities, I may have more that we do.  We end with another song that I stole from somewhere a long time ago.
Touch your nose, touch your chin,
That's the way this game begins,
Touch your eyes, touch your knees
Now pretend you are going to sneeze (ah-choo).
Touch your elbows where they bend
Now jump up and whisper
The end.

If anyone knows where I may have stolen these songs from please leave a comment and I will edit accordingly.

Last week we started doing book checkout.  With this group they select one book that is checked out to their teacher and stays in the classroom.  For now, I select about 30 books and put them on the tables for the students to choose from.  The books are usually selected from my book returns to save time.  Later on I teach them how to use shelf markers, but not yet!  I have a parent volunteer (my mom - she's a parent) that does my shelving.  I think she would quit if I let pre-k loose on the shelves at this point.

In a few weeks we will be extending our time to 45 minutes and it will include using the computers.  One year I did start with the full 45 minutes including computers from the first week of school.  I don't do that now!  They need to get a little more in the swing of school and a little more self-sufficient before I'm ready to tackle computers with them.  They are pretty savvy when it comes to mobile devices, but mice throw them for a loop.  They are also used to having a parent or someone around that can help them in they run into a problem.  They are not used to having to wait their turn while I am helping 9 other students.

Catching Up

I'm a little behind in my posts, but considering I've almost posted as much in a couple of weeks as I have for the life-time of the blog, I'm not that behind!

Last week for most of my classes was a continuation of the pirate theme.

Kindergarten - I introduced using a mouse.  It is kind of funny how mouse skills are something that our incoming students don't have.  It used to be rare for me to have a student that didn't know how to use a mouse.  Now with all of the touch screens, I find most of the incoming kindergartners don't know how to use a mouse.  This is something that I teach in our prekindergarten program, so those students are usually ready to go.  We used the Mouse and Pointer exercises from ABCmouse.com.  I showed the students how to hold a mouse and we previewed just the beginning of the game on the projector in the library side of my space.  I had the computers ready to go to the point that they only needed to chose if they were left or right handed (I did review for the students those that were left handed).  When they finished the tutorial, they could play other games on ABCmouse.  While they were working (and in between reopening closed browsers and showing them how to maximize their windows) I checked in the library books.  I had students that were able to check out a book (they had returned their previous book) check out and then go back to the computers until our time was up. 

1st Grade - Last week some students were sad that they didn't have time to go to all of the centers they wanted.  To give more time for pirate fun, I did a short pirate themed read aloud and had the same centers out as last week.

2nd Grade - We started a project using Word 2013.  We started with a discussion on how computers can't do anything unless someone has programmed the computer.  We call these programs, software or apps.  Then I go old school on them and explain if I wanted to have a nice polished looking report when I was their age, I had to use a typewriter with only 2 fonts, no colors or different sizes.  Now they can use a word processor and have fun fonts, colors, and pictures!  I have a list of sentences for the students to fill in about things that they like or didn't like.  I walked them through opening Word, starting their writing and saving their work.

3rd Grade - They were to work on their pirate stories.  Once they had a paragraph they could change the font.

4th Grade - They continued their Pirate Amazing Race activity.  Winning teams were given an eraser with a map of the world on it (an Oriental Trading Company product).  I don't usually give many prizes to avoid the "what do we get" mentality.  I did have one student ask what the other students would win.  My favorite response is, "Did you enjoy the activity?  Did you practice using library resources?  Would you have rather done a worksheet?  Wonderful, you all won not having to do a worksheet and I won because I don't have to grade anything!"

5th Grade - You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned what I have been doing with the fifth graders.  I am experimenting with them by following a genius hour type of arrangement.  I have a lot to share on that topic and will be writing a blog post soon about how the process has been going so far.

Pre-K - I also haven't been posting what I have been doing with them.  Maybe soon.  I'm just impressed that I've kept up this much!