Library Orientation - Book III

Book #3
Stella Louella’s Runaway Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst
Second Grade, Lesson One

Meet Stella Louella. A young book lover who reads her library book everywhere, which leads her to lose it one Saturday morning.

I always start off telling the kids that this is a book about a little girl who loses her book. I love to hear the collective gasp! I tell them that I hope what happened to Stella never happens to them.

Author and Illustrator Lisa Campbell Ernst did such a good job leaving clues in the text that will tell the children the name of the book Stella lost. I admit that I read this book for a year and never noticed until one day a student pointed out the clues. My mind was blown! Since it is our first story I review what I expect to see the kids doing while I am reading. I tell them that if they are listening they might be able to pick up on the clothes that will reveal the book title. When I am done I always ask someone to tell us the title.

Lisa Campbell Ernst also doubles as the illustrator so she drops clues in the book illustrations too. After the story is over I always flip back through some of the pages and point out clues. At the end of the book you see the crowd of people each leaving the library with a book of their own. I love to tell the kids some of the book titles that the characters checked out. It always gives my students the giggles.

To end the activity, I repeat the same Yes/No activity that I did with my first grade. You can read more about that in my previous blog post.

Library Orientation - Book II

Book #2
Penelope Popper, Book Doctor by Toni Buzzeo and Jana Christy
First Grade, Lesson One

This book has a more recent publication date than my other books. It was co-written by a fellow school librarian so you know the book will cover the topic of library book care well.

Penelope dreams of becoming a doctor but most of her classmates don’t like it when Penelope practices patient care on them. On a visit to the library she is told there are many different types of doctors, including a book doctor. Penelope is excited to become Ms. Brisco’s first resident. As Penelope discovers damaged books she learns how to care for them in the Book Hospital. All of the repair procedures she learns to perform comes in handy one day when the class dictionary falls behind the radiator. Can she save her patient?

Although this book is a little lengthy for my wiggly first graders they do a pretty good job listening to it. After we are done with the story I do the “Yes/No” activity on the SMART Board. I have two categories posted on the screen; Yes and No. I have a bunch of pictures at the bottom of the screen. We discuss each one and I move it into the correct category. 

Don’t have a SMART Board? When I first started teaching and this kind of technology didn’t exist I used two shoe boxes and pictures. I wrapped one in green paper and wrote YES on the top and I wrapped the other in red paper and wrote NO on the top. I found pictures of items, like a dog, a drink, a baby that show things that we don’t want to happen to our library books. I also included pictures of good things. Another option is to include the actual item, like scissors, along with the pictures. Once I had some damaged books I tore one apart and did various things to the book. I put dirty finger prints on a page, on another page I poked holes in it. Once I had a class set of items I could pass out an item to every child in my class. I would then call each child up, we would discuss their item/picture, and they would place it in the correct box.

I purchased the book from Upstart. You can find some lessons HERE

Library Orientation - Book I

It’s that time of year and I’m digging out my beginning of library books. Over the years I have fallen in love with these books and repeatedly use them. I find that my students are captivated by them. I use a specific book for a specific grade level to ensure that my students haven’t heard the story before.

Book #1
The Library Dragon by Carmen Agra Deedy
Kindergarten, Lesson One

 Practice your dragon voice and get ready to entrance the kindergarten students. I start off by warning them that the first book I am going to read to them is a scary book. I tell them it’s about a fire breathing dragon and then ask them to raise their hand if they are afraid of dragons. I then inform them that the dragon in the story lives in a school library.

I will admit that over the years I have omitted certain parts of the story and added my own text in places. The story has a lot of puns that I don’t think the kindergarten students will pick up on them. One change I make is using my schools name and the name of the kindergarten teacher’s class that I am reading to. Some kids pick up on it, some don’t.

After reading the story I introduce the students to my sidekick Shelly. She is a sleepy, silly, chocolate loving snail puppet I bought from Folkmanis HERE when I first became a librarian back in 2002. Shelly comes out of her bag screaming and telling the kids I am really a dragon. I try to tell her not to scare the new students but she keeps insisting I am a dragon and pointing out how I am like a dragon.

I have found a library dragon coloring sheet HERE.

I also found this Teacher's Guide in the Resource section of Carmen Agra Deedy's website HERE.

I can follow up next week’s lesson with Return of the Library Dragon the following week. Mike Krochip and his eReaders better watch out in this sequel!

A new school year begins

A new school year started for me on July 31st.

We ended summer in style with a trip to Mammoth Cave National Park. It was the furthest trip we have taken our camper on so far.  It's hard to believe that two weeks has already gone by since we went on that trip. We're back to school activities, soccer games, and stressful jobs.

My 7-year-old son told me one day last week, "Mom, it was a really long time ago that we went camping". I had to break the news to him that it hadn't even been a week. It's comments like that that reinforces our decision to buy a camper.

We don't have another trip planned until the first week of October. We're going to take the camper to Pigeon Forge for Fall Break. I'm not sure I can make it that long.

Summer Reading Programs

Have you signed your child up for a summer reading program?

Let’s talk for a minute about how important it is for your child to be doing at least some learning over the summer. According to the report “Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap” by Karl Alexander, Doris Entwistle, and Linda Steffel Olson, in April 2007, “Teachers typically spend between 4 to 6 weeks re-teaching material students have forgotten over the summer.” I sometimes wonder what it would be like for a teacher to start with a class in August that had done some work over the summer. I imagine what it would be like to jump into new material quickly.

There are two summer reading programs I will focus on. There are many more.
1. A summer reading program offered by your local public library.
2. Barnes and Noble Summer Reading.

Any person, adults included, in the state of Tennessee have the ability to join a summer reading program through their local public library. You are required, on our state, to read 600 minutes over the summer. Students can keep track on paper but the program is mainly hosted online. I like recording our reading online because I am less likely to lose the paper. I can also log into the program anywhere I can get Wi-Fi. As we log our minutes we earn points that we can use to change the clothes on our Avatar. Once we reach our required 600 minutes of reading we can print off a certificate, take it to our public library, and collect our prizes. If you have a younger child who isn’t reading, then you are able to read to them and count those minutes. Check with your local public library to find out about the program they run.

Barnes and Noble is celebrating its twenty-first year of summer reading. This program is limited to students in grades 1-6. Stop by a store near you to pick up a summer reading journal. Children are required to read any eight books, record the titles on the journal along with what their favorite part of the story was, then bring the completed journal to the store. You can bring it in anytime between May 16 and September 5^th. Your child will then get to choose a free book off a selected list located on the back of the journal. You can find out more Here.

If you are going to do one summer reading program it becomes easy to count any reading you do for other programs too.

Now that you have two summer reading program options take a look at these tips on how to beat the summer slide.

https://blog.allaboutlearningpress.com/summer-slide/

We are now camper owners!

It’s been awhile since I posted and as I read back on my last post I am happy to admit that we are now travel trailer owners. We didn’t go with the Jayco I mentioned though. After countless posts on a variety of camping Facebook groups I was made aware of a Fleetwood model made by Forest River. I then discovered there is a “better” version, called a Rockwood, with the same layout. I researched the specific model and realized it was a strong contender.

Rockwood Mini Lite 2509S

We wanted to make the decision soon so I visited nearby RV dealers that had Jayco and Forest River brands, just not the models we were looking for. I hate having to make big decisions. I sat down one afternoon to compare the two. We had found the best deal on the Jayco up in Michigan. A 7.5 hour drive wasn’t something I looked forward to but we were willing to drive for a deal. My husband wanted to drive up to Michigan, buy the camper, haul it back, and then leave for vacation the next morning. I called the dealer to ask some questions about the model we liked and it turned out that in a matter of a week both of the ones they had were sold. Well that helps with the process of elimination!

The closest model of Forest River that we liked was just down in Alabama about 2.5 hours away. We decided that on the way back from our Gulf Shores vacation we would stop by Camping World to look at them. This particular branch had three of the models for sale. When we looked at it we really liked it. We felt it had a lot of the features we were looking for, and some extras. The only thing it lacks is a direct entry bathroom. That was the one thing on my list that I would have compromised on. It’s two feet less than the Jayco which I think will give me more confidence when I learn how to haul it.  Five hours later she was hitched up to my car and we were starting the drive home.

   

Could this be "the one"?

Spreadsheets and notes.

           Being a RV newbie it’s hard to know what I really want in a travel trailer. I think I may know what I want but it may be a totally different story when I get out on the road and am living in it. I also have no concept of what the actual length is going to be. I have never hauled anything so my husband gave me a reality check last week. I had researched models for weeks, created a detailed spreadsheet, and was finally ready to reveal to him what my top 3 favorites were. When it came time to tell him what the lengths of the trailers were, we came to a screeching halt. He informed me that he didn’t want me hauling anything longer than 26’. Slam on the breaks, what? I had spent weeks researching trailers only to find out that he wasn’t comfortable with us being in. And smaller? We all have to fit in comfortably and I want a travel trailer that sleeps at least 6 people in case we had any guests staying with us.

After digesting a quick dinner, and this new requirement, I took my oldest son to his Cub Scouts meeting. It was probably the most productive meeting only because I downloaded the RV Trader app and typed in my new length restrictions. I was relieved to find out there were some nice options. I grabbed a scratch piece of paper out of my purse and started recording model numbers and brands of trailers I wanted to see on a bigger screen.
These are the features that I think I want

- Must sleep at least six.
  We are a family of four and I want a little extra space in case we have visitors.
- Designated beds for the boys.
  I don’t want to have to worry about them picking up their bedding so I can turn their bed back into     my table.
- An outdoor kitchen.
  A simple outdoor kitchen has a mini fridge, a cook top, and a sink. More living and can be done    
  outdoors.
- Direct entry bathroom.
  When one of us has to go to the bathroom we can just open up the door and go straight into the  
  bathroom. There would be no need to tromp mud and dirt through the trailer to go.
- Plenty of storage.
  If the boys and I leave for the whole summer we’ll need storage space.

jayco.com White Hawk 24MBH

            When I looked at these shorter models I found some that either have a direct entry bathroom or an outdoor kitchen. Most didn’t have both. Then I discovered the Jayco White Hawk 24MBH. It has all of the features I am looking for! Jayco is the number 1 selling brand of travel trailers. From what I have heard they are the brand that most others try to imitate and they sell at a reasonable price and come with a 2-year warranty. Their beds are typically longer and mattresses thicker. This model fits my vehicle’s towing capabilities but it is longer than Todd’s 26’. It’s actually 27’8”. I showed him a video of the model that a RV
dealer made and he was impressed by it.

            We may have found a winner!  Now to research the other details of this model.