Dr. Seuss Bookmarks!

Are you planning on celebrating Dr. Seuss's bday?  Michaels has these C(color)IY bookmarks. Won't your students love them? Mine will. I wish they had the Lorax, since the movie is in theaters on March 2nd.

Enjoy! I am off to bed, finally! :)

Click here to get to Michaels page!

100 Greatest Books

This new list is located at Scholastic's Top 100

This is the cover from the audio book. I like this one better!

Some of my thoughts on this list:

One of my very most favorites is Are You There God, It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume. I really believe I knew all the words to it when I was younger!! I must have read it 100 times.

This is an older version, maybe the one I had??

When purchasing books for my new library this year, I was sure to order all the Judy Blume books. Well, I didn't order Forever. I loved that book too!! But, I do remember my 5th grade teacher taking it away from my friends and I during class. I do believe it is better suited for middle school. 

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Another one of my most favorite books is the Giver, written by Lois Lowry. My first year teaching I read this book with my class. They didn't like it at first, but by the end... they were so into it, they didn't want it to end. It was amazing to see these students get so hooked into a book, especially a book as good as this one. The Giver has won several awards and remains a book that many teachers use in the classroom.
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What Shall We Do With the Boo Hoo Baby by Cressia Crowell is the last one for tonight. What a fun book to help toddlers look at what they are or are not doing. The baby is crying, and his animal friends try to figure out how to make him stop. Is he hungry? Does he want a bath? Could he want to play? Despite all these good ideas, the baby just keeps crying. Will the animals ever discover what the baby really wants? A must read for parents of young children!!!

Snowy Day

Today we visited the website... www.wegivebooks.org  This site is offering a chance to win 500 FREE books for your school, all you have to do is read the books on this site. Easy for me! Being in the library every day, I read to at least 4 classes a day, if not more.

Have you read the story? Here is some info about the book:

The Snowy Day, a 1963 Caldecott Medal winner, is the simple tale of a boy waking up to discover that snow has fallen during the night. Keats's illustrations, using cut-outs, watercolors, and collage, are strikingly beautiful in their understated color and composition. The tranquil story mirrors the calm presence of the paintings, and both exude the silence of a freshly snow-covered landscape. The little boy celebrates the snow-draped city with a day of humble adventures--experimenting with footprints, knocking snow from a tree, creating snow angels, and trying to save a snowball for the next day. Awakening to a winter wonderland is an ageless, ever-magical experience, and one made nearly visceral by Keats's gentle tribute.

The book is notable not only for its lovely artwork and tone, but also for its importance as a trailblazer. According to Horn Book magazine, The Snowy Day was "the very first full-color picture book to feature a small black hero"--yet another reason to add this classic to your shelves. It's as unique and special as a snowflake.

wegivebooks.org is different than the one I suggested yesterday. This site allows you to read the story to the students, giving you the chance to easily ask questions, predict, look for context clues and question their comprehension during the reading.
After the story, some of the classes then created snowflakes after. I will have to post some pictures later of that. What fun we had. One boy accidentally cut some shapes out that looked like bugs or caterpillars in the middle of his snowflakes! They were so excited, and enjoying seeing the different shapes everyone made.

So, if you haven't had the chance to go to www.wegivebooks.org, you should try it. Imagine if your school won 500 FREE books, just because you chose to read to them!! AMAZING :)

(so, if your homeschool or as a SAHM and want to read.. feel free to select my school as the school you want to add books to! We would appreciate it!! Western Oaks Elementary, zip 73008)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have had a wonderful first Valentine's day as a librarian! I got a Valentine Gram from a student, some lil valentines from other students and lots and lots of happy wishes.

With first grade, I did not have any more Valentine books left to read aloud to them. So, I went to one of my very favorite sites... http://www.storylineonline.net/ and let them listen to a wonderfully well read book.

I chose the book, Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch.

This story is so sweet and really shows children how having compassion for others can make a world of difference.

Mr. Hatch is a drab, predictable gentleman who leads a painfully ordered and uninteresting life. One Valentine's Day a giant candy heart is delivered to Mr. Hatch with a note that reads... Somebody Loves You. If you have not heard this story, you will love listening to actor Hector Elizondo (Pretty Woman, Last Man Standing, Grey's Anatomy, etc..) read it.

http://www.storylineonline.net/

I'll end today with a funny (remember I am in an elementary library!!) lil joke:  

What did the librarian give the kid with overdue books on February 14? A valen-fine!

Another great resource

I forgot to mention this website before. It is for the Teacher Librarian. There is one section of FAQ regarding Library Centers. There is huge wealth of other information on this site too. If you have time to get lost there for awhile, you should go check it out :)

Thank you

First, thank you to everyone who attended our workshop today. I feel like we had a huge gathering, with great success!!!

Second, if you have ANY questions from today.....maybe something you saw that you can't find right now, let me know. I love sharing ideas and will be glad to find it if I can! If you want to leave any comments about what younliked or didnt like too, we'd love to hear!

Lisa and I presented at 1:00 today to a little over 100 guests. What a fun surprise. They just kept coming in and I only saw one person leave early. The worst part of it all was the heat in the room. The convention center should have had the air on!

Here is a picture of the poster I had hanging up that people asked for. I made this to use with our fifth graders. It really is just an anchor chart for the activity, but hanging this up, vs a regular ole piece of whitepaper with black writing,really makes the library look more imviting. It was worth the extra 10 min it took.I also do not keep the question cards around the edge, though they do look kinda nice there! :)

The day before....

My assistant principal and I were talking about the conference tomorrow. I love working with people (like him) who are encouraging and seem to always want the best for others. He was encouraging about tomorrow, and even commented on how this would be good for my future career as well. I love that. I love when people aren't trying so hard to hold you onto one thing forever (like planning on me being at this school forever, doing exactly what I do right now). I may stay here the rest of my working career, and that would be ok. But if not, it is nice to hear people encourage you to spread your wings!!

Here are a few more resources I am finding today. I am spending the day updating our school's iPads, so I have the luxury of looking for more resources. This will of course help me tomorrow, but also here in my own library for weeks and months to come!

Mini Posters and so much more

Here are some websites that offer online games related to the library:

http://funschool.kaboose.com/fun-blaster/games/lightning-librarian.html

http://library.stjosephsea.org/quia.htm

http://www.pppst.com/library.html (this site includes jeopardy and powerpoint activites)

I am going to hit the sack! I am tired, anxious, and excited!! I'll be back tomorrow (hopefully) to let you know how it went!

More resources

This first one has some signs I plan to print out and use for my library. I love love love my job!!

Library Games Free Stuff
 

Word Detective Cards

 

This will probably be my last post today. I am planning on changing gears and making a new recipe for dinner. Hopefully it will be as yummy as it looks :)
If you want to see.. here is the link... Country Club Chicken