As I was planning for my first graders’ holiday read alouds, I decided to read several stories revolving around Christmas trees. My student body is primarily full of students who do celebrate Christmas in a myriad of ways, and nearly ALL of them have a Christmas tree!! I knew that
Task cards have been around for several years. I have read about them in blog posts, seen them on Pinterest, and thumbed over them in catalogs. It was just recently that I became intrigued enough with the cards to give them a go. As a librarian, I was naturally drawn
We have all been there! Checking out kinders can be challenging. We don’t know their names yet, and they don’t know us! This leads to some very interesting exchanges. Some that sound a little bit like this. “What’s your name kiddo?” “mmdfdm adfdsafds” “Can you say that one more time honey”
I love gardening. I love the feel of the dirt under my hands. I love the excitement of my seeds turning into something beautiful. I love knowing that I grew the cucumbers and tomatoes that are on the table for dinner. Sadly, there just isn’t ever enough time in my
Hey, it’s a brand new year!! And with each brand new year, comes a brand new library theme. After last winter’s record setting number of snow days and the weatherman’s omen of an early polar vortex, I decided that we should hang on to summer ALL year long! I have
Independent reading is a term coined to describe when students choose books of their own interest, read on their own time, and in their own place. The reading isn’t assigned nor is it assessed!! Over the years, independent reading has been called SSR (Sustained Silent Reading), DEAR (Drop Everything and
It’s almost that time again … Time to welcome our students back into our libraries, back to our shelves, back to our books!! I am sure that librarians everywhere are readying their proverbial bag of tricks; you know, that one we use to teach our kiddos about library book care. BUT,
I ABSOLUTELY love it when a teacher’s inquiry leads to one of my all time favorite aspects of librarianship: creating engaging research projects for kids!! So, when a fifth-grade teacher stopped in the library for her morning cup of coffee, and asked me if I had any ideas for a
To Dewey or Not To Dewey … Isn’t that the question?? More and more libraries, both school and public, are ditching Dewey and modeling their nonfiction section after popular bookstores. They are grouping their books by major genre topics like animals, war, sports, etc. It has been creating lots of
Each and every year, I present a lesson on “Just Right Books.” Each and every year, I feel that it falls just a little bit flat. I continue to see kids choose those GIANT books that I just KNOW are not a good fit. I really don’t want to become
