GoAnimate!

Students in 4th and 5th grade learn all about Internet Safety in the library. After viewing several Internet safety cartoons, such as Professor Garfield's Cyberbullying videos (http://www.professorgarfield.org/learning_lab/cyberbullying.html) and BrainPopJr.'s Internet Safety (http://www.brainpopjr.com/artsandtechnology/technology/internetsafety/), we discussed all the rules on how to be safe online. Students then created their own Internet safety animations. Here's a sample of a couple of our animations:

Molly and Shaun's Video

Ashley & Eva's Video

Craig and Emily's Video

 

Students learned some key rules about being safe online, such as never giving out personal information or passwords and telling a trusted adult if they are being cyberbullied. 

First Grade U.S. National Symbols E-Books

Students in first grade learned about the national symbols of our country, such as the Statue of Liberty, the White House, and the Liberty Bell. In library, we researched these symbols on PebbleGo. Students chose one symbol and made a drawing using the drawing program in Little Bird Tales and then they also recorded one fact that they learned about their symbol. This project covered Speaking & Listening (SL.1.5) in the Common Core Standards. Students were able to present their knowledge using drawings and recordings.

Ms. Ruocco's Class

http://www.littlebirdtales.com/tales/view/story_id/309566/

Mrs. Rice's Class

http://www.littlebirdtales.com/tales/view/story_id/309629/

Ms. Delrossi's Class

http://www.littlebirdtales.com/tales/view/story_id/309465/

Ms. Balfe's Class

http://www.littlebirdtales.com/tales/view/story_id/309502/

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

December's book club pic is a favorite of mine. Come by the library and grab your copy.

Community Worker Little Bird Tales

In second grade, students researched community workers, such as nurses, teachers, garbage collectors and farmers. Students wrote down three facts that they learned by reading about their community worker. In library we took those facts and created e-books using Little Bird Tales. Students typed and recorded their facts and included photographs and pictures that they created on the computer via the drawing program in Little Bird tales. Please take a moment to watch and listen. Our second graders put a lot of work into their e-books. These projects covered a number of common core standards, such as Research To Build and Present Knowledge (W.2.7).

Here are the links to the Little Bird Tales:

Mrs. Dellovo

https://www.littlebirdtales.com/classPages/view/page/1/class_id/14327/

Mrs. Douglas

https://www.littlebirdtales.com/classPages/view/page/1/class_id/14277/

Mrs. Macari

https://www.littlebirdtales.com/classPages/view/class_id/14581/

Mrs. Nawrocki

https://www.littlebirdtales.com/classPages/view/class_id/14578/

The Trouble with Chickens

November's Lunch Bunch Book Club selection is The Trouble with Chickens by Doreen Cronin. J.J. Tully, a search-an-rescue dog retires to live on a farm. His life doesn't remain quiet for long though. A hen fears that two of her chicks have been kidnapped. She hires J.J. to track them down. This is a funny detective story with hilarious cartoon illustrations.

October in the Library- Kindergarten Activities

It's been a busy month in the library. In kindergarten, we read The Berenstain Bears and the Ghost of the Forest. We also studied Eric Carle's books. We read Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?, From Head to Toe, and The Mixed Up Chameleon. Students explored bears, kangaroos, and chameleons using our PebbleGo database. If you haven't looked at PebbleGo then I highly recommend checking it out. Students are learning about the variety of resources that they can use in the library to find information. 

After doing some research on kangaroos, students drew pictures of kangaroos and told us what they liked best about them. As you can see, students learned quite a bit and made some terrific illustrations. 

Students also created their own mixed up chameleons using the New York Zoo and Aquarium website. Here's an example from one of our students:

We also read Click, Clack, Boo by Doreen Cronin.

Kindergartners also visited a variety of festive Halloween websites and practiced using the mouse. They carved pumpkins on abcya.com and decorated a scarecrow on the Highlights for Kids website.

Book Club Pick for October

Join the Lunch Bunch Book Club! Students in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade are invited to join in on the discussion every month during lunch. This month's selection is The Indian in the Cupboard.

Summary from Amazon.com:
What could be better than a magic cupboard that turns small toys into living creatures? Omri's big brother has no birthday present for him, so he gives Omri an old medicine cabinet he's found. Although their mother supplies a key, the cabinet still doesn't seem like much of a present. But when an exhausted Omri dumps a plastic toy Indian into the cabinet just before falling asleep, the magic begins. Turn the key once and the toy comes alive; turn it a second time and it's an action figure again.

First Week of School

Ah, the first week of school is always very special time in the library. In my library media center, we start off with the basics: where to sit, a review of school rules, and a tour of the library, which always excites the students because they can't wait to check out books. So, of course, we start off by reading stories that take place in a library or that have something to do with books!

The kindergarten read Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen. It's one of my favorite stories to read during library orientation. In the story, a lion wanders into the library and he enjoys it so much that he decides to stay until one day he breaks the rules and roars in the library. He has to leave, but then he's invited to come back when one of the librarians has an accident and can't work without him. Here's the coloring sheet that students got to work on once we finished the story:  https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Byk7Fm3Q76yZcHlzN2t3aktaVHc/edit

The first grade read about a little dog, who loves books so much that he opens his own book store. At first, no one visits him, but once he starts to read, he is no longer lonely and customers start to visit him. The story is called Dog Loves Books by Louise Yates. Second grade read the true story of Dewey, the library cat. Dewey was once abandoned in a public library book drop and luckily a librarian found him and saved him. He became a resident amongst the library's books and patrons. The third grade read about another little critter - a mouse named Sam. Sam loves writing books and sharing them in the library. Eventually everybody wants to meet Sam, but he's too shy, so he helps people see that they can be authors of their own books and that they can share stories as well.

The fourth and fifth grade toured the library and played an incredibly fun game of library pictionary. Students picked library and technology terms out of jar, such as iPad, call number, and fiction and then they had a minute to draw the term while the rest of the class had a minute to guess it. This game served as great refresher to some of the terms that we may have forgotten over the summer.

The students can't wait to get started on book check and I can't wait to share some of the revamped book care lessons. 

Link of the Day

Sharing e-books:
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/09/ebooks/sharing-public-domain-ebooks-with-the-book-elf/

Reviews of Recent Reads

Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell
Nikki J. Maxwell got a diary instead of cell phone because her mom is "brain dead." In this book, we follow Nikki's daily trials and tribulations at her new private middle school, where she has to deal with the snotty CCP girls, MacKenzie and her dad's bug van! Oh, the embarrassment! MacKenzie, who is the prettiest and most popular girl at school, is down right cruel to Nikki. When Nikki decides to enter the Avant-Garde Art Contest at school, she becomes intimidated by MacKenzie, so instead she signs up to be a library assistant. Luckily, she meets Chloe and Zoey, who end up being her best friends. Eventually, Nikki does sign up for the art contest, but MacKenzie continues to torment her, but on the bright side, Nikki's crush, Brandon, decides that Nikki is a better artist than MacKenzie. Even though there are abundant mishaps and humiliations, Nikki does well for herself and gains a ton of self esteem in the process. This diary is funny, sweet and has some real cringe inducing moments. The book has a similar style to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney although the drawings are more anime like in style rather than stick figures. I'd say that Nikki is the female equivalent of Greg. Definitely worth a read!


Tenderness by Robert Cormier
Lori Cranston is a lost teen girl, who becomes fixated on a teen murderer, Eric Poole. Cormier takes us into the mind of a killer, who master minded the deaths of his female victims as well as his mother's and step father's death. He is a cold and vicious boy, who is about to be released from the correction facility that he has been living in, but a cop wants to keep Eric locked up for good. Lori's obsession with Eric leads her to meet up with him when he's released from prison. What follows is the development of a strange relationship between the two and yes, even tenderness, which forever changes Eric. Although this isn't one of Cormier's better known novels, it's definitely an interesting read with well crafted characters and a strong plot.

At Face Value by Emily Franklin

Poor Cyrie Bergerac has one major flaw: her nose. It's huge! She's smart, witty and the editor of the high school newspaper, but all of those things won't get her what she wants, which is her dreamy crush, Eddie "Rox" Roxanninoff. Rox has it all: looks, brains, and popularity. He's also one of the nicest guys that Cyrie has ever met. Just when Cyrie thinks that Rox may be falling for her, she finds out that Rox has a crush on Leyla, her best friend. What follows is a hilarious plethora of e-mail exchanges, where Cyrie writes to Rox as Leyla. Rox has no idea what's going on. He is confused by Leyla's behavior, which doesn't quite match up to the lovely girl he has gotten to know in the e-mails. Will Cyrie be able to tell Rox the truth? The book has a rather sweet ending, which readers are sure to love.

I absolutely adored this book. Every teen girl has something that she's insecure about and I remember hating my nose, so I identified with this story on a personal level, but I think that everyone will be able to identify with Cyrie's need to be accepted by her peers. She wants to fit in. I thought that Emily Franklin did a fantastic job at creating a modern retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac, which has always been one of my favorite plays. Franklin has Cyrie take on the role of Cyrano and Eddie is the Roxanne character. The romantic letters were e-mails and the whole kissing scene doesn't take place under a balcony, but rather at a Halloween party, where Leyla and Cyrie are both in disguise. The key element of this interpretation is that Cyrie, who just like Cyrano has verbal sparing abilities that can humiliate any enemy, cannot seem to look beyond her nose. On a positive note though, Cyrie learns to accept herself and discovers that looks are definitely not everything!

http://www.amazon.com/At-Face-Value-Emily-Franklin/dp/0738713074/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247250114&sr=8-1

I Spy in the Library

I Spy in the Library is probably one the cheapest and most well loved programs that I have ever conducted in the library. I gathered about 24 tchotchkes from my apartment and office, took pictures of them and then I hide them all over the library. I gave the kids a sheet with pictures of all of the items that they were supposed to find. When the kids found all of the tchotchkes, they turned in their sheets and received a packet of fun dip. It was a good time for all!

Some of My Favorite Picture Books

Here are some of my favorite picture books that you should read this summer, especially if you have a funny bone that is itching to be tickled!

Bossy Bear by David Horvath
Bossy Bear constantly makes demands and tells people what to do. He wants every single toy that he sees and tells his friends that they have to play his way or they won't play at all. Then he realizes that no one likes to play with bossy bears, but luckily, he meets a little turtle that tells him that although he is bossy, he doesn't have to be. This cute little story has cutesy illustrations from the duo that created the Uglydolls. Bright colors and googly eyes make the books fun to read. This story also shows that being bossy isn't always the best thing if you want to have friends. Don't forget to read the sequel to this picture book - Just Like Bossy Bear.

Chicken Butt! by Erica S. Perl and Illustrated by Henry Cole
Do you know what? Chicken Butt! is sure to make you giggle! This timeless joke is illustrated by Henry Cole, who makes the chicken bounce around from page to page while the little boy tries to distract his daddy by going on an on with the ridiculous chicken rhymes. The father gives up on reading his Sunday newspaper when a monkey shows up. Do you know why? Chicken Thigh!

Starlight Goes To Town by Harry Allard and Illustrated by George Booth
Here's a new tale by Harry Allard, where a delightful little hen, Starlight LaPoule, dreams of becoming a high fashion model. Her dreams come true when her chicken fairy godmother grants her wish. Starlight ends up in Milan, where things don't quite pan out for her in the world of high fashion. She then crash lands in rural Connecticut in order to begin her new life, which includes all kinds of wishes that go haywire, but end up helping Starlight live her life the way she wants to. The wacky illustrations in this book will make everybody laugh and Starlight's expressions and antics will make readers crack up.

Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?

A: To get to storytime.

Chicken Themed Storytime
Chickens are humorous little creatures in the world of children's picture books. They often appear to be on some sort adventure and they can be rather mischievous. I love reading stories about chickens to the kids and they seem to enjoy it just as much as I do! The perfect time to read chicken themed books to kids is in the spring, so here's a short list of some of my favorites.

My Life as a Chicken by Ellen A. Kelley
Chicken Little by Rebecca Emberley
Chicken Butt! by Erica S. Perl
Chicken Cheeks by Michael Ian Black
Chicks and Salsa by Aaron Reynolds
Goodnight Lulu by Paulette Bogan
Hungry Hen by Richard Waring
Henny-Penny by Jane Wattenberg
Big Chickens by Leslie Helakoski
Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken by Kate Dicamillo
Tillie Lays An Egg by Terry Golson
Starlight Goes To Town by Harry Allard
Chickens to the Rescue by John Himmelman
The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington
Chicken and Cat by Sara Varon
The Problem with Chickens by Bruce McMillan
Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road? by Tedd Arnold, Mo Willems, Jon Agee and others.
Silly Chicken by Rukhsana Khan


Along with a display of chicken books in your library or classroom, you can do a chicken craft, such as a chicken puppet. The directions are located on first-school: http://www.first-school.ws/activities/crafts/animals/birds/rooster-handprints-1.htm.

You can also have the kids do the chicken dance. Here's the music: http://www.cartooncritters.com/musicforkids.htm.