Week Two

PreK 3, PreK, K

Guiding Questions: What do we do in a library? Who takes care of the library? How can we help?

We talked about what we do in a library (read!) and why we read books (for fun! to learn!). Students learned that Miss Kathy and Mrs. Ducharme are in charge of the library, and that they have a big job taking care of the books. Students learned how to choose books carefully to help Miss Kathy keep the shelves neat. We talked about where to put books that we don't want (on the cart next to Mrs. Ducharme's desk).

We also read books about the library.

Pre-Kinder 3 and Pre-Kinder

It's Library Day

This simple story tells about what young children enjoy doing on library day in their school. We talked about the children in the story and how they have similar interests as ours. We talked about the librarian in the story and how she helps children find books and reads to them just like Mrs. Ducharme does!

Kindergarten

Carlo and the Really Nice Librarian 

Carlo goes to the public library with his father for the first time, and he meets the librarian, Mrs. Chinca. She's a bit scary at first (she's an alligator!), but he soon learns that she knows everything about the books, she is fun to be with, and he likes helping her keep the library neat.

Grade 1, 2, and 3

Guiding Questions: How is a library different from a bookstore? What is the librarian's job? What can we do to help keep our library looking neat?

Students in grades 1, 2, and 3 talked about borrowing versus owning, book prices, where our library books come from, and about what the librarian and library assistant do. They learned that Miss Kathy puts back up to 500 books each day (!) and they learned ways to help her keep the books neat on the shelves and in good order.

We also read books about libraries.

Grade 1

Library Mouse

Lucky Sam, the mouse, gets to live in a library! He loves to read lots of different types of books, and one day he decides to write some books of his own. He leaves his books for others to find and sure enough, he becomes a big hit with library patrons. When asked to give an author talk, he chooses to make the children the authors instead by giving them tiny mouse-sized books of their own to write in.

Grade 2

The Librarian from the Black Lagoon

Everyone is deathly afraid of the school librarian - she's so evil, no one wants to go to the library. Creepy, mean, and ugly as sin, Mrs. Beamster is a character we're not likely to forget. Remember, no breathing in the library or Mrs. Beamster will LAMINATE you!   :)

Grade 3

The Library Dragon

Sunrise Elementary School has a dragon for a librarian. Whenever the kids come into the library she breathes fire on them! But when a little near-sighted girl comes in and starts READING out loud, even the dragon lady librarian's heart melts.

 

Grade 4 and Grade 5

Guiding Questions: How do we find books using the library catalog? Where are the different call numbers actually located in the library?

We reviewed basic search strategies using our new catalog, Destiny Quest. This year, we will spend lots of time learning about the various ways we can use the catalog, but this week we just did the basics: quick search, narrowing the search, learning what "in", "out", and "ask" mean, and adding to our list and holding.

Next, we talked about the biggest problem we face: matching the call number on the catalog to the location of the book in the library. To tackle this problem, each student is creating a personalized library map. This map will show all of the call number sections with the student's own language describing what's found in that section. For example, jF/F books are in the center of the room and we call them "fiction chapter books".  Here's my sample!