Week of April 27th, 2015

 This week we worked on many different levels of digital citizenship, poetry reading and keyword searching. My First Graders are excited to finish their "ouch" poems, look forward to next week when we'll be posting fun pictures of their work.  Third Graders were busy practicing search skills, utilizing key word searching by synonyms or multiple key words to narrow down their research.  Fourth Graders took a nice walk on the more artistic side this week and learned about the different styles of poetry and poems, how to locate a poetry book in the Non-Fiction section of the library.  Many of my students were interested in participating in the Poem In Your Pocket Day on Thursday, April 30th.  Nationally recognized as a day to read poetry with your school, community and friends, don't forget to share your experiences using #pocketpoem!

Yet another week has flown by here in the Library.  I'm desperately trying NOT to panic as we enter into the last few weeks of school.  It seems this happens every year...a mad rush to the finish.  Informal assessments, tools, measurement and lessons all come together as we gear up for the minimal weeks we have left together. For some classes, I will only see them six more times (eek!) and I'm not quite ready for that.  I've created a short list of goals/objectives (perhaps more like hopes/dreams) for the end of school and what I'd love my students to begin their summers with:

I want to ensure that every child has 

• Access to a library or some sort of program to check out books
• An idea of books they want to read over the summer
• A cozy or special place to hunker down with a good book
• The skills to find new books (where to look online, how to locate a non-fiction book or search by title, author or genre)
• A love for reading

Yes, some of these are lofty and perhaps unattainable for each and every kiddo, but a Librarian can dream, right?  What are some of your summer goals for your child?  For your students?  

Have a great week!  

-Mrs. Bethel 

Week of April 20th, 2015

Spring has sprung...or has it?  The weather here in our state has it's ups and downs for sure during the Spring season!!  Torrential downpour one day, the next 70 degrees and all the kids (and parents) are wearing shorts and grabbing fro-yo after dinner!  It's been a week or so since my last update and there's been a flurry of activity here in the Library!

First Graders

We "Shel-abrated" this week with our amazing poets in First Grade.  In honor of Poetry Month, our primary students shared what they had learned so far about poems and dug a little deeper into the different style of writing.  We reviewed haiku, acrostic and free verse just to share a few.  Shel Silverstein
was a focus this Monday and my First Graders loved reading his "Bandaid" and "Ouch" poem.  To give credit where credit is due, I found this idea online (www.firstgradewow.blogspot.com) and my kiddos began drafting their own version of and "Ouch" poem.  Check out the VINE video to see our humorous and creative poets!
First Grade Poetry

Third & Fourth Graders
This is our second week in our Online Digital Citizenship series.  Third Graders learned about the different levels of responsibility we have when we are online.  Students looked into the three categories: self, friends
and family, and larger community and how the responsibility changed for each level.  Fourth Graders discussed the importance of strong passwords and safeguarding your personal information.

Fifth Graders:
Stay tuned for Summer Reading lists, apps and websites to help keep your soon-to-be "Middle Schooler" engaged and avoid the Summer "Slide"!

Staff Members and Teachers
I was very excited (and nervous) to present to our staff last week, sharing how to integrate technology into the classroom.  I attended a seminar back in Febrary with the Institute for Educational Development and was

struck by all the different tools, apps and interactive technology that's available.  My goal was to give teachers at least one "take-away" to feel comfortable implementing in their classroom.  Overall, I received positive feedback and hope that teachers and staff felt it worthwhile!  I'm looking forward to helping support students using these new apps and tools!

Have a great week everyone!  Hard to believe that we're starting the countdown to the last few weeks of school!  -Mrs. Bethel

Week of March 30th

Time flies when you're having fun READING!  This week marks the big VOTE for Sasquatch, WCCPBA and the Tournament of Books Championship Round!  All students were encouraged to vote, some grades were even able to vote for all THREE categories of books.  Interesting trends we saw, "Wonder" by RJ

Palacio was nominated in the Sasquatch and made it through the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight,

Final Four ... all the way down to the Championship match against Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies.  Serious snaps and props go to Ms. Arika for organizing the Tournament and creating the surveys.  Also, thanks to all the students in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade AND Teachers that participated in the Tournament of Books!  

Make sure you check out all the titles that have been nominated for the WCCPBA for 2015.

Book Summaries for WCCPBA

We will announce the winner from our school as soon as we have tallied all the votes.  Also, don't miss the link for the VINE video of all our favorite WCCPBA books:

First group of WCCPBA Titles       Second group of WCCPBA Titles

5th Graders and Families, don't think I've forgotten about you!!  I have some amazing suggestions and great
new additions to the Library that you're going to gobble up!  Take a look at these new (and some not so new) titles suggested for you!

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy (cannot put this down)!

Dial-A-Ghost by Eva Ibbotson 

Unwanteds Series by Lisa McMann

Week of March 23rd

Hello Fearless Readers!

We've enjoyed a lovely two days here in the Library, devouring the last morsel of WCCPBA (Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Awards) as possible!  As we near closer to voting next week, students have been reflecting on their favorite text from this year's nominees.  After reading this week's selection, I'm down to my top THREE choices.  What will your student vote for to win this year's highly coveted award?  This week, we enjoyed "Toys In Space" written and illustrated by the talented Mini Grey. During our Read Aloud, I wanted to dig deeper with questioning, so I asked students to consider perspective.  I also asked students to reflect on how they perceived one of the characters before and after the story and to give evidence to prove their reasoning.  Students also willingly jumped in and shared why this text was a worthy nomination for the WCCPBA:

"I liked it because it was a story within a story" - third grader
"It was funny, had mysteries and new things to look at on each page." first grader
"Both boys and girls will enjoy this story that keeps you on your toes and asking questions." -Mrs. Bethel

And don't forget, the Sasquatch Awards are right around the corner as well.  Fourth Graders will vote (the requirement is that at least TWO books have been read) next week.  Seems apropos that our voting occurs during this crazy month of March!

While we have been busy in the Library with many classes, several of my Fourth Grade students have been toiling with their Social Studies Classroom Based Assessment on the Westward Movement.  Check out this fun video from Brain POP:

Brain POP Oregon Trail Video

I wanted to leave with a little shout out for my teaching partner - Ms. Arika!  She's always so innovative AND she motivates me to try new things, like VINE.  I've seen her use this on her blog and her teaching social media websites, but I was a little afraid to try it.  I decided, now or never!!  Here are a few of the first Vine Video's taken as practice.  (And yes, I was actually able to add the app, watch a video on how to use AND actually use it)!!

#iheartlibrary


Have a wonderful rest of your week, and I'll see you next Monday for VOTING week!

Week of March 16th

Time flies when you're having fun...AND reading books!!  Students devoted time to filling out the "Tournament of Books" bracket (thanks to the genius of Ms. Arika), researching the costs/benefits of traveling on the Oregon Trail, creating the worlds "First Drawing" and delighting in the magic and the power of a rabbit's shadow!

First Grade:  Our little bugs in First Grade loved reading "The Black Rabbit" by Philipa Leathers.  So many of my friends were able to catch the "secret" of the shadow early on.  The kiddos were able to articulate why the rabbit didn't see his shadow in the 'deep dark woods' and why the Black Rabbit never answered him back.  We asked the big question as an exit task:  Would the story change if the main character was an elephant?  Why or why not?  Great responses, can't wait for next week when we read a Mo Willems favorite!


Third Grade:  I was so pleased to see the thoughtful and somewhat profound written and illustrated responses from my Third Grade friends.  This week, we
enjoyed the WCCPBA, "The First Drawing" by Mordicai Gerstein.  Students were enthralled and deeply engaged when learning that the first 'drawing' was found in a cave (in southern France) and is more than 30,000 years old!  WHOA!

Fourth Grade:  This week, two of our classes dig right into the research portion of the CBA (classroom based assessment) for the Westward Movement.  Guided questions include:  "What are the COSTS/BENEFITS of emigration West across the Oregon Trail? As well as: "How did the geographical features affect the emigrant's decisions to leave their original homes?"  Over the next few weeks, I will be guiding students in their online/text research for their writing assignment.  We looked at a variety of websites today, discussed reading for content vs. reading to take notes as will as skimming tips. Fun Fact:  Did you know that if you don't write it down, you'll lose 62% of the knowledge read, that's only 38% retaining power from one day!  YIKES!  Next week, we'll travel to the computer lab for a continuation of our online research.

I hope all of you enjoy a lovely rest of your week.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

-Mrs. Bethel

Week of March 2nd

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!

What an amazing two days we've had here in the library; discussing sustainability and how we can help take care of our earth, reading a biography about the beloved Dr. Seuss and checking one more WCCBPA off our list!  It's amazing how much we can pack into just a short amount of time!  This will be a quick posting for the week, congrats to all your students for working hard and digging deeper into our critical questioning.

Have a great week and enjoy the sunshine!

-Mrs. Bethel

Week of February 23rd

Easing back into the school week was not an easy task, but our brave Tigers handled it well!  Thanks to all
the friendly smiles, hugs and welcoming attitudes, we were able to kick start our week.  We had a lot to accomplish here in the Library, take a look at our busy days...

First and Third Graders:
"Everyone knows, Sharks eat Minnows"!  Kids thoroughly enjoyed reading the latest addition to our WCCPBA (Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Awards) book of the week.  We delved into this delightful and somewhat unconventional tale of friendship.  My little first grade friends were really concerned about how Fang (our trusty and true shark) would feel after Nugget (yes, our main minnow) halted their friendship.  Third Graders thought about this on a deeper level and asked themselves, what would they have done if in Nugget/Fang's "fins".  We also utilized a "Fin" (Venn) Diagram to look at the similarities and differences these two characters hold.  Check out this cute clip of other "unlikely" friends:

Unlikely Friends - It's OK To Be Different

Fourth Graders:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, Edmoto, the list goes on and on and on for the Social Media sites that your children have been introduced to.  As part of the Librarian's Digital Citizenship (which Fourth Graders completed several weeks ago), I wanted to culminate the research on our kid-friendly databases here at school with a real-world scenario.  Kids used their notes and ideas from our last class (digging deep as it was before mid-winter break) and created a "fakebook" (yes, that reads FAKE BOOK) page for their historical individual.  Using a printed page, students utilized their notes and the Pebble Go database.  We discussed the power of sharing information from their chosen innovator and what they might share/post.  Still a work in progress, will share the final result as we complete our "profiles".

Up next week:
We will be celebrating Read Across America and the birthday of Dr. Seuss.  Monday (and Tuesday) will prove to be fun, exciting and busy days here in the Library!  Stay tuned to see some Sneeches, Lorax and perhaps even the Cat himself!

Have a great week!
-Mrs. Bethel