November is for Nonfiction!

Watch our Centers in Action! If only my one friend had not crawled under my desk...otherwise this would be a wonderful video! But, it does show the reality of the library! 

In November, I start introducing what nonfiction is for Kindergarten. I review what nonfiction is and start or review various informational text features in K, 1st, and 2nd.

For Kindergarten, we started with watching the Brainpop Jr. Video: Reading Nonfiction. Then we will look at the word non-fiction and talk about what fiction means. I ask the students to talk about it at their table, we review each week, we add new ideas, and we practice looking at nonfiction, looking at the call numbers and the informational text features, videos to come! 

I have anchor charts for the following pages: 

Title Page:

Copyright Page:

Also, I have anchor charts for the following Informational Text Features:
Index
Glossary
Table of Contents
Caption
(Follow! Pics to come! =)

For Kindergarten, I am going to introduce all of the above. 

For 1st grade, I am also going to add: Illustration, Heading, Label, and Bold-faced word because it is now on the Performance Task for 1st grade. I will need to make new anchor charts for those 4. ( Follow!  Pics to come! =)

For 2nd grade, we are going to go over all of these. ( Follow!  Videos to come! =)

We will go over 2 at a time, then they will practice looking for the information text features and the pages in their reading area books. This will also change the Reading Area books, I will take out all the Easy Fiction books from 2 of the 3 bins, and put in Nonfiction books in the 2 bins, so there are still some story books they can read on their own or with their reading buddies. 

I always love this part of the year, the students LOVE nonfiction and some kids are so tired of stories and are so motivated by the idea of learning something from their books!

October New Centers - Brainpop Jr. Movie of the Week, Happy Halloween, Explore SOAR!

So starting in October, I start adding new centers. 

I added 2 centers overall and 1 center to 1st and 2nd. 

I added a Brainpop Jr Movie of the Week Center and a Happy Halloween Center.
Brainpop Jr. Movie of the Week - http://www.brainpopjr.com/
This one is super simple. I have the students sit in front of the SMARTboard and play the Movie of the Week (free every week!). I assign one student to be the teacher and they choose the students one at a time to take a turn for the game. I also have 2 tables come to the front to practice in front of the class so that they all see the expectations, etc. As the year goes on, we'll start learning how to go by ourselves, but this is a good introduction and gets them excited about it! 

Happy Halloween Center!
On abcya.com they are allowed to play any of the Halloween games. We go to abcya.com on the SMARTboard and go over what each game is/how to play. Then we discuss and they promise to only play Halloween games and not Christmas or other games. 

For Kindergarten - 

There are 2 games: Make a Pumpkin and Carve a Pumpkin.

  

For 1st -

There are 3 games: Halloween Word Search, Make a Pumpkin, and Carve a Pumpkin.

For 2nd - 

There are 6 games: Ghost Typing (super fun!), Halloween Word Search, Make a Pumpkin, Carve a Pumpkin, Pumpkin Matching, and Trick or Treat.

For 1st and 2nd, I added an Explore SOAR center, which is a center for our students to start exploring (looking/playing with) our online library card catalog. They go with a buddy and practice going to the website and getting to the catalog itself. I ask them to think about it and ask questions via a post-it. Then they put their post it on their class' poster. 

Watch my students talk it out! Video: "SOAR Wonderings!"
More to come on that!

I had also promised an assessment, but got lost in the beginning of the year madness!

For my Kindergartners, I have been using these 2 assessments: Quarter 1 Kindergarten Tech and Library Assessment (or on Dropbox - Quarter 1 Kindergarten Assessment Tech and Library Skills)

Open House or Parent Nights Coming Up?

Open House and Parent Nights can be scary, overwhelming, or boring, depending on how your school does it. In all these situations, I have used a variety of tactics to advocate for the library, share our resources, and meet the parents!


At one school, Open House was also book fair time, which meant it was overwhelming AND scary as I was meeting parents for the first time, AND was trying to sell books! For this situation, I smiled A LOT, helped parents and students choose books and pay as quickly as possible. Really, it was just a blur!


At one school, at Open House, one grade did a scavenger hunt, and had to get signatures from myself and the library aide, this was ideal to share information with parents as they were coming anyways! For this situation, I handed out cyber safety booklets in English and Spanish and freebie erasers that a random company sent us. Unfortunately, the Cyber Safety booklets were from a government organization, who does not give them out any more! I do post Brainpop and NetSmartz links on my website for parents.


At one school, one year we had a new technology teacher, and it was only my second year, so I made a PPT (run on a loop) of each of us, plus the aide, our roles, what the students will learn in library and technology (with pictures of students) and some stats about the library (how many books are checked out each year, etc). Please take a look at: Open House PPT. Want to change it to work for your situation?? Buy it on TPT!


At one school, Open House was a short presentation by the administration, and then the parents when to their child's classroom and had a long presentation about the expectations of the teacher and our program! This was boring, as I usually got very few parents! Surprisingly, in this situation, I made bookmarks with the library website as a QR code, with info about what students will learn, and handed them out as the parents left (this was by far one of the most popular things I have done...all of my bookmarks were gone!). Please see an example at: QR Code Bookmark PDF or Download it at: QR Code Bookmark Publisher File to Edit (this is a publisher file, so if you do not have Publisher, it will not open). Also, I used: http://www.unitaglive.com/qrcode to make the QR code (Free! Let's you change colors! Yay! =)

Rules. Makes Me the Librarian from the Black Lagoon.

So, after telling kids to walk until I'm blue in the face, I decided I needed a new tactic. Now, when the kids come in, EVERY period, EVERY time, we talk about the rules. I will stop when I do not have to give out strikes (there are a couple classes that already have it down! Yay!)


For days we are doing centers - we talk about the 3 center rules:

1. Walk.
2. Whisper.
3. See 3 before me.


I have the students read each rule. Then we talk about the rule and role play/practice the rule. Examples below:

1. Walk (have a student volunteer to read it).
 

Then ask the students, who would like to show us how to walk to the easy fiction area (2 birds with one stone! How to walk! AND where is easy fiction!). Watch the student walk to the easy fiction shelves. Praise highly. Have them walk back to their seat again.

Discuss that they are not running, skipping, or jumping, but walking to their destination and back.

2. Whisper. (have a student volunteer to read it).

Then tell the students we are going to practice. Ask them to whisper their favorite (teacher, color, food, sport, etc) to someone at their table. Set the timer for 1 minute to give them time. Redirect as needed.

3. See 3 before me. (have a student volunteer to read it).

Explain that when they have a question, they need to ask a friend first. Tell them that they are now experts and can help each other.


Discuss consequences - 3 strikes and you're out! If I catch you not following the rules, I will give you a strike (verbal). If you get 3 strikes, you lose the center. You may try again for the next center (because I do not want them to sit out for the entire time, I want them to learn the other skills and to get a second chance).


When I taught the older grades (3 - 5), I used a Powerpoint to teach the roles of myself and the aide, and to teach the rules (below). If you would like the PPT, please purchase it on TPT!

Kindergarten Centers in Real Time!

This week is a professional development week at school, so I am putting the finishing touches on center activities, and needing a lot more laminate...(check out my centers on the right...except my color printer conked out and I wanted to make a new Center sign for computers, so for a place holder my Work with Ms. D----- sign is up, it's just to help me place things for now! Something to look forward to!).

Stay tuned for next week's post about 1st - 2nd Grade Centers in Real Time! (If you are starting from scratch, all 3 grades would be the same!)

Now without further ado...Kindergarten Centers in Real Time!

Kindergarten: What the first day will REALLY look like!

Example: 50 minute period: 8:45- 9:35 am

8:45 am - 8:50 am - Seat the students, tell them a number and have them sit at that table. Play the Brainpop Jr.’s Library video or ABCs in the Library for them to watch while you make a seating chart (sorry, both need sign ins, if you do not subscribe - try Where the Wild Things Are or choose a free read aloud from StorylineOnline). If none of these work, do the ABC book activity and have the students talk to each other quietly while you make the seating chart OR have them do a reaction sheet (bonus - you can see how well they write and can read their names on the sheets if they can write on their own!). 

8:55 - 9:15 Read the ABC book (see mine!), with activities embedded inside - jumping/poll taking, etc. For example - after telling them my favorite food, have students get up and stand in one area if they like pizza, another if they like tacos, and another if they like pasta (noodles), etc. Make sure movement is included, or else students will get bored and act out. Practice whispering. For example, after telling them my favorite color, have them tell someone at their table in a whisper what their favorite color is. 

9:15 - 9:20 Take attendance. 

9:20 - 9:25 Explain what a library is and that they will get to check out their own book in October! Ask students about what they know about libraries, discuss library cards and their questions, etc.

9:25 - 9:30 Set routine for lining up – I have the students push in their chairs into a puzzle (so all the seats fit together) and have the students stand behind their chair quietly to show me they are ready to line up (and when they are noisy, have them go back to their tables). Set the timer to have students push in their chairs and show they are ready by being quiet and standing behind their chairs.

9:30 - 9:35 Line up again.

What to do Week 1 - 4 in Kindergarten if you see them 3 times a week. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments! 

PREP all supplies: (You don't want to be trying to find pencils for 28 kindergarteners when they are staring at you (and crying, picking their nose, poking the person beside them, tipping their chairs, hiding in a corner...I could go on...what I'm saying is, have the supplies ready =)

What you see - 
Crayon Drawer (still in progress!)
Cups for colored pencils - labeled with the color that belongs in it
Construction paper
Sharp and Dull Pencil baskets
Blue cups - pencils
Red cups - colored pencils
Baskets of new crayons!
Marker pack
Glue
Scissors

Kindergarten	Week 1
Day 1	Seat students Make seating chart Introduce self Take attendance Set routine for lining up – I have the students push in their chairs into a puzzle (so all the seats fit together) and have the students stand behind their chair quietly to show me they are ready to line up. Choose tables to line up. Stand in front of them to monitor. PREP for DAY 3 - Download the abcya.com slips, print on colored paper (best case - colored card stock), cut out, laminate, cut out again. Also decide on a bin or something to collect all the papers in at the end.
Day 2	Seat students Explain that in the library we will have centers! Explain that we are going to learn a new center – Checking Out! Explain checkout and the difference between a book store and a library – one you buy from and one you borrow from. Role play Set routine for lining up – I have the students push in their chairs into a puzzle (so all the seats fit together) and have the students stand behind their chair quietly to show me they are ready to line up. Choose tables to line up. Stand in front of them to monitor.  PREP for DAY 3 - Download library jobs (or the PDF, a little cheaper, but cannot change) to use on the SMARTboard and make sure to update it so it works for you!
Day 3	Seat students Explain that we are going to learn a new center – Computers! Explain how to go to abcya.com and play Keyboard Zoo. Show on SMARTboard twice. Have students do the steps on the SMARTboard. Have the students go in partners to the computers – show them the red abcya.com slips and ask what they think the number stands for (the computer number) and to type the letters after the number. Show the students where to put the papers (the bin or whatever you chose) when the timer goes off.  Tell them to ask 3 friends first before asking you for help. Tell the students that when the timer goes off (play sound), to go back to their seats. Put the timer on and let them play for up to 15 minutes. Help students to get on the website and remind them to ask 3 friends for help first. Come back to seats. Use library jobs (or the PDF, a little cheaper, but cannot change) to clean up – have one student push in chairs at computers, one collect the red papers and put them away, and one click all the red Xs so the computer is back to the desktop (show this on the SMARTboard before having a student do it). I just cross out the jobs we are not using for the day (so no librarians, organizing bins, etc.).  Have other students at their seats work together to push in their chairs (I have them make a puzzle and this takes some time the first few weeks). Set timer for one minute. Once timer goes off, have all students stand behind their chairs and choose tables to line up. Line up.
Kindergarten	Week 2
Day 1	Seat students Review checkout center. Role play by tables. Talk about what to do if books fall down – Pick Them Up! Look at the call number and put them back or put them on the shelf if you’re not sure or don’t have enough time. Talk about damaged books – show examples. Set routine for lining up – I have the students push in their chairs into a puzzle (so all the seats fit together) and have the students stand behind their chair quietly to show me they are ready to line up. Choose tables to line up. Stand in front of them to monitor.
Day 2	Seat students. Review Computer Center. Review abcya.com Have the students go in partners to the computers – remind: the red abcya.com slips and ask what they think the number stands for (the computer number) and to type the letters after the number. Tell the students that when the timer goes off (play sound), to go back to their seats. Put the timer on and let them play for up to 15 minutes. Come back to seats. Use library jobs to clean up – have one student push in chairs at computers, one collect the red papers and put them away, and one click all the red Xs so the computer is back to the desktop. Have other students at their seats work together to push in their chairs (I have them make a puzzle and this takes some time the first few weeks). Set timer for one minute. Once timer goes off, have all students stand behind their chairs and choose tables to line up. Line up. PREP - Put books of choice in your reading area. For the very first time, I usually choose a variety of Easy Fiction books (picture books), things they recognize and may already know the story of, books with simple words that they know, or great pictures to "read the pictures". I try to have about 60 - 80 books for great variety.
Day 3	Seat students. Explain that we are going to learn a new center – the reading area! Go to the reading area. Have students sit in a pattern - boy/girl, etc. Show how to read with a partner – sit with one student. Put the book in between you both. Read together. Practice reading the pictures and looking for sight words. Practice looking for title pages together.  Show READING not racing! Show yourself just flipping all the pages, and show yourself reading the book, looking at pictures, talking to your partner about the book, etc. Practice choosing a new book – We finished the book, now we will get a new one. Where are they? How do we choose? Take turns! Have students line up in a boys line and a girls line. Give each student a partner. Have them partner read together. Put the timer on and let them read for up to 7 minutes (many cannot read, so they will get distracted quickly!) Come back to seats. Use library jobs to clean up – have a group of students (I use 6 because I have 3 bins and then 2 kids can fix a bin each) fix the bins – reorganize the bins so all the books are not in one bin, the books are facing up and out, etc. Have other students at their seats work together to push in their chairs (I have them make a puzzle and this takes some time the first few weeks). Set timer for one minute. Once timer goes off, have all students stand behind their chairs and choose tables to line up.
Kindergarten	Week 3
Day 1	Tell them that we will have 2 centers today: Reading area and Computers Review what to do at each center. Go over Center Rules: (I made a quick poster, check it out on the right) 1. Walk. 2. Whisper. 3. Ask 3 friends before me. Role play these rules. Have a student walk to the reading area (pick a student who NEVER walks, and praise them HIGHLY when they walk appropriately). Have students whisper their favorite color to someone at their table (redirect as needed). Pretend you have a problem, ask 3 students in a whisper for help. (Btw, this sign is part of Library Centers!)  Discuss why/why not you/they need to follow the rules. Discuss consequences – if teacher gives you a strike, you get 3 chances, or 3 strikes, if you get 3 strikes, you lose the center (enforce this immediately, this is where you will set boundaries). I walk to students and tell them clearly – Strike 1, not walking, etc. (Usually all the students around them will straighten out really fast)
Day 2	Tell them that we will have 2 centers today: Computers and “Checkout” (just for practice!) Go over Center Rules: 1. Walk. 2. Whisper. 3. Ask 3 friends before me. Role play these rules. Have a student walk to the reading area (pick a student who NEVER walks, and praise them HIGHLY when they walk appropriately). Have students whisper their favorite color to someone at their table (redirect as needed). Pretend you have a problem, ask 3 students in a whisper for help. Discuss why/why not you need to follow the rules. Discuss consequences – if teacher gives you a strike, you get 3 chances, or 3 strikes, if you get 3 strikes, you lose the center (enforce this immediately, this is where you will set boundaries). I walk to students and tell them clearly – Strike 1, not walking, etc. Usually all the students around them will straighten out really fast J Work with the Checkout center to go over : What to do if books fall down – Pick Them Up! Look at the call number and put them back or put them on the shelf if you’re not sure or don’t have enough time. Damaged books – show examples. Display books (books can be checked out!)
Day 3	Same as Day 1
	Week 4
Day 1	Same as Week 3 Day 2
Day 2	Same as Week 3 Day 1
Day 3	Same as Week 3 Day 2

Stay tuned for next week's post about 1st - 2nd Grade Centers in Real Time! Stay tuned for Week 5 – 9! Including an assessment at Week 8! 

The Centers Themselves

I have centers that I use in Kindergarten - 2nd grade.  I have the signs here: Center Signs.

There are 3 basic centers:

Checkout/Table work - this varies, if I am checking out the students, then they are doing a coloring activity - draw what Curious George is playing on the computer, what is Arthur reading I have some coloring sheets/etc already made: Coloring Sheets. These do include licensed and other copyrighted materials, please do not sell them to others.)

When they are not checking out - they are working with me (learning how to find a book, discussing a book together, etc), or they are working with something on the SMART board (for example - Brainpop Jr has some great matching games, and I have made some SMARTboard games as well). I also want them to be introduced to a variety of literature, and to save my voice, I use Tumblebooks (and sometimes Youtube or Discovery streaming) for read alouds. This also frees me up to facilitate and guide students in the other centers when needed. 

Computers - Teach the students how to use abcya.com (it's simple enough for any kid to type into), and have them do various games (Keyboard Challenge, Type Rockets Jr, ABC matching or puzzles, etc). Have slips that have a number and the website, the number is the computer number, the website is typed in the address bar and off they go. Show this on the SMARTboard/projector, practice it together, have students come up one by one and show you how to do it...etc. Once they learn abcya.com, you can gradually build to other websites and other games or activities. I often now can use our school website because they have the ground work as to how to use a computer and go to a website. 

Reading Area: Either read to self or read to a buddy (establish the expectations and practice them together so the kids see it, ASSUME NOTHING!). Students look at books, look for letters they know or sight words, and read what you can...make up/tell a partner the story. In the 1st and 2nd quarters we will focus on parts of the book - title page, copyright page, call number. In the 2nd and 3rd quarters we will focus on nonfiction and looked for: table of contents, glossary, index, captions, title page, copyright page, if that is too difficult, look for maps, photographs vs drawings, etc). Also, look at call numbers and decide which section they are (E = Easy fiction, Numbers = Nonfiction, F = Fiction, etc). 

Practice going to each center the first week, show what it looks like, etc, use a timer to help with a signal.

Then rotate centers in 8 - 10 minute increments. It's a lot of work to implement to start, but I think the kids benefit from having a variety of learning experiences, plus they learn to be a little more independent.

Plan to start the period with 5 - 10 minutes to remind students the centers. Go to the centers for most of the time, but leave about 5 - 7 minutes to clean up each center (assign students to help so they feel like their part of the classroom) and line up so they are ready for their teacher.

Try it out with just 2 centers. Practice. Practice. Oh and practice again =)

Library Centers from the Beginning!

I've had a variety of people ask me about my library centers, and I thought I would blog about every step, so that others can implement in their classrooms.

Today, I set up the tables - label the tables in some way. I have them labeled 1 - 8 using these labels. I also added these to give them some color. These are what I think of as my "throw away" labels. For some reason, the beginning of the year labels never last very long. You may notice that they even say "Please do not peel labels". This seems to help, but they never last long. So I make "temporary" ones for the students to learn the table numbers. For the beginning of the year, I will be teaching the students their table numbers, how to go to and from the centers, and what I expect in each center.

My 1st and 2nd graders had centers last year, so I will only be really teaching it from scratch to the Kindergartners. I will have 6 classes of Kinders, about 165 total! Total chaos? NO, time to train!

For Kindergarten, I will most likely be seeing them 3 times a week for 50 minutes each. Last year, every K class came in on Tuesday and Friday. Then they had their 3rd time on one of the other days, let's call that the "Random" day. On their Random day, they had a reading buddy. On Tuesday, they checked out, which means that one of their centers was Checkout. On Friday, they had centers, but NOT the checkout center (obviously...this was also to help the parents know that all library books were due on Tuesdays (we had some twins, etc that were in 2 different classes, this helped everyone remember a little bit easier).

Let's start from the very beginning (...that's a very good place to start...=)

Until this year, the first day of library class (for all K - 2 classes), I introduce myself and read my favorite story (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus).

This year, I am trying some new things. First off, I am most likely only seeing K - 2 this year. I will most likely be setting up Reading Buddies for our 3rd - 5th graders, but that's another post.

For the Ks, who have not met me, I will be reading my ABC book:

It says:

P

Ms. ---- loves pizza!

Especially cheese!

(picture of cheese pizza)

It's an ABC book about me! Things like:
A - Ms. loves Authors!
J - Ms. loves Jumping!

As we go through, I ask the students, do you like xyz, and usually, YES, we do. We get up and jump at the Jumping page. We see if we recognize any of the books or authors in the book, etc. It lets them get to know me, and know that I am just like them. =)

Ks are a little confusing since they come in 3 times a week. It would look something like this:

Kindergarten Center Weekly Schedule 

For the 1st - 2nd graders, I will be introducing myself, and going over the checkout procedures. We will start checking out the 2nd week. We'll spend the first day practicing and remembering the procedures.