International Dot Day

For the first time, we will celebrate International Dot Day at Hawthorne.  Dot Day is a celebration of courage, individuality, and creativity.  I have sent out lots of emails to classroom teachers and fellow librarians in the district to help me celebrate. In addition to the Dot by Peter Reynolds, here are the books we will be using:

I am very excited about blowing my student's minds with the CoLar augmented reality app and the special page they made just for Dot Day!



And here are some activity ideas I sent my teachers:

Balancing Butterflies

In addition to all the fabulous nonfiction butterfly books in the 595 section of the library, I have some favorite works of fiction as well, some fanciful, some realistic.  After the story, students enjoy coloring and cutting out magical balancing butterflies to rest on their fingers.  These butterflies enchant my 1st & 2nd graders.  Kinders are a little too young to make these without help. download the template HERE

Bunny Stories

Oh my goodness, there are so many wonderful bunny stories to tell. Obviously, the rabbit books are popular with little ones at Easter, but how about reading Guess How Much I Love You for Mother's Day, or Muncha Muncha Muncha in late spring when the garden starts to sprout?  Finish up the story hour with a cute wiggle-ear toy paper rabbit.

Voice Thread for the Treasure State Book Award

I used to love Voice Thread.  I always used it for the students to comment on the titles nominated for the annual Treasure State Award.  Now, I am unable to log in on more than one device, so it has turned into an activity that we all do as a class, instead of letting the students work independently.

So, really, the advantages of using Voice Thread are diminished.  If I want to use it with more than one person at a time, I have to pay $80 a year.  I may as well use ThingLink, LinoIt or Padlet- at least I can embed those tools!

Just for this year, I decided to go ahead and use VoiceThread for this year's project.  The students get to record their thoughts on each of the 4 titles we read, then we vote for the book we love most. This year, the overwhelming favorite was Jangles by David Shannon

Pancakes For Supper : A springtime story

I love the first day of spring.  It's my anniversary, and When the winter has been particularly dreary, the Vernal Equinox reminds me that summer will be right around the corner. 

A great story for the first day of spring is Pancakes For Supper by Anne Isaac's, with fantastic illustrations from Mark Teague.. It's early spring and the sap is running.  Poor Toby has been bounced off the wagon and is lost in the woods, where wild animals want to eat her up.  She manages to trade various items of her new clothing for her freedom.  Ultimately, the animals argue over which one looks the best in the finery.  They chase each other around a tree so fiercely that they melt.  The maple tree wakes and the maple sap begins to run.  Toby is able to get all her new clothes back and the family enjoys a big pancake supper with maple syrup.

This story is a cute retelling of Little Black Sambo, a story that has been exiled from most library shelves long ago, due to its racial insensitivity.  Isaac's version is well-told, and more suitable. It is especially appealing to my audience, since the animals involved are all Montana residents.  It has all the elements I love in a read-aloud story: repeating phrases, embedded songs, and lots of different characters for me to make up voices for!

I plan to have my kindergartners make animal spinners as a special story-time prize to take home. They will cut out the animal "wheel" and glue it to the top of an old CD that I have prepared ahead of time.  Making a spinning toy from an old CD and a penny is a trick I learned from this wonderful website from India. They will love playing with their spinning animals! 

PDF for Pancakes for supper

The Little Orange House- A story to cut & tell

Storytelling is a lot of fun, but when a child tells a story, there are important skills being developed, such as sequencing, oral expression, fluency, memory, and vocabulary. Additionally, sharing stories grows confidence and builds relationships. I try to offer many varied opportunities for students to tell stories in the library. I learned the story of the Little Orange House when I was young, and have retold it many times over the years, to the delight and surprise of the kids. They practice telling the story to each other, and then (with any luck) they will retell the story enough times outside of school to make the story their own. I made the template below so that my littlest students can get a little help from their grown-ups. Even kindergartners can tell this story if they get started cutting on the folded end of the paper! To download a template, click HERE. You will notice that the instructions are printed upside down, this is an effort to get folks to cut UP from the FOLD.

Treasure State Nominee Voicethread

Every year, librarians and teachers all over the state share 5 special books with their students. These books are the nominees for the Treasure state Award, given by the Montana Library Association with the help of thousands of little students in the primary grades who vote on their favorite.
I like to create a Voicethread, where students can record their thoughts about the books as we go along. I feel that it is very good practice for students to use technology to develop their thinking and speaking skills. This project is open to the public, so if you'd like to leave a comment on the thread, we would welcome your addition!
I have found that Voicethread also has a nice app for ipad or ipods.  It's super easy to record video on the mobile gadgets.  I have found however, that one must create the original thread on their regular website, or the audio might not save properly for some reason.  Not a problem, but I had to find out the hard way.

Martin Luther King Day

Sometimes I wonder if its a good idea to have a break from school on this important date. I worry that it will go unmarked by schools, much like Labor Day or Veterans Day. This year, I needn't have worried. Quotes from Dr. King lined the hallways, student art marked the occasion, and volunteers from the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center came to read to the children and lead discussions.

In the library, we read "The Sneetches" by Dr. Seuss. Even my youngest listeners can connect this story to the injustice and prejudice that they have learned about in the classrooms. I have asset of Sneetches made of soft yellow plush for the children to cuddle. One has a star, and one is without ( I had to give it a Star-ectomy after I bought it)

Older kids use the ReadWriteThink "Found Poetry" tool from the National Council for Teachers of English. With this tool, students take the words of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, and create original poetry from them. The older kids can do a screen capture, then crop the poem for their blogs, assuming the testing schedule will allow us to use the lab!

There is an iPhone app version of this tool, but I don't know if I want to do the downloading. It's going to be a busy week, with my upcoming SPACE NIGHT CELEBRATION. Stay tuned!

Matryoshka Doll Story

One of my favorite books to read aloud this time of year is Matreshka by Ayers. I have a set of dolls that were given to me by my uncle, after he travelled through the Ukraine. As I read the story, I sing-song the parts for the little doll (kids LOVE the repeating phrases). At the proper intervals, I spin the doll 3 times, and the next smallest "sister" appears, just in time to solve a problem for the heroine of the tale.

Here's a summary from School Library Journal :
Kindergarten-Grade 3-- Drawing upon traditional Russian folklore, Ayres creates an accessible and exciting picture book in which a young girl outwits the evil Baba Yaga. After sharing her meal with an old woman she meets on the road, Kata is given a little wooden doll named Matreshka. Lost in a snowstorm, the child stumbles upon the witch's fearsome house and is given a room for the evening. When Kata realizes she's to be Baba Yaga's next meal, the wooden doll saves her life. Out of the larger Matreshka pop four smaller dolls who find a way out of locked doors, crawl through a mouse's hole, and confuse the witch so thoroughly that she accidently turns herself into a green frog. Natchev's bold, lively illustrations occupy double-page spreads and have a fresh, often whimsical look. The watercolor washes boast a variety of textures, and the characters are depicted in an exaggerated manner. Unfortunately, there is a lack of agreement between text and illustration at the beginning of the book. The text has Kata returning from a trip to town while the illustrations show her just leaving her grandfather's house. Even so, the story will have wide appeal and is suitable for sharing aloud or reading independently. It also makes an entertaining introduction to Russian folklore and culture, especially if told using a set of Russian nesting dolls. --Denise Anton Wright, Illinois State University, Normal

I found a darling craft project that the kids could do with pretty paper... http://zakkalife.blogspot.com/2009/11/craft-project-russian-nesting-doll-card.html