Sprucewood Elementary

Have Books Will Travel

This school year keeping track of library books has been challenging.  Our classes are coming and going from different locations in the building and not returning directly to their classrooms.  We have tried with great success a new process for our library books.  We are using library markers (a cross between a library card and a bookmark).  The library marker, as seen below, has a barcode label with the student name and number on it and can be used as a library card.  However, it can also be placed inside a book that is then placed in a cart. The carts can transport library books without the risk of losing or damaging books. 

Example of library markers

Book with library marker inside placed in cart.

 

 

The process goes as follows:

Classes going to Library 1st

^{Returning and Renewing books}

• Place library books to be returned into cart. The cart is returned to media center first thing in the morning after announcements

• Books to be renewed are brought with the student to the library.

^{Checking Out Books}

• Students use library marker(s) to check out book(s) and the markers are placed in each book(s) and then books are placed in the cart.

• The cart is taken with the class to “Playworks” and then back to their classroom.

• Teachers remove the book(s) from the cart and remove the marker(s). Teachers hand the appropriate book to the appropriate student.

  

  Classes going to Playworks 1^st

^{Returning and Renewing books}

• Place library books to be returned into cart. Place a library marker in any book to be renewed and then place the book in the cart. The cart is returned to media center first thing in the morning after announcements

^{Checking Out Books}

• Students check out books as normal and carry their books with them as they return to class.

• All books from the cart that were to be renewed are placed on the counter next to the staff desk where they can be picked up by students and renewed.

Example of cart

Sprucewood Elementary

May someone grant all of your wishes!

If you are interested in writing a grant for resources for your library, there are a number of helps to get you started.  Demco offers webinars on a variety of topics including grant writing.  The link is   http://ideas.demco.com/webinar/anyone-can-write-grant/ There are also books at your public library that are great resources. 

Purdue University offers an online writing lab that has a section on grant writing that is very helpful.  The link is https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/981/1/

Sprucewood Elementary

 

 Computer "Tip Sheet"

 Who hasn't sat down at the computer and forgot how to spell a word.  Lucky for us and our students there is a way around it.  We have placed these handy computer "tip sheets" next to our student station computers.  They remind our students what they can do, if they don't remember how to spell a word.  To introduce the "tip sheet", we do an actual live demonstration on the computer and then show the students where to find the "tip sheets".   It has helped us and helped our students too.  If you would like copies of the "tip sheets' contact us at Sprucewood Elementary Media Center. 

Dewey Decimal Fun

I found this fun interactive game for teaching the Dewey Decimal System.  I used it for the
4th and 5th grades.  The game is like Jeopardy.  I let the students use the information sheet from the
lessons on Dewey and they could help each other to answer the questions.  The website is www.quia.com/cb/415196.html.  If this doesn't work I typed in Google "Dewey Decimal Fun"  and this website came up.  The students really enjoyed this fun way to learn the Dewey Decimal System.

Oakdale Elementary

The simple ideas are sometimes the best ideas.

For story this week, we are reading "Fortunately' and 'Good New, Bad News' 

to all of our classes. Then we are placing the students on the floor in a big circle. 

 We start a simple story idea such as,

"Brian was bored. He was home alone with nothing to do.  FORTUNATELY, the doorbell rang!

He ran to answer. When he opened the door UNFORTUNATELY..." Then we pass our portable microphone to the first student, who adds to the story.  They continue with 'FORTUNATELY,  and UNFORTUNATELY scenarios until we run out of students.  Then I may finish, by saying "He woke up and realized it was all a bad dream!"

The students loved it and some classes asked if we could do it again.  

Oakdale Elementary

For Earth Day, Shannon made a tree. We cut out leaves from pages of an old dictionary.  We asked the students to write one word that would make the world a better place.  Here are some of their answers.

Oakdale Elementary

Just 18 school days left...

Oakdale Elementary

For teacher appreciation week, we read the students 'Many Luscious Lollipops: a Book About Adjectives" by Ruth Heller.  We then put them in a circle, passed a mic around and had them each give an adjective describing their teacher.  We recorded their responses on paper.  After each class left we made a 'word cloud' for each teacher.  We used the site 'Tagxedo' to make them. We printed them, mounted on cardstock and laminated them.  The teachers loved them. This is how they turned out.

So Many Books

I don't know if you have this problem, but sometimes new books get checked out so fast that only one classroom ever sees them! We've been changing the books on this board, which is right above the computer station. When we get a book order in, we put pictures of some of the new books up (and of course added some older titles). It has helped getting some of our newer titles seen, and gives them ideas about what to search.

Peruvian Park Gets Artistic

We read Andrew Drew and Drew  by Barney Saltzberg and Art & Max by David Wiesner. 

We then had the children create their own ‘art’. The children had two different activities to choose from: 1- Art Dice: children drew the line they rolled to create a picture; 2-children created a picture using the few lines already drawn on their paper.

We continued with our ‘I Spy” theme for the year and created a bulletin board displaying some of the pictures our amazing students created.  We made four books, Panthers Drew and Drew and Drew, out of the extra pictures.

The children loved having a chance to show their artistic side.

Oakdale Elementary

Snow is Falling and Books are Calling

Copperview Elementary

This week we have been reading the book "Callie Cat, Ice Skater"  by Eileen Spinelli.  This is a wonderful books that teaches about feeling joy.  The students at Copperview really loved this book.