What are kids reading these days?

When I taught 3rd and 4th grade I was always trying to read the books my students were reading. This is an important aspect in getting students to read. Students will read based upon book recommendations! Student recs, teacher recs, librarian recs, and even parent recs are vital to exposing students to different genres of books. Elementary students are still figuring out who they are as a reader. This is why I highly recommend to my teachers Donalyn Miller’s 40 book challenge. She challenges students to read 40 books in all different genres during that current academic school year. Students will be dipping their feet in many different types a books. Eventually, they will gravitate towards a genre they enjoy most. But, in order for educators to foster students reading different types of books we need to have our noses in books too!

Colby Sharp is a 5th grade teacher and he sets the best example of introducing students to new books and passing them out like candy! Check out the video he posted about what his kids are reading now!

What are you recommending others to read?

La Princesa and the Pea

Fairytales are always a favorite with kids! I love that one of our Mockingbird books this year is about The Princess and the Pea. I was not as familiar with this fairytale which probably means a lot of students aren’t either. La Princesa and the Pea has a Spanish twist and has Spanish words trickled throughout it. Students can do ALL kinds of inferring and context clue hunts to find the meaning of the Spanish words. Thankfully a glossary was provided in the beginning pages of the book to help with definition and pronunciation. As a read aloud, pronunciation is important in this book. My two years of Spanish has helped me ONLY with pronunciation. But, that is about it. I remember NOTHING else! After reading this book to the students I add in a digital teaching tool by reminding our students about our digital library which has changed this year to Sora. We use Sora to read a classic version of The Princess and the Pea. Students were able to see how the stories are similar. The kids loved this book and if you get a chance to read it, you’ve got to check out la reina’s cat! So hilarious! I hope you enjoy it as much as us!

Interview with Author, Diana Glass

We are excited to interview Children's Book author, Diana Glass in this week's episode. She wrote Benny's Moving Buddy, which she wrote as a result of her own personal history of moving from place to place and school to school. We are sure children all over the world can relate to this book, especially if they have to experience a move to another school.
Scroll to the bottom to go straight to this week's episode or click the podcast button near the top of this page!
Here's a link to her book on Amazon if you'd like to own  your very own copy.

Benny's Moving Buddy

 

What we're reading now:

Persais is reading The Land of Stories: Beyond the Kingdoms

Author: Chirs Colfer 

Book Website: http://thelandofstories.com/books/

Sarah is reading Hot Cocoa Hearts
Author: Suzanne Nelson
Book Website: https://www.suzannenelson.com/hot-cocoa-hearts/

Kaden is reading Diary fo an 8 bit Warrior Book 2 From Seeds to Swords

Author Cube Kid

Book Website: https://allauthor.com/preview/7622/

Ms. Reynolds is reading Refugee
Author: Alan Gratz
Book Website: https://www.alangratz.com/writing/refugee/

Books Blurb

 

   

Doll Bones

The Doll in the Garden

The Dollhouse Murders

The Doll People

PODCAST
Season 2 Episode 2

The Podcast is BACK for Season 2!

We are back at it for our podcast and we hope to record weekly episodes for this season. We got a later start (my fault) and still would like to record at least 4 to 5 episodes.

We have our new Podcast cohosts and they are readers! This is important, being out podcast is about reading, books, and authors!
Below are links to information about the books our cohosts are reading and also the Book Blurb segment!

Season 2

Episode 1

We're Back! S 2 .EP 1

What We Are Reading Now

Sarah is reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid - The Long Haul By Jeff Kinney
Call Number: F Kinney
Book Website: http://www.wimpykid.com/books/book9/

Persais is reading
Book 3 of The Land of Stories - A Grimm Warning by Chris Colfer
Call Number: F Colfer
Series Website: http://thelandofstories.com/books/

Kaden just finished reading
America is Under Attack: the day the towers fell: September 11, 2001 by Don Brown
Call Number: 973.932 B
Book website: http://www.booksbybrown.com/non-fiction-for-older-readers/

Ms. Reynolds is reading WEdgie & Gizmo by Suzanne Selfors

Call Number: F Selfors

Book Website: https://www.suzanneselfors.com/copy-of-smells-like-dog-series

Book Blurb

Info about the book: The Magnificent 12: The Call

Call Number: F Grant

Epic! App

Writing Camp Podcast Episode 3!

We are a little behind posting our blogs, but we are up and running still!
We hope to produce 2 -3 more podcasts before the summer break!


Today's episode was recorded right before the Writing STAAR test for our 4th Graders.
We are featuring two students and some of the writing the produced in Writing Camp!
Scroll to the bottom for the link to Episode 3!


Here are the books the hosts were reading, in case you want to check them out!

Persais' Book

The Candmakers by Wendy Mass

Ms. Reynolds' Book

 The Mark of the Dragonfly

Roger's Book

The Ungifted by George Korman

Click the link to hear the podcast!

Writing Camp Episode 3 Season 1

Battle of the Books Podcast

This week we are adding episode 2 of our Little Black Library podcast!


Episode 2 is all about Battle of the Books!
We interviewed the winning teams from our school and got the 6th grade teams take on their feelings before the Semi-finals.




Here are links to the books that my co-hosts and I are reading as well as the book blurb books. Scroll to the bottom for the link to the podcast! Enjoy!

Persais' book:

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker

Ms. Reynolds' Book
Maybe A Fox by Kathi Appelt

Here's our 2nd Podcast!
Battle of the Books Podcast Season 1 Ep. 2



Maybe a Fox

The 2017 Bluebonnet Books are now in the library! Over Spring Break I began reading Maybe a Fox, which is one of the new Bluebonnet Books. Let me tell you, I could not put this book down. I read it in a day! I don't usually have that kind of time! But, this was worth the day's read!

Maybe a Fox is about two sisters (human by the way). One is a runner and the other is an avid rock collector. The girls are already broken from the loss of a parent. But, tragedy strikes the family again leaving the family in survival mode. All the while, 3 foxes are born and one has a special connection to humans, especially little Jules. The fox has a connection with the spiritual world and her senses are hopefully used to help Jules find peace and understanding.

I highly recommend this book!  



Podcast Obsessed

I, Ms. Reynolds, confess that I cannot STOP listening to podcasts. I listen ALL the time. I listen mostly in the car, but sometimes I listen when I'm cleaning my house.
I am addicted!

I listen to all types of podcasts. I listen to parenting podcasts, comedy podcasts, librarian/book loving podcasts, mystery podcasts, etc... The greatest part is downloading and listening to a podcast is absolutely FREE!

Two weeks ago I was able to go to an educational technology conference in Austin called TCEA. One session I could attend stood out to me...how to create a podcast! Duh! I had to take it! Fast-forward two weeks and we have created our Little Black Library Podcast! 

I chose two students (4th graders) to be my co-hosts and we will interview other students and teachers about reading, writing, book reviews, favorite books, and so much more!

My co-costs are ecstatic to say the least! Our plan is to plan the podcast one week and record the it the next week. Therefore, publishing our podcast every other week. 

I'll admit, it is a learning process for me. I'm still playing around with it. My prediction is the students will love it, because they love listening to play-aways from our library. Our 4th, 5th, and 6th graders all have 1:1 ipads in the classroom and should be able to access it there. I hope to somehow find ways for the primary grades to listen as well.

My goal is to promote reading and writing! So, with out further ado, I present to you Season 1, Episode 1 of our very first podcast. 

P.S. We were nervous...

Little Black Library - "Our First Podcast" Season 1 Episode 1

Drama, Drama, Drama

My students are SO into Raina Telgemeier's graphic novels. I decided I would read at least one and see why they love them so much. So I started with Drama. So far, I like it!

It looks like she is in the process of writing another one! It's called Ghosts. It will be out in the Fall of 2016. 

Here's the link to her blog where Raina talks about her new book. 

http://goraina.com/2015/07/my-next-books-title-will-be/

I know some of my kiddos will be excited! 

Have you read one of Raina Telgemeier's books? What'd you think? Is there another graphic novel author you love?

I met a STAR!

Almost every April I go to the Texas Library Association's annual conference. There are tons of authors signing books, vendors (like book companies) giving away free stuff, and learning sessions. I particularly enjoy meeting authors and taking their books back to my students. I think it's beneficial to show the students that authors and illustrators are REAL people. I like to tell them that our writing and artistic abilities go further than school. In fact, I tell my students about how it is such a rush for me to meet authors and illustrators. They are like movie stars to me. Only...really they are book stars! All the same in my book. As I wait to meet them, my palms get sweating, I try and figure out what I am going to say to them (usually repeating it in my head over and over). By the time I reach them, after standing in line sometimes longer than a Six Flags ride, I end up just saying Hi! Thank you!, and I love your books. I'm a dork. A Starstruck dork at that.
This past April I met a few authors...one being my all time fave! You can imagine how much I DIDN'T say to him! lol (enter Starstruck Dork)

My all time favorite has to be Jon Scieszka. He's a genius when it comes to picture books and middle grade novels. A classic and my all time fave...Stinky Cheese Man and Fairly Stupid Tales. But, I also loved his Autobiography, Knucklehead. I brought my personal copy to TLA and had him sign it. When you meet an author they will also take a picture with you! You bet I did that!

This week I have been telling the younger students about my meeting with Sarah Weeks at TLA. I bought her book Glamourpuss and it was such a cute and fun experience meeting her, I of course had to share it with the kids. She brought fancy and glamourous glasses for us to wear  in our picture with her. The kids love the book of Glamourpuss and Bluebelle!

I can not wait to see which authors will be at TLA this year! Who is your favorite author? Would you be able to speak to them if you met them?

Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony

We are into the 3rd week of school! I can't believe it! I started it off with a bang and had our Scholastic Book Fair on week 2! It was a whirlwind, but HALLELUJAH! it's behind me! Orientation is done too, so I can now get into the nitty gritty of library land! I read such a cute book to my kindergartners, and I have to share it with you!
Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony is great for discussing manners to students! Mr. Panda offers doughnuts (spelled the old fashioned way, I might add) and to a variety of animals. He offers and when they request what the kind they want, he ends up saying, "Never-mind, I changed my mind". Until he asks the upside-down lemur! Lemur uses his manners and gets the WHOLE box of doughnuts!
What's amazing is I even had some kindergartners figure it out! That's a success in itself! All the other animals had NO manners! We had terrific discussions! It goes along great with our campus focusing on Ron Clark's Essential 55 rules! I plan on reading it to a few other grade levels because of it's terrific message and cute illustrations! Please, Mr. Panda is great for young and beginning readers.

March Book Madness

I have discovered that I am not a creature of habit. Not in the way of "library events". I like to mix it up. Maybe I get bored? Maybe I like the element of surprise for the staff and students? For instance, last year I dressed up as a "different person" for a day. I made up this character. I called her Opal Hughes...or Mrs. Hughes, my second cousin twice removed.  (I think I was in the middle of watching Downton  when I came up with Hughes). It flowed and brought question to my student's eyes when I stated I was "Mrs. Hughes, Ms. Reynolds 2nd Cousin Twice removed." I adored their wondering expressions, especially on the little one's faces as I spat out my broken British accent. I even startled myself a little when I would look in the mirror. If my words don't give enough description I guess I'll let you peek.

All that to say, I did it once. (Had Mrs. Hughes sub for me that is) and the kids ask all the time when my second cousin twice removed will be back to sub. But, this dog is not fond of old tricks. I need something new all the time. Something unexpected. So, I decided to unveil March Book Madness. A world wide event (but not my invention). There is a weebly and everything. 

Found here ---> March Book Madness

It was a lot to put on alongside of the Mockingbird Book Program we do with Kinder-2nd through MISD. But, we managed and the whole school was involved. I didn't have all of the new books in my library, but between Amazon and our inner-school library loan system I was able to obtain them all rather quickly. I only had to order 3 from Amazon so it worked out quite nicely and didn't break the bank.

I only did the picture book bracket. Next year, I am considering the middle grade book bracket. That, is if I decide to forgo the event again. I created a bulletin board bracket on a large wall space in my library. Here she is:

On the left are books that were published in 2014. i.e. the new books. One the right are books published before 2014. Many classics! In the end, a new book will go head to head with an old book. 

Students voted by every Tuesday through the weebly site. I usually emailed the teachers a picture of the bracket and a QR code for the kids to and teachers to vote. 

How did I get all the kids to read all the books in a short amount of time? Well, I didn't. I left the books on my desk and had the teachers read them to their class at their leisure. They just had to read it right away and return it right away. Some participated and some did not. Honestly, I just wanted to expose the kids to new and old books. I read some to older grades when they visited the library. I read Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen to the entire school I looooooved their expressions and comments as I read it. Good book, read it! not the winner, but a great read!
The final two are shown in the picture above.


 Have you participated in March Book Madness on your campus? What were your strategies to get students and teachers reading the books? Maybe you just like to dress up as people you are not?

Love is in the Library

"Love is in the Library" was the theme for February this year. I geared all of the Library centers around Valentine's Day. Here's what we did!

Our Felt Board Center was all about LOVE!  Kindergarten LOVED it, too.

Here are some Valentine's Day themed bookmarks being made in the Book Mark Center.

Here are Valentine's Day Cards being made by 3rd graders.

Puzzle Center...the Frozen puzzle is a LOVED by everyone!

 The 3rd graders are listening to a playaway matched with it's book in the Listening Center.

The third graders naturally LOVE helping each other out!

Digital Bookshelf

I LOVE goodreads.com and keeping track of the books I have read, want to read, and books I am currently reading. I am also fascinated with seeing what other people are reading. I, like many other librarians have my digital bookshelves displayed in a window of my library for my students to see. I am toying with the idea of creating a way for students to share their digital bookshelves. Students must be at least 13 for goodreads and sites like Biblionasium can be tedious with having parents confirm their accounts. (Which isn't a bad thing, just tedious for teachers)
Today, I had an idea! It was a Staff Development Day and we we learned different ways to use padlet.com. I though this would be a cool platform for teacher, librarians, AND STUDENTS to create their digital bookshelf.
They can be as creative as they like and can show it on Edmodo and other social media outlets.
Here is mine. I took a screenshot that is a little fuzzy. But, you can click the link to see it full on!
http://padlet.com/lereynolds/bookshelf

I think I am going to try it out with a class this week. I'm still playing around with it and haven't learned all the quirks with using it on an ipad. I'll post an update soon!

Battle of the Books MISD Style

Mesquite I.S.D. began Battle of the Books as a district competition last year and Black Elementary participated in the event! It was a blast and surprisingly, not too much work outside of a normal day in the library.
We are onto year two and the kids are gearing up and reading their 10 books! We have teams of 5 or less and the kids divide up the books and eventually become an expert on 2. We meet every other week during the student's lunch. They bring their lunch to the library and battle! I remember the first time I experienced battling (which is asking the kids questions and them scrambling to find the correct book title). The only word I can come up with on how I felt was GIDDY. I mean it was so fun! These are the kids that don't particularly compete in sports (maybe they do, and I don't know it). But, reading is their THING! It's what they love and just what they do. So, I can tell you they were giddy too! I'm a nerd, I know. But, this excites me! My kids came into the library the first week of school asking for their  Battle of the Books assignment. Sadly, I had to turn them away because we don't REALLY start until the Spring semester. Luckily, we have some of the books on hand in the library.
I have recruited more teachers this year to coach teams, which is helpful in keeping the kids accountable for reading. We will have a semi-finals competition in early April and Finals in May. 

I'm so proud to represent my B.O.B. readers at Black elementary!

The Day the Crayon's Got Back to Work

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywat and illustrations by Oliver Jeffers

The Day the Crayons Quit is a favorite at our school! The teachers love it, the students love it, the librarian loves it!
The boy in the book named Duncan finds a stack of letters in his crayon box. It turns out the letters are from his crayons. They all seem to have some type of problem. For instance, the red crayon is tired because he is always working so hard to color all things red. He even complains about working on holidays like Christmas and Valentine's Day. So he asks Duncan for a break. All the letters are quite clever. An all time favorite is the peach crayon. His wrapper was peeled off and he is hiding in the crayon box because he claims to be in his birthday suit, if you know what I mean. Everyone is usually rolling by the time this page comes around. 

I decided to do an activity with my students after we finished this book. I told the children to listen closely to each problem the crayon had. I asked them to find a way for Duncan to solve the problem. I read the book and then challenged the kids to choose a color and write a thank you note to Duncan. The thank you note had to be written in response to him solving the crayon's problem. The letter had to be written from the perspective of one of Duncan's crayons. Finally, they could illustrate the resolution.

The kids loved this writing activity in the library!

We called it The Day the Crayons Got Back to Work! :)

Lester's Dreadful Sweaters by K.G. Campbell

This is the last week to read the 2014 Bluebonnet books. I'm conducting the voting...but not until AFTER I read this little gem to the kiddos.


Doesn't he look dreadful? I think in everyone's lifetime they may receive one dreadful something or other to be worn in public and have utter humiliation ensue as a result.That is exactly what happen to Lester.
I loved that I was able to add a little lesson on alliteration while reading this book. For instance, it all began as "Cousin Clara's cottage was consumed by a crocodile!"

After reading the book, I had the kids make a pom pom bookmark out of yarn. They loved it! Good old Pinterest gave me the idea and with a few tweaks 3rd-5th grade were able to accomplish the bookmark rather smoothly. I basically gave them a bucket of yarn and some scissors and they got after it!

Library Centers

Trying something new in the library can go one of two ways, ALL wrong or ALL right! I'm thinking adding library centers to the library is an all right! I recently went to a Library Expo in Plano and attended a session that discussed library centers. I left with loads of ideas and a new enthusiasm for the idea that I have been playing around in my head for a long time.

I decided to trial run it with one grade level. In this case, 1st grade! I chose First Grade because they have mastered the art of centers in Kinder and they are still doing them in 1st. Basically they know what's going on when I say the word "centers" and they LOVE them! In fact, when I said "Library Centers" their faces lit up and I got cheers! Yep...cheers! From that moment on I knew it was going to be great!

I started small and only with resources I had on hand.

Reading Buddies Center - The kids read books to a stuffed animal (buddy)

Listening Center - students listen to a playaway along with it's matching picture book (they love the playaways since they aren't able to check them out until they are in 3rd grade)

Magazine Center - this is another center is excited to primary kids since they aren't able to check out magazines until they are in 3rd grade

Bookmark Center - students create a book mark using stickers, markers, stencils, etc... (biggest hit) and they can take it with them

Seasonal Center - this time it was Thanksgiving Books with a Thanksgiving coloring sheet

Big Book Center - students read big books to one another (lots of teacher role playing)

All of these supplies were easy and free. Plus, I had them all. The only thing I had to do was gather it all, organize it in tubs, and put it in a central location.



The 2nd week I decided to add two more after spending just a little bit of money.

Felt Board Center - yep..you know like the felt board from when we were kids.

Puzzle Center - Floor Puzzle

I hope to switch some of the tubs out with new and fresh centers as time goes by or as they tend to become less popular.

The next question you may be asking is...when on earth do you have time to do centers, check out books, AND do a lesson? Well, quite honestly I was concerned too. But, I always read and do a lesson first. Then, the students checkout books. They checkout books remarkably fast now, knowing that the last thing they will do is have centers. Occasionally we go about 5 minutes over. I close by playing a song that indicates clean up time.

I am still a little shocked at how smoothly it has gone. I hope to start some other grade levels after the Christmas break. I'll leave you with some pictures of the centers in action!