Summer Already

Wow.  I cannot believe that this year went by so quickly!  I also can't believe, though I shouldn't be surprised, that I haven't posted ANYTHING since October 2016!  Here's a quick, catch-up of relevant events with captions.  :)

Third grade's CultureGrams projects turned out really well.  They worked feverishly, even when we were displaced into the multi-purpose room.

They loved learning about a different country and its similarities and differences with their own.  

Second grade finished learning about the different periods of the Dewey Decimal system, and shared some of their work for our library bulletin board.

Fun bulletin board idea from Pinterest for the start of second semester

Kindergarten through fourth graders then listened to me read aloud 20 different Georgia Picture Book Award Nominees, over many weeks, so that they would be able to vote for their one favorite book.  I worked in "28 Days:  Moments in Black History that Changed the World" by Charles R. Smith, Jr. by incorporating the biographies included in his book, into the morning news, for Black History Month.  Students heard about a variety of different famous, black Americans.  

The most votes at our school went to "Tricky Vic: The Impossibly True Story of the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower" by Greg Pizzoli and "Gaston" by Kelly DiPucchio.

"Gaston" won for the state of Georgia.

Our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade Battle of the Books teams continued to meet once a month to discuss the books that they read and to use practice quizzing each other in anticipation of the school competition.

  

I incorporated a couple more passive, library activities this year, like this one, where students wrote down what they loved about the library and our school, and then their opinions were posted where everyone could read them.

 

It helped that we had just gotten in a shipment of lots of new books!

One of my professional goals this year was to add more, culturally diverse titles to our school's collection based on the shift in demographics.  :)  

 I tried to keep this (pictured below) section full of new books, even if it meant spending hours in 2nd&Charles to locate relevant, up-to-date fiction and nonfiction, and then purchasing it with my own money.  I also picked up and catalogued as many free books as I could get my hands on at county professional media specialist meetings.  AND, I entered and won 2 different free, book giveaways this year.  

We won that "TIME: Presidents of the United States" book and we also won a paperback copy of "The Sundown Kid:  A Southwestern Shabbat" by Barbara Bietz.  :D

Did you know that teachers get a 20% discount off of anything at 2nd&Charles?  

Just show them your i.d.

Found these while cleaning up the Professional Resources Closet.  Made a section for them.

I attended the Georgia Children's Book Awards & Conference on Children's Literature this year at UGA!  I hadn't been since I was in graduate school.  I got to hear Natalie Lloyd, Duncan Tontiuh, and David Biedrzycki speak about their books and book illustrations.

Natalie Lloyd - last year's novel winner for "A Snicker of Magic"

Duncan Tonatiuh and his codex-like illustrations

David Biedrzycki and his digital illustrations

Susan Grigsby, Carrie Hilliard, me, Jennifer Canavan

For Read Across America Week this year, to incorporate the 7 Mindsets, I did "Make a Difference" for Monday of that week.  Students donated gently, used books.  I had been collecting books, in case our school was able to build a "Little Free Library".   

As we finished out the school year, students continued to utilize all the donations that had been contributed to our library Makerspace.

 To finish out the school year, I emailed teachers that for whatever great book they read this summer, they should share it on Twitter - #SharonSummerRead.  That way we can leverage our leisure reading time, so that we can all learn about great literature for our students and/or for our own personal enjoyment.