Halloween!

I know, Halloween is over.  I'm sorry these didn't get up sooner, but I'm at a new job this year and that has to come first.  However, now you have the info for next Halloween, and several months to get everything ready!

Halloween Stations

These are the stations I start the week before Halloween.  They're perfect for this time of year because Halloween is all kids are thinking about.  You'll notice that about half of the activities are just Fall/Harvest.  If you have students who don't celebrate Halloween, encourage them to just do the Fall activities.



10 Ghosts in the Haunted House

I usually start with the book 10 Timid Ghosts by Jennifer O'Connell.  It's fun for the kids to read with me, and there are lots of things you can talk about as you read it.  Sometimes we focus on math skills, sometimes on the tricks the witch plays, and sometimes on reading with emotions.  Then we have this station, which can also be used as a whole group activity. 
-Print a haunted house picture.
-Cut out 10 ghosts and number them.
-Laminate if possible, and put magnets on the back of everything.  Attach to a metal or magnetic board.
-Younger students practice putting the ghosts in number order or taking them away in order.
-Older students work in pairs.  One puts up three random numbers, the other puts them in order.  Then they switch.



How many ghosts?

Next, usually near the first station, is the How many ghosts in the haunted house? coloring sheet.  This can also be used as a whole group activity.  Students draw ghosts in the house, then count them and fill in the blank in the sentence at the bottom:  "There are ____ ghosts in the haunted house."  I encourage older students to write a number story about the ghosts.  For example, "There were 8 ghosts in the haunted house.  A giant came and scared away 3 ghosts.  Now there are 5 ghosts."



Connect the Dots

Here is one of the Fall/Harvest activities.  I fill a table with several different connect the dots pages.  I have pumpkins, apples, leaves, carrots, and jack-o-lanterns.  After students connect the dots and color, they put their names on the back.  We cut them out and make a display in the hallway.  I have two signs I hang with them.  One just says "Our Pumpkin Patch" and the other says: "We made our pumpkins by connecting dots in ABC and number order.  These are important skills for finding books in the library!"  For the older students, I also put out a trickier number maze.



Halloween Treats!

Here students practice putting decimal numbers in order.  Older students put the treats in price order from lowest to highest.  Younger students like to sort the treats in different ways.  All of these help us practice our Dewey Decimal skills.

Pumpkin Patch

I adapted this from an idea in a Mailbox magazine.  Make 8 pumpkins that are distinctly different.  Make a scarecrow and a simple compass on a big green paper.  Then place your pumpkins around the scarecrow.  Write a set of clues to tell students where to put the pumpkins.  "The scary pumpkin is West of the scarecrow.  The tiny pumpkin is South of the scary pumpkin."  Put these clues on a green paper, and on the back draw a map of what the pumpkin patch should look like.  Older students follow your clues, then they check their work with the map.  Younger students just try to match the pumpkins to the map locations.  Hello map skills!



I Spy Spooky Night

The I Spy books are always popular, especially with the older students.  I make a scavenger hunt of things for students to find in the books.  When students find the item, they write the page number on the scavenger hunt sheet.  To make it easier for the librarian, and more fun for the kids, I put the paper in a plastic page protector.  Students write their answers with dry erase crayon or marker, then clean off the paper when they are done.  I make two different scavenger hunts - one in pictures for emergent readers, and one in just words.  This helps students practice citing the page number of their sources.



Halloween Floor Puzzle

I try to include a puzzle station often.  Puzzles have lots of great cognitive benefits for kids, and they're fun!  They also encourage collaboration among students.  I bought this puzzle at Salvation Army for 25 cents.

Here's a look at how the library is arranged.  You can see that we also use floor space for activities. 

Another view of the library arrangement.

If you have computer access in the library, there are plenty of great interactive educational games for Halloween and Fall.  For younger students I set them up on one game, and when they're done they leave for a different station.  For older students, I create a list of links for them to try, and they get five minutes before they switch with someone new. 

Even though we're past Halloween, many of these activities can also be adapted for other themes.  Make numbered ornaments on a tree instead of ghosts, have snowflake connect the dots, map the sledders on the hill, etc. 









Halloween Activities Coming Soon

This weekend I'll be posting Halloween activities.  Check back soon for Halloween inquiry stations and the ever popular Halloween Madlibs thesaurus game.

Oneonta Workshop and Dewey Game

Here are the handouts for today's workshop in Oneonta.  Feel free to share with anyone you like.

Workshop agenda:  Hands-On Inquiry

Dewey RackEm Game Cards: Cards PDF
To make the Dewey RackEm game:
-Print cards on cardstock or heavy paper.  Laminate if you plan to use them often.  Cut apart (of course).
-Separate the cards into two groups: 000-490 and 500-990.  Use these for two games.  It's too difficult to play with all the cards.
-Cut a rectangle of card stock about 4x6 inches.  Fold into thirds the short way.  On one fold, cut ten notches evenly down it.  Tape the bottoms so that it makes a standing card rack.
-That's it!  Follow the directions on the card file to play.  Have fun!

Handouts for Inquiry Workshops

Here are digital copies of the handouts for this week's inquiry workshop.  Even if you don't get to come to the workshops, these papers are still useful for you.  Most of them are PDFs to preserve the formatting, but I've also included the regular document versions of some so that they're easy for you to adapt for your own lessons and activities.

First up are the workshop agendas:  Intermediate workshop (doc)  Primary workshop (doc)  Primary Workshop (pdf)


Here's a simple question web that I use at the beginning of inquiry units.  You can easily make your own or find one online if this one isn't right for you:  Question web

This is a generic song-writing worksheet.  I also make more specific ones for different units.:  Song worksheet pdf  song worksheet doc

This planning guide is just to help you get started planning your own inquiry units.  You'll probably want to start adapting this one to best fit your style.  Inquiry Unit Planning Guide (pdf)  Inquiry Unit Planning Guide (doc)  Activity Stations Planning Guide (pdf) Activity Stations Planning Guide (doc)

Here is the two-column notes sheet I tend to use most.  I'm sure there are many other examples of this style organizer out there on the web, and it's very easy to make your own.  Two column notes (doc)

And finally the interest survey.  There are many, many of these out there.  This is the one I made and use, but, again, you can find others or modify this to fit your needs.  Interest survey (doc)

Now for an assortment of other papers that I might mention or you might find helpful:
Time and Space Machine Photo Permission Slip (doc)
Self-Checkout Guide for Magazines (doc)
Self-Checkout Guide for Books (doc)  This is for Circ Plus from Follett.  You can easily adapt it.

I will eventually have research journal examples on here, but they didn't translate well to Google Docs so they need some work.  If you would like something emailed to you, let me know.

Happy planning!

Caterpillar Season

It's caterpillar season, so I thought it was time for some caterpillar and butterfly activity stations.  To best use these stations, pick four to six activities.  Set them up for three or four weeks.  Start each class period with a mini-lesson or a story.  My favorite choices are Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar, Lois Ehlert's Waiting for Wings, and Gotta Go! Gotta Go!) by Sam Swope. 

Sequencing - Use the sequencing cards from DLTK.  You can put numbers and letters on the cards for students to put in order.  You can also label with words and have students put them in ABC order (a little tougher - this option isn't a good choice for kindergarten).

Caterpillar word building - Cut circles from felt.  Turn one into a caterpillar head and write lower case letters on the others.  Students can use a flannel board or a piece of felt as a background for building their words.  You can also use the letters from DLTK.  If you use these, laminate them and put magnets on the back.  Use a magnet board or cookie sheet as a background - or the end of a bookshelf or bookcart!
-Another word building idea -- Put capital letters on several caterpillar heads.  Then make the bodies with word endings.  Students can manipulate the pieces to make word families.  You can use this same method to make math fact families.  If you do math facts, find some ways to add selfchecking.  You can make shaped cuts or put a colored dot on the backs, or any other way that will help students know if they're right.

Food Sort - Print pictures of the foods the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate.  Encourage students to sort them.  They can sort in any way, including healthy/unhealthy foods, fruits/vegetables/other, by color or size, etc.

Match the butterfly to the caterpillar - As obvious as it sounds.  You can label both images with the butterfly name.  You could also leave them unlabeled and provide a field guide (more advanced).  If you choose this option, include a means of self-checking. 
A craft idea is to provide students with three or four sets of butterfly/caterpillar.  They can make a wheel match or a lift-the-flap paper.

Life Cycle pop-up - Make a four-box pop-up and have students put the butterfly stages of life on them in order.  An easier option is to prepare a wheel match of the stages and and students color them and assemble the wheels.

Field guides - provide a table just of butterfly field guides and other non-fiction butterfly books.  Include paper, pencils, and colored pencils for students who would like to draw or write what they see in the books.  This is for all ages - not just readers.  Try to find high quality photographs as they are more appealing to children than illustrations.  I use Butterflies and Moths (Golden Guide) and Nic Bishop Butterflies And Moths along with any other books on our shelves.

Caterpillar Board Game - Make a large drawing of a caterpillar and use the body segments for spaces on a game board.  You can use this for any kind of game. 
     -One option is the Fiction/Non-fiction call number card set in my Mo Willems post. 
     -You can also make a "Five a Day the Color Way" game to encourage healthy eating.  Find small photographs of many different fruits and vegetables (and label with their names - many will be unfamiliar!) from each of the color groups.  Color segments of the caterpillar to match the color groups and require students to collect one of each color to win.  You can also shuffle all the cards together and have the luck of the draw determine which color the player gets (tougher).
     -Have Fiction and Nonfiction caterpillar cards (fiction are obviously cartoons, nonfiction are photographs or realistic illustrations) that students must collect.  They need three of each before they can spin their cocoon!
     -You can also make a Candy-land style game and use the food items from The Very Hungry Caterpillar as the special cards.
Whichever you choose, make sure you laminate your games so they can be used over and over.

Collage - Both Very Hungry Caterpillar and Waiting for Wings use collage illustrations.  Provide pre-cut pieces of tissue or other colored paper, white construction paper backgrounds, and watered down glue in cups with paintbrushes.

There are also plenty of extra activities available online.  Our library has a felt and velcro set of Very Hungry Caterpillar that was purchased before my time.  A quick internet search shows many other options.

As always, if you have ideas, feel free to share in the comments.

Wild About Mo Willems

Mo Willems is one of the most popular children's authors today, and easily the most popular in my school library.  So this past fall we spent a month doing a Mo Willems author study.  We also incorporated call number activities in our author study to prepare for Dewey Decimal December.  I've loosely organized the unit activities by book.  I did this unit as activity stations with five to seven different activities set up around the room.

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
- Make simple felt or cardstock pigeon puppets so students can reenact the book.  You can also make bus driver hats.  If you have a puppet theater this is a great time to get it out.
- Students write their own pigeon stories.  Start with "Don't let the pigeon..." or "The pigeon wants..."  At this station also include "How to Draw the Pigeon."
-"Who will drive the bus?" game.  My instructions can be found here at Google Docs.  Under the directions print a large drawing of a school bus with at least six windows.  The windows will be the gameboard spaces.  This game helps children recognize the difference between fiction and non-fiction call numbers.  You can find the game cards here for nonfiction and here for fiction.
-I also purchased Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus Game! from Amazon and the two pigeon puzzles: The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! Puzzle: 24 pc and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! Puzzle: 24 pc.
-If you can find it, there's also a DVD of this story from Weston Woods that includes a video of a school visit with Mo Willems.  If you time it right, you can ask Mo questions and he will answer you and teach your students how to draw the pigeon.  (This is not the Mo Willems collection DVD on Amazon.)


Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed

-This is a great opportunity for talking about dressing for the weather.  You can make a mole rat paper doll and various clothing items.  Stick magnets on the back and use a small magnet board or cookie sheet.  You can also make background pictures of different situations and make appropriate outfits.
-Use clip art of clothing items to make a matching game.  On one of the pieces write an author's name and on the matching piece write the call number.







Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems

-Make your own puzzles.  There are plenty of coloring sheets available at pigeonpresents.com and other websites.  Draw lines for where to cut.  I like to cut them in plain vertical strips and put call numbers or words on the bottom that students need to put in order.


Mo's books are just great fun.  Use your imagination to make more stations.  If you have ideas or activities you've done, please add them in the comments.




Author studies are also a great time to encourage students to write.  We have a writing center set up for the duration of the unit, and I schedule it during National Novel Writing Month when we are also all working on our own novels.

Citing Tips For Primary

I already posted about the importance of teaching copyright, even to young children, but can you really expect kindergarten students to cite their sources? 

Yes! 

Of course, we're not looking at MLA format.  All you really want is for your students to acknowledge when something came out of their own head or from someone else.  The easiest way for emergent readers to do this is with pictures.  Whenever your students do research, give them several pictures to choose from. 

If you use the Super 3 research method, Linworth publishing offers a sticker set for citing sources.  They feature Sam the penguin and are really cute.  Super3 (SAM) Sticker Set

The stickers are a nice novelty, and can be fun when you first introduce citing, but I don't see them as an everyday option.  Instead, I like to make research paper for the students to use.  At the bottom of the paper I give several choices for citing (just made with Wingdings) and the students circle the most appropriate one.

Here is the paper I'm using currently with my students.  It's a generic research paper with icons to cite books, computer, iPod, or themselves.  I also adapt the paper depending on our project.

K-1 Research Paper with iPod (Permission is granted to use and adapt this document for non-commercial use.  Attribution is not necessary for classroom use.)

My students really enjoy citing their sources this way, and after doing it for a year and a half, they now also write in their own sources (Mom, TV, Mr. G, etc.).

And, of course, everything we do in the library we also do in song!  Here is the Why Do I Cite? song:  (Video with motions is coming soon.)

To the tune "Bringing in the Sheaves"
Why do I cite?  Why do I cite?
To give the author credit!
That is why I cite!

Have fun citing!

Why do I cite?

We're big on copyright in our school library.  Why?

1.  Learning about copyright early builds good habits for high school and beyond.  The elementary years are when we need to really teach copyright, the importance of citing, and fair use so that it can become the status quo.

2.  Understanding copyright leads to greater appreciation for the arts.  Students know that books, artwork, and music are not just things but were created by people.

3.  We need to "create a culture of citing."  I heard this at a Super 3 workshop by Michael Eisenberg and his daughter.  We make our students accountable, and, in turn, they make their teachers accountable.  I love when I visit a classroom and students show me the "C symbol" on their worksheets and tell me their teacher was allowed to copy it, but only for school!

4.  We help students develop their moral judgement.  Looking at Kohlberg's moral stages, it's easy to see how copyright discussions can help students move to the higher stages of moral development.  Very young children think of rules not in terms of right and wrong, but of right and punishment.  Teaching about the purpose of copyright laws helps them to understand that there are reasons for rules.  Older children learn to empathize with the creators of the protected works.  When looking at fair use we show students that rules can change based on circumstances.  And remember that moral development does not always occur at set ages - you would be astounded at the variance in just one class.
      Here's an example of how copyright instruction can aid in moral development.  During a recent unit on copyright, students were asked to discuss whether a boy should make a copy of a video game for his friend.  At least one group in each class came up with the answer, "He should not make a copy because he will get arrested."  After clearing up the "getting arrested" issue, the students moved on to other arguments:  "He didn't make the game, so he doesn't have the right to decide who can copy it," and "The boy should not copy the game because if everyone did then the game maker would not make more games."  Of course, one lesson is not going to turn every child into a philosopher, but regular informal discussions of ethics can make a big difference over time.

A great copyright curriculum for K-5 is "Join the C Team" from YMI.

Why Inquiry?

For the last year and a half I've been working hard to transform my school library program into one that is inquiry based and student-centered.  I've tried a lot of different lessons and activities with my elementary students.  Some of these experiments have been mistakes, but many have been great successes.  I created this blog to share what's worked and what hasn't and to give other librarians ideas that can get them rolling on the same road.

I always knew that inquiry was important in the library, but until I heard Allison Zmuda speak last year I didn't realize just how integral it is for student success.  The truth is that our world is changing fast, and in order for students to be prepared for future jobs they need to have those 21st century skills.

But it's one thing to say inquiry is important, and it's quite another to throw away the lessons and research projects we've been doing for years and try something completely different.  And where do we even start?

I hope that this blog, besides being a resource for other librarians, will be a forum for us to share the things that have worked and build better school library programs for all of our students.