One of my goals as I began this 2015-2016 school year was to begin incorporating more content standards in my library lessons. Last year, I was able to meet Social Studies content standards fairly easily in my library lessons. This year, I wanted to try to incorporate standards from all of the content areas. Math and Science are the hardest for me to work into my library lessons. When I taught Kindergarten and 1st Grade, Flat Stanley was one of my favorite activities to do with my kids! I decided to try it this year on a bigger scale with my 2nd and 3rd Graders in the library to help meet some Social Studies and Math standards.
I had several students color an extra Flat Stanley. I sent a few to my friends and family that live out of town. I also let each class choose one person or place they would like Flat Stanley to visit. We sent the "class" Flat Stanleys to Mickey Mouse and Cinderella at Disney World/DisneyLand, the White House, Mrs. Laura Bush at the George W. Bush Presidential Library, the Today Show in New York City, and Coach Nick Saban at the University of Alabama. We received replies back from everyone except the Today Show and Cinderella! Below is a slideshow of many of the pictures we received!
The kids have really loved the project! We have been able to revisit it briefly in library or on our morning show whenever we receive new pictures and letters. The kids have also really enjoyed continuing Flat Stanley's adventures by reading the Flat Stanley chapter books! I can't get them back on the shelf before they are checked out again. So not only were we able to meet some content area standards with this project, it also got them reading for enjoyment! I call that a success!
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I look forward to the November Family Reading Month projects each year! My students never cease to amaze me with their creativity and hard work! This year I decided to choose a project that would be a little more difficult and require the families to actually read the book. The last two years have been great projects but with both the Soda Bottle Book Characters and the Storybook Pumpkins, the kids could participate in the project without really reading the book. I wanted this years project to require the students to actually read the entire book. This year we held a Literacy Fair for 2nd through 5th Grades. Think Science Fair except with books! I presented to concept and rules to the students during their weekly library time. I also showed them examples I found on Pinterest and Google Images. I sent home a letter explaining the project to their parents as well as a copy of the judging rubric. Part of the focus of our November Family Reading Month is....FAMILY! Each year I want the project to be something that gets families working together and reading together! i always tell my students and their families that I want them to work together on the project but I want to be able to tell that the kids did most of the work. I was not sure how many students would actually participate in this project due to it being a little more complicated. We had 73 entries in the Literacy Fair. With less than 200 kids in 2nd - 5th Grades I count that a big success! Almost half of our students participated! And once again, my students did not disappoint! They never cease to amaze me with their creativity and hard work. A winner was chosen from 2nd and 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, and 5th Grade. I wanted the prizes to be a little bigger this year due to the extra effort this project required, so the winners received a gift certificate to the Scholastic Book Fair! They were so excited to pick out a new book and poster! Take a look at just a few of the amazing Literacy Fair projects below! Below the pictures you will find links to the parent letter as well as the judging rubric. Feel free to use them as they are or change them to fit your school's needs!
*Originally posted November 18, 2014* Last year for November Reading Month we had a Soda Bottle Book Character Contest. I was so impressed with my students' and their families' creativity! As I started planning for November Reading Month this year I searched for a project that would achieve the same results as the soda bottles....kids working together and talking about books with their families. I came across the idea for book character pumpkins. I wasn't sure how much participation to expect. I was blown away....again! I received 86 pumpkins!! And they are some of the cutest, most creative pumpkins I've ever seen! I may be just a little bit biased! : ) I sent a letter home to the parents and introduced the project during library class time. I went over the rules with the students and showed them examples of some I had found on Pinterest and Google images. I attached a form to the parent letter that was to be returned with the pumpkin. When it came time to judge I knew there was absolutely know way I could choose a winner. I gathered a committee that had a mixture of people from our school and from outside of the school. I created a rubric to assist in the judging this year. It took A LOT longer to judge and calculate the scores, but I felt like it made the contest a lot more fair. Storybook Pumpkin Judging Rubric Here are just a FEW of the fabulous pumpkins... And the winners are... Kindergarten and 1st Grade 2nd and 3rd Grade There was a tie... 4th and 5th Grade Honorable Mentions: Update: You may want to make the time between the pumpkins due date and the announcement of winners as short as possible. We had about a week in between and Sponge Bob didn't make it through the weekend. We had a little moment of silence for Sponge Bob and then I made a mental note for next year...don't leave pumpkins in the library for longer than a week! :)
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AuthorI am an elementary educator in Birmingham, AL. I have previously taught preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. I now have the BEST job as an elementary school librarian or "The Library Lady" as I'm called by the kindergartners! Archives
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