Malala Yousafzai

February 23, 2016

The 7th graders at LaSalle II were reading the novel about Malala, called I am Malala and many students loved reading the book. Their teacher was teaching them how to annotate it while they were reading it. I did not have any books about Malala in the library and thought it was important to students to learn about her. I wanted a book that was more concise and students would better understand who she is. This book is from Scholastic and is called Rookie Biographies. Many students do biography book reports and this book would be a great addition to the biography section in the library!
     It is a great nonfiction book because there are captions underneath the pictures, table of contents, Fast Facts, bold face words, a timeline, a glossary and index! There is also a map so students have an idea where the events in her life are taking place. These are all perfect for a parts of a nonfiction book lesson.
     In addition the pictures in the book seem to be photos of Malala and the events in her life which can lead to a discussion with students about what they think is taking place. Finally, there is a poem about Malala as well as a little blurb telling students how they can make a difference too.

* Did you know? She was named after a young hero called Malalai.
* Did you  know? Malala also wrote a blog!
   

Do you know everything about HIBERNATION?

February 22, 2016

       
     The kindergarten teachers at my school do a hibernation unit now and they have asked me if I

have any hibernation books in the library. I only had one or two and they were not books at the kindergarten level. I resolved to get hibernation books for them and via this grant, I did!  I am so excited to share these books with the kindergarten teachers and other teachers at my school who might be interested. I ordered the book, " Do Polar Bears Snooze in Hollow Trees?" by Laura Purdie Salas and illustrated by Todd Ouren. This book is part of the Animals All Around Series. I do not have any Animals All Around Series books in the library and wanted to check them out. I love this book! This book also provides a glossary, website references as well as titles of the other books in the series. 
 I learned quite a few facts that I did not even know. 
       * Did you know that raccoons snooze in hollow trees? They hibernate in small groups in hollow trees.  

* Did you know that a wood frog turns into ice to hibernate during the winter?

YOU WILL HAVE TO GET THE BOOK TO FIND OUT MORE FUN FACTS:)

     

Books on Various Dogs a hit with Second Graders!

I ordered seven books on different kinds of dogs. It is a request from my primary students that I get a lot! I only have books like how to take care of my dog. I have books on cats and every other animal except dogs. 

I wanted to use them but did not know how. I wish I had ordered more so that I would have enough for students to research the books on their own.  Since I only had a few, I started the labrador retrievers book. I read the book to them and they filled out information they learned about the labrador retrievers like size, color, and how to take care of them. 

They loved the book! My only wish is that the book was bigger so they could all see the pictures and captions. The students were just ooohhhhing and ahhhhhing at the cute pictures of the labrador retrievers. 

I visualize my end project in the form of mini books. They are going to keep all their information about the different dogs we read each week and then they will make their own pocket mini dog book using the information they learned

Awesome Invention Books!

February 10, 2016

Today, I finally was able to use my new invention books that I ordered! I realized I was lacking in a wide variety of books about inventors and their inventors. I had a few in the biography section like Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell but I wanted more and ones that were lesser known. For example, the book on who created video games and basketball were big hits with my students!

At first, I really did not know what to blog about. Now that I had a visual plan about how to implement the books,  I am excited to blog about them.

I used them with my sixth and seventh grade students.

At first, I spread all the books out so the students can pick one out that they were interested in. I used the first graphic organizer below. They seemed to really have trouble with the clouds on top.

Then for the next class, I decided to use a new graphic organizer and that was a big hit!

Half of my class used the books as I only had about sixteen books. The second half used the CPS databases like kidsinfo bits to pick their own invention/inventor to research. The students did a wonderful job and were sharing their books and information with each other.

This took about a couple weeks to finish as then the two groups had to switch. If they did not have ipads last time, then they did the ipads this time and vice versa.

I asked my students which did they prefer to use: the books or the ipads.

They said the books which totally SHOCKED ME!

It was great to learn that the books I ordered are a big hit with my students!