Thank you library monitors!

Wednesday at recess, the students from divisions 1-6 who have helped in the library before school and at lunch as well as during their classes' library times dropped into the library for a "thank you" cup of hot chocolate.

Just a small showing of appreciation for all the work our library monitors do to help the Blair Library!

~Ms Novakowski

learning about Dewey

Melvin Dewey was the designer of the Dewey Decimal system - the system used to categorize and organize information (non-fiction) books in libraries. The primary classes were introduced to this system in a basic way earlier this year through a Curious George book and over the last few weeks, the intermediate classes have been learning a little more about Dewey.

Division 2 created mini-posters on the iPads for each general category and these are now posted in the library and are being well used by students to help them locate books. Here are a few examples of the mini-posters the students created:

We read the book Do You Know Dewey? which explains the system in an introductory way and describes how books are ordered on the shelves using more and more specific categories as the decimal part of the "call number" gets longer and longer.

Division 2 has also been creating some interactive games that we will have the other classes try out to review what they know.

This week, all the intermediate classes have broken up into teams and  have played competitive (eg. LOUD) rounds of Dewey Jeopardy. The students worked together to choose a category, the question they wanted to try based on the number of points it was worth and then had to come to consensus as a team before offering their answer to the question. The interactive powerpoint game can be found HERE.

It was fun getting to know Dewey a little better and it sure came in handy as the students helped shelve all the library books being returned before the holidays!
~Ms Novakowski

more early primary storytelling

The students in divisions 10, 11 and 12 have continued to develop their oral language skills as they tell stories using character puppets they created and have them interacting with other "characters". We have been practicing dialogue between characters...

and thinking about how a story might change if the setting was a farm...

or a forest...

On Tuesday of this week, the students took their little character stick puppets home and I am hoping they will find ways to create stories at home!

~Ms Novakowski

Tumblebooks

Our school district has a subscription to Tumblebooks which is an online ebook library. There is a large range of books from early picture books to beginning chapter books to more mature novels available. The books available on Tumblebooks are authentic literature, re-created in ebook format. The illustrations from the original books are used as is the text. The narrator (sometimes the book's author) reads aloud the book and often, the words in the text are highlighted as the book is read. Listening to books read aloud and reading along (by tracking the words visually or with a finger) are important experiences leading to developing reading fluency.

This week, many of the primary classes enjoyed some winter picture books viewed on the big screen in the library (notice the snow outside!). We read books about hibernation and migration, penguins in Antartica, animals playing hockey and a funny favourite, 50 Below Zero by Robert Munsch.

Bookmarks were sent home this week with the website and login information (you'll need the username and password). Because of our district license, students are able to access and enjoy Tumblebooks at home!

~Ms Novakowski

Two of Everything

Last week, some of the upper primary classes (divisions 7, 8 and 9) were read the first part of the story Two of Everything in the library. It is a traditional Chinese folktale about an elderly couple who find a special pot that doubles anything that is put in it, including gold coins! As we read, the students used mental math strategies to make predictions about what would  happen if five or ten or twenty coins fell in.

I then introduced my special pot and role played parts of the story. Then I changed the rule for my pot and instead of doubling pot, it was now a +3 pot. We had the students predict how many "coins" would come out if 2, 4, 5, etc were put in. The students were then asked to create their own "magic" pot and identify what the number pattern rule is. They were asked to represent what would happen with their pot using pictures, numbers and words.

              

           

       

     

The students came up with so many interesting magic pots and did an amazing job of demonstrating and communicating their understanding of the mathematics involved.

~Ms Novakowski

And Then It Happened Writing

Inspired by our author visit with Michael Wade, the intermediate classes have been writing their own "And Then It Happened" type stories. The stories begin as personal narratives, based on a typical everyday event in the students' lives such as walking to school, having breakfast, practicing the piano or  running at soccer practice. After the introductions, the stories soon take a Michael Wade twist and something "happens" to take the everyday to an adventure. The students are having fun embellishing the ideas in their stories and are working at writing with a humorous tone, not an easy thing to do!

This week, the students read one of their classmates' story drafts and gave two pieces of feedback based on the ideas in the stories. We're not so worried about punctation and spelling at this point - we're still trying to get the students to get their ideas flowing. The students gave a compliment or commented on something they liked about the story, Secondly, the students gave a suggestion for what might come next in the story. Providing an idea for someone else's story can be a hard thing to do but it helps writers things about what a reader might want or anticipate.

The students will be reading their classmates' feedback next week and then adding more to their stories. I will be taking writing submissions from all the intermediate classes for a Blair Library anthology of And Then It Happened stories.
~Ms Novakowski

early primary storytelling

The early primary classes (divisions 10, 11 and 12) have been doing some storytelling in the library. After reading the Curious George stories, we discussed the different elements of a story - characters, setting and plot. First, the students each created their own character puppets.

And then we discussed setting - where the story takes place. The students used their character puppets and various natural materials to develop story ideas based on the setting they created.

As a final step, we discussed what would happen in the story - the plot. Was there some sort of adventure or journey? Was there a problem that needed to be solved?

Here's a little video compilation of students in divisions 10, 11 and 12 doing some storytelling:

We will be using our puppets in some new settings...coming soon!
~Ms Novakowski

monster fun

The students in divisions 10, 11 and 12 have been having some monster fun in the library. We read the books Go Away Big Green Monster! and Glad Monster, Sad Monster, both by artist and author Ed Emberley.

We also read/viewed/listened to the story Go Away Big Green Monster! on the iPads and the students learned how to "swipe" to turn the pages and use the interactive features of the ebook.                                                

The students used the app Doodle Buddy to create their own monsters on the iPad. The students are becoming "experts" with Doodle Buddy and have learned how to changed colours, drawing tools, drawing mediums and the width of their lines.

Here is a collage of iPad monsters from some students from each class!

The students then each made their own monster character puppet. We talked about dialogue and the students practiced having their monsters talk to each other...all part of storytelling and developing an understanding of characters and story.

A little monster fun in the library!

~Ms Novakowski

Beep Beep, Vroom Vroom and Mathematical Patterns

Four of the primary teachers and myself are working together this fall on what in teacher talk is called a "professional learning community". We are looking at ways of using children's literature to inspire and provoke mathematical thinking and problem solving. Each week, the four classes (divisions 6, 7, 8 and 9) will be read a picture book during their library block and then follow up with a mathematical task.
Throughout the term, the teachers and I will be meeting to talk about what we've noticed and learned and make plans for future lessons.

This week we read the book Beep Beep, Vroom Vroom by Stuart J. Murphy which introduces repeating patterns using a child's set of toy cars.

As I read the story, the students "read" the patterns created with the cars. They "read" or labeled the patterns using colours, letters, numbers, shapes or actions (clap, snap, tap, etc). We had tubs of math materials (tiles, cubes, blocks) out on the tables and when the story was finished, we posed the following problem to the students:
Using three colours, how many different patterns can you make?
The students were so focused and came up with so many different patterns. Some repeating, some increasing, some decreasing and some circular!

As the students were working on their patterns, we were asking the students to describe, label, compare and extend their patterns - checking for understanding about the mathematical skills and concepts appropriate to their grade level. The students had a chance to see some of the patterns created by their classmates and then we asked the students to "record" their patterns on a piece of paper using colours and labels or "codes". There was such a variety of patterns created and different ways that the students came up with to record their patterns.

Next week, there'll be another math adventure in the library!
~Ms Novakowski