Today, in addition to teaching more of the kindergarten classes, I also finished planning for the week ahead. I laughed when I realized that my initial plan (from Day 4) was definitely more like a classroom plan rather than a story time in the library. I was still thinking in terms of a "unit" rather than an individual "visit." So, I had to rethink my game plan!
New goals: (1) engaging pages and story for the students to interact with; (2) brief stories with less words on the pages; (3) less "serious" subject matter that would need more "unpacking."
As Valentine's is next week, I tried to choose books on themes of love, different ways to show love, acceptance of others, and friendship. At first, I wanted to avoid this topic, as I figured the classes themselves would be talking about this holiday and I'm not a huge proponent of "romantic" love between elementary schoolers. However, I saw that especially the younger students that come for reading time still experience this holiday as a new, novel experience. Of course! They are only four to six years old! So the books I decided to choose were based on love as a concept or love between non-amorous relationships.
Additionally, the following week is the Book Fair! As this is the last time we will see the students before the Book Fair, I will also be using material provided by Scholastic that uses the authors themselves to advertise a few books available for purchase. The particular titles were chosen based on apparent appeal and creativity of presentation to value thirty-second to two minute clips rather than traditional booktalks.
Here is the list I ended up with today:
* indicates first priority book, then listed in order of alternate titles for more time.
K4 (30m without checkout)
Bookfair Booktalk WATCH Pig the Pug
*Love is a Handful of Honey by Giles Andreas
*No Matter What by Debi Gliori
I Love You Always And Forever by Jonathan Emmett
The I Love You Book by Todd Parr
I Love You, Mister Bear by Sylvie Wickstrom
K (30m with single table checkout: 1 book)
Bookfair Booktalk WATCH Kwame Alexander in Surf’s Up
Bookfair Booktalk Pink is for Blobfish--in lib
*If Kids Ran the World by Leo and Diane Dillon
No Matter What by Debi Gliori
In Daddy’s Arms, illustrated by Javaka Steptoe
Love is a Handful of Honey by Giles Andreae
1st (15m with checkout: 2 books)
Bookfair Booktalk WATCH Hats Off to You!
Bookfair Booktalk WATCH Press Start!: Game Over, Super Rabbit Boy!
*If Kids Ran the World by Leo and Diane Dillon
*Two Friends by Dean Robbins
Froggy’s First Kiss by Jonathan London
EBD (30m with checkout: 1 or 2 books, dependent on student)
*If Kids Ran the World by Leo and Diane Dillon (AR 3.2, P 0.5)
*Love is a Handful of Honey by Giles Andreae
No Matter What by Debi Gliori
After school, Cindy and I traveled to Blue Ridge Elementary, where the Battle of the Books is to be held tomorrow. I will blog more about what the program is, but it was a great experience to see another elementary library within the same school district. This school was built in 2009 and has an expansive space. I would live there, it is so spacious and beautiful! The Blue Ridge library has sections for "popular" series in the high traffic areas like Ravenel, but also has begun "Maker Spaces" with art supplies, large tables, and diverse work configurations. The whole school has also adopted the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People as a sort of theme and infrastructure for their discipline and character program. The library has set collections of books focusing on each habit to carry and support that school-wide initiative. It was definitely a cool opportunity to see some of the same programs or library organization implemented in different ways or with different tools to achieve the same goals. I'm looking forward to the program tomorrow!
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