The Spartan Librarian

We had the best time today SKYPEing with Kenn Nesbitt today!  The kids had so much fun, and Kenn was so engaging and entertaining. Kenn talked with the kids about writing, figurative language, and inspiration - write about things you see! Kenn helped each group start an original poem and assigned homework for each student to add a stanza to the poem.  I can't wait to see what they come up with! To schedule your own visit with Kenn which I highly recommend, check out his webpage . You still have time to order an autographed copy of one of Kenn's books, print out this order form and return to Mrs. Long by May 18th! 4th Grade My b unny makes b urgers. My m ouse makes m ac and cheese . My p uppy makes p izza. My p arakeet makes p eas .     I never eat their cooking. Not even on a dare . Because it’s always covered With slobber and hair . 5th Grade Football with French fries. Soccer with tacos . B aseball with b ananas. Nasca...

I missed doing poetry activities with the kids in April (poetry month) because of the time it took to write and publish our ABC books!  I had so much planned, Poem Mobiles: Crazy Car Poems  by J. Patrick Lewis, Fold Me a Poem  by Kristine O'Connell George, and our Kenn Nesbitt SKYPE! So, this week, we did a Poetry Scavenger Hunt using Ms. B's printable  (freebie here!)   I had kids visit Kenn Nesbitt's website, and read or listen to his poems.  While listening, they were looking for figurative language, rhyme patterns, and phrases and words that appealed to their senses.  They had so much fun!  Mr. Nesbitt writes on topics that are engaging and fun for the kids!  Can you say --Poetry Love!!! It was so inspiring to see kids sharing poems as they discovered them, and discussing figurative language, and talking about the "pictures" the poems were painting in their heads! We finished the lesson by using padlet to come up with questions to ...

I finally found two minutes to sit down and write my first blog post for the school year!  It has been a whirlwind! My PTO president and I, did a little redecorating in the library, painting an accent wall, adding a canopy, and some cool over sized candy decorations.  My theme for the year is "READING IS SWEET!!!".  I have a little more work to do under the canopy I picked up at IKEA, but the kids have gotten a kick out of it!   My daughter and I used masking tape to create these fun patterns on some bargain canvas' ($4.99 a two pack at Michael's).  We had them taped off and painted in about 30 minutes.  I then cut vinyl letters using my Silhouette machine and ta-da, cheap wall art!  Some construction paper flags had been hanging here for the last four years, and who knows how many years prior to us moving into this building!  It was time for them to go!   Starting my second year as Teacher Librarian, I am finally...

I love when kids find things at home and bring them to share with me, but this was a little creepy!   Santos a 4th grader, brought this complete snake skin in for us to see.  His dad does insulation and found this skin under a house he was working on.  The skin measured 6 feet and 6 inches LONG!!  I do NOT want to run up on this snake! If you are interested in reading more about snakes check out the 597.9 section!

I think I have a social networking problem (but I think I can call it work)!! My new love is  Twitter and I have found a great group of librarians, teachers, and technology users that I follow (stalk) all the time!! @Barrowmc and @WESmediacenter are two of my favorites!  @Barrowmc shared a Crowd-Source poem she was doing with her students.  She created a Google form with sentence stems about the media center and had the students complete the sentences.  Sounded like a lot of fun and a great way to get insight into what our students really think about the  media center! I didn't use Google forms, but created a Quiz in edmodo and assigned it to the kids.  They completed it today during computer class.  The responses were predictable, funny, heartwarming, quirky, not-what I expected, and touching.  The following are actual responses from my actual students! P.S.....if you want to follow me on twitter my name is @read...

The 4th graders have been learning all about pourquoi stories in their ELA classrooms.  After listening to several stories, the students wrote their own original pouquois.  The writing process was completed in the classrooms, and they came into the media center to publish their work. They used our new iPads and the Scribble Press app to write and illustrate each story.  The kids loved seeing their work online in a digital ebook format! Check out some examples: How some Dogs Black and White Fur by Izaya n. - read the free ebook now from Scribble Press! Why Cat's Hate The Rain by Leonilla Garcia - read the free ebook now from Scribble Press! Chameleon and parrot by Written and Illustrated by Cody C. - read the free ebook now from Scribble Press! Why the Cheetah Runs So Fast by Written and Illustrated by Kevin W. - read the free ebook now from Scribble Press! How a Shark Got Its Sharp Theeth by Written and Illustrated by Emmanuel C. - read the free e...

Mrs. Shepard, a fabulous fifth grade teacher here at UIS, had her students write poems about the Civil War as a cumulating project.  She had them share them with me----all I can say is AMAZING!!!!!  These kids did a faboulous job and you can tell that learning had taken place! I had her send them in to me in the media center, and they used  Audacity to record their poems in their own voices.  I then uploaded them to Sound Cloud to share with the world! Check them out!!