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Must- Have Biography Series for Elementary Students

My students love reading biographies. Usually, they ask for a biography on a sports star or music performer. They might ask for a biography of someone they learned about in class. And for some reason, they all want to read biographies on Michael Jackson! It can be tough keeping current biographies on the library shelves. Biographies can be expensive and they are outdated as soon as they are printed. Also when it comes to current biographies it’s very possible that students won’t want to read about the person two years from now. So it can be hard to justify the purchase, especially a biography series for elementary students. When choosing biographies I like to stay with the same series for several reasons. I have already determined that the series meets my needs. I know the format of the books in the series. For example, I know what kinds of text

Christmas Ornament Book Recommendation Freebie

The holiday season is upon us! Do you decorate your library or classroom for Christmas? I decorate for every season and Christmas is my favorite. I always put up a tree and string lights around the door. (Don’t tell the fire marshal!) A few years ago I started having the students make ornaments to put on the tree: Christmas ornament book recommendations! This is such a fun and engaging activity. You can use it with students in any grade level, the kids love to make them and they make your library look so festive! What could be better? Making the Christmas Ornament Book Recommendation This is a simple activity to prepare, which is always a bonus during this hectic and chaotic time. All you need are copies of the Christmas ornament book recommendation template, scissors, pencils, and crayons. If possible print them out on card stock or a thicker

Making Dewey Fun! A Roundup of Ideas, Games and Activities

The Dewey Decimal System – vital to keeping the library organized. However, it is not the most interesting topic to teach. Over the years I have tried countless ways of teaching my students how nonfiction books are organized in the library without putting them to sleep! Some of my ideas have been successful and others I would rather forget about. In my store, I have quite a few Dewey Decimal products from PowerPoint introductions, bingo games, worksheets, and my best-selling task card sets. But today I want to share with you some free ideas (minus a few supplies). They are activities that are sure to spice up your lessons on Dewey. I want to be totally honest and let you know that some of these are not my original ideas but ones I have picked up from Pinterest and social media at one time or another. 1. Word clouds Word

Digital and Print Activities to Teach Author’s Purpose

I have always enjoyed teaching author’s purpose to my students. It is so easy to incorporate in any of the lessons I teach across all grade levels. Several years ago I even used it as my professional goal. This is when I developed more in-depth lessons and activities for the subject. And for some reason, I usually teach author’s purpose in November. I”m not sure why maybe just because the PIE acronym that we all use fits so well with Thanksgiving! Read below to see some of the ways I teach my students the different reasons authors write. Digital Activities for Teaching Author’s Purpose These activities can be used with Google Slides. I like using these for two main reasons. One is their paperless. I’m really trying to cut back on the number of copies I do each week. And of course, my school encourages this as well. Second, the

Cyberbullying Resources for Elementary Students

October is National Bullying Prevention Month. One type of bullying is cyberbullying. With technology becoming more enmeshed in every aspect of our lives it is more important than ever to teach our students what cyberbullying is and what to do if you are a victim of a cyberbully or witness this type of behavior. In this post I want to share with you some cyberbullying resources that you can use to help teach about this difficult topic. Educational Videos Videos can be a very effective tool in introducing a topic to students in an engaging way. There are several cyberbullying videos that I have used before. I like them because they are the perfect way to begin a conversation and open up communication with students. My school subscribes to BrainPop and there are several different videos on there about digital safety. But if your school does not have BrainPop, there

Using Plickers in the School Library

How do you assess student learning in the library? It is challenging for a number of reasons, mostly due to time constraints. We have to teach a lesson or do story time, do book check-in and check-out and take care of a hundred other tasks, often with little or no assistance. And we have to do all this in around 40 minutes (give or take). This leaves little time for any kind of assessment. So when I heard about Plickers I was very excited. Plickers is a free online assessment tool that can easily be used in the school library. Even though it has been around for a while, I somehow just discovered it. It is easy to set-up and requires only one mobile device (for teacher use). And best of all – it’s free! You create the questions and the students respond by holding up their paper clicker

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Must- Have Biography Series for Elementary Students

Christmas Ornament Book Recommendation Freebie

Making Dewey Fun! A Roundup of Ideas, Games and Activities

Digital and Print Activities to Teach Author’s Purpose

Cyberbullying Resources for Elementary Students

Using Plickers in the School Library

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