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My 9 Favorite End of School Read Alouds

As the school year winds down I wanted to share with you some of my favorite end of the year read alouds. As we all know it can be extra challenging keeping our students’ engaged during the end of the year excitement. Summer break is calling and kids definitely have some ants in their pants! You are Ready! The World is Waiting by Eric Carle This book has easy-to-read text encourage children who are going out into the world to spread their wings, knowing they have everything they need inside them Do Not Bring Your Dragon to the Last Day of School by Julie Gassman A teacher points out many things that could go wrong if she were to grant permission for a student to bring a dragon to school on the last day. Summer Vacation, Here I Come by D. J. Steinberg It’s summer time, and what better

7 Questions About Library Inventory Answered

If you have never done a library inventory before, it can be a daunting task. I was taught the importance of doing an inventory in school but nothing about the logistics and process of completing one. This blog post will hopefully answer some of the questions you have about library inventory. I also want to point out that I am only familiar with the Destiny catalog system. I believe that other systems are similar but I have not used them. 1. Why do I need to do library inventory? There are numerous benefits of having an accurate and up to date inventory. They include: 2. When do I start inventory? Does it have to be at the end of the school year? No, you can start your inventory any time throughout the school year. In fact rarely have I done my inventory at the end of the year. I

How to Get Library Books Returned at the End of the Year + FREEBIE

As we prepare to wrap up another school year we are faced with one of our biggest challenges: getting all those library books returned! I have tried many strategies over the years with varying results. In this post, I am going to share with you some different tricks and ideas that will (hopefully) help get those books turned in before the last day of school. Award Prizes Award some kind of class prize or award for the first class in each grade level that returns all their books. Suggestions: Get Teachers Involved A fun way to get library books returned is to give a prize not only to the classes that have returned all of their books but to the teacher as well. Offer to cover their recess or lunch duty, provide an extra planning time or a gift certificate to Starbucks or Target. You might be surprised how

My Library is Closed for Testing – Now What?

I will never forget the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach when I was first told (many years ago) that the library was going to be closed for testing and I had to go into the classrooms to teach my lessons. I had no idea what I was going to do or how this would work. And it seemed that with each passing year the library was closed for longer periods of time. I grew to expect to be in classrooms for most of May and part of April (apparently elementary students need two or three weeks of additional practice testing). I know that this is not an unusual situation, but at the time it really upset me. And honestly, it still does. However the situation is not going to change any time soon. And as anyone who has worked in education for more than two

10 Poetry Books for Kids!

April is national poetry month and if you are not already sharing poetry with your students now is a great time to start. Some educators shy away from reading poetry to their students. Many students think poetry is boring and unexciting. When you tell the kids they are going to listen to some poetry they moan and groan. So what can you do to change this reaction? Read them these 10 poetry books for kids that they will LOVE. There are so many wonderful poetry books that it can be overwhelming. I like to start with poems that will make kids laugh. And there are plenty of silly and wacky poetry books. Many of them are by two authors that I’m sure you know very well: Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky. You can’t go wrong by sharing poems from these two. So I am not including their books on my

QR Code Animal Research Reports

One of my favorite nonfiction authors is Steve Jenkins. Students love reading his books and learning about all the different animal facts. The two I love best are Actual Size and What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? I have done several different activities after reading these books to my students including matching the animal to the part mentioned in the book to writing and art activities. Since I bought a set of Chromebooks a few years ago (thank you book fair profit), I have been doing an animal research project with my second and third graders. Students will select one of ten animals and use QR codes that I created to look up facts about the animal. They record their notes and create a simple research report. I chose ten different animals from the book What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? Since I

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My 9 Favorite End of School Read Alouds

7 Questions About Library Inventory Answered

How to Get Library Books Returned at the End of the Year + FREEBIE

My Library is Closed for Testing – Now What?

10 Poetry Books for Kids!

QR Code Animal Research Reports

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