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It’s library check-out time, and you’re wishing you had six more arms and three sets of eyes. Between checking out books, figuring out overdue books, and managing other students in the library – it can feel like a full-time job for at least three people. And yet, it’s just you.  I wanted to share some library activities that can help check-out time run smoothly. These activities are meant to keep other students busy and on task, while you man the check-out counter. I’ll also give some library activities for students with overdue books, who are unable to check out a new book. #1 Keep a Box of Weeded Out Books When you go through and weed out old books, instead of tossing them or leaving them in the hallway, keep them in a box. During check-out time, allow students to search through the box and find a book they
Summarizing and paraphrasing can be difficult skills for students to master. Often they do not understand the differences between the two and when to use them. In the library, I review these skills when I do any type of research project. Teaching a skill in context is always more effective than teaching it in isolation.  The Difference Between Summarizing and Paraphrasing Summarizing is retelling the main idea in your own words. A summary should be short and to the point. Only the most important ideas should be included. Whereas paraphrasing is retelling the text in your own words. These two concepts are very similar which leads to the confusion many students have.  How I Teach My Students About Summarizing and Paraphrasing This is why I created my Summarizing and Paraphrasing Activity Pack. This activity pack is designed to engage your students in meaningful practice in key reading skills with
Have you ever tried a Virtual Author Visit? Author visits can be so rewarding for students and schools.  I still remember the author’s visit from when I was in elementary school! It’s best to have the classroom teacher as well as yourself read the author’s books to the students before the visit. You can do something similar to One School, One Book (or maybe 2 books to make it more appropriate for the age groups.). Schools gain a community feeling around an author that is visiting. Finding an Author Finding an author to do a virtual visit is much easier than finding one who can travel to your school. Below are some websites I found that should help you get started. These include individual author websites and publisher websites. However, doing a Google search for author visits will be the easiest way to find an author.  Scholastic  Penguin Young
It’s important to create a positive experience for students in the library. Students form opinions about libraries at a very early age. I’m sure that many of us remember a lot about our elementary library. I know I can remember the way it looked, where each section of the library was, and how the librarian and librarian assistant treated us. My librarian always made sure that we had a positive checkout experience, and I like to do the same for my students. We want to make sure that the experience inside of the library is a positive one in order to foster an interest and love of reading. One way to do this is to make sure that there isn’t too much chaos during checkout time.  There are great ways to really build incredible bonds with your students during checkouts. This is where students can have conversations with you
STEM in the library…boy do I get a lot of requests for posts on this! I absolutely love incorporating STEM activities into the library as well as helping classroom teachers come up with fun STEM ideas. What does STEM stand for in case you don’t already know? STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Some may also refer to STEAM which adds in art as well. STEM education has become very popular in schools within the last few years. The reason that STEM education has become so popular is because it pushes students to go beyond the typical school subject curriculum and standards. STEM education helps teach students how to solve real-world problems and challenges that they could face in today’s world; Hence, preparing students to be successful in their careers. STEM education can start as young as preschool age! Students should always be exploring hands-on activities and
Who else loves to teach genre to your students? Teaching different types of genres help students become lifelong readers. This is also true when thinking about writing. It opens their minds to the outside of their world and not just a traditional narrative.  The Importance of Genre We want our students to fall in love with different types of books and not just all the Fly Guy or Mo Willems books. Our younger readers tend to fall into this trap where they only want to read specific types of books or even only one type of author. Then, as students get older they don’t know what they like because their interests have changed. Reluctant readers also tend to be at a disadvantage because they don’t know what they like and truly don’t love to read.  This is why teaching genre throughout the elementary years is so important. Librarians have