Dewey's 300's and Waynetta & the Cornstalk

Who knew that there was more to the 300's than holidays and fairy tales? Well, now the kids at Fox Hollow know and they are excited about it! We looked at examples from each 10's group in the 300's and they have been flying off of the shelves. Most specifically 393 Death Customs, 350's military science and warfare books, 391 Costume and Personal Appearance, and the 395 books on Etiquette.


To keep with the theme, I have been telling the students Jack and the Beanstalk and then teaching them what a Fractured Fairy Tale is and then reading Waynetta and the Cornstalk. It may be my awful "Texan" accent or the idea of golden cowpats, but they prefer Waynetta to Jack! We've had a lot of fun with the 300's this week!

Dewey Decimal Fun & Jack Prelutsky's It's Thanksgiving

3rd-6th graders are so SMART! This week, I have been testing their non-fiction shelving skills and most students are masters of Dewey! I've also been using a worksheet from The Complete Library Skills-Grade 3. The page Ordering Dewey Call Numbers has been a hit.

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With my younger grades, I am teaching them how to say "Prelutsky" and reading to them from It's Thanksgiving. They have been loving these poems. Some of the classes have a couple of them memorized because their teachers have shared them. We are having a great time this week!

Spot the Plot

This week in the library I am playing a game using the book SPOT THE PLOT: A Riddle Book of Book Riddles.  This book is a phenomenal way to get the students thinking.  

This book is full of books without titles on the front.  There is a boy detective, a girl detective, and their 2 helpers; a dog and a cat.  Through the clues given, the reader helps them figure out which book it is!

We have been sitting in a circle on the floor.  I start reading the riddle and as soon as a hand goes up, I stop.  I roll them a ball and once they have it, they can give me their answer.  If they were wrong, I continue with the riddle.  I have been doing with with K-6.  They all have been doing a great job!

I am having the kids create their own book riddle to share next week.  

Here is a picture of one of the riddles from the book:

I hope you have the answer!

SPOT THE PLOT: A RIDDLE BOOK OF BOOK RIDDLES. Copyright © 2009 by J. Patrick Lewis. Illustrations © 2009 by Lynn Munsinger. Published by Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA. All rights reserved.

We're BACK!

This YEAR in the library we are
Library Pirates and we are going to Hook a Book to discover a treasure.

I am so excited for another year at Fox Hollow. This week in the library we are going over the rules on the contract. I do this every year to remind students and parents about the rules for our library.

Music in Our School Month

This week for Music in our Schools month, I have been reading a book called Play, Mozart, Play by Peter Sis. We've been listening to Wolfgang's music and talking about his life. Did you know that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart learned his first piece in only a half of an hour and 3 days before he turned 5? That he wrote his own first composition later that year? That by age six he could play the harpsichord, violin, and organ and was touring Europe as its latest child sensation?

An interesting fact is that his sister also was a musical genius and toured with him, but she is usually not remembered. I believe it is because Mozart composed so many (over 600) pieces of music of which some are sung or listened to still every day.

He wrote the song that people have put nursery rhymes (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star & Baa Baa Black Sheep) and the alphabet to.

Thanks Peter Sis for an excellent book and thanks Mozart for all of your hard work.

Not A Stick by Antoinette Portis

In November of 2008, 3 toys were inducted into the toy hall of fame. I included the article below. One of these 3 was the stick.

This week for library I am telling them about the stick's entry into the hall of fame and also reading the story Not A Stick by Antoinette Portis.

This is the follow up to her first book Not A Box.

The illustrations are simple and intriguing. She shows imagination in a way that children can relate to. I am reading this book to all grades and have had the same response from all of them: laughter & excitement!

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Stick inducted into toy hall of fame

November 2008

A magic wand, a knight's sword, a fishing rod?

Strong National Museum of PlayChief curator Chris Bensch of the Strong National Museum of Play holds the stick that was inducted into the toy hall of fame.

The lowly stick, a universal plaything powered by a child's imagination, has landed in the National Toy Hall of Fame along with Baby Doll and the skateboard.

The trio was chosen Thursday to join the Strong National Museum's all-star lineup. Previous inductees range from the bicycle and Mr. Potato Head to Crayola crayons and the cardboard box.

Curators at the Rochester museum say the stick is a special addition. They praised its all-purpose, all-natural, no-cost qualities and its ability to serve either as raw material or an appendage transformed by imaginations into something else.

Happy Holidays!

This month we spotlighted the 300's, 398's and 400's sections in the Dewey Decimal System. The kids learned that the 300's are social sciences, but that the 398's are a fun section full of tall tales, folk tales, legends and fairy tales. The 400's section is the languages section. They have been eager to check out our English Wordplay books and our German or Sign-Language dictionaries.

I shared (with older grades) a beautiful story by Eve Bunting called December.

This week they got to hear The Night Before Christmas and open presents for the library...
NEW BOOKS!

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!