Welcome back to a new year of learning. We start back into the new year by learning the importance of copyright. All grades will learn what, where and why books are copyrighted and older grades will learn plagiarism and how to document research papers. This lesson follows with fairy tales, folk tales and fables. Which is your favorite and why?
We started December with Dictionary lessons and ended with enrichment activities. The last ten days before Winter break I read a poem and discuss 800s - Language in non-fiction. For classes 3-5th, I read A Night Before Christmas and grades K-2nd, I read another winter appropriate book. Younger students are not checking out and older students made an individual decision about checking out. Enjoy your two weeks off and keep reading. Many thanks for the gifts and goodies for Kim and me. Happy Holidays.
November brings us back to research, and what better subject to research then, Thanksgiving and Turkey - the bird. We begin by tracing our hand on paper and using the four feathers for facts and titles of books. While doing research for this lesson I found out why and how a turkey got the name "Turkey". Please ask your child what and why. If you know send me a note. Being a city girl I don't know all the names of turkeys or breeds, but will be finding out along with students. Happy Thanksgiving.
Research: Lessons focus on research. We started with Biography and used front & back covers to get quick information about a person. Week #2 is all of non-fiction and table of contents and index for quick information inside the book. Teaching during testing is very difficult. In the morning, younger students are great because they understand the importance of quiet and not disturbing testing classes. In the afternoon classes who have been testing are fidgety. I understand and try to make lessons short and fun. Week #3 will be online information about a person or thing and Week #4 is BookFair. Students will buy during the day, so bring money or ideas to buy from Scholastic.
We are starting a new year and the only change is I joined the specialist team. I will be seeing students on a timely basis with a six day rotation. Unlike last year, I wlll see classes several times per month instead of twice a month. My constant goal is to teach information literacy during the year and continue to have a good collection of reading material for all ages and reading abilities. I'm so lucky to be a librarian- teacher and work hard creating/inventing lessons that keep students enthralled with reading. The other side to library lessons is teaching students to navigate the internet for information. I strive to guide students to great research sites that are very kid friendly. This year you can help me too, volunteer to shelve books, assist with lessons, do paper work for us and most importantly - read each day with your children or let them read to you. Thank you and don't hesitate to be a Bullard BookWorm.
February begins with the last day of January 31 for our next lesson. We begin this month searching PebbleGo in Cobb Virtual Library. Younger students are searching animals - learning how to use the site and gathering facts. Older grades are filling out a matching list of animal and facts using this site. In an effort to make students realize they should be using critical thinking skills, the questions are very hard to match with the description. Answers are not clearly listed and students are required to make a conclusion out of desciptions. For instance in searching aardvarks the answer is: Has spoon-shaped claws and a 12 inch tongue. But facts state: this animal has a foot long tongue. Can a student make a connection from 12 inches to 1 foot? By 5th grade - certaintly.
The second part of February we are beginning our study of the Reference section. All grades are learning what kinds of books are in reference and how to use them. PebbleGo was an electronic encyclopedia on animals, now we look at the paper encyclopedia on animals. A text to self connection.
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All students are sent home with the Cobb Virtual Library user name and passwords for home use. Please post it near their study area or computers. The county charges Bullard Elementary for all of these sites - please use them for research.
