Welcoming 1st graders to our library

Our 1st graders are new to our school and I like to start at the very beginning with them.  We started with what we know.  According to our 1st graders libraries...

  • have a million books to choose from.
  • are where you read in your head or quietly.
  • are kind of quiet.
  • are where you have to bring your library books back.
  • are where you get to read books.
  • are where you should be nice to the librarian, other kids, and the books.
  • are where you have fun!
We began by talking about the word "borrow" and what that means.  Students turned and talked with a neighbor about a time when they borrowed something or someone borrowed something from them.  Students reported back stories about favorite toys, games, and articles of clothing.

Next, I shared the book Bear's House of Books by Poppy Bishop.



In the book, bear shares (albeit begrudgingly) books with the forest animals.  My favorite line is at the end, "books are wonderful to read alone, but even better when shared."  We wrote and drew about who WE  could share our book with:
  • Big sister
  • Mom & Dad
  • Baby brother
  • Cousin 
  • Papa
  • Dog
  • Stuffed animal




On that note, excited to share their books with their families, I dismissed the students to go choose books to take home and share.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Reading Identity: Who am I as a reader?

Image
This lesson was about making a visual representation of our reading selves.  We drew, we laughed, we learned about each other as readers, and started building a reading community.  We did this on a remote day.  *This was developed in conjunction with my brilliant colleagues.* Standards:  AASL: Inquire/Share I.C.1 . Interacting with content presented by others. I decided we needed a theme to tie a disjointed year together and settled on the question:  I spent much of my summer thinking about "identity" but needed a concrete landing place for those big, abstract thoughts.  I wondered what would happen if we thought about "identity" through a reading lens. We read Reading Makes You Feel Good We practiced looking at two options and showing our choice for where we like to read by holding up that number of fingers. Next, we moved on to our directed draw. When we were done drawing, we had a big reveal.  Students were tasked with looking for someone with ...
Read more

Circulation Policies in our Library

Image
Developing relationships with students and families is my priority. I want them to have what they need from our library, but I also want (and need) them to respect our library and other students and return books so others can borrow them. Lost books are a reality. We lose MANY of them (too many of them) because it isn't something I spend much time or energy dwelling on. My hope is that the "lost" book has found its way into a home and is being loved there. However, this is something that has been increasingly on my mind. This past summer I read Rebeka Barringer's Knowledge Quest article  “How Inclusive and Human-First Circulation Policies & Practices Can Impact a Child’s Relationship with Elementary Library Spaces” (Nov/Dec 2022) and it spoke to me. It made me think about the language used to communicate with families student buy-in (or lack thereof) in the circulation of books I decided on action items for this year to address lost books: Help students underst...
Read more

Books as mirrors and windows (with sticky notes & reflections)!

Image
Every year I examine books as mirrors and windows with my students.  Every year I tweak the exploration and this year was no different.  This year's additions included sticky notes and reflections.   Day 1: Mirror moments Sticky notes I created with Tony Vincent's template (link below) After modeling mirror moments (and having students make "me too" signals), students identified a mirror moment from a stack of books at their table.  "This is like my sister and I.  We fight all the time." - 3rd grader "When my mom tells me to clean my room I just sit because I don't know where to start." - 3rd grader Day 2: Window moments In the next class I modeled "window moments" and we drew windows in the air when we heard moments that were "not like us."   Students identified "window moments" at their tables with sticky notes. Students shared their "window moments" through the window we passed around our sharing circl...
Read more