Catching Up

It's been awhile since I blogged.  I've been Tweeting (@SniffsBooks) instead.  But that doesn't mean we haven't been busy in the library!

In March we had a guest reader for Dr Seuss's birthday: the Cat in the Hat!  He read to three assemblies, which allowed every student to be able to participate.  For the rest of the birthday celebration week we played Dr Seuss Bingo in the library.  The students loved it and prizes were handed out for the winners.

We had another puppet show, based on the book Tadpole's Promise by Jeanne Willis.   It was so much fun to play the part of the rainbow caterpillar who was madly in love with her black pearl tadpole.  It was even more fun to see their shocked expressions when we reached the twist in the story!

The teachers and school counselor and I got together to make a video parody of Taylor Swift's song, Shake It Off.  It was meant to be an inspirational, and funny, video to loosen up our students before the STAAR test.








Something else I have been doing with my 3rd - 5th graders is discussing what we are reading.  Every time I see a class, I share what I am reading with them and I ask them to share with me (and each other) what they are reading.  This started off very slowly since my students were not used to discussing what they are reading.  Reading has always been a silent activity.  It's not been something they were used to doing, so it was slow at first.  But the more I share, the more they share.  Even the teachers are beginning to share what they are reading.  I am striving to make our reading an open discussion.  I want them to understand that we are all reading.  We are all readers.  By sharing our books, we are encouraging each other to read and we are promoting books with each other. I share with my students how it is OK to not like a book--it actually makes us stronger readers when we learn what we like and don't like.  This has been one of my favorite activities of the year.  It just takes 5-10 minutes per class, but I've been able to see some of my students grow as readers and some of them are eager to share what they are reading.  I want to demystify reading and let my students see how EVERYONE can be a wild reader.