A Peek at My Week

Hi friends!

We have a short week at school this week, no school on Friday, but it's packed with activity! In classrooms they are preparing for the BIG TEST the first week in April. Me? I'll be reading Boy and Bot to kindergarten classes who are learning about living and non-living, getting fourth graders started on their Animoto book trailers, continuing our non-fiction scavenger hunts and creating Incredible Kid thinglinks with first grade students. And, of course, reading my test administrator manual in my spare time.

Here's what's happening in our library centers this week.

I've got the Popcorn Words discovery bottles out at one table. Students write the popcorn words that they find in the bottle filled with un-popped (a little noisy) popcorn kernels. I'm always surprised by how much the "big kids" enjoy this. Is it because they like to be successful, or because they like to shake the bottle and make noise?

When I read the book Opening Minds, I was intrigued by the idea of showing students our comfort with uncertainty. On page 61, the teacher says to the students, "If you have any other thoughts about this really interesting picture, would you put it on a Post-It and leave it here for us?" The little light bulb in the cartoon bubble above my head lit up with the thought of a library center!

I've shared the center sign with you in my Google drive. Just click here to download the PDF. I copied the picture of the girl falling asleep on an open book, with a plant beginning to grow out of it. I glued the caption on top of the page, too, then glued that to colored card stock and then to the poster board.

You could use Post-It notes with this center. I just drew bubbles and lines from the picture, and wrote "The air smelled bitter, like poison" to give an example of a sensory detail to further the story. We'll see how it goes!

I've also got an egg symmetry center from our Spring Library Centers page. This free printable shows half of an egg with a design. The students are challenged to complete the design on the other side of the egg, and to color it with symmetry, too. I know that teachers are working on symmetry in class because they've checked out all of our symmetry books!

I cut the pages in half because our students are only in the library for 20 minutes, including checkout. They won't have time to complete two eggs.

It will be a busy, fun week. Sometime during the week, my next live animals will appear in the library. What new library center is hatching? You won't get a peep out of me!