Happy Holidays!

Recuerda Me

I love this song so much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8UTK_tYaB0

Benefits to Read Alouds and Story Time

From Faceboook...

Grandma Moses song and a Turkey game

I learned a new-to-me song for using egg shakers during story time. It is called Grandma Moses.

Grandma Moses sick in bed.

Call the doctor and the the Doctor said " Grandma, grandma you ain't sick. All you need is a peppermint stick."

Hands up shakey shake, shake, shake.

Hands down shakey shake, shake, shake.

All around shakey shake, shake, shake.

Get out of town shakey shake, shake, shake.

You continue the verses by going around the circle and having each child fill in the bolded word  with one that rhymes with sick.

I have found a fun flannel board game, too. The children add flannel feathers of different colors to a flannel turkey body each time you sing the rhyme.

Turkey Feathers Game

Sung to “Are you Sleeping?”

Our poor turkey

lost his feathers.

Let’s all help, everyone.

Do you have a  *(red) one?

Come and bring the *(red) one.

Oh what fun!

Oh what fun!

What fun things are you doing at your library?

Anti-Bullying and Pro-Kindness Read Alouds

I belong to the Storytime Underground Facebook group made up of children's librarians and youth engagement specialists. We had a pick-your-brain post on books that promote kindness or teach anti-bullying skills. I have typed up the shares!

Llama Llama and the Bully Goat by Ann Dewdney

Trouble Talk by Trudy Ludwig

Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson

The Judgmental Flower by Julia Cook

The Pout-Pout Fish and the Bully Bully Shark

by Deborah Diesen

Old Doggy Drama by Andra Gillum

King of the Playground by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev

I Walk with Vanessa by Kerascoët

Zoila the Zebra by Juanita Quinones Gandara 

Ruby and the Rubbish Bin by Nicky Armstrong and Margot Sunderland

The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig

Be a Friend by Salina Yoon

Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller 

We Don't Eat Our Classmates! by Ryan T. Higgins

The Bad Seed by Jory John

The Peace Dragon series by Linda Ragsdale

Eddie the Bully by Henry Cole

Enemy Pie by Derek Munson

 Zero, One, & Two. Three different books by Kathryn Otoshi

Hooway for Wodney Wat by Helen Lester

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson

Peanut Butter and Jellyfish by Jarrett Krosoczka

You Are Special by Max Lucado

The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade by Justin Roberts

Friendshape by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

We’re All Wonders by PJ Palacio

The Artist and Me by Shane Peacock

Stick and Stone by Beth Ferry and Tom Lichtenheld

Freda Stops a Bully by Stuart J. Murphy

Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by  Patty Lovell and David Catrow

 Weekend With Wendell by Kevin Henkes

 Ruby the Copycat by Margaret Rathmann and Peggy Rathmann

If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

The Recess Queen by Alexis O'neill and Laura Huliska-Beith

Nerdy Birdy by Aaron Reynolds and Matt Davies

A sick day for Amos McGee

Do Unto Otters by Laurie Keller

Metacognition and why it matters to kids when reading!

Cognition is thinking. Metacognition is simply put, thinking about thinking. Thinking about what you are reading. Being aware and in the moment. Thinking is what is going on inside your head. When a student is really reading they are thinking about the text. They may stop to wonder what will happen next. They may realize they feel a certain way about the text that they are reading. This is metacognition.

It is also about being aware of what we don’t know. Maybe something has not yet taken place in the text. The reader then uses problem-solving skills to determine what may happen next. If you are monitoring your own thoughts during reading this will help lead to deep reading comprehension, and this in turn, leads to more enhanced learning to take place.

There are four levels of metacognitive awareness when reading, according to Perkins (1992).

Levels of Metacognitive Awareness

1.      Tacit readers: lack awareness of their thinking

2.      Aware readers: know when meaning breaks down but no strategies to repair meaning

3.      Strategic readers: know when meaning breaks down and uses strategies to fix meaning

4.      Reflective readers: reflect on reading and intentionally apply strategies not only when meaning is lost but also to deepen understanding

How can we increase our students’ metacognitive abilities? By using teaching methods that are interactive, get students to think and question, and are explicitly taught. One example is a mini-lesson using the GIST Method.

GIST = Generating Interactions between Schemata & Text

Students use the GIST strategy to summarize a small passage into one sentence containing

the main “gist” of the section.

Discuss with students the skills of summarization (identifying main ideas & paraphrasing)

1. Select an article or portion of text and divide it into short passages (3-5 paragraphs each) & draw out 20 blanks.

2. Read the first paragraph.

3. Write a sentence summarizing the first paragraph using 25 blanks (one word per blank).

4. Read the second paragraph.

5. Write a 25-word statement about the first & second paragraphs combined.

6. Continue until the entire passage has been read & summarized using one sentence of

25 words.

There are many more teaching ideas like using graphic organizers, partner reading, using question cards, exit slips, talking about story elements, discussing the author’s purpose and retelling the text.

Make a retell bookmark, using color Post-It flags to mark the areas.

Characters-Who?

Setting-Where? When?

Problem-What is wrong?

Events-How does the character try to solve the problem?

Solution-How is the problem solved?

The most important tool for assisting with metacognition and comprehension is to activate prior knowledge. We want to bring information from long term memory into working memory so that we can add to it. The most effective way to do this is to question and have students also make predictions prior to reading the text.

I hope you find these ideas about metacognition and reading to be helpful.

Cabin in the woods

It's okay...it does not look like this!!!

Have you ever worked yourself to the point of utter exhaustion? Hello, that’s me! I am working two library jobs-one public, one academic and finishing up my last semester of grad school. I just turned in my Final Exam that took me a good 30 hours to work on.

But…there is a beautiful light at the end of the tunnel. We are going into a newly-built luxury cabin in the woods. This will be a relaxing family vacay. A much-needed one for me. I am going to burrito myself in blankets and watch movies like The Blob, The Bad Seed and Watcher in the Woods (all old versions) while eating Twizzlers. I am going to hot tub it up and look at the stars. We are also going to a local festival. Fun, fun, fun. 

One of my co-workers reminded me that I am going into an a cabin in the woods…during Halloween month…when the new Michael Myers Halloween movie comes out…where there have been multiple bigfoot sightings…and there are black bears, gars and alligators. Yeehaw! What did I say about relaxing again?!?!

Dyslexia

Inside my brain

When I have time, I have been doodle journaling to relieve stress and focus my thoughts. I think it also helps me to see what I should be thankful about. So here are some pages so you can see inside my brain!

New Anchor Charts and All About Graphic Organizers

Anchors A-weigh!!

Here are some neat anchor charts I found.

Chart beginning sounds! I would do this with my Prek/K kids.

I love that this teaches kids different strategies for math!

From Dr. Clement's Kindergarten's post on Facebook. 

This is good for your early finishers and to also get your students to check their work.

I love this idea to encourage daily interaction!

From Teach Create Initiate, this is good during center time.

A kid-friendly rubric with examples.

Great literacy chart on teaching the differences in letters, words and sentences.

I like that this story map can be re-used. It is a great way to connect to text!

So about graphic organizers... My favorite thing is to take a graphic organizer and put it on chart paper for the students and I to fill out. Then we hang it for future reference on the wall. I like the Post-It giant chart paper the best, but that is pricey, so you can even cut up butcher paper or poster board can work. My students always enjoy using the “smelly markers” (Mr. Sketch brand) for writing on the charts. If you laminate the charts, you can re-use them.

fRiYAy FuNYAYs!

Coincidence? I think not!