Easy Fiction Activity with 1st Grade

Last week I started teaching 1st grade students about the arrangement of our easy fiction section.  Or as I like to remind them, not all of the E Fiction books are easy, but they are short. After brief overview of how the books are arranged, pointing out the guide letters on the shelves, etc. I give out laminated book jackets that I have attached oversized spine labels.  I love these laminated book jackets...but I think I will devote a whole other blog to the many ways I use them.

1st grade students who have alphabetized themselves by their author's last name.

Alphabetical Order

I then hand out the laminated book jackets, have everyone put their finger on the "E" of their call number and then move their finger down to the author's name (or the 3 letters of the author's last name).  If I don't do this they all say their author's last name begins with an "e".  I then ask if anyone's author's name begins with an "a" and have that student come up in line.  We proceed until we make it all the way through the alphabet. I have included at least 2 authors whose last name begin with the same letter.  "Oh my...what do we do when we have 2 words that begin with the same letter?"  There is always at least one student who answers that we go to the second letter.

Proceed to the Shelves

I have them stay in ABC order and follow the leader (me).  I show each student how to use the guide letters to find the shelf where their author's book would be found. This is the first step in helping them become independent library users who can find books they want to read on their own!

Bring in Nature & Spark Curiosity

I bring natural objects into the library media center frequently and put them on the circulation desk.  I usually place a book next to the object that gives information about it.   These displays spark lots of questions, comments, observations, and conversations.  Sometimes I post a series of questions using the International Baccalaureate concept questions (form, function, causation, responsibility, etc).  Often I have a couple of magnifying lens out for the students to use.

Science Standards

Having these displays help students toward meeting the Georgia Performance Standards in Science, for instance in the Characteristics of Science, Habits of Mind for all the grade levels (K-5) with some variation states: " Students will be aware of the importance of curiosity, honesty, openness, and skepticism in science and will exhibit these traits in their own efforts to understand how the world works.  Raise questions about the world around them and be willing to seek answers to some of the questions by making careful observations and measurements and trying to figure things out. Students will use tools and instruments for observing, measuring, and manipulating objects in scientific activities. Use ordinary hand tools and instruments to construct, measure, and look at objects."

Cricket frogs?

Cricket Frog?

A couple of weeks ago we were inundated with very small frogs (about 3/4 inches).  I collected a few from my yard and put them in a jar.  I tried to key them using a field guide and I think they might be cricket frogs, but they are so darned small!  I placed a book about frogs next to the jar along with magnifying lens.

This morning I gathered some mushrooms and brought them in.  I placed World Book Discovery Encyclopedia behind the mushrooms.  I got a new idea and included the Spanish edition of the encyclopedia, too.  Hongo is the Spanish word for mushroom!

Naturalistic Learners

In one of my graduate classes we are reading about different learning styles and I realized this practice that I have been doing for years is appealing to our students who are naturalistic learners.  It also freaks out others (and that's okay)!