Today ... Jane Goodall and Chimpanzee

I boxed up 100 extra wooden shelf dividers that have been sitting on the bottom of carts or in the back of cabinets for 10 years. #teacherscanbepackrats #ofcourseitsalsotheactofcongressneededtoremoveanythingfromschoolproperty

Finished up a new Nook content order. Wish we could have gotten a tablet one for to use the rest of our content money but the timing was off. I'll update the EReaders in the Library post as soon as it's all clear.

We watched some video clips from Chimpanzee/DisneyNature and talked about our observations. Then we read Me ... Jane. That was it with kinders. With first grade we also printed out the handprints from the educator's packet on the Disney site and measured several things around the library. Was going to have them record their findings but we ran out of time. I'm not always the best at math integration so this was a step forward for me. Something I've been meaning to do all year.




Naptime Or Playtime on Disney Video

AWESOME Kid Version of Ms. Nelson Is Missing

OK. Apologize for the double posting on the blog today (and FB or Pinterest followers already saw this) ... but I can't wait until later in the week to share. It is TOO adorable. I love, love, love it. Their little accents when singing "This Used to Be My Playground." Their ACTING! And line delivery! And they are KINDERS, my friends. KINDERS.

BRAVO.

Earth Day

I like to pretend I'm "green." And in terms of recycling I'm pretty good. Reusing ... getting there. Reducing ... eh. That one needs some work. Composting ... ugh. Not going to happen for some time yet.

But this time of year (and hey ... it IS in the standards, taking care of the environment!) our thoughts turn to the planet and how we can take better care of it.

These are some of my favorite books relating to Earth Day and conservation.

Here's a freebie preview page from a packet I just put on TPT. Pic is from Scrappin Doodles and the fonts from Hello Literacy. I saved it as a jpeg so you may have to fiddle a bit to get the printing right ... I think I set it to 8.2 X 10.7? Apologies for being lazy and not uploading to Google Drive. Still on burnt out test brain. WHY is it sitting and watching is so exhausting?

PS If you happen to be anywhere near my hometown ... or want to get ready for cinco de MAYO ... check out the links on my Printables page. There are some freebie library display signs there. ;) And some animal themed bookmarks. Which aren't very green to keep copying but hey, it's steps at a time.

Head over to The Centered School Library to check out all of the other teacher librarian blogs. Is yours not there? ADD IT!

Finally Friday Pins April 5

It's cinco de abril! What does that mean?


Nothing. It's just been a week of testing. I'm giddy with silly jokes. My brain is FRIED.

And Pinterest has made embedding things lots harder. :( I wonder if that was on purpose. Anyway.













I don't sew. But I'm seriously considering asking my mom to make this (maybe with the upcoming Mo Willems' Cloud9 fabric?) for all the things I misplace during the day. Pens. Scissors. Cabinet keys. It's not cool how often I misplace things.

Read the Shelf Challenge

Finally starting today. Shouldn't actually be too hard ... maybe. Depends on how many kids check out books from that shelf as well!
Here are today's selections. Many of our books are not actually this new or pretty. Of course which did I grab first?

I,J,K is for ... & Ramblings

OOH. Hard ones ... so I'm combining to get on to ones with something more interesting. This is all my brain is capable of after day one of test giving. You know how it feels. But hey! Day one down! How many more to go?

Also ... do you have any better ones for I, J, or K? I feel like they are getting the short straw.



iDevices. Likin' 'em more and more. And less and less, if that makes sense. Awesome personal devices. Not so great when it's a shared device. Do believe I mentioned that in the #petpeeve post.

Ink. I use a lot of it since Pinterest and TPT. So many fun printables.

I just went through my Goodreads lists (read and TBR). Only one I author. Rachel Isadora. Don't have much to say ... read one, one on the TBR. The one I have read was not my favorite by a long shot but wasn't terrible by any means. Worth taking a look at to see if it will be your favorite.



Jon Klassen ... he counts for both!
The kids and I totally <3 I Want My Hat Back and This Is Not My Hat. And Extra Yarn. Get 'em. Read 'em. Repeat. I still love my clipboard I made with bear in his red hat on it.

Oh, that reminds me. Lita Judge. Red Hat.


empty Kleenex boxes
I put them behind books (this only works on shelves where most of the books are about the same depth ... so it works awesomely on series shelves, less so on others) on the shelves. That way, when kids are super helpful the shelves still stay looking nice. It's that nitpicky librarian thing again. Books should be at the FRONT of the shelves! At least in the library. At home sometimes they get pushed back because there are knickknacks in front of the books. But I even avoid that when I can! I've been meaning to take a pic of a shelf with the books all nicely lined up at the front of the shelf. But then you'd see that they're not in alpha order like they should be.


Unrelated ...

#WAYRM April 1 & Currently

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read the previous week and to plan out your reading for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.
GREAT IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for title ideas.


If you're here for Farley's "Currently" ... scroll down to the bottom!


The Book of Time by Guillaume Prévost
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Frustrated ... this one seems like it could have been really cool. And maybe if you keep reading on in the series it is. Time travel. Mystery. Usually exactly my thing.

I just felt like it took WAY too long to get to the real story. Like with a little tighter editing book one and two could have been combined. Lots of detail that turns out to not mean much, in terms of the final paragraphs.

Fearless by Elvira Woodruff
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Liked the story ... it's a grand adventure. Some of the writing seemed a little ... is heavy handed the correct term?

Anyway. Inspired by a real person I'm now very curious to look up this man who invented the first "Magic House."


Ready for Anything! by Keiko Kasza
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh how cute. I am going through my bookshelf finding books to donate to our PTA sale. Picked this one up once but ... Eeek! Hadn't ever actually read it until today. Now I want to keep it to remind myself "what ifs" shouldn't rule everything.


Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot by Anna Branford
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I hope there are more to come. Violet has great potential.
Perfect for those readers chomping at the bit for "chapter books."




Return to the Willows by Jacqueline Kelly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved it. The author captured the characters, their voices and quirks, all of it. So perfectly. The illustrator's work is just lovely ... the picture of Humphrey might be my favorite.

This is one you read for the characters and not necessarily the "action." Toad is up to his old tricks. Will he never learn?

I want to get a copy for our school collection so I can see ... as much as I loved it I'm. actually not sure what kids will think.

Red Hat by Lita Judge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ever so cute! I like the first one best but this is a close second. Will need to practice for read alouds ... the very few words on each page are more ... sounds than words.


The Death Collector by Justin Richards
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Great possibilities ... just a little work needed in the actual execution.

I enjoy a mystery. Check!
Victorian England. Check!
Zombies. Check!
Dinosaurs. OK, a stretch and not my normal but check!
A story that "works" well enough to make me suspend disbelief. Not quite.
But I may look up more books in the series ... just to see if they can improve.



OK. This week I really may get to some of my E-ARCS. Or maybe I'll continue on the "read all the books I've picked up here or there but have been sitting on the shelf for years." Though it will be too late to donate them to the PTA sale. That's what finally got me going this week. ;) #springcleaning