It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey.  The kid's version was started by the lovely ladies at Teach Mentor Text.

This week has been a very hard week for my family and I. I will get into that in a bit.  As a result, I didn't get a lot of reading done.

I did manage to read one really fun book called Ferret Fun by Karen Rostoker-Gruber.  Click here for a description from Goodreads.  This book just made me laugh.  I loved how it was in a graphic novel format.  This would be a great way to teach younger students how to read graphic novels.  The illustrations were wonderful in this story.  They really added to the enjoyment of the book.


I also finished rereading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling.  This was a way to escape for me this week.  I'm soon going to be starting Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  Which I think is my favorite of the whole series!

Last week my family lost a long-time friend.  Betty was more than just a friend, she was family.  She and my father worked together from 1980 until he retired in 2007.  She has been like a second mother to me since I was five years old.  I don't remember a time without her in my life.  Betty was the most generous, kind person I have ever met.  There was never stranger in her life, they were just friends she hadn't met.  Her voice may be silent, but all of us who knew her will keep her spirit alive by embracing our inner Betty.  

Her funeral is on Thursday, I will be happy when this week is over.  She always wore red.  So I will be rocking my red on Thursday as I celebrate her life.

Happy Reading!!  

And make sure you tell those near and dear to you, how much you love them.

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

Adopt a Shelf Program

Adopt a Shelf

In my last post I mentioned about the Adopt a Shelf Program.  This program was introduced to my on Twitter, by @WESMediaCenter.  She explained that it was like the Adopt a Highway program.  Students get to adopt a shelf and take care of it, making sure that it is straightened up, dusted, the books are in order and only the books that belong on that shelf are there.  I loved the idea!  This would give the students some ownership and maybe they would take a little bit more care of all the shelves in the Media Center.

Now that I had this idea, I was stuck on how to have the students apply.  I didn't want to have to recreate the wheel, so I starting searching online.  I came across many Public Library applications for an Adopt a Shelf Program.  These gave me ideas, but they were not really what I was looking for.  Then I came across the blog for Smithville Elementary Library.  She had an online application for her students for an Adopt a Shelf Program.  I was able to get in contact with @seslibrary through Twitter. (Which if you haven't joined Twitter yet, I highly recommend it!)  @seslibrary was very helpful because she sent me a copy of her form.  I was so thankful because it helped me out a lot.  I was also wanting to be a little environmental friendly by using less paper.  The form that @seslibrary created was using Goggle Docs form.  It took me about ten minutes to create my application.  Now all of the applicants information will be recorded on a spreedsheet that I can access.   Once I make my selections I will give them a permission slip for their teacher to fill out.

I'm going to start small with my ten fiction shelves.  I've already got many students already interested and wanting to pick their shelves.  My favorite question about the program from a student was: "What if you don't have anybody apply?"  If the students do well with the fiction shelves I will expand it out to my everybody shelves.  I'll keep posting updates on how it is going!

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

Library Shelf Frustration

Over the past few weeks, I've been looking at my fiction and everybody shelves and have not been very happy!  The fiction shelves seem so crowded to me, which doesn't make it easy to find books.  I've been watching my students and many of them just go to the same shelves and the same books.  I want them to branch out and experience more.  The everybody shelves also are crowded and many times the books are falling over because of some of my younger students looking through them.  There is not enough hours in the day for me to straighten up all the shelves every day.  

I'm a mentor in my county, and I went to go visit the person I'm mentoring a few months ago.  She has done great things in her library to really make it her own.  One thing that she had done was add a lot of baskets to her shelves.  She put many of the smaller books, like Elephant and Piggie by Mo Willems into baskets.  This seemed to keep her shelves a lot neater.  She also said that students were able to find many books more easily and independently.

I ordered baskets and last week they finally came in.  I started in the fiction section because I want to start a new program with my 4th and 5th graders.  The new program is called Adopt a Shelf.  I'll post about this soon.  Starting in the fiction section has allowed me to once again weed the section.  It pained me to have to remove some of the books, but condition and the 1970's or early 1980's covers were not ones that were being checked out.  Also the layer of dust on the books gave me a clue as well.  The books that got to me the most were the Ramona books.  But I read online that HarperCollins will be re-issuing the Ramona books with updated covers.  I will be on the look-out for those books!

This is a picture of what my first two fiction shelves look like with the baskets!  I just love the way it looks!  I think that it looks more interesting and inviting to the students.  When I read books in a series, I have to read them in order.  I don't like when I start in the middle of a series.  I've noticed that some of the series have no numbers listed on them or the numbers are so small you can't really see them.  So I'm in the process of adding this to many of my series in the Media Center.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey.  The kid's version was started by the lovely ladies at Teach Mentor Text.

Once again to prepare for my school's visit from Henry Cole, I have been reading many of his books.  I came across two that he illustrated that I just fell in love with and will be purchasing for my library.

The first was Surfer Chick written by Kristy Dempsey and illustrated by Henry Cole.  Click here for a description from Goodreads.  I really enjoyed rhythm of the story, along with the surfer lingo.  There are lots of times that this story to be used in your library.  Of course first is summer, but this is also a great story about father's and daughters.  I knew that this was a great story when my students asked me to read it again.  Henry Cole's illustrations in this book are wonderful.  I love how he can put so much detail in personality into his characters.

The second book was I Know a Wee Piggy by Kim Norman and illustrated by Henry Cole.  Click here for a description from Goodreads.  This book is a great one for predictions and teaching colors.  This book reminded me of the I Know an Old Women series.  The kids loved being able to call out what color they thought/knew was coming next.  I really loved how the color words were in that color.  I just fell for the illustration of the pig on the front cover.  I would have bought it just for that illustration alone.


I've also been rereading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling.  I had a very difficult day at school on Friday, in fact my whole staff did in one way or another.  I wanted something that would take my mind off everything and one where I won't have to think too much about the story.  This book did the trick.  And even though it is most likely my 7th or 8th time reading it, I still am discovering new things that I hadn't noticed before.

I need to start working on my bookgap, nonfiction, again.  I have a whole stack, that I need to start reading.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

I LOVE My Media Center Because...

I wanted to decorate our Media Center for Valentine's Day!  Another Media Specialist posted on Twitter this activity and I just jumped on it!  I made a heart on the computer and wrote inside:  I LOVE my Media Center because...  The students during check out time had the opportunity to finish the sentence.  It was great to see so many students who wanted to fill out a heart.  I loved all the responses that were written on the hearts!  Here are a few of my favorites!

I LOVE my Media Center because it has lots of books.

I LOVE my Media Center because I love checking 

out books and doing Power Points and projects.

I LOVE my Media Center because I can check out cool books.

I LOVE my Media Center because I like to check out books.

I LOVE my Media Center because they have all of my favorite books.

I LOVE my Media Center because I can check out EPIC books 

and visit Miss Hazuda.

I LOVE my Media Center because they have great books and 

I've been introduced to some really great series.

I LOVE my Media Center because the teachers are nice.

If you happen to find yourself in HES during February, feel free to stop by and read some hearts!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey.  The kid's version was started by the lovely ladies at Teach Mentor Text.

I felt like I did a lot of reading this week, but it was only a few books that I finished. 

Last week I started reading Bomb by Steve Sheinkin.  I finished it this week.  It was a very good read and I can see why it won a Newbery Honor Award.  I'm a big history buff, so I was intrigued by this time period.  I didn't know a lot about it, but I knew enough to recognize names and major events.  I found it sometimes reading like a fiction story, which made it all the more interesting to me because it was all about real events in our history.  I did find with this book, I had to really focus on the book and couldn't really read many others.  I checked out Sheinkin's The Notorious Benedict Arnold at the library because I enjoyed Bomb so much.  I'm interested to see if it captivates me as much as Bomb did.

When I went to Physical Therapy last Monday, I forgot Bomb at home.  So I needed a book to read while I had heat on my leg at the beginning and the end of therapy.  So I picked one off my library shelves that I've always wanted to read but haven't.  That book was NERDS:  National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society by Michael Buckley.  After I started this book my main thought was:  How have I not read this book before?  I can see why my kids love it.  There is the right amount of action and adventure mixed with pulling the wool over some adults eyes.  I can't wait to start the next one in the series.  With Michael Buckley starting rewrites on book five, I have a bit to catch up on.

Hope to get some more reading done this week.  I'm also setting myself a goal to post more than once this week.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92) 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey.  The kid's version was started by the lovely ladies at Teach Mentor Text.

I wish that I had a huge list for my post today, but I haven't doing much reading.  Well, I have been reading, but I've been reading the same books.  I've been preparing my kids for our visit for Henry Cole.  So we have been reading many of the books that he illustrated.  Which means I've been reading and rereading them throughout the week.  I've got to get my 3rd-5th caught up with the books so they are familiar with them.

I did pick up Bomb:  The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by: Steve Sheinkin.  I am enjoying this book so far.  I'll do a more in-depth review once I finish the book.  I love history, and this is a time period that I'm not as familiar with, so I'm even more motivated to read it.  After looking at the list of the author's other books, I might have to check the library for more.




Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)