The 70's Called...

The library was "overdue" for a makeover.  The orange counter tops and light blue cabinets had to go.  The walls needed a fresh look too.  Even the posters were outdated.  You may remember an earlier post, My Dream Library.  It's finally starting to become a reality (at least close to reality).

The 70's Want Their Counters Back

A Quick Fix

An answer to my prayer came when a friend contacted me, and asked if my school had any projects for her Eagle Scout son. With the help of his mom, dad, girlfriend, and two other scouts, we brought the library into the 21st Century.

Already Looking Better

Before

After

I'm still putting things back together.  With a very small budget, I'm recycling, using the Cricut, and using Dollar Tree finds to decorate. 

I really wanted to cut the old encyclopedias into letters to spell out fiction and nonfiction. For now the encyclopedias are covered with adhesive shelf liner from Dollar Tree and duct tape.  The crate seats were covered with paw print fabric which I had cut out to make my sister's dog a dog bed (The dog left with the ex.).  The crate seats will hold stuffed animals and puppets for students to read to. :)

Instead of painting the teacher work spaces, I used the "granite" adhesive shelf liner and duct tape to make the 70's disappear.

New Granite Counters

We were not able to install new laminate counters, per maintenance department.  We sanded, primed, and painted/covered the counters instead.  The doors will remain closed to the kitchenettes.  They still have orange counters.

More pictures will be added soon.

Celebrating Children's Books

Due to End-of-Year testing, we celebrated Children's Book Week one week late.  It was also the last week of school, so we combined our field day and book character parade.  The art teacher came up with the idea to have a book themed field day to go along with our book character parade.  It worked out great, because after field day, we used the station signs to decorate the path of the parade.  During our spring Book Fair, the students voted for our principal to dress up as Sponge Bob.  Personally, I don't consider Sponge Bob to be a book character. 

The day began with our field day.  Some of the events were The Very Hungry Caterpillar Obstacle Course, Green Eggs and Ham Relay, Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau Relay, a modified version of Quidditch, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Bean Bag Toss, Hop on Pop Sack Race, and many other awesome book themed games.

One my favorite events

Green Eggs and Ham Relay

Students had to dress a teammate in scuba gear for Manfish...

Students worked on their math skills with this "Quidditch" game.

Can you believe  Mouse was once a clown? 

The sack race is always a POPular event.

After lunch, students and staff were replaced with book characters.  Some of the student characters were; Clifford the Big Red Dog, Fancy Nancy, Alice in Wonderland, Little Red Riding Hood, The Grouchy Ladybug, Charlie Brown, and others.  Some of the staff characters were; Olivia, Fancy Nancy, Pirate,  Mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, The Cat in the Hat, Chicka, Chicka..., Thunder Rose, Sponge Bob, and others.  The Dance Team performed before the parade.

Charlie Brown with Snoopy

Thunder Rose, Sponge Bob, and Fancy Nancy Doing the Cupid Shuffle

A Mouse and Her Cookie

Olivia, Cat, and Medusa

We received several compliments about the field day and book character parade.  We look forward to doing it again next spring.  I hope to get the students more involved with planning and set up next year.

Reading Conference Rocks

I am proud to be part of an organization that brings the community together in a big way each spring.  The Reading Association sponsors the Catch the Reading Bug Community Reading Conference every year.  It has been so successful that we had to move to a bigger location this year.  Even with the bigger location, we were still packed.

Big Bang Boom, Dolly Dozier, Chad Cameron, Pete the Cat, Little Critter, Clifford, and the Teacher from the Black Lagoon helped us celebrate a day of literacy activities.

This year, our school decided to connect science with reading.  Participants followed directions to make Oobleck.  We wanted to address the Common Core Standard of reading informational text, by having children read a recipe.  With so many food allergies, we didn't want to have food.  The art teacher suggested making slime.  Our "Book Hook" was Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Our table was so popular that we ran out of glue.  We had to reduce our ingredients, but we gave the recipe to the participants so they can try it at home. We also gave them a list of children's books that inspire science activities.

The student volunteers were great. It was wonderful having so many helpers who didn't mind getting messy.  We all had green fingers by the end of the day.

...Fun Is Good

We celebrated Read Across America by honoring Dr. Seuss. during the week of February 25-March 1.  On Monday, students and staff wore their favorite hat or crazy hair for The Cat in the Hat Day.

For the book, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish!, the girls wore red and the boys wore blue on Tuesday.  Wacky Wednesday Day was the most fun, when students and staff wore their wackiest outfits.  

On Thursday, students and staff proved that I Can Read With My Eyes Shut, by wearing sunglasses.   

Cool Kinders

We finished the week by dressing up as our favorite Dr. Seuss character. “Cindy Lou Who”, “Cat in the Hat”, “The Grinch”, “Horton” and “Things 1 & 2” were part of our celebration. There was even one “Cat Inside the Hat”. 

 

Teacher Things

Pam I Am

The Principal Meets the Grinch

Several classrooms did Dr. Seuss themed activities.  In the library, students graphed their favorite Dr. Seuss book. Thanks to Cari Young at The Centered School Library, students also estimated how many goldfish crackers were in a fish bowl.  The winner was able to keep the fish bowl full of crackers.  Students, who came for book exchanges in the morning, had a chance to toss the “cat” into a hat. There were a few guest readers in classrooms.  Some students in one class were surprised and excited to see their former teacher who planned to read to them, during a Skype.  We had a small technical problem, but the teacher will be Skyping with the class on Monday.

Guest Reader

Pin the Egg on the Plate

Thank you, Cari

Dictionary Skills

While Kindergarten and first graders learned about Groundhog Day and shadows, the second graders practiced using dictionary skills.  Second grade students were asked to use a glossary or a dictionary to define pitch, echo, sound, vibration, and other science words.  I pulled all the nonfiction books about sound that we have in the library.  I provided two different dictionaries for the students.  The students were told to choose the best definition for each word.  You can see how serious they were about their task.  The students will experiment with pitch by playing a simple song on some home-made Boom Whackers/Palm Pipes.