Kindergarteners Heart Playaways

I've been trying to think of new ways to incorporate technology into my classroom and playaways were an excellent idea!  The John B. Dey elementary school has 78 playaways for students to check out (very impressive!) for students in fourth and fifth grade.  Recently, playaways have included beloved picture books for younger audiences and I was able to borrow 4 from the Chesapeake Library to use in my classroom.  All the playaways featured quality literature and I matched the playways with books from my classroom or the school library.  We were missing a few books and I just told the kiddos to visualize the story when that story came on because that is what older kids do (they loved that idea).  The best part were that many of the stories were familiar because we had watched them on Bookflix or read the books in class.  The students who tried the playaways love it!  It was simple to set up and use- kindergarteners can certainly do this activity independently.  Remember when you were a kid and listened to books on tape?  This is listening to books for 21st Century.  My first grader also loves to listen to playaways in the car (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Treasure Island are a few that have kept him busy listening for hours).

Thursday is Library Day:)

Hi parents! We had to tweak our class routine for checking out library books. In the past, I have always had my kindergarten students check books out each day they brought one back. But this year our school population has expanded- we have added a new class in several grade levels and have almost 900 students in our school (we are currently the second largest elementary school in Virginia Beach). Anyways, we have tried really hard to do daily checkout this past few days and it is a bit overwelming for our cute little kindergarten students because so many older students are using the library. Our grade level has decided to let the older students establish their library routines first and then later we will try daily checkout in all kindergarten classes. We will now only checkout books on Thursdays- so please make sure your child brings back their library back before or on Thursday of each week. Thanks!

Library Lessons on Thursdays

Today was library day and your child was able to check out a book to take home. In my class each day a child brings back a library book they are able to check out a new book. Last year I had several students who checked out a new book each day! Occasionally the library is closed for special events- if this happens I will post it on twitter and your child will check out a book the next day. Your child will be responsible for taking the library book out of their backpacks each day. Occasionally we might have a mix up where your child's book is returned, but they didn't bring a new one home (keeping track of 44 students who may or may not bring back library books can get a little confusing for subs or half days). If this happens simply put a note in your child's folder or email me and we will fix the situation immediately. Thanks!

100 Books!

I was so surprised today when I received data from our school library about how many books all of my kindergarten friends had checked out this year- 2069! WOW! We also had a group that checked out over 100 books this year from our school library (pictured above). This is the first year that someone in my class has checked out over 100 books and it was five students! Great job to everyone in my class for making reading a priority at home. Because of SOLS, we are really not able to checkout books this week or next because the library is being used as a testing area. I'll keep you posted on any new updates. Thanks!