MG Chapter Book Series

Our media center is set up so that students can easily browse for books that they want to read and are able to read independently.  One of the sections in our media center houses our middle grade chapter books.  In our media center, these are chapter books with older characters and may have more mature or intense content, and are therefore reserved for our 4th and 5th graders as policy set forth by our media committee several years ago.

To make locating a book even easier, I use Demco book stops to label  the series, if we have at least 3 books in a series.  Since I began using book stops, students are much more independent when they are looking for books, which helps when I am stuck behind the circulation desk.

Middle Grade books are also given a neon green call number sticker to make them easy to locate and shelf.


The books in our middle grade chapter book section often become super popular and are moved to the Wildcat Favorites section.   (see the post about Wildcat Favorites HERE) This is a current list of the series books that are in the middle grade chapter books in our media center:

Orgami Yoda
The Secret Series
Dear Dumb Diary
Urban Outlaws
Middle School Princess
Allie Finkle's Rule for Girls
The Heir Chronicles
The Underland Chronicles
Matched
The City of Ember
The Mother-Daughter Book Club
The Tomorrow Girls
Charlie Joe Jackson
The Shadow Children
The Missing
Horizon
13 Treasures
Warriors
Pippa Morgan's Diary
Master Mind
The Hypnotists
Loser List
Theodore Boone
Kingdom Keepers
Game Changers
Clone Codes
Willow Falls
My Sister the Vampire
Stay Alive
Riley Bloom
Tombquest
Treasure Hunters
Omega City
Poison Apple
Dead City
Olivia Kidney
Stranded
Rotten Apple
Everyday Angel
Guys Read
Sammy Keyes


Do you have a "mature" section in your library media center?  What series are kept there?

Everybody Book Series

Our media center is set up so that students can easily browse for books that they want to read and are able to read independently.  One of the sections in our media center houses our everybody picture books, sometimes referred to as easy books or picture books.

These books are placed on the shelf in alphabetical order by author's last name, but occasionally I will place them on top of the shelf on a smaller "spotlight" to save shelf space.

To make locating a book even easier, I use Demco book stops to label the series, if we have at least 3 books in a series.  Since I began using book stops, students are much more independent when they are looking for books, which helps when I am stuck behind the circulation desk.

This is a current list of the series books that are in the everybody picture books in our media center:

Clifford
Arthur
Miss Nelson
Fly Guy
Jan Brett
Matt Christopher
Slippers
Curdoroy
There Was an Old Lady
Click, Clack, Moo
Tommy dePola
Llama Llama
Pout Pout Fish
Miss Malarky
Little Monsters
Flat Stanley
Marley
Eric Carle
Kevin Henkes
Pinkalicious
Library Mouse
Little Critter
If You Give...
Amelia Bedelia
LEGO City
Froggy
Patricia Polacco
LEGO Ninjago
Fancy Nancy
Olivia
Pete the Cat
Rainbow Fish
Uni the Unicorn
Cynthia Rylant
Pig Kahuna
Skippyjon Jones
Splat the Cat
Turkey Trouble
Ladybug Girl
Chris VanAllsburg
Curious George
Scooby Doo
Spongbob
Star Wars
Scaredy Squirrel
Seuss

What series or authors do you have in the picture book section of your library media center?

Lion Lessons Freebie

Yesterday was the first day of spring, so I thought I would read a fun new-to-me book to my kindergarten and firsties about lions.

Source

We read Lion Lessons by Jon Agee.  I received this book (and a few other books) free a couple of weeks ago from my Perma-Bound rep when he came to meet with me.  Have I mentioned how much I love Perma-Bound?

After reading the book, we discussed how spring comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. We talked about what a lion does, how it acts.  I showed them  a video I found on THIS link from National Geographic Kids.  We compared the lion in the video to the lion in the story.  They also enjoyed looking at the gallery of lion pictures on this page.

We also reviewed the story, mentioning how the story is make believe because real lions don't talk or wear clothes.  We talked about the different settings the lion and boy go to throughout the story and we reviewed the steps for becoming a lion.  

Students then went to their tables to complete THIS review sheet.  You can download your own copy to use from my Google Drive.  Just click HERE and then click the download button in the top right hand corner of your screen and save the file.

Do you have any books you love to read for spring?

*I'm an affiliate for things I've bought or used personally.  If you click through any referral links (if included), at no cost to you, I will earn a commission if you make a purchase.  Thank you for your support in this way.

Fun Fall Fiction and Non-fiction Freebies

I like to focus on the difference between fiction and non-fiction at this time of the year with my kinders and firsties which is great because there are so many great fall and Halloween books to read.

To go along with first grade's apple unit I use these 2 books to talk about fiction and non-fiction...

The Mouse and the Apple by Stephen Butler

The Zieglers and Their Apple Orchard by Alice Flanagan

Using these books, we also begin to talk about character, setting, and plot.

For fun, I use these fun fiction books about fall and Halloween with my kinders...

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams

Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds

These books are also great to use to talk about character, setting and plot.

I have made activity sheets to go along with each of these books and have bundled all of these into one fun freebie for you.  You can download it HERE.  Let me know what you think.

Happy Fall!

Creepy Fun

Creepy Carrots!

$12.58 on Amazon

I have been using the book Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds with my kindergarten and fourth grade classes for a little Halloween fun.

I am trying to get over a little cold and don't have much of a voice, so I found this YouTube video of someone reading the book and showed it to both my kindergarten and fourth grade classes.

For my kindergarten classes, we discussed what type of book this was...fiction...and what made it fiction.  Then I let them draw their own creepy carrot.  You can download the coloring sheet for free HERE.

Here are some of the finished products.  

You may remember from THIS post that one of my requirements, er, um, goals this year is to get STEM certified.  To do that, I have to teach 5 STEM lessons. I decided to do a STEM lesson based on this book.

I found THIS fun Creepy Carrots! STEM lesson  from Smart Chick Teaching Resources on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Students had to create a fence that would contain a carrot using the fewest number of craft sticks, but the fence had to be as high as the carrot was tall.

Here are a few of their project designs.  Some were more successful than others, but they all seemed to have a good time with it.

Overall, it was a pretty fun, if not creepy week.  What fun things do you do for Halloween?

*I'm an affiliate for things I've bought or used personally.  If you click through any referral links (if included), at no cost to you, I will earn a commission if you make a purchase.  Thank you for your support in this way.

Teaching the Fiction Sections in My Media Center

My Media Center has several smaller fiction sections within the fiction section.  Not every Media Center is going to have these sections, so here is an explanation of what you'll find in my Media Center...

I mark this section with a large and small print sticker on each spine so it's easy to know where to shelve these books.  It saved me from having to print and redo a bunch of call number stickers.

The first two years I was in the Media Center I called this section the Easy section, but decided to change it to the Everybody section to make it more friendly for the upper grades.

I may start calling this section the Everybody Chapter Book section, but for now it's still the Easy chapter book section.

You can read more about how and why I created this section here.

I mark books in this section with a paw print sticker to make them easy to shelve.  You can read more about the Wildcat favorite section here.

After reviewing theses sections of the Media Center, I had second grade complete this worksheet as an assessment of whether or not they understood the call numbers of the different fiction areas. You probably won't be able to use it unless you have the same sections in your Media Center, but maybe it will give you a lesson idea.

I also reviewed these sections with third, fourth, and fifth grades, as well as reviewed how to use Destiny to search for a book. Then I had them go on a scavenger hunt to find books on the shelf to see if they could read and use a Destiny search result.  I tried the scavenger hunt with one second grade class, but they weren't quite ready for it yet, so I had to back up a bit.

They really enjoyed the scavenger hunt and it made a lot of them realize how important it was to actually read the signs on the shelves to help them find books quickly and easily.  It also helped me see which students are still struggling with locating books on the shelf based on call numbers.  

Here are the scavenger hunt pages I used.  Again, you might not be able to use these unless you have these exact books in your library, but it may give you another lesson idea.

So those were my August lessons.  Maybe you can find something you can use.  =)

Most Popular Titles of the Year...Fiction

Today I will reveal the most popular fiction titles in my Media Center for 2012-2013.

Sharing the number 10 spot was Framed by Gordon Korman and Lose, Team, Lose by R.L. Stine.

At number 9, coincidentally, was Attack of the Mutant Underwear by Tom Birdseye and Attack of the Vampire Weenies by David Lubar.

Coming in at number 8 was13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison and Hideout by Gordon Korman.

School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari was number 7.

Number 6 was a tie between The Capture by Kathryn Lasky, No Passengers Beyond This Point by Geniffer Choldenko and Tucket's Gold by Gary Paulsen.

Sharing the spot at number 5 was Matilda by Roald Dahl, The Report Card by Andrew Clements and The Sisters Club by Megan McDonald.

In at number 4 was Confectionately Yours: Save the Cupcake! by Lisa Papdemetriou.

The number 3 spot went to Nothing Wrong with a Three-Legged Dog by Graham McNamee.

The second most checked out fiction book was Swindle by Gordon Korman.

And the number one most checked out fiction book was Cloudy with a Chance of Boys, part of the Sisters Club trilogy by Megan McDonald.

Stay tuned for more of the most popular titles of the year!

*I'm an affiliate for things I've bought or used personally.  If you click through any referral links (if included), at no cost to you, I will earn a commission if you make a purchase.  Thank you for your support in this way.