Top 10 Easy Chapter Books of the Year

And now it's time for the top 10 easy chapter books checked out in 2013-2014.

#10 was a tie between

The Seven Treasure Hunts by Betsy Byars,

Little Horse on His Own by Betsy Byars,

Little Horse by Betsy Byars,

Henry and Mudge and the Bedtime Thumps by Cynthia Rylant,

The Buddy Files: The Case of the School Ghost by Dori Hillestad Butler, and

Boo's Surprise by Betsy Byars

with 14 checkouts each.

#9 was a tie between

Henry and Mudge and Annie's Perfect Pet by Cynthia Rylant and 

Mr. Putter and Tabby Walk the dog by Cynthia Rylant

with 15 checkouts each.

#8 was a tie between

Henry and Mudge and the Happy Cat by Cynthia Rylant and 

Henry and Mudge in the Puddle of Trouble by Cynthia Rylant

with 16 checkouts each.

#7 was Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night by Cynthia Rylant

with 17 checkouts.

#6 was a tie between

The Buddy Files: The Case of the Mixed Up Mutts by Dori Hillestad Butler,

Cam Jansen: The Mystery of the UFO by David A. Adler, and 

Henry and Mudge and the Big Sleepover by Cynthia Rylant

with 18 checkouts each.

#5 was a tie between

Nancy Clancy Super Sleuth by Jane O'Connor and 

Henry and Mudge: The First Book by Cynthia Rylant

with 19 checkouts each.

#4 was a tie between

Henry and Mudge in the Sparkle Days by Cynthia Rylant,

Mr.Putter and Tabby Pick the Pears by Cynthia Rylant, and

Mr. Putter and Tabby Paint the Porch by Cynthia Rylant 

with 20 checkouts each.

#3 was a tie between

Henry and Mudge Get the Cold Shivers by Cynthia Rylant and

Mr. Putter and Tabby Feed the Fish by Cynthia Rylant.

Both had 21 checkouts.

#2 was Mr.Putter and Tabby Take the Train by Cynthia Rylant

with 22 checkouts.

And the #1 checked out easy chapter book was

Dog Diaries: Secret Writings of the WOOF Society by Betsy Byars

with 30 checkouts.

Cynthia Rylant and dog books are obviously very popular with this group of readers at my school.  This is no surprise as the Henry and Mudge books and the Mr. Putter and Tabby books are almost always all checked out. I might need to add a few more of those to the collection.

Next up...upper fiction.  Stay tuned!

*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.

Policies and Procedures Handbook

This is something that has been on my to do list for a while.  Well, I finally got it done today and thought I'd share for anyone needing a policy and procedure manual to look at.  I believe I covered all the basics and then the little details that are specific to my school and school system.  It took a while, but I am super glad it is finished.  Click here to download it from Google docs.  Or you can click on the picture above.

I've had several emails over the past year about my scope and sequences, so I decided to share a couple of those as well.

Click here or on the picture above to get the 2013-2014 scope and sequence.

Click here or on the picture above to get the scope and sequence for 2014-2015.

Hope these help you in your planning.

Top 10 Everybody Books of the Year

We have quite a few picture books in our Everybody section.  Here are the top ten Everybody books based on checkouts last year.

#10 was a tie between

Angelina and the Butterfly by Katharine Holabird,

Charlotte's Web: Wilbur's Prize by Jennifer Frantz,

Max's Dragon Shirt by Rosemary Wells, 

and Peter's Secret by Christiane Duchesne

with 12 checkouts each.

#9 was a five-way tie between

Zoo-Looking by Mem Fox,

Pretty Good Magic by Cathy East Dubowski, 

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin, by Margaret McNamara,

Fly Guy Vs. the Flyswatter by Ted Arnold,

and Cook-a-Doodle-Doo by Janet Stevens.

Each had 13 checkouts apiece. 

#8 was also a tie between

Pigs will Be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money by Amy Axelrod,

Mr. Wolf's Pancakes by Jan Fearnley,

Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad by David Soman,

and Corduroy by Don Freeman.

Each had 15 checkouts.

Another tie for #7:

Shy Charles by Rosemary Wells,

The Little Engine That Could Helps Out by Watty Piper

and Angelina Has the Hiccups by Katharine Holabird.

Each had 16 checkouts.

#6 was So, What's It Like to Be a Cat? by Karla Kuskin

with 17 checkouts.

#5 was The Shivers in the Fridge by Fran Manushkin

with 18 checkouts.

#4 was My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza

with 19 checkouts.

#3 was yet another tie between

Olivia and the Fairy Princesses by Ian Falconer

and I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll

with 20 checkouts each.

#2 was Duck at the Door by Jackie Urbanovic

with 24 checkouts.

And the #1 checked out Everybody book at my school  for the third year in a row was

Llama Llama red Pajama by Anna Dewdney

with 38 checkouts.

Next up the top ten Easy Chapter books.  Stay tuned!

*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.

Top 10 Junior Wildcats Books of the Year

I finally had time to look up circulation stats so it's time to post the top titles of last school year.  First up are the Junior Wildcats.

Junior Wildcats are Easy and Nonfiction books that are on a kindergarten or first grade reading level.  I made a special section of these books to make it easy for my early readers to find books on their reading level that they could read independently.  These are the top 10 of that section.

#10 was Fly High, Fly Guy! by Tedd Arnold

with 24 checkouts

#9 was Ride, Fly Guy, Ride by Ted Arnold

with 25 checkouts

#8 was There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly Guy and Shoo, Fly Guy,

both by Ted Arnold.

They each had 26 checkouts.

#7 was Just Me and My Puppy by Mercer Mayer 

with 28 checkouts.

#6 was Bark, George by Jules Feiffer

with 30 checkouts.

#5 was Go, Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman

with 36 checkouts.

#4 was Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

with 39 checkouts.

#3 was One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss

with 42 checkouts.

#2 was The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss

with 43 checkouts.

#1 was Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman

with 47 checkouts.

Interesting that 4 of these titles were also in the top ten last year.  I also notice that many of these books have dogs as characters, and of course, Fly Guy was also very popular. I need to keep these things in mind when purchasing new books for kinder and first.

Next up Everybody books.  Stay tuned!

*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.

Inspiration

I was feeling like I needed a little inspiration to get me in the back to school mood so I made this fun inspirational quotes freebie.

It includes 8 signs with colorful clipart from the very talented Krista Wallden of Creative Clips.  I just love her stuff.  You can snag this freebie here in my TpT store or click on the picture above.

Hope it brings a smile to your face and inspires you as you get ready to get back to school.

2013-2014 Year in Review

So, it's just about the beginning of a new school year and I have yet to review the previous school year.  Yeah, that sounds about right.  Better late than never, though, so here goes.

Each year I make a flipsnack book showing all the highlights from the year.  It's a nice way to summarize the year...kind of an online library yearbook.  It takes a little bit of time to put together, but it's worth it. Here's this past year's:

http://bit.ly/1314MESMCYIR

My Plans for the Summer, which include things I did before leaving for the summer:

• Reorganize the Media Storage room   DONE!
• Make signs for the new sections in the Media Storage room DONE!
• Reorganize the conference room off the Media Center to make it a parent resource room DONE!
• Paint the Media Center bathroom (it's small, so it shouldn't take long) DONE!
• Decorate the Media Center for next year in the Super Reader theme  DONE!
• Decorate the Prize Cart with the new Super Reader theme DONE!

$5.97 on Amazon                                 $7.50 on Amazon

Click here to purchase                            Click here to purchase

• Make new shelf markers for the new theme using super hero duct tape DONE!
• Make new center signs/directions with new theme DONE!
• Barcode older Cobblestone magazines DONE!
• Finish next year's scope and sequence DONE!

• Work on creating a Welcome Back movie with iMovie to show on my new TV that was finally installed at the end of the school year. DONE!  See it here.

• Create some new items for my TpT store including a Fun Pirate theme, a Space theme and some freebies DONE!
• Add Fan Freebies to my Facebook pages  DONE!
• Continue to work on gaining new Facebook, Twitter, and TpT followers

• Participate in more Twitter chats (#edtech, #tlchat)
• Clean up posts on The Book Bug (correct grammar and spelling errors, broken links, etc.)
• Add new freebies to Classroom Freebies DONE!
• Create new orientation PowerPoints for the beginning of the year DONE!
• Work on the new Media Center info pamphlet DONE!
• Update the Media Center website DONE!
• Download and listen to the Elementary Librarian podcasts I have not listened to yet DONE!
• Finish reading the books I brought home to read over the summer

Goals for Upcoming School Year

• Continue to use Skype more
• Utilize Twitter more as a means to get out the word on what librarians REALLY do

• Create lessons using Augmented Reality apps such as Aurasma (now HP Reveal)
• I'd like to have a live morning newscast.  I looked into some ways to using iPads for this.  I'd like to test it out soon.
• I'd like to start a book club once a week for 3rd-5th graders.
• I'd also like to start a newspaper or literary magazine to highlight the great writers we have.  This might even could be an online thing.   
• Acquire more iPads DONE!

Source

• Look into getting a Makerbot 3D printer (possibly via Donors Choose)
• Raise money to send 500 books to the bindery DONE! Thanks PTO!
• Relabel biographies as 92 rather than 921 so that section can include 920 as well as 921
• Attend at least 4 conferences this year
• Present at at least 2 conferences
• Take part in more webinars
• Blog at least once a week

So those are my plans.  We'll see how it goes.

Hope you're having a great summer!

Happy Anniversary Sale!

Yesterday was the 13th anniversary of my marriage to my Snuggle Bear.

In honor of our anniversary I am throwing a sale on my TpT store!

Just click here to go to my store.  Happy July!