Thankful 4th Graders!

Did you ever watch the Macy's Day Parade and marvel at the gigantic helium balloons?  Recently I shared the book Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade with my fourth graders.  (This is one of the 20 books that have been nominated for the 2013 Rhode Island Children's Book Award.  Any fourth graders who reads at least 5 of these books gets to go to the Rooster Games in the spring!  Click here for more details about the games!)  The students enjoyed learning about puppeteer Tony Sarg and how his incredible balloons - and the tradition of a Thanksgiving Day parade - came to be.

Because Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on what we are thankful for, I asked my fourth graders to consider how fortunate we are to have books and libraries.  I gave them three different writing prompts and invited them to share their thoughts.  Here are just a few of their excellent ideas:

I’m thankful for books because they help us learn about things.  Also books give us knowledge about our ancestors.  

-Collin, 4C

I’m thankful for books because I love books

 and reading.  It’s so fun!  

-Jamie, 4O

I’m thankful for books because every time I read a book I get excited and I don’t want to put it down 

(even though I have to).  

-Maya, 4Y

I’m thankful for being able to read because it can help me 

find out things I’ve never known 

and it can help me throughout life.  

-Syler, 4C

I’m thankful for being able to read because if I didn’t know how to read I couldn’t learn.  

-Sean, 4Y

I am thankful for libraries because they have books that are filled with knowledge and adventure.  

-Trevor, 4C  

I am thankful for our library because if we didn’t have

a library it would be sad.  There would be no 

Mrs. Mann and no reading!  

-Jack, 4Y

I am thankful for our library because without it we wouldn’t be reading the Rooster Books and I love the Rooster Books.  

-Lynsie, 4O

I am thankful for libraries because I don’t have lots of books so I get them at the library.  

-Cameron, 4Y

I am thankful for libraries because we can get books to read and share and make our brains happy.  

 I love reading and I really enjoy books.  

-Natalie, 4C

I'm thankful for libraries because when I'm reading I get engaged.  There's no place like the library!  

-Gabe, 4C

(By the way, if you know one of our fourth graders, ask them about how Tony Sarg fed his chickens when he was six years old; I promise you'll be surprised!)

Investigating Informational Texts

Our third graders have been learning about how the library is organized so they can use the online catalog and find books independently.  In the beginning of the year we focused on the fiction sections of the library: Easies, Easy Readers, and Fiction.  These books are all shelved in alphabetical order by the author's last name.  Now we are exploring the Nonfiction section and the "informational texts" that can be found there.  This is what the students learned:

• Informational texts live in the Nonfiction section of the library.
• These books give us information, or facts, about a subject.
• The call number always starts with a number.
• The number comes from the book's subject.  (Thanks, Melville Dewey!)
• These books are shelved in numerical order.

We investigated many different features of informational texts.  Here are some of the ones our students found:

A caption explains what's happening in a picture.  (This is a caption!)

A Table of Contents lists the chapters of the book in order and tells what page each begins on.

A labeled diagram is a scientific illustration.

A glossary defines words that were used in the book.  The index is an alphabetical list of all the topics that can be found in the book.

While not every informational text features photographs, our students found that most of them do!

 

 

Each student wrote down an interesting fact from the book he or she was exploring.  Did you know...

 

"Pluto isn't a planet!"

"Some bugs have fake faces to scare away predators!"

"Some birds' feathers help the birds hide from other animals!"

"Bald eagles build onto their nests every year.  The heaviest bald eagle nest is heavier than your family car!"

This is our "Destiny"!

Just last year all four elementary schools upgraded to the web-based program Follett Destiny, and my fourth graders have been reviewing how to use this online catalog, or "OPAC", to look up library materials.  I've been bringing some of the school's laptops into the library for them to use during book look.  They start off working in pairs, and then each can have access to the system by using either a laptop or one of the library's ten desktop computers.  The students enjoy conducting searches and finding their materials independently! 

If you'd like to explore the system yourself, you can visit http://opac.chariho.k12.ri.us/.
After you click on "Ashaway" be sure to click on "Destiny Quest" over to the left.  This will bring you to the visual interface that the students have been using!