Ashaway School Library: Finding a Book is as Easy as "Uno - Dos

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Finding a Book is as Easy as "Uno - Dos - Tres"!

"Mrs. Mann, I found the book!"

Last week I posted about my third graders learning how to find a book on the shelf in the library. This activity continues, but with a twist! Mrs. Franklin, our World Language teacher, has become a special guest star in the library!

Mrs. Franklin and I were chatting after school one day and discovered that we are both working with numbers in our third grade classes. We decided to collaborate during my "shelf searching" unit, and it's been beneficial to all! Mrs. Franklin gets more time with the students to help them recall and pronounce their numbers in Spanish, I get another adult in the room who can assist with the lesson, and the students are improving multiple skills!

Mrs. Franklin demonstrates how to read a call number in Spanish!

After I reviewed the shelf searching strategies with the class, Mrs. Franklin went over the numbers
0-9 in Spanish. As the students searched for the call numbers on their "scavenger hunt" sheets, Mrs. Franklin worked one-on-one with them as they entered the nonfiction section. She asked them to identify on their papers a nonfiction call number (which is part of my expectation that they can "Crack the Code" and identify their locations). Then she would have them read the digits of the call number in Spanish!

As I mentioned in my last blog entry about shelf searching strategies, it's really important for the students to get in the habit of touching the shelf while looking for a book to help them focus on the call numbers. Before allowing the students to begin, Mrs. Franklin taught them the phrase "Put your hand on the shelf" in Spanish: Toca el estante. Throughout the lesson I periodically called out Toca el estante! A routine reminder became a fun rallying cry, and some enthusiastic students called back the responding Toco el estante! ("I put my hand on the shelf!") We had a lot of fun while practicing both our library skills and our Spanish!

Muchas gracias, Mrs. Franklin!!