Book Spine Poetry

Fifth grade classes have been making a most unusual type of poetry in the library.

 Ms. Holler and Ms. D'Eliso guided them through "Book Spine Poetry." The idea was to find words and phrases on spines and re-purpose them to create a poem that would be a complete thought.

Day one they made this new poem and discussed their intent and execution with their peers.  The next day, the students used their Book Spine Poem as inspiration for a new piece of writing.

Some of their poems clarified their thoughts.  Some were complete surprises!  It was really fascinating for all of us to see what the poets imagined when they made their Book Spine Poems.

Now it was time to get creative in another way.  They went to the computer lab, and each student made a slide with their Book Spine Poem and their new, inspired creation.

 See all students' efforts HERE.

Our new friend, Amy Krouse Rosenthal

University School was pleased to host author Amy Krouse Rosenthal last week.
We'd been looking forward to it ALL YEAR.  The first week of the year, we had "Yes Day in the Library," based on one of Amy's hilarious picture books.

In mid-December, the older classes watched her TED Talk on saving the world, a yellow post-its with the words Please Beckon Lovely began to appear around the school.
During Valentines week, younger students considered the idea of kindness, inspired by the book Plant a Kiss.
 

We learned about the life and likes of Amy Krouse Rosenthal during a March author study.
In March it became all-Amy-all-the-time at University School.
We had fun in the library interacting with books. We made idioms, inspired by Spoon and Chopsticks, played with equations after reading This Plus That and made Wumbers-inspired sentences.

 After reading Duck! Rabbit!, first graders read factual books about ducks and rabbits and used a graphic organizer to compare the two. This led into a simple inquiry in which they read information about two animals and did some comparison writing based on their research. 

  

 

Older students had an Amy Krouse Rosenthal film festival, viewing and discussing Kindness Thought Bubble, Life is a Marathon, Two Truths and a Library, and The Money Tree. See all her films at www.whoisamy.com The students provided a huge list of Amy-inspired adjectives, which Ms. D'Eliso turned into a gift to the author, using a website called Tagxedo. See their lovely words:

But this curriculum did not stop in the library.  Classrooms were exploring Amy's books.  Ms. Schroeder's first graders made their own Yes Day book.
Art began to fill the halls, thanks to Mrs. Newsom, who used The OK Book and Exclamation Mark as springboards.
In music, some of Mrs. Olivo's students composed melodies based on Amy's books.  See their lovely efforts on Mrs. Olivo's blog.

When the author came, the students greeted her like an old friend.  Because, by then, she was.
Ms. Rosenthal's excellent presentation enthralled and inspired our students.
Thanks to Ms. McClaine and the Foundation of Monroe County Schools for helping us to bring Amy Krouse Rosenthal to our school.  Thanks to all the teachers who made the visit such a fine time.  Thanks to Ms. Cerwinske's sixth grade, who created an inviting chalk walkway. Thanks to Ms. Holler and to Brian Stojak for all the details, details, details!

And thanks, finally, to Amy Krouse Rosenthal, who inspired it all.

 

Thank you, Ms. Holler

For five weeks, U School students were lucky enough to receive the talents of Ms. D'Eliso's student teacher, Ms. Holler.  She was a familiar face, as she'd volunteered two mornings a week during the fall semester.

Ms. Holler taught all grade levels and shared her skills in storytime, technology, inquiry, and literacy.  She took several classes through the inquiry process, assisting students in choosing topics, providing sessions on notetaking, plagiarism, using specialized databases and preparing bibliographies. She shared some of her favorite boooks with booktalks, and the students gobbled them up.

As we eagerly awaited our visit from Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Ms. Holler shared her books and planned creative activities to accompany them.

Ms. Holler quickly joined our UES family, and we appreciate her considerable talents and her kind spirit.

Good luck, Ms. Holler, and congratulations in advance to the school who will be lucky enough to call you their school librarian!

Duck? Rabbit? Research!

We're still eagerly looking forward to our April 15th visit by author Amy Krouse Rosenthal.
Recently the first graders examined her book called Duck! Rabbit!, a humorous story based on an old optical illusion. 

After we read the book, we read a short, factual book about ducks and another about rabbits.
We filled out a chart and compared the two. What type of animals are they? What do they eat? Where do they live? and so on.

The next two weeks in library time. first graders worked in teams of two to compare two animals. This was an early experience with extracting information from a simple text and taking notes. The product was a note-filled grid. The raw data that they collected will now go to the classroom teachers for use in comparative writing practice.

We were very impressed by the skills of these first grades as well as their excited findings and questionings.   If toads taste terrible, does any other animal eat them for food? or A worm is an invertebrate! or Leopards can live in grasslands and forests, but ladybugs can live in grasslands or forests or towns or near rivers and lakes!

It is always a special pleasure to see the library not only as a place that generates answers, but also a place that provides for higher questioning, curiosity, and engagement.

Reading gives you SuperPowers!

Yes, it is April Fools' Day, but this is NOT a joke.
A favorite book author and illustrator made and signed a limited run of 100 unique pieces of art.
Due to the kindness of a colleague-benefactor, this work of art has been donated to the library for all to enjoy.

Dav Pilkey is a perennial favorite author / illustrator among kids. Some of his well known picture books are Kat Kong, Dogzilla and The Paperboy.

The art we received, however, is from his most famous work, which is a series of chapter books for middle grade readers. Without further ado, here is the masterpiece.

 Did I mention that it's signed?  This picture shows its immensity.

 Great fun was had by all!  Thanks to our benefactor teacher, and thanks to Dav Pilkey author of the Captain Underpants series!

The art is now on display in the library, and will probably be our wall for quite a while.  Maybe for posterity... or should I say "posteriority" (sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Hoosiers

U School kids root for the home team on game days.

Read Across America Parade

All kindergarten through sixth grade students joined in our Read Across America celebration today.

University School held its first ever Read Across America Book Parade!


This week during library time, students chose favorite books.

Then they made word bubbles which said what they thought about the book.


In the morning parade, we watched kindergarteners through third graders march to the music of John Philip Sousa.

The Cat in the Hat (Mrs. McClaine) led the way.

In the afternoon parade for upper grades, Evan, a percussionist from the IU Jacobs School of Music provided the rhythm.

Sixth graders encouraged the students by high-fiving them!

We all had a really fun time.  Happy Read Across America Day.  A day of celebration when nobody needs to shop for gifts, nobody needs to clean or cook.  We just have to READ!