Just like with the younger grades, when October begins, I start getting into the more “meatier” lessons, like on book genres, with 3rd-5th grade as well.  These lessons are often taught during one or two library lessons, but will also carry on throughout the entire year.   

      The first of these “meatier” lessons is on the concept of Fiction and Non-Fiction books.  My goal in these lessons is to get the students to understand that if they can figure out what type of book they are reading, they can then get their brain focused on the proper way to “read” that type of book to get the most out of it.  I combined the use of a poster and a powerpoint presentation that I created, and had them both up on the board as we began.

     The first thing I did was to ask the students to close their eyes and pretend that all the books in the library were floating above them.  After the immediate pretend screams of horror (don’t ya just love kids!) I asked them, “If I were to divide that large pile of books into two different groups, what would those two groups be?”   Most classes could figure out the answer (Fiction and Non-Fiction), so I placed those Vocabulary words on the poster.  Then I used the powerpoint to go over the difference between Fiction and Non-Fiction stories.  

     We went back to our chart, and I had them reflect on our Scavenger Hunt from the beginning of the year.  I asked them “What were the two FICTION areas of the library that were on the Scavenger Hunt?” They quickly remembered the “Everybody/Easy” section, but had trouble coming up with “Chapter books”.  So we talked about the difference between the two, and added them to the poster.  Then I went back to the Powerpoint and reviewed the definition of “genre” and had them see how many genres they could remember from the Scavenger Hunt.  

     The last part of the lesson was going through the PowerPoint and exploring each genre  (Adventure, Fantasy, Historical, Humor, Mystery, Scary, Science, Sports, and Realistic) in more detail.

     Next week, we will focus on the Non-Fiction section.  I start off by asking them “How is the Non-Fiction section organized?  By author last name like the Everybody section? By genre like the Chapter book section?”  Once they tell me it’s divided by numbers, I put the different 100 section labels on the poster as I explain that each section relates back to a specific topic from which you could learn. 
     Then, I divide the students into 10 groups (with 2-3 students per group) and give them each a basket of books from a different 100 section to investigate.  I have them come back and share as I go through this wonderful powerpoint that you can find here.  (In this PowerPoint, the Dewey Decimal system is told through the eyes of a Caveman.  There’s something about this explanation that really makes sense with the students, and I’ve used it the last 3 years with much success!)