I always like to do some sort of a “Scavenger Hunt” with the upper grades at the beginning of the year.  It helps the students reacquaint themselves with the library, but it also helps them notice changes that may have been made over the summer.  It’s also a great stress-free and fun way for the…

Interested in starting STEM and STEAM centers in your classroom or library?  Read on! Last year I started Makerspaces in my library as a way to give my students more opportunities to be “hands-on” in their learning.  (You can read about my Makerspace beginnings here.)  I definitely learned a lot by jumping right in, and as…

(This is a continuation of my blog “Improving  Fiction and Non-Fiction-Part 1″ which you can find here.)      The next step I wanted to improve was how I taught the story elements for both Fiction and Non-Fiction books.  Last year I created an interactive anchor chart that I used in the beginning as we were…

     I love the beginning of the year, and teaching the Parts of a Book is one of my favorite lessons to do.  I had previously created an activity where students actually help me MAKE a book, and then we reviewed the vocabulary on a large interactive poster.  (You can read about that activity here.)…