Name that Category - Grade 4 Dewey

I don't expect my students to memorize the Dewey Decimal system - that's what the online catalog is for! I do, however, want them to get practice with categorization and classification - skills that are needed in the workplace. For example, in my prior life as a "mutual fund operations communications analyst," I developed filing systems and web site architectures. Being able to see how pieces fit together is important.

Last week, I set fourth graders loose in the 500s, 700s, and 900s, the sections with the most books and the most nonfiction circulations. Their assignment: by looking at the topics included in each section, figure out how they are related and name the overall category. For example, can you tell how the following topics go together?

Crafts    Sports    Magic    Riddles    Ballet   Costumes    Drawing    Music   

I'm happy to report that both Garden City fourth grade classes completed their assignment with time to spare. Here they are in action.

Don't Let the Pigeon Touch the Books

In kindergarten, we are discussing book care in preparation for the students' first checkout. I decided to have them teach THE PIGEON some rules.

In case you haven't been introduced to the Pigeon yet, he is the star of a series of books by Mo Willems; the first one is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! We read that and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!, and I am happy to report that MOST students resisted his arguments.

Then we watched this video:

The students compiled a list of rules that the Pigeon should know. For example:

DO	DON'T
use clean hands	drop your book in a puddle
treat them gently	rip the pages
leave the covers/wrappers on	color in your book
put your book back where you got it	throw your book at the wall

In our next class, we drew our own Pigeons; Mo Willems has step-by-step instructions for drawing the Pigeon on his site. Then each student chose a rule to teach him. Here is some of their work:

Caldecott Voting - 2004 Style

2013 marks the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal. This annual award from American Library Association, goes to "the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children." Several titles are already getting a lot of buzz, and I'll be taking a look at some of them with the second graders.

First, we're warming up with some past winners and honorees. I decided to start with the 2004 batch ... the year some of the second-graders were born. Here are the four books we read ... I covered up the medals on the covers so the kids wouldn't know which won what.

There was a CLEAR winner among Stadium and Garden City students. Here is the data, presented three ways. Which way do you think is the easiest to read?

Bar Chart

Data Table

Pie Chart

 

The actual winner of the ALA medal was my favorite: The Man Who Walked Between The Towers by Mordecai Gerstein, which is based on a true story. Here is the trailer for the recent documentary about the events, called "Man on Wire":

Most Borrowed Books - November

Source: wimpykid.com

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley's Journal by Jeff Kinney
• Guinness World Records 2005 
• Guinness World Records 2012 (still on list)
• The PS Brothers by Maribeth Boelts
• Sidekicks by Dan Santat 
• The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: How Greg Heffley Went to Hollywood by Jeff Kinney
• The Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the True Story of an American Feud by Suzanne Jurmain (still on list)
• Big Nate Strikes Again by Lincoln Peirce

Thank You, FEN!

Source: guinnessworldrecords.com

It was nice to meet a lot of parents during conference night when they stopped by the book fair in the library. It was also really nice to receive about a dozen books from FEN to add to our collection. I processed them that evening, and they were all checked out the next day ... some already have long hold lists! The titles include:

• Guinness World Records 2013
• Weird But True! 4 :
  300 outrageous facts
• The Hunger Games trilogy
• Several Dork Diaries volumes
• Two Big Nate volumes
• Real-size Baby Animals 

THANK YOU!