Amberly Media Center

Have fun practicing your library skills.

• ABC Order–Authors (hint: find the last name first!)
• ABC Order–Titles & Authors
• Parts of a Book Hangman
• Parts of a Web Page Hangman
• Dewey Decimal System Matching 1
• Dewey Decimal System Matching 2
• Dewey Decimal System Battleship
• Dewey Decimal System Concentration
• Books, Books, Books Hangman (genres and types of books–a bit harder)
• Genre Battleship (choose EASY…still a bit challenging, but fun to play)
• Genre Battleship Level Two

One of the first steps in the research process is coming up with good questions. After using a Jeopardy game to practice searching the New Book of Knowledge online encyclopedia, second graders have taken on a huge higher order thinking challenge: they are helping me write new questions. Here’s our process:

1. Pick a SUBJECT
2. Search SUBJECT
3. Find an interesting FACT
4. Write the question using: WHO? WHERE? WHAT? WHEN? WHY? or HOW MANY…?
5. Write the ANSWER
6. REVIEW–”Does the question  lead me to the correct SUBJECT?” “Does the question lead me to the correct FACT?”

Second graders have learned about the Internet, the parts of the page of web browsers, and now it’s time to learn about being safe and responsible Internet users. This week we will learn about what it means to be a cyber community and have some fun “playing” in an online community at Disney’s Club Penguin.

In the next few weeks we will learn about online safety at two other fun sites the students can show you at home: http://ikeepsafe.org/iksc_kids/ and http://www.netsmartzkids.org/games/

To review the parts of a web page we will be doing a worksheet on this student-created timeline of Martin Luther King’s life.

 If you finish early, here are some videos of Martin Luther King’s speeches to watch:

• http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=599f0513ff3356f0c0f6
• http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm
• http://www.mlkonline.net/video.html

Downloads:

• Web Browser Worksheet
• MLK Matching Worksheet

In addition to 12 desktop computer stations we are fortunate to also have a cart of laptops for use in the media center. This makes teaching a lesson on research sites to an entire class much easier. However, laptops have a few drawbacks, so we take time in 2nd grade to learn about their use and care.

2nd grade is also the year that students in Portage get their very own network account, so one of the first tasks is practicing how to successfully type in their username and password (secretly a lesson in patience for everbody!).

Next we need to practice using the trackpad instead of the mouse. To do this we opened up several folders on the network and then used the KidPix typing and paint tools to design a bookmark. In the next few weeks we will also use the Kidspiration graphic organizer to work with different concepts about books such as character, setting, and plot.

Oh no! A tornado hit the Amberly Elementary Media Center and all the books are on the floor. They need to be sorted, but where do we begin?

2nd graders agreed that we should first separate the Fiction from the Non Fiction. We first decided that Fiction books tell a story. The story could be “realistic” or it could be “make-believe.” Either way, we agreed the author wrote the story to entertain the reader. Non Fiction books are written to provide information. Non Fiction books give facts about a subject.

When we sorted the books, we found some of them were tricky. Some of the books told a story AND gave information. Some of the Non Fiction books gave information about things that might or might not be true like Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster, and ghosts.

September 11-19

How do we identify books? We look on the cover and expect to find the name of the author, possibly the name of the illustrator, and also the name of the book or the title. These are the first three words on our library media word wall.

For practice, each student created the cover of a book of their own design. They put their own name in place of the author. They created an descriptive title. They also added a cover illustration.

Next we “shelved” these books by author’s last name. Then on that shelf, students found four other books by authors that have a last name with the same first letter and recorded the authors’ names and the books’ titles on a worksheet.

We also learned that titles and authors’ names are usually capitalized.

Second Graders at Amberly come to the media center twice each week.

On Monday or Thursday, classes come for book checkout and a story. Books are chosen to expose students to a variety of genres and literary terms that they will be using throughout their school years and that they will encounter on the MEAP.

On Tuesday or Wednesday, classes come for media lessons. We began by reading Toni Buzzeo’s book, Our Librarian Won’t Tell Us Anything!  (Mr. Butts’ has a hard time with this, but he’s trying!) The Second Graders agreed that if they could master all of the skills needed to use the library, they would become Library Ninjas.

Second Graders learn how books are identified, arranged and shelved by author, title and subject. They will learn how to use InfoCentre, the district’s online library catalog system. They will also learn how to use the Dewey Decimal Classification System. Later in the year they will also begin using the online encyclopedia, an online database, and an internet directory.

Ben’s Guide to U.S. Government for Kids
http://bensguide.gpo.gov/k-2/index.html
>Symbols of U.S. Government>Bald Eagle

1.The word “bald” does not mean that this bird has no feathers. Instead, it comes from the word piebald, an old word which means “___________________________________________________________.”

>Symbols of U.S. Government>The Liberty Bell
2. The last time the bell rang was on February 23, 1846 for _____________________________’s birthday celebration.

>Symbols of U.S. Government>The Flag
3. The first U.S. flag was designed in __________________________________.

Mo Willems FAQs (frequently asked questions)
http://mowillemsfaq.blogspot.com/

4. Q. Why did you choose a Pigeon to star in your books?
A. A _________________________________________ wouldn’t fit on the page.

Seussville
http://www.seussville.com/main.php?section=home
>Biography

5. Theodor (“Ted”) Seuss Geisel was born on ___________________________.

Dav Pilkey’s Extra-Crunchy Website O’Fun
http://www.pilkey.com/
>Meet Dav> Almost Completely True Adventures of Dav Pilkey (cartoon version)

6. At the age of 4, Dav was kicked out of “_____________________________” for throwing stuff out the window. (part one)

7. Everybody in Dav’s class thought his stories were really _______________ …except for one person. (part two)

8. For his crimes against humanity, Dav Pilkey was sentenced to four years of _________________________________. (part three)

This week and next week in media we put on our lab coats to investigate the meaning of those numbers on the spine labels of our nonfiction books. We learned that Melvil Dewey was a librarian in the 1800s who solved the problem of how to arrange his books with a numbering system based on “decimals”–groups of ten to organize subjects.

We remembered how we use letters to create words that “symbolize” objects in the real world, and talked about how numbers could also stand for real world subjects. For example, the letters “C” “A” “T” and the Dewey number “636.8″ both represent that soft, furry pet that meows.

We discussed how the numbers can be used as both a symbol for the subjects and as an “address” for shelving and locating the books. In this system similar subjects are shelved nearby, different subjects are farther apart. For example, cats and dogs are shelved nearby (but not on the same shelf at Amberly), and the wild animals are separate from the domestic animals. Horses are near the cats and dogs, but zebras are closer to the lions and tigers (oh my!).

For most of the session this week and next week, we rotated among stations with books from each of the Dewey Decimal System’s ten sections. In each one we found a couple of books that were surprising. Students always enjoy discovering Bigfoot, UFOs, and the Loch Ness Monster among the encyclopedias, books of records and lists, libraries and computers in the 000 section; the accounts of (possibly?) true encounters with ghosts among the books on optical illusions and feelings in the 100s. Many students have already discovered their favorite fairy tales and tall tales in the 300s and jokes, riddles, and poetry in the 800s, so they are beginning to see that the Dewey system isn’t just for classifying informational books.