The First Day of School

The first day of school was magical. It brings me tremendous joy to see how excited our kids are to be at school, and how comfortable they were from the moment they walked into our classroom.

Tons of kids got to school super early, so our principal decided to let them come down to their classrooms a few minutes before they normally do. It was fun seeing them bring all their school supplies into the classroom, reconnect with friends, and select their seats. A couple of kids, who appeared to be great friends, moseyed over to the classroom library. The flipped through some baskets, and they both left with a copy of Roller Girl. I asked them if they had read it before they nodded. In my lesson plan book, I wrote: don’t forget to book talk Victoria’s Alls Faire in Middle School.

We did a couple of team building activities to start the day which the kids seemed to like. Trying to learn their names stressed me out. I’m so bad at it!

Usually, on the first day of school I walk the students through the library. I talk about our labeling system, organization, and different ways to find the books they want to read. I thought it might be fun to just turn them loose today, so that is what I did. They just needed to do two things:

1. find a book to read

2. pay attention to what they noticed about the library

It took 3 minutes and 23 seconds for each reader to find a book. Two kids even asked to get the book they brought from home out of their locker (HOORAY!!!!!).

I quickly walked around to see what everyone had selected. This is what I found.

13 kids were reading graphic novels

5 fantasy

6 realistic fiction

3 nonfiction

2 historical fiction

No surprises there!

One reader asked me if we had any copies of Hilo. I walked her over to the graphic novel section of the library, and this happened (see below).

We sort of just rolled with it. I quickly picked up the books, and placed them in a new spot. It was much easier to find a copy of Hilo with all the graphic novels laying around on the floor. One thing that I did realize was that we are missing a couple of books in the series. I’ll add them to our first order. What I will most likely do is just order a new set of them. You can never have enough copies of Hilo.

Once everyone was settled with their book, I let them know that we were going to try and read for seven minutes. They did great! Not much moving around, not a lot of kids going back to the library. The room was filled with kids reading. Hopefully, it will be like this every day. We’ll gradually increase the time as we go.

I was able to talk to 5 or 6 readers as I walked around the room. The biggest thing that I took away from those conversations is that the kids are excited to be in a room filled with books. Most of their book choices were based on authors/series that they had read in the past. It was exciting to see that they are coming to me with a lot of great reading habits already.

After their eight minutes of reading, I called them to the carpet. We were suppose to stop at 7, but I got distracted talking to a kid about Dav Pilkey. With the class gathered together at the carpet, I asked them to share what they noticed about the classroom library. Their responses blew me away. Pretty much everything I usually talk about when introducing the classroom library was brought up, but instead of me having to tell them about those things, they discovered them on their own. Below you will find the list of things that came up during our conversation. As they said these things, I wrote them down on our easel. Each thing they noticed led to a conversation that deepened their understand of our classroom library, and the beliefs about reading that we hold in our classroom.

The first day was great. A lot to build on, and a handful of things to work on. I have some books I need to buy, a book shelf I need to fix, and a bunch of kids names that I need to learn. Looking forward to getting back to work!

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Meet The Teacher Night

Last night, I met many of my students for the first time. Each year we host a “Meet The Teacher” event the night before school starts. Getting a chance to talk with my new kids and their families is so much fun, and a little overwhelming. I had seen many of these kids in the hallway the last few years, but I had no idea who they were. Most of them came up to me during our meet the teacher night and introduced themselves (with the help of their parents). Some were nervous, some were excited, some seemed terrified.

I paid close attention to our classroom library during the evening. The first interaction in the space came when one of my students, from last year, stopped by to drop off all the books she borrowed and read over the summer. She wanted to put the books back in the library for me. I asked her if I could snap a picture first (below).

As the room began to fill with families, I noticed that so many of my kids’ parents were drawn to the library. They looked the library up and down as they walked around the room. I think the amount of space dedicated to books helped them realize just how much we value reading in my classroom.

One of my students from last year walked in with her sister. I have her sister this year. Instead of coming up to me to say hi, they headed to the library. My former student was showing her sister (my current student) our large selection of graphic novels. I walked over and introduced myself. They were polite, but they quickly turned their attention back to the books.

I made my way around the room, trying to set some of the kids that looked nervous at ease. As I headed for the front of the room, I noticed a boy reading at one of my tables. I had never seen this kid before. Wondering if he was new, I introduced myself to his mother and father. The boy never looked up. His mom called his name. He put one finger in the air, signaling that he just needed to finish the page. He looked up and said hi. I introduced myself, and I asked him about the book he had taken from our classroom library. “I don’t know this series. It’s called Timmy Failure. Have you read it?”

I smiled. “I have read it. It is really good. My son read the whole series when he was in fifth grade. Would you like to take Book 1 home with you? You can bring it back tomorrow or just keep it at home until you finish it.” He nodded.

“Does he need to check it out?” his father asked.

“Nope. I know that he’ll bring it back. He’ll probably want to borrow the next one when he finishes this one.” The boy smiled, tucked the book under his arm, and shook my hand. I like that his first interaction with anyone at his new school resulted in him being able to borrow a book.

After meet the teacher night, I noticed my fourth grade daughter cuddled up on one of my classroom couches, reading Bird & Squirrel On The Edge. “Ready, Love?” I asked.

“Yup.” she said not looking up from her book. “I’ll bring this book back when I’m done. Let’s go home dad. School starts tomorrow.”

I smiled, grabbed my bag, shut the lights off, and left my room excited to see what awaits us in the morning.

Take A Tour of My (Im)Perfect Classroom

I hope you enjoy this tour of my classroom. Watching it helped me see a few things I need to clean up before the students come. Yikes!

Remember, your room doesn’t need to be perfect, fancy, or Instagram fancy. It just needs to be a safe and comfortable place for you and your kids. You do you!

Classroom Library Today: Our School Library Influences My Classroom Library

One of my students came back from the library recently excited to try out a new series. This reader often struggles to find books that he wants to read that are not too challenging for him. He wants to read the books that some of his classmates are reading, but he quickly gets frustrated when he realized he cannot read them independently.

Seeing him come back from the library, excited about a series that I knew he could read make my heart happy. The book that he checked out was Five Fouls and You’re Out, a book in the Sports Illustrated Kids Victory School Superstars series.

Watching him get lost in his library book made me so happy. As soon as he finished the book, he rushed up to me to tell me all about it. The joy in this reader’s voice is what we hope all of our readers experience. After he got done telling me all about the book, he showed me a two page spread at the end showing other books in the series (below).

He looked up at me hoping I would find a way to get these books into our school. I asked him if he wanted to make a list a few books in the series that we should add to our classroom library. He smiled and nodded. I’m working on getting them ordered for our classroom library.

I know that my classroom library can never replace our school library, but it sure can help me figure out what books I need to add to it. Adding a few books from this series to our classroom library will help others find the series. Once they get hooked, I can send them to the library to check out other books in the series. When classroom and school libraries compliment each other readers win.

I think that we all want our readers to win.

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You Need To Read Where The Heart Is by Jo Knowles

I think that Jo Knowles’s middle grade novels are in the must read category. Her books make me feel all sort of things, and they leave me thinking about the characters long after I read the final page. Her latest book Where The Heart is a beautiful story that middle grade readers are going to devour.

Classroom Library Today: One Topic Leads to Another

One of my students asked me if I had any books about the Boston Tea Party. We have been studying the events that lead to the Declaration of Independence, and he wanted to learn more. I handed him Jonathon W. Stokes The Thrifty Guide to the American Revolution. He loved it. I think he finished it in a day and a half.

After he finished the book he came up to me looking for another recommendation. I thought he might want some more books about the Boston Tea Party, but instead he asked if I had any more Thrifty Guide books. Thankfully, I did! He was excited to see that we had The Thrifty Guide to Ancient Rome (and Ancient Greece).

Watching this reader move from one topic to another within a series has me thinking about how I can help other readers find nonfiction series that they will love. So often, when giving nonfiction book recommendations to my students, I focus on topic instead of series. I’m thankful that this reader reminded me that their are lots of ways to help kids find great nonfiction books to read.

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Thank you for reading this post. I send out a weekly newsletter every Sunday morning. If you’d like to subscribe, please visit my website. At the top of the site is a place to sign up for the newsletter. Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for my latest book recommendations. 

Beverly, Right Here by Kate DiCamillo | Book Talk

Kate DiCamillo’s Bevery, Right Here is every bit as magical as all the other middle grade novels she has written. She is a national treasure. I hope you like the book as much as I did.

Classroom Library Today: A Tub on the Floor

One of my readers is obsessed with ocean creators. She dreams of going to Oregon State University to compete as a gymnast and study marine biology. Early this week, she grabbed Tub 96 (Freshwater/Ocean) and placed it next to her by one of our couches.

During independent reading she worked her way through books about surprising swimmers, stingrays, and dolphins. I wasn’t surprised to see her doing this. What was surprising was the handful of other students in our class reading books out of Tub 96. It was crazy to see her passion for a topic rub off on her classmates. She didn’t even have to say anything. All she did was bring these books to the attention of other readers. Before this happened, I’m not sure that more than 2 kids read a book out of that tub all year, and this week it has been our most popular nonfiction tub.

What I learned from this spike in the popularity of Tub 96 is that sometimes kids just need to have some of the less read books in our libraries brought to their attention. If those books are blessed by one of their peers, chances are they are going to find a whole bunch of new readers.

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Thank you for reading this post. I send out a weekly newsletter every Sunday morning. If you’d like to subscribe, please visit my website. At the top of the site is a place to sign up for the newsletter. 

Classroom Library Today: We Don’t Have Any Turtle Books?!

We have a lot of books in our classroom library, but I know that no matter how many books we have we will always have holes. Earlier this week, we discovered a whole that really surprised me.

I was talking to one of my students about what she wanted to learn more about. She told me about a few things that she was sort of interested in. Her eyes lit up when she started talking about turtles. I asked her why she hadn’t read any of our classroom library books about turtles. When she told me that we didn’t have any I was shocked. Part of me didn’t believe her. She took me over to the reptiles/amphibians tub, and flipped through the books. Sure enough, she was right! A bunch of books on frogs and snakes, but not one book on turtles.

I’ll spend the next week or so creating a list of books on turtles for us to add to the classroom library. In the meantime, we’ll head down to the school library to see what we can find.

Classroom libraries are never complete. Each year our readers are different, and during the course of the year their interests and preferences evolve. The best way to make sure that we meet the needs of the readers in our classrooms is to get to know them, book talk a ton of books, and find ways to add the books to your library that they want to read.

If you have any “turtle book” recommendations, drop them in the comments. Thank you! 

Thank you for reading this post. It means the world to me. I send out a weekly newsletter every Sunday morning. If you’d like to subscribe, please visit my website. At the top of the site is a place to sign up for the newsletter. To check out the other post in my Classroom Library Today series click here. I go into more depth about classroom libraries in the book I wrote with Donalyn Miller: Game Changer! Book Access For All Kids. 

Classroom Library Today: A New Book Creates Interest In Other Books

I am blessed to receive some advanced reader copies of books before they come out. During spring break I got a copy of the graphic novel adaptation of Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover.

Many of my students have read Kwame’s novels in verse The Crossover and Booked. When I showed the kids the graphic novel adaptation of The Crossover they freaked out. When I asked if anyone wanted to be the first reader a couple dozen hands shot into the air. Only one of my students could be the first reader, but what was cool about the whole event was how many other students wanted to read Kwame’s other books. Hearing their classmates talk about how good The Crossover was led to 3 kids picking up a copy and starting to read it. All of my copies of Booked were also borrowed.

Constantly adding new books to the classroom library is extremely important. My readers have been with me for more than 140 days, and I have to make sure that our library grows as they grow as readers, and as I get to know them better. The cool thing about adding new books to a classroom library is that it doesn’t just give kids new books to be excited about, but it also helps bring other books to their attention. I’m excited to have some new Kwame Alexander fans in my classroom. I can’t wait to talk about his books with them.

Kwame’s new picture book came out on the same day, so we of course had to end the day reading The Undefeated together. You have to check out this book! It is important.

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Thank you for reading this post. I send out a weekly newsletter every Sunday morning. If you’d like to subscribe, please visit my website. At the top of the site is a place to sign up for the newsletter.