3 for Thursday: Zombie Books

One thing that surprised me when I genrefied was that I did not have as many "SCARY" books as I thought I did.  And in my library, SCARY is anything with a ghost or zombie.   Zombies being the "in" thing in scary books after Dead City was introduced on our Bluebonnet List.  I anticipated the Zombie craze after reading Dead City over the summer and so I found some Zombie chapter books for my first book order of the school year.  And guess what?  They came in last week...just in time for Halloween (of course I forgot to take a picture of all the beautiful new books before the kids got a hold of them).  So here are my 3 for Thursday Zombie Books...

Zombie Chasers

All of a sudden one night, Zack's entire neighborhood turns into Zombies.  All except for Zack, his best friend Rex, and his sister's best friend Madison.  The three bond together to keep from being eaten alive, as they try to figure out the cause of the zombification and how to reverse it.  Undead Ahead picks up where Zombie Chasers ends except now it is the school that has been affected.  

Basement of the Undead

Lew, Gary and Lugnut venture into the basement of their school only to become trapped and discover what really lives under the floor of their school.

Gravediggers

Ian, PJ and Kendra get separated from their class during a nature camp hike and find that the woods are not as they seem.  Part horror, part survival, the three stumble upon a wall with mysterious symbols and then an abandoned cabin where they decide to bunk for the night.  Unfortunately, that is where the zombies find them and they must run for their lives to escape only to find out they are now labeled as "Gravediggers" and evil will continue to seek them out.    In Terror Cove, the three are targeted by evil forces while on a family vacation and discover a zombie colony even stronger than the one they fought in the woods.  

Side note:  This series is labeled as YA and is a much harder read then the other three I have mentioned.  I see this series for my strong 4th and 5th grade readers.  

3 for Thursday: Goals

(I know I am posting this on Saturday, but I had every intention of posting it Thursday until real life got in the way.)

Every year, the librarians in my district have to submit 3 goals that we have for our library programs that year.  And I must admit, that maybe once or twice I didn't put a whole lot of thought into them.  But going into my 11th year as a librarian, I figured it was time to take my librarianship up a notch, so here are 3 of my goals.  

Goal #1:  Professional Development

As I grew to have more years in the library under my belt, I became comfortable with what I was doing in the library and didn't not feel the need to seek out a lot of "extra" professional development (and unfortunately Pinterest doesn't count as PD).  This year, I am going hunting for some new opportunities to take me out of my comfort zone as well as opportunities for presenting to my staff.   

Goal #2: Technology

The teachers at my campus all received 3 iPads per class last year and a SMART board this year.  Last year, I did a lot of modeling of iPad lessons, apps and integration and this year I want to continue to utilize the iPads as much as possible but also model advanced uses and integration for the SMART board.  

Goal #3: Networking and Professional Learning Communities

Last spring, I let my poor blog slide.  I am recommitting to blogging multiple times every week as well as networking with other librarians and teachers through other forms of social media.  

What goals have you set for yourself this year?

3 for Thursday: Elf on a Library Shelf

We are on night 9 of my "Elf on a Library Shelf" project.  I must admit it has been fun and I love seeing the kids looking for "Seuss" every morning but I am really tapped out of ideas and still have 5 more nights!  As I have said before I am not the most crafty, creative person so this has really stretched my artistic abilities.  Luckily I have some awesome kinder teachers who don't mind helping me make bows or lend me pipe cleaners or nicely make suggestions as they stiffle a laugh at the first attempt I have made at some of these ideas.  Thanks Girls!  Here are 3 of our favorite Elf Clues so far.  I can take no credit for the first one.  That was all my 2 kinder teachers' doing.  I was just going to use the wand and skirt.   

Can you guess the books?

3 for Thursday: Thanksgiving Picture Books

 Turkey Bowl by Phil Bildner - Everyone likes a little football with their turkey.

 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey - field trips, turkeys and rhyming words make for a great Thanksgiving story.

Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano - Turkey donning costumes to keep from being Thanksgiving dinner. 

3 for Thursday: Funny

Three funny library/technology quotes or signs I've seen on Pinterest.  Needed a laugh today.

I actually have a t-shirt with this on it and I love wearing it to school because it makes the teachers laugh out loud every time and the kids don't get it.

3 for Thursday: Author Visits

In my 9 years as a librarian I have had some amazing authors come to visit.  Way more than 3 so consider this Part 1 with more to follow another time.  I am not a "programming" librarian.  I hate dressing up.  I don't do puppets.  I have trouble keeping track of reading promotion and rewards(although I am getting better at this).  Programming is such an important part of being a librarian, but it is not my strength.  So needless to say, I STRESS out about author visits.  I mean REALLY STRESS OUT about them.  I am in awe of those librarians that host 2 or 3 or 4 authors in a year.  Hosting 1 just about puts me over the edge.  I think the anticipation of the visit is always the worst; once they are actually on my campus, most are as nice as can be and the day goes fine.  The following 3 authors I have hosted recently (or am about to host) and they have been AMAZING.  If you have the opportunity to host them - DO IT!  You will not regret it.

PHIL BILDNER was SO awesome!  He is a giant kid at heart and really connects with the students.  I had him the year Hallelujah Flight was on our Texas Bluebonnet list so he presented to my 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.  He was a middle school teacher prior to doing author visits so he knows how to keep the kids engaged in his presentations.  He has a great writing workshop where he talks to the students about making your words come alive and actually has them do some writing while they are with him.  He was very easy going and just an amazing presenter.

Matt McElligott was also fabulous!  He is an author and an illustrator and has a variety of different programs to offer.  If you choose one of his illustrator presentations, he projects his computer to the screen and shows the kids how he makes a monster or alien from shapes or how he takes different patterns from clothes to "color" his Backbeard books.  The kids were fascinated by that and were astonished to find out that you didn't have to be a good "draw-er" to be an illustrator because technology can help you out.  

Aaron Reynolds is visiting my campus in January and I can not wait!  He has visited my district already this year and the librarians that hosted him could not stop RAVING about his presentations. (Apparently his theatrical background is on full display) :).  I am most excited about his mystery presentation where he teaches the kids about writing a mystery and they solve one right there during the presentation.  I'll let you know how it actually goes in February!

Do you have any author or illustrators that you recommend for a visit?  If so, please leave them in the comments.

3 for Thursday: Halloween Pumpkins

We had over 80 pumpkins "planted" in our literacy pumpkin patch this year. Even though it says "book character" on the flyer, we still got minions, mine-craft and Pokemon. I justify it by saying somewhere out there Chick-fil-a or Burger King has made a promotional book for the kids meals and so technically they are characters in a book, right. Here is our full pumpkin patch and then my 3 for Thursday.

3 for Thursday

I bought 3 new apps this week for the iPads in my library.  I am lucky enough to have 20 iPads housed in the library that the teachers can check out, but I get to use them when they don't.  Our PTA gave us some money to use for apps, so of course I started spending right away.

Strip Designer

Strip Designer was the first one I bought.  I have seen so many greatl ideas for this app on Pinterest, I just had to have it.  I can't wait to get classes in for inferencing, categorizing, labeling...There are so many cool things.  I think the kids will love the speech bubbles and cool text effects of this app (they might even forget they are learning).

                                Puppet Pals HD      Puppet Pals 2
I couldn't decide between the two, so I got both Puppet Pals.  I love the sets of Puppet Pals HD, but in Puppet Pals 2, the characters mouths move and you can move the arms and legs.  The sets are more like real scenes instead of play stages and the characters can move through the scene as it is moving. You've already seen how we used Puppet Pals 2 for Digital Citizenship.

Scribble Press

This one I am least familiar with but I wanted a book maker and I was debating between two.  This one looked like it has some great features and they are working on a web version that will work with the app version.  

How have you used these apps?

    

3 For Thursday: Literacy Night Pins

(Thursdays are going to be days that I share 3 of something... 3 pins, 3 apps, 3 books, etc)

We are going to be having a Literacy Night in November.  We haven't had one in a very long time so I have been scouring Pinterest for ideas.  Here are 3 that caught my eye.

Love the idea of BINGO with books as prizes.  I have some from my Scholastic Fair, but I bet parents would donate some gently used ones too.

Kristyn has some great ideas on this post from her blog.  We are looking into getting food trucks for our literacy night and I am going to have an attendance raffle for a book fair gift certificate.

Love the idea of a reading fair. Could maybe be done by classes the first year?

What have you all done for literacy nights?