Student-Curated Book Displays: A Practical Application of Catalog Skills

Project-based learning has a big audience in our district, but it's difficult to complete an entire PBL unit when you only see students for 55 minutes a week (or less, with assemblies and Fun Runs and field trips!). I try to incorporate as much authentic learning into my lessons as possible, and I'm suuper excited about my newest attempt: 4th grader-curated book displays using catalog skills!

I introduce Destiny in second grade, so fourth graders have had a great deal of practice finding books in our online catalog and then on the shelf. Now comes the ultimate test: a two-week project in which they have to think of keywords for a seasonal display, find books that would fit in the display using our online catalog, and then pull the books from the display and scan them into a resource list. I am SO excited about this idea and super hopeful it turns out!!

First, students will be randomly assigned one of 8 seasonal display topics that will be displayed in the next few weeks. Since I am doing this at the beginning of the year as part of library orientation / Destiny review, the displays I picked are:

• Diwali (Oct 27 this year)
• Bullying Prevention Month (October)
• Disability Awareness Month (October)
• Native American Heritage Month (November)
• Italian American Heritage Month (October)
• Thanksgiving
• Veterans' Day
• Election Day

I pull my Halloween books in the beginning of October, so this would be a little late to include Halloween for me!

I collated the copies so all 8 topics cycled through one after another, in order to distribute them evenly. Students first listed 3 key words that they could use to search for books (a throwback to 3rd grade, when we did LOTS of work around key words!), then used an iPad to search Destiny for those key words and listed at least 5 books, along with their call numbers. We regrouped to share what we'd found, and I collected the sheets for next week!

Part 2

The second part of this lesson came the next week, when it was time to pull the titles from the shelf! I found that I had to review all the different sections of our library, because with this kind of search, students were finding some titles in smaller sections, like our Easy Non-Fiction and Early Chapter Book sections, that they aren't as familiar with. I passed their papers back out, this time putting them into groups according to which display they were researching. Each group was responsible for finding all the books on their lists, and then one student from each group scanned the books into a Resource List. The reason I had them scan the books into the resource list is because I had to put all the books back on the shelf for the next class! I wanted to make sure every group got to pull all their books, which ended up being a lot of extra shelving for me. Worth it though, to see their pride over their own display! The resource list is important so I can make sure every group's books are all represented.

Centers This Week

I always like to make sure that the center work supports what we're doing in the lessons as well. The Chromebook center for these two weeks is the library game Shelver, and the writing center is a chance to create a sign to go along with their displays.

Here are some of our finished displays: 


They are pumped to see their own displays up, and I'm excited that they were able to pull their own collections!

Scavenger Hunting Around the Library!

In the beginning of the year, the second or third time I see kids in the library, no matter what grade, we go on a LIBRARY SCAVENGER HUNT! I think it is so important for kids to rediscover parts of the library that they don't visit as much (Wait - you mean there are more books than Dog Man and the Who Was series?!?) and to get excited about new genres and types of books. BUT, I don't want the library tours to get stale year after year! So, I have developed four unique scavenger hunts for grades 1-4. Read on to hear all about them!

Fourth Grade: QR Code Question Hunt

These kids, for the most part, are already pretty much pros at the library. We don't have a crazy transient population at my school, so the majority have been with me for at least a couple years already - I think this year, out of 120 fourth graders, 10 were new to the school. So we have some experience under our belt!

The fourth graders explore the library through QR code-driven questions. There are 11 cards with numbers and QR codes scattered throughout 11 sections of the library. (We don't actually have 11 sections - I break up larger sections into smaller parts because of the way our library is set up, so we end up having 3 non-fiction, 1 biography, 1 graphic novel, 3 fiction, and 3 everybody/early reader questions.) Each group of 1, 2, or 3 students is given an iPad, a paper with 11 blanks and a QR code on the bottom, and a number to start with so there isn't a huge backlog at number 1 (or at the first one someone sees). They scan the QR code using the iPad, which takes them to a Google Slide I put together of some sort of question that relates to the shelf or section. They write the answers down on their sheet and move on to find the next number!

To give you an idea of what the questions ask:

Questions in the non-fiction section: What makes a book non-fiction? (This one includes a link to the answer at DK Find Out) Name 2 topics you might want to read to learn about this year; and How much taller do astronauts grow in space? (This includes a link to the answer at Smithsonian).

Questions in the fiction section: How are books organized in this section?; Name 2 series in this section you haven't read yet; and How do you know it's a fiction book?

For early finishers, I have a QR code at the bottom of the page leading to a final challenge: Find the two catalog computers, the check-in computer, and the check-out computer, and unscramble the words posted on them to make a phrase ("I love library books!").

I love this hunt because it's a good way not only to remind kids where everything is, but also gets them looking at books they might not necessarily pick up! Just today I had a fourth grader tell me, "I want all of these books!"

Third Grade: Seesaw Photo Hunt

This was new for me this year, and I have to say, as I get more and more comfortable with Seesaw, I get more and more excited about it! This was AWESOME and of course parents were super excited to get photos in the middle of the day!

I posted an assignment to Seesaw with six empty photo frames, labeled "a fiction book that is just right for you," "a non-fiction book that is just right for you," "a biography," "a graphic novel", "a picture book", and "the return bin." I am SO glad I included the return bin, because a lot of kids were clueless! Biographies were difficult for them to find too, because at the beginning of third grade they haven't been required to read any biographies. 

Kids edited the template on Seesaw by taking a photo of themselves with each item and moved the picture around to fit in the frame. ADORBS!

Second Grade: Sticker Hunt!

This is the first year my second graders have been allowed to choose books from ANYWHERE in the library, since I restrict first graders mostly to easier books. This is SUPER exciting! But, it also means that second graders have the most to learn about the library and the most exploring to do. Hence: The Great Sticker Hunt!


I broke my library up into 8 sections that I wanted them to find: 3 parts of the fiction section (because of the way my bookshelves are set up, it just makes sense to have 3 parts), 2 parts of non-fiction, biographies (this is the hardest for them to find, since they aren't really sure what they are!), graphic novels, and easy books (I might change this for next year, because "easy" is a difficult connotation when often there are some kids still reading in that section).

  In each section, I taped a yellow piece of paper to a shelf saying, "You've found the ________ section!" with a sheet of stickers from the dollar store. Students had to find each sticker and place it in next to the correct section on their sheet. Then, they practiced our skill from last week: Finding just-right books! They had to find one book that is just-right for them in that section and write the title on their sheet next to the sticker. This was tricky for some sections, like the Easy section, so at some points they just wrote a title of a book that looked interesting.

First Grade: Character Hunt

Last but not least: First grade!

We did a tiny bit of exploring the library together last week while we talked about the "purpose" of reading with the PICK acronym for good-fit books. We walked over to the first grade "read to learn" and "read for fun" sections (our easy readers/picture books/early chapter books and easy non-fiction section) and they chose a good-fit book from one of those two sections. Well, today they were directed to explore the first-grade sections of the library with a hunt of their own: for book characters hidden around the library!

I hid ten stuffed characters around the library. Six were in the first grade read for fun or read to learn sections that we looked at last week, and four were in other important spots to know: the Student Picks bookshelf, the New bookshelf, the return bin, and our shelving cart. Each character was holding a letter that students needed to record on a sheet next to the correct character. When they finished, their sheet spelled out "I LOVE BOOKS!"   We were able to debrief and discuss why the four other areas were important to know!

I am super proud of the different ways we explore the library and how engaged my students were all week! What other ways do you use to help kids explore the library??

Just Right Books

I don't spend a ton of time talking about just-right books with my 3rd and 4th graders - just a quick review at the beginning of the year - but it is a topic I probably teach to the point of death with my younger kiddos. I feel justified, though! Choosing books is a HUGE part of our library day and something they NEED to know how to do!!

I spend the 3rd or 4th week in library with first- and second-graders talking about just-right books. (Ks are still choosing from a cart of picture books, so I'm not too concerned about them yet.) This is after one week of book checkout, so we can reflect on our book choices from last week. Was it too hard? Too easy? Did we read it too fast? Did we not read it at all? Was it about something we're interested in? The kids are pretty honest, and there's usually 1-2 (or more!) in each class willing to admit that they didn't choose a just-right book. "Perfect!" I say. "Let's fix that!"

First Grade

First graders are still getting their legs with looking for books in the library, because they spent most of kindergarten choosing from a librarian-curated selection. I introduce the "I PICK" acronym using this colorful poster, which I laminated and put up on the board, and go over the first two: PURPOSE and INTEREST. "Purpose" is the easiest for them to understand; we spent a loooooooooong time in Kindergarten going over Fiction/Non-fiction, so most of them can capture their purpose for reading: Do I want to read to learn, or read for fun? We also briefly discuss Interest; a lot of them like books in a series, or by a certain author, or about a certain topic.

After reviewing the first two letters, we watch the first two sections of BrainPop Jr.'s "Choosing a Book" video, where Annie talks about choosing a book that's right for her. 

Then the most exciting part: We get off the carpet! I march the kids over to the two sections of the library they'll be choosing from in first grade. We start off at the "Read for Fun" (easy fiction) section. After sitting them all down in front of those three shelves, I show them the spine labels on our Everybody, Easy Reader, and Easy Chapter Book shelves, noting that all three have yellow letters, but the books with mostly pictures (Everybody) have no dots; those with some words and some pictures (Easy Readers) have blue dots; and those with mostly words (Easy Chapter Books) have green dots. We also review what the letter on the yellow sticker stands for; even though we talked all about it in Kindergarten, lots of kids still need a reminder that the letter is NOT the book's level. (Wonder where they got that idea.....)

Next we march on to the "Read to Learn" section! This is our easy non-fiction section, which is pretty small and separated from our regular fiction section. I point out a few topics that might interest them, like animals and outer space, and talk about how these books are sorted by a number that represents what they're about so they can more easily find books they're Interested in.

Back to the carpet for the last two letters: C and K! After I read the words that each stands for, we finish watching the BrainPop video, which models the 5-finger rule and retelling a book to make sure you understand it. I ask for a volunteer to demonstrate the 5-finger rule using a way-too-hard and a way-too-easy book to show how it should work.

Now that we know all about "PICK", it's time to PICK our books! Since it's the first day they're going at it in the library, I like to be able to be more hands-on with their choices. So, I give each person a "PICK" bookmark to color while I dismiss tables to check out books. If they don't want to color, I have them just write their name on top and also have KEVA planks on each table as another quiet choice.

Second Grade

If you have never read the book Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians, you need to get it RIGHT NOW. I'm not joking. This is the PERFECT book for teaching just-right books, and my second graders loooove it. I begin by telling them we'll be thinking about just-right books this week and who better to teach us about "just right" than Goldilocks? We do a picture walk through a Goldilocks book from our fairy-tale section, and then I tell them we're actually going to meet someone who is verrry similar to Goldilocks: Goldie SOCKS! We read through the book, stopping when she talks about books that are too big and too small to demonstrate (the "Heroes of Olympus" books are too big; "My Loose Tooth" is too small) and the 5-finger rule. My kids love when we get to the 5-finger rule page, because we have a poster that has the EXACT SAME PICTURE from the book! This is very exciting. I also love this book because it has some gentle reminders about how to put books back (the bears come back to find that Goldie Socks has put books back on the floor! On top of shelves! With the pages showing! Upside down! Gasp!) that are important for second graders to remember.

After reading, we choose books! I also pass out 5-Finger Rule reminder bookmarks for one more visual about how to choose a book.

First Week of School: Orientation, Just Right Books, and Fun in the Library

Is it just me, or is September the BEST? Everyone's excited to be at school, no one's in trouble yet (I hope), everyone's got a clean slate and is pumped for a new year. Also there's college football and cider mills. But I digress.

I love the first few weeks of school, and even more so since shifting to the library! I've played around with different lessons and orientation spiels and get-to-know-you activities, but I think it's best when it's all focused on literacy. I do not check out books with K-2 the first week of school; they are so overwhelmed just adjusting to being in school that I don't want to add even more to their (and their parents') plates! Instead, we spend the first week defining two important words - library and librarian - and thinking about what our library time should look like, sound like, and feel like.

They're constantly evolving, but here were my first-week lessons for my kiddos this year:

Kindergarten:

 I was all pumped and set to show a couple of super cute videos as part of K's orientation this year, but go figure... My Smartboard broke over the summer and the tech department isn't finished fixing it. Fingers crossed it will be all better for next week!

Instead, we started with: introductions! Since I see all the kids in the school, kindergarten is the only grade where EVERYONE is new. That's a LOT of names to learn, and in my school, a lot of those names are unfamiliar and complicated. I spend the first chunk of time introducing myself, showing pictures of my family (or I would have, if my Smartboard was working!), and getting to know how they pronounce their names. I also fill in a seating chart (by alphabetical order the first week - it will change as needed!).

After introductions, I ask if anyone has been to a library before. We have an awesome public library in our city, so typically about a third to half of them have been to a library and know what to expect. We talk about what a library sounds like (quiet voices- especially important this year because the Speech teacher has an office inside our library; people sharing and cooperating), looks like (walking feet, following directions, cleaning up after yourself), and feels like (a safe place where we're excited to read books!).

Talking about just-right books in kindergarten is tricky, because inevitably you'll hear a lot of "But I can't read yet!" I talk a lot about how to choose a book - does it look interesting? What kinds of things do you want to read about and pictures do you want to see? We also talk about how one way to read a book is to listen to someone else read aloud. Using bits of "We're Going on a Book Hunt", I modeled choosing a book from a handful of 4-5 picture books, thinking out loud through rejecting or choosing one to read. This year I settled on reading the adorable We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins, which they ABSOLUTELY LOVED. After modeling choosing and reading a book, I dismissed the students to our tables, where they had to choose and "read" a book from a pile on the table for 10-15 minutes. We discussed expected behavior at the tables before dismissal: stay quiet, share with your friends, and ask permission to get up. As they were reading, I did my best to circulate and film Seesaw videos about which books they chose and why. This was both to give parents a window into what we were doing, and also to put a name to the face for me. Read more about my love for Seesaw *here*!


After giving kids a chance to try out "reading" in the library, we took a very important break: We walked into the hallway to see where the closest bathroom is. I cannot tell you how many times throughout the year I get kindergarten teachers saying, "So-and-so walked all the way down to our wing to use the bathroom..." Hopefully this will nip that in the bud!

After our bathroom break, we walked quietly back to our carpet spots (testing whether we remembered our spots!). I then read a favorite library orientation book, Mr. Wiggle's Library, to introduce them to Mr. Wiggle, who will feature in more than one of our back-to-school read alouds!

 First Grade

Moving on to first grade! These kids have already spent a year with me in the library, so introductions didn't take quite as long. Again, we set up a seating chart on the carpet (cue acute distress over my moving the couch) and discussed what a library is. 

Then I put this sign up:

I asked the kids, "Do you think this is true? Can we do ANYTHING at the library?"

The kids: "NO! We can't..."

As I read If You Ever Want to Take a Circus to the Library - DON'T, we made a list of rules that we need to follow in order to be able to do all those great things that we CAN do in the library. The list included "be quiet" (from "don't clap and cheer"), "be safe" (don't tightrope and do flips!), "no food or drink" (to go along with "bringing concessions"), and "be kind" (you can't boo in the library).

After looking back at the list of things we can do in the library, we discussed what fun things we CAN do in the library. When we were finished, our list looked like this (left side is rules from the book; right side is things we can do):

After looking back at our two lists (and a wiggle break!), we thought about what a library patron should look like. I found this adorable free download on TPT that I turned into an anchor chart for us to fill in. Then the students were dismissed to tables to color a black-and-white version of the Library Patron anchor chart.

Coloring our library patrons!

Second Grade:

My second graders were THRILLED to be among the "big kids" in library this year - meaning, they will be using their own Google logins! This is a huuuuuge task that we will be tackling....later. For now, the star of our orientation lesson was this awesome book:

 We read the book and then realized that Skoob (the stuffed animal) was missing from where he normally sits on the Smartboard! Instead, I found a message from Skoob telling us that he had hidden somewhere in the library and couldn't find his way back. We were able to follow his clues through the Easy books, graphic novels, biographies, chapter books, check-in computer, check-out computer, and catalog computer, before finding him in the non-fiction section. The kids did a great job exploring the library - it was a good reminder of where things are from last year!

Then we regrouped on the carpet and talked about what kinds of things we might need to do to get the Golden Shelf Award. Each student took a page for our class book, "How to Take Care of Your Library Books, by Skoob," to illustrate and to decide whether Skoob would approve or disapprove. We'll come back to these books next week!

Another take-home: These super-cute Shelf Elf bookmarks! (Also: Her blog has an absolutely AMAZING Golden Shelf Elf Award. Making one like hers is a goal for next year!)

Third Grade

My third graders have been checking out books for three years, so they know the library layout pretty well. However, there are some new responsibilities that come along with being third graders, like checking out their own books and choosing books from anywhere in the library. We reviewed the main expectations in the library, using signs I adapted from the absolutely adorable signs at DCG Elementary. The third grade teachers all use Bitmojis for everything, so these were perfect! I adapted them to fit our class expectations using my own Bitmoji and am excited to hang them in my meeting area.

After a brief review of expectations (and the all-important creation of the seating chart), we thought about how we choose books. We'll do an in-depth library tour in the next few weeks; for now, we are thinking about just-right books and how we decide which ones to read. After checking out books (and demonstrating an ability to keep shelves neat!), students filled out book recommendations to start our book recommendation display. This is the one activity this year that I didn't feel was that engaging. I'll be trying something new with third grade next year - maybe some sort of team-building STEM activity to practice group work?? Ideas are welcome!

Fourth Grade

Fourth graders are EXPERTS on the VO Library! They also, thanks to the projects they did last year, are experts in creating videos. So their task the first week of school: Create and post on Seesaw a video of themselves describing to a Kindergartener/1st grader how to choose a book! 

We started (after expectations & seating charts) by creating an anchor chart: What is a Just-Right Book? I modeled mine after this Twitter post and had the kids help me fill it in. After this review, kids were off! We combined choosing books and completing the video for the remainder of class. In some classes, we had enough time left over to watch the completed products. They were AMAZING. Some kids even decided to do a skit! LOVED it! 

Whew.... It was a great first week and I am so excited for the rest of the year!! Hope your school year is going fabulously!