Author Go Fish

Today in my third and fourth grade classes we talked about a bunch of different authors. We then played Author Go Fish. The game is played just like Go Fish except the cards had the names of authors on them. I found boxes of old check out cards in my library and used those to create the cards.

Everybody Fiction

This week my third and fourth grade classes have been talking about the Everybody Fiction section. The main point of the lesson for this week to get my students to understand how we organize the Everybody Fiction section. We talked about how we create the call number for a book in this section. Then we played a matching game. They had to find the authors name on one card and match it to the card with the call number. My students seemed to have a really good time with this activity.

Teaching Students How to Find Library Materials

I posted the question "Does anyone have any good activities that they use to help students learn how to find books and other materials in the library?"on the WEMTA Listserv and here are the answers that I received.  I have put them into a Google Doc. I have it so that anyone with the link can view it and I also have made it so that anyone with the link can edit it. If you have some other ideas please add them.

 Finding Library Materials

Author Websites

There are many authors that have wonderful websites. I have listed a few that I have used.

• Eric Carle
• Jan Brett
• Kevin Henkes
• Marc Brown
• Tedd Arnold
• Jan and Stan Berenstain
• Dav Pilkey
• Lemony Snicket
• Beverly Cleary
• Chris Van Allsburg
• David Wiesner
• Jon Scieszka
• Laura Numeroff

Are there any that you have used with your students or used for creating lessons?  List them in the comments.

Learn Boost

Have people at your school been looking for a way to keep an online grade book for free? I just learned about Learn Boost. It is a free online grade book along with having other features like attendance, calendars and a way to create lesson plans. If you have Google Apps for Education this programs is suppose to work with it. Check it out.

Climate Change

Are you interested in teaching climate change in your class, but aren’t sure where to start?

Do you already have some climate change materials, but want to supplement them with some reliable online resources?

Would you like a climate change reading list for kids, put together by librarians?

Click on the links below to access our website:

Climate Change Reading List for Kids

Climate Change Websites for Kids

Climate Change Curriculum Ideas for Teachers

Climate Change Reading List for Adults

Please contact us with any questions or for more information.

Thanks!

Amy De Simone & Anne Moser

Wisconsin's Water Library

Aquatic Sciences Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Biography for Kids

Biography Websites for Kids

compiled by Sarah Loughrin

Badgerlink has a great resource that I used with 5^th graders last year.  I’m not sure if the link will work (depending on how your computers are recognized by the state), but within Badgerlink, the Elementary School Edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica has a Biography section: http://school.eb.com/elementary/bio 

Try these,

http://pbjclibrary.state.ar.us/kidsbiography.htm

http://www.dmoz.org/Kids_and_Teens/People_and_Society/Biography/

http://www.biography.com/bio4kids/bio4kids-meet.jsp

www.awesomestories.com has visually interesting, in-depth info. linked to primary sources

Bio for Kids!

http://www.biography.com/bio4kids/index.jsp