Class Pages


The Library staff teaches a progressive program of skills instruction in all grades. Primary level activities are centered around literature appreciation while the middle grades concentrate on the organization of information and evaluation of .

To see what we are doing in a specific class this week click on the grade level below:

Kindergarten First grade Second Grade Third Grade Fourth Grade
Fifth Grade Sixth Grade Seventh Grade Eighth Grade

 

Kindergarten

Month

Theme
September
  • stories about starting school, families
  • decorate book-saver boxes
  • learning how to care for library books
October Halloween stories!
November Autumn/ Food/ Thanksgiving
December Books about winter holidays: Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa
January

Stories about friendship and equality; Library Friendship Tree project

February Fiction and non-fiction books about dinosaurs

March

Springtime! Gardens, bugs, and farms
April Fairy Tales
May Picture book classics

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sources

First Grade

Month

Theme

September
  • stories about starting school, families
  • decorate book-saver boxes
  • learn how to use Save My Spot shelf passes
October

Halloween Stories!

Save My Spot shelf passes

 

November

Stories about Art and Artists

December Stories about winter

January

Stories from all the continents:

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Australia
February
  • Europe and Antarctica
  • North America
  • South America
March Poetry and stories that rhyme
April Paired fiction and non-fiction
May Summertime fun

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Second Grade

Month Theme
September
  • How to find the right book for me
  • Introduction to genres
  • Captain Book: Library Superhero
October

Halloween Stories!

  • parody
  • allusions
  • idioms
  • figures of speech

 

November
  • Map of the library scavenger hunt
  • Favorite book posters
December Holidays around the world; Holiday research
January Chinese Folklore
February Aesop's Fables
March

Tall Tales

April Fractured Fairy Tales
May More Fractured Fairy Tales

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Third Grade

Month Theme/Lesson
September
  • What is a story? What are the elements of a story?
  • Locating different kinds of stories in the Town library
  • Using the library catalog and self-checkout system
October
  • Mystery Stories and Horror Stories (introduction to genres)
  • Piggins and mystery keywords: crime, evidence, clue, suspect, motive, mystery
  • Sherlock Holmes
  • Build Your Own Scary Story
November
  • Storytelling Through Pictures
  • Wordless Picture Books
December
  • Storytelling Through Pictures
  • Wordless Picture Books
January
  • School Stories from around the world
February
March
  • Life Stories
April
  • Digital Stories
May  

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Fourth Grade

Month Lesson
September
  • Introduction: The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary
  • "Fast Facts" project (research a topic that interests you, choose a fact to highlight and illustrate)
  • introduce CultureGrams and Worldbook, begin States project
October
  • States project
  • Spooky Stories
November      
  • Read The Two Bobbies
  • create life maps for The Two Bobbies (writing trait = organization)
  • read Never Smile at a Monkey

 

December
  • Never Smile at a Monkey research
  • create safety posters based on Never Smile at a Monkey
January
February
  • Read Sundiata and Macbeth
  • finish biographies project
March
  • Continue reading Macbeth, begin preparing mini-plays

 

April
  • Macbeth mini-plays
May

 

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Fifth Grade Media Literacy (co-taught with Technology department)

 

Date Lesson
Week 1 (9/7) Media Use Survey
Week 2 (9/14)

Class #1

 

Class #2

Use the following links to complete today's activity. DO NOT give out any personal information to ANY of these websites!

Week 3

Class #1

Class #2

  • Introduction to Gmail
  • E-mail Etiquette

Week 4

(9/28 - 10/2)

5A Class #1

 

5A Class #2

Persuasive techniques

Sample Videos for Persuasive Techniques

 

5B Class #1

Week 5

(10/5 - 10/9)

5B Class #1

Persuasive techniques

 

5B Class #2

Persuasive Techniques, part 2

Week 6

(Tues. 10/13 - 10/16)

5A Class #1

Persuasive techniques, part 2

 

5A Class #2

Target audiences

 

5B Class #1

Target audiences

 

 

Week 7

(10/19 - 10/23)

5B Class #1
Commercial Presentation

5A Class #1
Commercial Presentation

5A Class #2
Website Evaluations
All About Explorers - http://www.allaboutexplorers.com/home

5B Class #2
Website Evaluations
All About Explorers - http://www.allaboutexplorers.com/home

Week 8

(10/26 - 10/30)

Finding and Identifying Reliable Websites

Imagine that you are a 5th grader doing a research project on San Francisco. Choose TWO of these websites to evaluate, using a Website Evaluation form.

Week 9

(11/2 - 11/6)

create San Francisco websites, add text and images

Week 10

(11/9 - 11/13)

use eLibrary to locate information and take notes

Week 11

(11/16 - 11/20)

use eLibrary to locate information and take notes

update San Francisco websites

Week 12

(11/23 - 11/24)

Tech Topics:
- Creating and organizing folders
-- Accessing Community
- Synchronizing the My Documents folder
- Basic troubleshooting:
-- Connecting to the wireless network
-- Offline files
-- "Resolve File Conflicts"

Complete Google Sites
Typer Shark - http://www.popcap.com/games/free/typershark

Week 13

(11/30 - 12/4)

  • Create a Google Doc for your California story.
  • Select THREE locations for your California story, and type them into your Google doc.
  • Start brainstorming your story!

Week 14

(12/7 - 12/11)

Work on your California digital story

 

Week 15

(12/14 - 12/18)

Finish California digital stories

Week 16

(1/4 - 1/8)

5A (Tuesday x 2)

  • MovieMaker lesson
  • Google Images work
  • Save images in Community (in appropriate folder)

5B (Wednesday)

  • MovieMaker lesson

Week 17

(1/11 - 1/16)

 

 

5A

Tuesday #1

  • Finish searching for images.
  • Place your images in your Windows MovieMaker storyboard, and have the storyboard checked by a teacher.
  • Use "Save Project As" to save your work in progress in your Community folder.

Tuesday #2:

  • Finish work from Tuesday morning class.
  • If time, begin recording your audio narration.

5B

Monday: Find AT LEAST ten images for your digital storytelling project. Save them in your Community folder.

Wednesday:

  • Finish searching for images.
  • Place your images in your Windows MovieMaker storyboard, and have the storyboard checked by a teacher.
  • Use "Save Project As" to save your work in progress in your Community folder.

 

 

Week 18

(1/19 - 1/20)

Tuesday, 5A

  • Finish your storyboard.
  • Finish recording your audio narration.
  • Small groups will be pulled aside to help us record a movie for the Martin Luther King Jr. assembly.
  • Lesson on importing music from Freeplaymusic.com

Wednesday, 5B

  • Finish your storyboard.
  • Finish recording your audio narration.
  • Small groups will be pulled aside to help us record a movie for the Martin Luther King Jr. assembly.

 

 

Week 19

(1/25 - 1/27)

Tuesday, 5A

  • Finish your movie project
  • Save your project as a movie file IN COMMUNITY

 

Wednesday, 5B

  • Finish your movie project
  • Save your project as a movie file IN COMMUNITY

 

Week 20

(2/1 - 2/3)

 

  • Finish your movie project, save it as a movie file IN COMMUNITY. If you are not able to finish during class, you MUST come to the library during recess or after school and get extra help.
  • Introduction to copyright: What is copyright? What is fair use? Watch Fairy Use video.

 

Week 21

(2/8 - 2/10)

Happy Spirit Week!

  • Copyright scenarios & debate
  • Digital Storytelling Film Festival!

 

Week 22

(2/22 - 2/24)

Introduction to Poetry Project

read Selvakumar Knew Better and The Two Bobbies

 

Week 23

(3/1 - 3/5)

Read instructions for Natural Disasters project

Complete Part One of natural disasters project

Week 24

(3/8-3/10)

Guest speaker on Haiti and photography

Begin Part Two of natural disasters project

Week 25

(3/15-3/17)

Complete Part Two of natural disasters project, revise part one (as needed)

 

Week 27

(4/11 - 4/14)

Begin ecology project.

Week 28

(4/19 -4/21)

Work on ecology project

Week 29

(4/26 - 4/28)

Work on ecology project

Week 30

(5/3 - 5/5)

  • Work on ecology project
  • Begin Google Presentations

Week 31

(5/10-5/12)

Week 32

(5/17-5/19)

  • Make sure you have cited your websites in NoodleTools and pasted those citations into your bibliography slide.
  • Begin practicing your group presentation.

Week 33

(5/24-5/26)

  • Finish practicing your group presentation. (1st period)
  • Begin presenting (2nd period)

Week 34

(6/1-6/3)

Presentations

Week 35

(6/7 - 6/9)

Take final assessment.

Fill out course evaluation.

Media Literacy Resources

Description Resource
   
   

"When You're Done" Activities

Description Resource
Mr. Picassohead - Make a creative self-potrait http://www.mrpicassohead.com/
Smart Kit puzzles and games http://www.smart-kit.com/
ThinkUKnow http://thinkuknow.co.uk/8_10/
Auditorium http://www.playauditorium.com
Typer Shark http://www.popcap.com/games/free/typershark

 

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Sixth Grade

Library activities for each week are listed in the table below. Check back for weekly updates!

Educational Games resources:

Auditorium -- Force beams of light toward targets in order to create mysterious, otherwordly music.  Can you solve these unusual puzzles?

Nobel Prize Games -- A series of flash games related to the work of prize-winning scientists.

Free Rice --  Help feed the hungry while simultaneously boosting your vocab! Warning, this game is more addictive than you'd think. 

EdHeads
-- Perform virtual surgery, analyze a crash scene, and explore the physics of some really weird simple machines.

 

Date Lesson
Week 1
  • introductory survey & course overview
  • review Tiger Points system
Week 2

Searching, Skimming, Scanning lesson (BINGO!)

Use Social Studies for Kids to help you complete your team's bingo board.

Week 3

(10/5/09)

Magazine Project

Week 4

(10/19/09)

Magazine Project

Week 5

(10/26/09)

  • Spooky Stories (Halloween week)

Week 6

(11/2/09)

Medieval Fair!

Week 7

(11/09/09)

  • independent reading (6A)
  • spooky stories (6B)

Week 8

(11/16/09)

Week 9

(11/23/09)

Book trailers project

  • review project guidelines
  • create Google doc for narration text
  • create project folders in Community
  • download Firefox add-on (optional) for video capture
  • MovieMaker review

Week 10

(11/30/09)

Book trailers project

  • work on narration text
  • when you are finished with text, begin locating images and video clips

Week 11

(12/7/09)

Book trailers project

  • Review project guidelines
  • finish Google doc for narration text
  • start gathering images & video clips, and SAVE THEM TO COMMUNITY!

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Seventh Grade and Eighth Grade

Seventh and eighth graders in the Literate Writer class visit the library weekly for independent reading. Approximately once a month, the librarians give booktalks highlighting books they feel are of particular interest to this age group.

   

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