Re: Gen/elem: K - 1 taking books from shelves

[Sheila Davis <daviss@MEOL.MASS.EDU>]

Hi Judy,

I am a library/media specialist in a K-6 school with about 475 students.
I'm located in a small city which is a suburb of Boston. At the beginning
of the year I pre-select books for the Kindergarten classes. I either
stand them up on tables or on the floor near the picture book section. I
usually choose about 6-8 more books than there are students.  By
Thanksgiving, they know that there is an order and that every book has
its own address. If they can't remember where they got it from, we tell
them to put in on top of the bookcase. Then we can reshelve them later. I
let my
grade 1 & 2 students sign out non fiction books They want books about
dinosaurs, animals,space flight, etc. There are so many good non fiction
series for primary grades such as New True Books by Children's Press,
Raintree's nature and animal books, etc. Toward the end of first grade we
begin to talk about fiction and non fiction - what they mean and where
they are located. I have lots of subject labels in the nonfiction area
for topics that they ask for a lot. A lot of second grade students are
capable of reading many of the easy non fiction books.

Hope this helps

Sheila Davis
Media Specialist
Plympton School
Waltham, MA

On Mon, 5 Aug 1996, Judy Seck wrote:

> Hi,
> I am an elementary media specialist, fixed schedule, inter-city school
> (about 400 kids).  The last two years, I have let the kindergarteners go to
> the shelves and choose books themselves.  I questioning the desirability of
> this.  Often, they make poor choices, get in each others way, and leave they
> section looking like its been hit by a tornado.  I'm thinking of selecting
> books and putting some on each table that they can choose from.  Any
> suggestions?
>
> Also what about first grade and non-fiction.  It had been a precedent in the
> school I'm in that k, 1, and 2 only choose books from easy fiction.  I feel
> they are missing many good non-fiction books geared for them (1 & 2).  Print
> may be difficult, but great pictures.  Opinions?  Please reply directly to
> my e-mail address.
>
> Thanks,
> Judy Seck
> Teacher/Media Specialist
> 1012 West Willow
> Lansing, MI  48915
> Voice & FAX (517)325-7348
> jseck@lsd.k12.mi.us
>