So lets start with reading, So far this week I have read The Lost Children by Carolyn Cohagan, which was pretty good. Its a time-traveling fantasy story where an unhappy girl travels through a portal in her shed to a mysterious world called Gulm where all the children have been taken by the evil leader known as the Master. A good adventure story with some good suspenseful elements. Then I read two Jane Austen books (I know not the most elementary friendly, but I love Jane Austen and its MY spring break). I read Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. The only two Jane Austen books I had not read previously. They were good typical Jane Austen books. Then I read Theodore Boone:Kid Lawyer by John Grisham. I was pleasantly surprised. I have read some of his adult books before and enjoyed them, but he writes really good adult legal dramas, so how would he translate things like the law and legal cases into elementary kid friendly things? But he did, by inserting his main character (Theo Boone) into the middle of a murder case, where only he knows a key piece of information. I was pleasantly surprised by how suspenseful the book was, and for me, how unpredictable it was too. I really didn't know how it would end until it did! Now, I'm reading Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein. I'm only a few chapters in, but already it sounds exciting. A bunch of 7th graders get trapped in a library and must play games and solve puzzles to get out. Also one of the characters is named Haley Daley, and that is my niece's name (although spelled slightly differently) so that was exciting to me too. Hopefully I'll get at least one more book beyond these 5 finished this spring break.
Now to the thinking and planning I have done. First I starting thinking about summer. I entered Scholastic's contest to win a free book for every child at my school. So I hope I win that for my kids. Then I thought about summer reading programs, Scholastic has one but it looks like only teachers can sign up classes, I can't sign up my whole school. So I emailed Scholastic to see if I could sign up my whole school as the librarian. Also I set some goals for the summer: 1. Make curriculum guides of online resources for my 3rd-5th grade teachers on topics I know they cover every year (Like biomes, animal adaptations, Native Americans, etc). 2. Prep my library centers to make them as "makerspacey" as possible.
I have already started talking with the technology teacher at our school to make our theme for next school year "STEAM" with that trend in mind, I want to beef up the maker-space content in the media center. I got a donor's choose grant funded this spring to help start the process and I want to reorganize my stations so that students have more options each week. Also I really want to do a Cardboard Challenge Event this Fall. The Cardboard Challenge Event is where kids and their families are inspired through creative play to come to the library and see what they can make out of cardboard. Its an event to inspire making, creativity and 21st century skills. I want to host and event next fall.
So, Reading, Thinking, and Planning, that's what I have done on my spring break. Oh, and I did spend some time (6 out of the 10 days) with my family, just having good old family time. :)