Library With Kristin

Have your kindergartners or 1st graders write and/or draw a thank you note to someone they care about! Differentiated for writing ability, this is a sweet, simple way to have students practice showing gratitude.

The eyebrows of doom are coming! After reading the fabulous book by Steve Smallman and Miguel Ordóñez, students can draw their own self portraits with some angry eyebrows of doom.

Dive into oceanography research! Students will use Brittanica (or any other database of your choosing) to answer a few questions about coral reefs before scanning the QR code and taking their virtual dive. The QR code takes them to a variety of virtual, 360-degree dives photographed by the Catlin Seaview Survey. Once they choose a dive, students will use their observation skills to write down what they see. This upload has two options for the database research: one page has extra space to write

Practice basic dictionary skills with this Dictionary Detectives worksheet! After learning the basics, learners will show off their skills with this practice. On the front, they'll look up three words and write the definition, part of speech, and guidewords on the page for each. On the back, they'll put their dictionaries away and alphabetize six words. This works great as a beginning-of-unit assessment to see where kids are at, OR and end-of-unit assessment to see what they learned!

Use Brittanica Elementary to research the northern lights, write a newspaper article, and add a picture! You can do this as a stand-alone activity, or as part of a larger unit. I did this during week 2 of my aurora unit--use my outline if you're interested! (In the library, this took 3 weeks--in the classroom, it would take 3 days.) Week 1: read a couple books about the lights, such as Sky Sisters (Jan Bourdeau Waboose), The Lights that Dance in the Night (Yuval Zommer), or In the Sky at Nigh

Use PebbleGo to do some research on extreme weather! This goes great with 2nd grade's weather unit in science, and it also builds research skills and familiarizes students with PebbleGo.

Practice the 5 senses with this seasonal activity for kindergarten. This worksheet asks students to focus on 3 of the senses--see, feel, taste--and draw a picture of something fall-related for each. The worksheet has visuals in addition to the words to remind students what sense they're working on! We did this worksheet after reading the books I Hear a Pickle (Rachel Isadora) and Full of Fall (Rachel Pulley Sayre). This was a great way to warm up and give us tons of examples. Some things stude

Want to introduce your students to research skills with a one-day activity? This project can be done in 30-60 minutes and introduces students to the database Brittanica and some basic research skills. Students will choose one bird and answer 6 questions about it, concluding with a drawing of their bird on the back. I also think of this as a research warm-up to do before starting bigger research units to make them less daunting!

Extend learning on ecosystems with some invasive species research! Students use PebbleGo Next to choose one of three invasive species (buckthorn, starlings, or zebra mussels), do some research on it, and create a newspaper page to teach others about it. The article on PebbleGo Next is called "Invasive Species" and has a section on each of these. Included in the download are a research page with questions and instructions, a blank newspaper page for students to fill out (including a scientific sk

Need something to inspire elementary schoolers' summer reading? Look no further! This FREE guide is divided into picture books (fiction and nonfiction), early readers, intermediate chapter books, and middle grade (fantasy, sports, sci fi, realistic and realistic-ish fiction, mystery, and nonfiction). There's sure to be something for everyone! Feel free to share with your schools!

This cut-and-paste activity is perfect for reinforcing nonfiction text features with kindergarten and first grade! After teaching title, heading, table of contents, and picture, students cut out the images of the features and glue them into the right box. The images are all from Baby Deer by Bethany Olson.

Engage students with research on the elements! They'll use a combination of databases (Brittanica Middle and WorldBook Student) to learn all about one element, culminating in a 3-slide, 2-minute presentation to the class. Students will have a choice of 5 elements to study: hydrogen, cobalt, tungsten, uranium, and nickel. They'll find some basic info, practice their note taking, and draft the 3 slides for their presentation in this packet.

Looking for a way to let your students practice finding main idea and theme? These exit ticket sheets let your students work on these tricky yet critical skills in a simple way. All you need is the worksheets and a few books: The Adventures of Beekle, the Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat; The Scarecrow by Beth Ferry and the Fan Brothers; and The Mouse Who Carried a House on His Back by Jonathan Stutzman and Isabelle Arsenault. I did this unit over two weeks in the library: week 1 was just abo

Reading Hello Lighthouse with your class? Or looking for a way to jumpstart a mock Caldecott? This is the worksheet for you! After discussing the illustrations in the book, give students the opportunity to draw their own lighthouse scene inspired by the book and think about how it could help tell the story.

Give your 2nd graders a strong foundation in research! This worksheet helps students learn how to use PebbleGo, giving instructions for navigating tabs, looking at vocab words, and giving them the chance to build research skills. This is aimed at 2nd grade, but can also be used for 1st and 3rd, depending on their abilities and experience. Research is a foundational skill that all of our students need to learn. I tell my students that we learn how to research because research means finding info

Have you ever noticed how many random holidays there are, every single day? Why not invent your own? Have students use this straight-foward worksheet to create a holiday around something they think deserves to be celebrated. Be creative, have fun, and be impressed by what they come up with! This is a 15-30 minute activity that is easy to use in conjunction with any holiday, or even to throw in any time you have an extra bit of time. This is a great way to encourage creativity, validate stude

This 3-page packet is an excellent way to introduce research, note taking, and science writing to upper elementary students! Take students through basic-fact finding, independent note taking, and fact-based opinion writing. Students will also practice using keywords and finding information from multiple sources. This is a 4-day unit that ties in perfectly to science units.

Do you want to spruce up your distance learning page with bright banners and buttons? Want to color code weeks, grades, or days of the week? Look no further. This download comes with six different color options: blue, green, yellow, orange, pink, and purple. Each color has two pages of options: one has numbered weeks (going through week 8), and one has days of the week and a button labeled "extras." As a specialist, I'm using days of the week, and most of my gen ed friends are using days of

This simple, straightforward, 321 Reporting template gives students the chance to record the big things in their life in a situation. They will record 3 things making them happy right now, 2 things they're thankful for, 1 thing that's challenging, and 1 thing they are looking forward to. I created this as a way for them to record some memories from the time of distance learning, but this is also a great way to check in with students (and have them check in with themselves) and see what is work

Here is my elementary school summer reading guide for 2021! Not meant to be required reading, this is instead a list of books to engage and interest students over the summer. My goal with summer reading is to keep kids reading and having FUN with books. The guide is divided into the following sections: -picture books (fiction and nonfiction) -early chapter books -intermediate chapter books -middle grade (science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, sports books, mysteries, realistic fiction)