4/5/2022
My first year of teaching was in fourth grade. I wanted to do a few activities at the beginning of the year to get students discussing reading and exploring our classroom library. During planning, I landed on three activities and we did them over the course of the first two weeks of school.
1. Classroom Library Scavenger Hunt
2. A,B,C's of Reading
3. My Favorite Bookcase
All of these activities were a hit with students, and all became templates I used throughout the year in other content areas.
The 'My Favorite Bookcase' activity is simple enough. Students are given a bookcase template filled with blank book spines. Students add the titles and authors of their favorite books to the spines and create a bookcase that features the books they love. Students are encouraged to choose different fonts and colors that in some way convey the tone of each story (creativity & critical thinking).
Over the years, I have had students build bookcases for different content in various subjects and I've changed things up from bookcase to bookcase to keep students engaged.
Students have built bookcases for:
First Grade Buddy Book Suggestions
Inventions Through the Ages
Realistic Fiction Favorites
Stories of Perseverance
Animal Stories
(1 shelf of fiction and 1 shelf of nonfiction. Each nonfiction book matches a fiction
book focusing on the same animal.)
Famous Mathematicians
If You Liked _______________, You'll Love These:
(Students choose one of their favorite books and research other books that are
commonly recommended for readers who like the booked they named as a
favorite.)
Famous Fantasies
Holidays Around the World
Books Set in the Big City
Black History Month
I've Mixed Things Up By:
Having students alphabetize the books on their bookcase by author or title.
Asking students to add the year the book was first published to the book spine. Sometimes I ask them to organize the books chronologically by publishing date.
Having students choose one book from their bookcase to check out from the library and share their bookcase and the selected book with a small group (communication).
Having students work in teams to create their bookcase (collaboration).
Creating a key at the bottom of the bookcase page and asking students to color the books to match the key. For example; I've had students color code 'Famous Fantasies' by their plot points or story elements; contains a dragon, witch or wizard, a spell is cast, etc. I've had students color code the 'Famous Mathematicians' books by the year each mathematician was born, and I've had students color code by the authors last name; A-E = red, F-J = blue, etc.
Having students compare their bookcases and summarize how their book cases are similar and different (communication & critical thinking).
Often, building bookcases requires us to explore the shelves of the school library and do online research. Sometimes I'll have my classroom librarians look through the completed build a bookcase pages and choose 10 - 12 books to borrow from the school library, or pull from our classroom library so we can put them on display in our classroom for a few weeks.