School Library Lessons Archives - So Blessed to Be a Teacher

Back-to-School Book Care with The Book That Jake Borrowed

(Disclosure: This blog post contains affiliate links, and if you click through and make a purchase, I will receive compensation at no additional cost to you.)

Don’t you just LOVE those first few library lessons of the year? Getting to meet new students and see the sweet faces of returning students is *priceless*!

During the past couple of years, I have included The Book That Jake Borrowed by Susan Kralovansky as one of my first read alouds for my first and second graders. Reminiscent of the classic tale “The House that Jack Built,” this story has a “library book care” twist that makes it wonderful for little library learners. It tells the story of the misadventures of a book that a boy named Jake checked out from the library. Unfortunately, Jake does NOT take good care of the book he has borrowed. Throughout the course of the story, the library book has run-ins with a dog, a cat, a rat, and some jelly!

The kids really enjoy this book because it includes great moments for them to join in with me as I read. The students LOVE yelling out, “Oh no!” and making animal noises throughout the story.

To make the interactive aspect of the story even more fun, I created little “cue cards” to help make the students aware of when it is their turn to say their lines. I select five “helpers” to stand with me as I’m reading the story, and I cue each of them to hold up their sign when it’s time for the students in the class to say their line. The helpers AND all the other students always find this read aloud SO MUCH FUN!

You can visit Susan Holt Kralovansky’s website for free resources to go with the story…

…and I have created a FREE DOWNLOAD FOR YOU that contains the cue cards I use with my students as well as a word search to go with The Book That Jake Borrowed!

(Btw, if you are teaching your students about book care, I also recommend the following book care coloring pages, available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. This has been one of my most popular products this Back to School season!)

*Book Care Coloring Pages, available in my TpT store!*

And, for more book care resources, please go ahead and visit one of my previous posts, where I have another book care freebie for you!

I wish you an amazing new school year! (And … I wish that no that library books that have had any interaction with dogs, cats, rats, or jelly are returned to your library!)

Fiction vs. Nonfiction Freebie!

Approximately 99.9340394% of primary teachers and elementary librarians spend at least a little time going over the difference between fiction and nonfiction. A similar percentage of children LOVE robots.

So I decided to switch up one of my usual lessons in my “fiction vs. nonfiction” unit this year in kindergarten library class and go with a robot theme. Our read aloud for one of the days was part of a nonfiction book about robots, and one of the accompanying activities was a robot-themed coloring page that compares fiction and nonfiction.

It was a hit!

And here’s that printable…for you…for FREE!

Free Printable!_Download

Enjoy! For more resources for your library littles, please visit my TpT store!

Disclosure: The banner below is an affiliate link. If you click through and make a purchase, I will receive compensation at no additional cost to you.

Fall is in Full Swing in the School Library!

Happy Fall to all you autumn enthusiasts out there! A lot of people seem to LOVE this season, but as for me, I’m typically not really into fall. I am the first to admit that I’m a wimp, so I can’t really handle any spooky, icky Halloween stuff, AND I’m not a fan of cooler weather paired with shorter days.

Of course, on the bright side, fall means I do occasionally get to eat apple crisp…AND I get to make jack-o’-lanterns out of library books.

(A shout out to all the creative librarians out there whose book display designs have brightened my day by showing up on my Pinterest feed, including Sunnyvale Public Library, iworkatapubliclibrary.com and Swiss Army Librarian. Thanks for sharing your ideas and inspiring me to make my own book pumpkin.) 🙂

And this year, I can add one more thing to autumn’s “YAY!” column: I get to make fall-themed products for my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

So far, I’ve created two autumn-themed products…

Fall-Themed Library Skills Worksheets for Grades K-2

Cover artwork for this product is by Krista Wallden and gradeonederful.com

My K-2 Library Skills pack includes printable worksheets to go along with your library lessons on ABC order, library behavior and etiquette, caring for library books, what is an illustrator?, and using a title page.

My personal favorite worksheet in the pack is this one, which asks students to color good book care choices yellow and bad book care choices orange, resulting in a jack-o’-lantern.

Fall-Themed Library Skills Resources for Grades 3-5

Cover artwork for this product is by gradeonederful.com

For your upper elementary students, I just completed this packet of resources that you can use with your lessons on parts of a book, arranging fiction books, and making a Works Cited page in MLA format.

(Update 04/07/18: If you are interested in both of those resources, they are now available at a reduced rate, along with my Veterans Day Activities, in my Library Skills Bundle for Fall.)

Feel free to snuggle up, enjoy a pumpkin-flavored treat, and check out my fall products and everything else at my TpT store! 🙂