Let's Make It a Camp Out!

At the end of every year with my religious school kindergarten class, we have a "camp out" where they make a paper bonfire, I put an LED tea light in the middle and we "roast" marshmallows hanging out on the floor.  They LOVE it!!

This year, I'm bringing the experience to my older students in the library.  The bonfires will already be made, but the lights in the library will be off, students will get to chill on the floor, and either eat popcorn or make s'mores while listening to scary stories.

I've decided to try some audio books, like Alvin Schwartz's collection of Scary Stories and David Lubar's The Curse of the Campfire Weenies, and Other Warped and Creepy Tales.  I'll most likely provide my students who need something to keep their hands busy with activities that won't take away too much concentration from the audio.  I have really emphasized listening centers and fluency all year and hope this will provide a nice celebration of their effort to work with audio.

Come Listen To This Book!

I've been listening to audiobooks on the way to work for about 2 1/2 years now.  This is a great way to stay up to date on books I'm considering purchasing for my school's library...also helps me to catch up on books I've been meaning to read--an endless task.  I have made it through 7 audiobooks this school year and just keep going back to the public library for more.  Listening to audiobooks on a consistent basis lets me realize what power they hold. Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers, was more authentic while listening to him read than had I just read the physical book.  Many nonfiction books are easier for me to listen to on audio then they are to read.  

The above combined with research I knew and have been reading about in regards to audiobooks in the classroom made me realize how essential I should make a listening center in my library.  This year, I set up 4 book CD's in the computer and prop the book up by the tower, so students could see their choices. This listening experience spans kindergarten-5th grade.  This past week, all the grades got to enjoy audio during centers.  Even the preschoolers listened to the audio of a book as a class while I turned the pages.  To them, it was a whole new way to listen to a story.

  

All grades listened to the books, Hot Rod Hamster by Cynthia Lord, Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin, Jr., Bear's Loose Tooth by Karma Wilson, and When I Woke Up I Was a Hippopotamus by Tom MacRae.  That's right, every grade listened to these picturebook audiobooks. My goal is to change the audiobooks once a month since they have library centers only twice a month (during weeks they checkout).  The offerings will only expand to older picturebooks and short story or poetry collections since they only have 8-12 minutes at the center.

Students will have a choice to listen to another audio once the current audio they have is done or fill out a review of the book they just finished.  These reviews will be hung up by the listening center for other students to read.  I'm not requiring them to do this because I want the listening/reading to be enjoyed and not another area where they have to fret about something to write out.

In addition, I purchased multi-headphone splitter for students to listen to the same book and I recommend doing this if you only have one or two electronic platforms to offer students to listen to audio. This type of splitter is available via this link.

"Headphones on books" image courtesy of renjith krishnan/freedigitalphotos.net