BY Library Activities
June 1 - 4, 2020
Thank you for sharing stories with me this year!
Please join me for a special storytelling performance Monday at 1:30 and our last o Zoom Storytime of the year Wednesday at 1:30.
There are also A LOT of stories to enjoy below.
Plus all these videos will be available all summer long.
If you'd like to recommend a book to the LS community, please use this FlipGrid.
For information on the Beverly Cleary Children's Choice Award, click here to access the titles and click here for information on voting.
Take care and happy reading!
A special thank you from Ms. Lora
If you're a Mo Willems and Yo-Yo Ma fan like me, check out The Yo Yo Mo Show!
The Book Hog
I hope you enjoy lots of books this summer!
The Incredible Book Eating Boy
But please don't eat them!
Q is for Duck
For all grades:
Connecting activity: Make a list of 10 words that start with your favorite letter of the alphabet. Or make your own page in an unexpected alphabet book like this one.
Lion Lessons
For all grades:
Connecting activity: Write or draw about what are you proud of learning this year.
Once Upon an Alphabet
Primary & 1st graders:
Connecting activity: Write your own short story for any letter of the alphabet.
May 26 - May 29, 2020:
Enjoy the stories below!
You're welcome to join us for Zoom Storytime with Ms. Lora (M & W 1:30 - 2:00)
If you'd like to recommend a book to the LS community, please use this FlipGrid.
For information on the Beverly Cleary Children's Choice Award, click here to access the titles and click here for information on voting.
Take care and happy reading!
Share your connections with Ms. Lora by posting writing, drawings, or a video in our shared BY Library Album.
1st grade & Primary
Connecting activities:
Write a postcard or letter to a friend or family member.
Draw a picture of what you see blooming around your house.
Plant something in your home or yard.
Do something kind for someone else
Great for all grades
Connecting activities:
Read or listen to stories about Cuba on Epic, such as "Dream Drum Girl," "Marina, the Beautiful Cockroach," or "Let's Explore Cuba!"
Think about a time you've had to come up with a creative solution to a problem.
Listen to or watch "Rosie Revere, Engineer" on Epic. How are Rosie Revere and her aunt like the boy and his father in "All the Way to Havana"?
Great for all grades
Connecting activities:
Read "A Family is a family is a family" on Epic. What is special about your family?
Listen to this recording of "Drawn Together." What are ways that you connect with a grandparent or other relative?
May 18 - 21, 2020:
Enjoy any of the stories below! More stories will be posted throughout the week!
You're welcome to join us for Zoom Storytime with Ms. Lora (M & W 1:30 - 2:00)
If you'd like to recommend a book to the LS community, please use this FlipGrid.
For information on the Beverly Cleary Children's Choice Award, click here to access the titles and click here for information on voting.
Take care and happy reading!
Where is Ms. Lora in this video?
We've all been enjoying some wonderful connections to nature, but we're also missing our time together in the library. I had to get more books to share with you, so I recorded this read-aloud while I was at the library. I hope you enjoy it.
If the illustrations in this picture book inspire you to make your own egg painting, or if you'd like to share a connection to this story, you can share your response in our BY Google Album.
What are ways you can help the earth?
What are ways you can help a friend?
Enjoy this story of friendship, community-building, and caring for the earth.
Would you like to make your own watercolor painting of an ocean scene? If the illustrations in this picture book inspire you, you can share your art in our BY Google Album.
What are some of your favorite words?
Listen to this story. Then make a list of some of your favorite wild words.
Go on a word hunt and draw what you find. Post your word list in our BY Google Album so that others can go on a word hunt with your list!
Some of Ms. Lora's favorite wild words that you might find right now are: rhododendron, iris, damsel fly, lazuli bunting, poppy, camas, and cascade.
May 11 - 15, 2020:
Enjoy any of the stories below! There are lots!
You're welcome to join us for Zoom Storytime with Ms. Lora (M & W 1:30 - 2:00)
If you'd like to recommend a book to the LS community, please use this FlipGrid.
For information on the Beverly Cleary Children's Choice Award, click here to access the titles and click here for information on voting.
Take care and happy reading!
Listen to Ms. Lora read this story and learn how to access more like it on JLGDigital.
And here's a link to more online reading resources!
And here's another wonderful story Ms. Lora found to read to you on JLGDigital.
If you like, draw a picture of your hideout or an island you'd like to visit and share it with Ms. Lora on our Google Album.
Here are some Podcasts on the science behind the book, copied from the publisher's website.
Wild Ideas introduces some fascinating concepts about the creative ways animals solve problems. In each of these podcasts, author Elin Kelsey delves a bit deeper into one idea from the book and explores the science behind it:
1. EVEN KILLER WHALES NEED ADVICE FROM THEIR MOMS
2. THE SPOTTED HYENA’S RECIPE FOR TEAMWORK
3. ORANGUTANS ENGINEER PLACES TO THINK
Share your responses to the new BY Google Album!
Whales creating bubble nets are mentioned in the book, and in the back of the book is a link to the above video. Check it out!
4. OCTOPUSES MAKE-BELIEVE THEIR WAY OUT OF A JAM
5. SEA OTTERS COULD TEACH SHOP CLASS
6. PIGEONS PROCRASTINATE TOO!
7. DUNG BEETLES STEER BY THE MILKY WAY
Optional Connecting Activities:
Make a drawing or diorama of an animal that inspires you.
Look in Epic or National Geographic Kids for books about the animals mentioned in this book.
May 4 -8, 2020: Happy Children's Book Week!
Enjoy any of the stories below! There are lots!
You're welcome to join us for Zoom Storytime with Ms. Lora (M & W 1:30 - 2:00)
Check out some more fun activities here, as well as some videos from beloved children's book authors here.
Travel to Spain to learn how nature inspired the famous architect Gaudí.
Read more about Spain on Epic! Take a virtual trip to Spain and see some of Gaudí's buildings using Google Maps. Here's a video that shows you how to do this.
Or enjoy a trickster tale from right here in the Pacific Northwest.
Cultures all over the world have stories to explain why things are the way they are. Could you imagine your own story to explain something in the natural world such as how the sun came to be in the sky or why an animal looks the way it does?
Travel to ancient ruins in Zimbabwe in this fairytale story.
Read "All Around the World: Zimbabwe" on Epic. Explore other countries in the "All Around the World" series. If you were going to retell a story and set it in a different place, where would you set it? Why? How would the story change?
Enjoy this story based on a Russian folktale.
Then learn more about Russia on Epic! There you will find both non-fiction books about Russia as well as other Russian folk tales.
What have you planted lately? Could you create your own tale about something in growing in the garden? Share in words, a video, or a drawing!
April 27 - May 1, 2020 Enjoy any of the stories below! There are lots!
You're welcome to join us for Zoom Storytime with Ms. Lora (M & W 1:30 - 2:00)
***It's Coach Ben's Birthday on Monday, April 27. Click here to help send a surprise brithday wish to him!***
Listen to "Don't Worry, Little Crab," then read or listen to a book about crabs on Epic!
Who is someone who helps you to be brave?
Can you make them a thank you card?
Fairytales retold in reversible poems?! I read this book for 4th grade, but thought BY students would like it too.
Could you retell a fairytale in 3-5 sentences or 3-5 pictures?
Read more fairytales and poems on Epic!
Listen to "Jingledancers" then watch these videos, one includes four women talking about their love of jingledancing, another shows three women explaining the dance steps, and the last is of jingledancers at a PowWow.
What is a gift someone in your family has given you? What's something you've done for someone else?
April 20 - 24, 2020 Enjoy any of the stories below! There are lots!
You're welcome to join us for Zoom Storytime with Ms. Lora (M & W 1:30 - 2:00)
Wednesday, April 22, is Ms. Lora's Birthday.
If you'd like to wish her a happy birthday on FlipGrid, you can do so here.
And here's a chance to do a surprise birthday wish for another teacher. Click to find out who!
Listen to the author read one of her poems.
Connecting activity: What sounds of spring are you hearing? Could you write a poem or song, or make a drawing, of a sign of spring? Listen to this recording Ms. Lora made. Can you tell what birds are making this song? If you like, upload your response to our Google Album.
Outside In by Deborah Underwood
Connecting activity: Make a watercolor painting of something you see outside your window. Or write or draw about a time some bit of outside came inside your house!
Use this video to help you find books about animals and insects at National Geographic Kids. Search for whatever interests you!
I Want My Hat Back
Bear misses his hat. What do you miss right now? Plus, meet Nanners, the grumpy goat, who uses his imagination to help him when he's grumpy.
Millie's Marvelous Hat
A powerful story of imagination
What does your hat look like? Draw a picture and upload it to our Google Album.
Can you guess what bird Lora saw in her neighborhood?
Hint: It connects to one of these stories!
Below are two new family stories. Listen to one or both and share your response here.
Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard
The Hula-Hoopin' Queen by Thelma Lynne Godin
If you enjoyed this story, feel free to view other read alouds like this one on https://www.storylineonline.net/
Week of April 13 - 17, 2020
April 17, 2020
For Primary (and anyone else who'd like to listen!)
By special request from Marcel, here is a tiger story for you:
See if you can find other stories about your favorite animals by searching Epic or National Geographic. For a video lesson on how to use these resources, click on the these links: Epic! or National Geographic Kids.
Share your learning with me by posting a picture or video in our Google Album.
After listening to this story, go to Epic to enjoy folk tales from around the world!
April 16, 2020 Kindergarten (and anyone else who would like to listen!)
Listen to this story to learn about Pura Belpré, a librarian who brought folk tales of Puerto Rico to her new home in New York City, and then to children all over the world through her books and her storytelling.
Click here for a video I made to help you find some folktales to enjoy on Epic!
April 15, 2020 I hope you enjoy these stories! I'd love to see your responses if you want to post them in the Google Album. -Ms. Lora
"Alphabeasts" and "ABC Dreams"
Enjoy 2 alphabet books.
Suggested activities:
Go on an alphabet hunt in your home or in your neighborhood. Can you find something that starts with each letter of the alphabet? Or pick a letter and see how many things you can find that start with that letter?
Pick letter (or as many as you like) and make an illustration for that letter. If you do three letters a week between now and the end of the school year, you'll have your own alphabet book!
"Who Put the Cookie in the Cookie Jar?"
Have you ever thought about how many people it takes to help us get all the things we need to make a simple cookie?
This book reminds us that we are all connected.
Suggested activities:
Cook something with your family and talk about where all the supplies come from.
Make a thank you card for someone who has helped you.
Can you think of something you're grateful for every letter of the alphabet?
Monday, April 13, 2020
In the class meetings I have visited, I have met so many cats (and dogs, and stuffies, and even turtles!). I thought it would be fun to share some favorite cat stories. Feathers for Lunch and Six Dinner Sid were previously posted for PreK but could be enjoyed by all ages. First graders have been enjoying books by Patricia Polacco, and For the Love of Autumn, is a book she wrote about a very special cat that I think students from kindergarten on up could enjoy.
First graders (and any other listeners), if you would like to share a response with Ms. Lora, here is a FlipGrid prompt with some questions I have for you! Click on the FlipGrid link again in a day or two and I'll do my best to respond to your video! And meet Ms. Lora's cat in the video below the read-alouds!
For the Love of Autumn by Patricia Polacco
A love story brought about by a cat.
Suitable for Kindergarten and up
Pink Kitty, a poem by Julie Larios and Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert
It's National Poetry Month. How about a poem and a rhyming story about cats?
Suitable for PreK and up
Six Dinner Sid by Inga Moore
A mischevious cat who looks a lot like Ms. Lora's cat Spooky
Suitable for PreK and up