January School Library Lesson Plans

JANUARY Lesson Plans: 

Week 1:  REFERENCES/RESOURCES - review all reference books and resource materials so that students can name them all.  Examples include atlas, almanac, dictionary, encyclopedias, thesarus, computer database for looking up books in the library, Annual Book of World Records, Magazines of all kinds, etc...  REF is the spine label which stands for "reference", with numbers under and books are placed in numerical order.  These book are not for check out.

 

Lesson Plan: 

Instructions

• 1
• Write a "scavenger hunt" of questions that students need to find the answer for. These should include questions which can easily be answered by using specific reference materials.
• 2
  Allow the students a set period of time (such as 20 minutes) to find the information sources on their own.
• 3
• Ask each student to say which questions they were able to answer and how they found the information. If they used one of the correct reference materials, write the name of that material on the board. Talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the different sources used.
• 4
  Write the remaining reference materials on the board, explaining the benefits of each one.
• 5
  Hand out a second "scavenger hunt", allowing the students to take advantage of the new resources they've been taught. This should reinforce the knowledge and enable them to complete the task more efficiently and accurately than before.

Week 2:  COMPUTER SAFETY - review safe web sites for kids and unsafe web sites.  Discuss what to do if you accidentally see something "inappropriate".  Practice accessing appropriate and safe children's web sites.

Safe children's web sites:

http://kids.yahoo.com/reference

http://www.ipl.org/

Week 3:  MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY  -  (Celebrated the 3rd Monday of January.) 

Here is an amazing lesson plan from the book Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

By: Doreen Rappaport

Illustrated by: Bryan Collier

Age Level: 6-9

Reading Level: Beginning Reader

Martin Luther King Jr. grew up fascinated by big words. He would later go on to use these words to inspire a nation and call people to action. In this award-winning book, powerful portraits of King show how he used words, not weapons, to fight injustice. 

http://americanhistory.si.edu/ourstory/pdf/mlk/mlk_reading.pdf 

Week 4:  ARTIC ANIMALS - Discuss the life and habitat of all sorts of artic animals and look up where they are "found" in the library.  Answer questions about a variety of animals by looking up information in a variety of informational books available.

Author Study: Tomie dePaola & Patrick Carmen - birthdays in January and both are excellent authors, dePaola for the younger grades and Carmen for the older grades.