Where is Mrs. Brown?

No, I didn't fall off the end of the Earth! School started. Yep, I'm back. (Having flashbacks of Poltergeist!) I've been working really late. You would think that getting ready to start the school year would be easy for librarians. Sometimes. I decided to do a little redecorating and organizing this summer. If you've seen my Monday Made Its, you will have seen tidbits of my madness. I'm so not a girly girl, but now the library has some new book baskets, shelf markers, and shelf labels. Hey, I'll try almost anything to get my darlings into a great book.

As I have mentioned before, I teach at a really SMALL school. Because of our size, I have other jobs besides librarian.  For example, I'm our Technology Support Teacher. (This year our district is renaming my position to Technology Coach. I get to do less fixing of computers and more helping my teachers use technology in their classrooms.) As my school's techie, I help my teachers get their computers set up and make sure everything is running smoothly for the first day of class. Usually this is a one day job. Not so this year. I broke down a lab and moved those computers to the classrooms. We're getting a new mobile lab which I really believe will be better utilized. This resulted in my working a few late nights this week. (I really started a week ago Thursday.) We've also had a couple teachers switch classrooms so I've been trying to help by moving their computers. (And anything else they need. I'm really too nice. Ha!)

In between all the moving around I did get a couple bulletin boards finished. I worked on the main entry way board last week and finished it Wednesday afternoon. My teachers, principal, and kids (so far) have loved it. Of course I used my favorite red. Had to add a little animal print. I thought it looked pretty good. Whoop! Whoop!

To introduce internet safety, I created a THINK bulletin board. I had pinned this from a couple sites back in the spring and knew I wanted to "borrow" the idea. This one took a little bit of time to create because I couldn't find all the social media buttons I wanted to place on my board. With a little time and persistence I created the following buttons for my board. If you can use them, comment below and I'll send you a copy. Make sure your reply by email is on so I'll be able to see your email. Otherwise just email me on my gmail account. (easttennesseebookworm)

Hopefully I can get the last two classrooms set up tomorrow. I'm waiting to see if we get to hire another teacher. Our numbers are sooooooo close.

Keep Reading.... I'll have a little time this weekend.

Fun with Scaredy Squirrel

This week for my summer reading program I selected some of the new books that arrived the last couple weeks of school. I just saved them to display in August.

I read:

Dog Breath by Dav Pilkey   This is the delightful tale of Hally Tosis who has horrible dog breath. Her owners decide to get rid of her until one day, she saves the day.

Scaredy Squirrel at Night by Melanie Watt   Scaredy tries to stay awake because he's afraid he'll have a nightmare.

Scaredy Suirrel Goes Camping by Melanie Watt   Scaredy has issues with the idea of going camping. You know quick sand, mosquitoes, and the three bears!

Of course we had to do a little activity. The kids who have been attending my summer reading program range from 3 to 8 years old so I needed to find something simple but fun. I decided to have them make a Scaredy Squirrel mask.  I found the "How to draw Scaredy Squirrel" on Ms. Watt's website, but I didn't think my 3 year old's would like it. So I drew Scaredy and turned him into a mask.

click here to download from google docs

I printed the masks onto white card stock. Then the kids colored Scaredy. With the help of parents and grand-parents, we cut out the mask and removed the eyes. I cut slits in the sides to hold the ribbon, and here's the finished masks! I thought they turned out really cute.

Happy Reading!