Take a Magic Tree House Trip

Third Graders are re-acquainting themselves with the library shelves this fall by taking a Magic Tree House-esque trip through the Dewey Decimal System.  Well, actually the activity has now been modified several times over due to the construction and continued "debris", but here was the original plan and one I hope to execute much better in the future.  Each student would start out with a Magic Tree House Title (after discussing some of the elements of the series, i.e. Jack and Annie always find a book in the tree house that takes them to the time and place that the plot centers around) and go to the shelves to find a book that might have taken Jack and Annie to that time or place.  For example, to get to the title, "Tonight on the Titanic," they might have opened up a book about the Titanic.  Once each student has a sample non-fiction book, we can discuss in groups what the DDS numbers mean and group kids together with numbers that are close and figure out what those titles have in common.  So, I thought this would be a great plan.  Then reality hit and the shelves were still blocked by technological fallout and a huge papier machie dinosaur.  So, we did this activity in a similar fashion with cards with the titles printed as getting all the books off the shelves without tables to seat each student didn't seem entirely wise either.  Maybe by Thursday's class, we'll be able to do this activity in its intended fashion.  Maybe.  No promises.

Take a magical trip in your library - read a great book!!