Second Grade Caldecott Intro: The Spider and the Fly

I will literally use any excuse to squeeze this book in and there wasn't really an excuse needed this year!  Last year, I focused on the Caldecott honor and medal books with second graders, so this year as Halloween creeps closer, I introduced the Caldecott concept with Tony DiTerlizzi's "The Spider and the Fly."  I have loved this book since I first set eyes on it, much like the spider "loved" the fly.  Last year, when I discovered it was not a part of our collection, I knew we must have it!  I was able to purchase a copy for our library this past summer.  Students loved the spooky illustrations and the 1829 poetry it accompanies.  We also discussed DiTerlizzi's series (along with Holly Black), "The Spiderwick Chronicles" and we also looked at some spider non-fiction as well.  On the first day I read it, a student piped up, letting me know that he had played a piano piece titled, "The Dance of the Spider and the Fly."  I love when students independently make connections to the literature we share in the library.

The Shelf Elf

The Shelf Elf offers excellent reinforcement of Book Care skills and how to take care of our library shelves.  With rhyming "rules", Skoob lets us know how to take care of books.  One of my favorite pictures is the one where students need to find the three books that are out of place or "wrong" on the shelves.  I like to read this book in the story tower, but I see a lot of possibility with projecting this particular picture on the smartboard for students to circle the books that need to be fixed.  To follow up from this book, we have a Golden Shelf Elf award (it's a bookmark - don't get too excited) to distribute at the end of each second and third grade class.  One student from the class list is pre-selected and observed throughout the class.  If the student displays good "shelf elf" behavior, he or she is given the Golden Shelf Elf Award at the end of class.  If, however, he/she is not the no one gets to know who the shelf elf was, leaving the mystery in their minds that it could have been them.  This offers a good self reflection of appropriate behavior in the library. 

PS - I tried to convert my word doc GSA bookmark to a Google Doc to share as a link here, but was unsuccessful in doing so.  If you are a school librarian interested in a copy of your own, just email me or leave a comment, and I will email the doc as an attachment.