A video about a rose hair tarantula!

Look at what the librarian found! Sophie looks like a giant compared to this spider.

A folktale from Panamá

Just today, the librarian read Conejito: a Folktale from Panamá, written by Margaret Read MacDonald and illustrated by Geraldo Valério. The book seemed like a perfect read for two reasons: first, the librarian’s school’s fourth theme is  ”We Share Stories of the World“, so a story from Panamá would be a good beginning. Second, since the folktale contained many words in Spanish, it would be easy to translate to Spanish as she read it to the students.

As soon as our friendly librarian began reading the book, she noticed that the song the main character sings was very familiar to her. As it turned out, it is a very popular children’s song that most of the students at the librarian’s school knew. The original song is in Spanish, while the verse written in the book is in English. Suddenly the librarian knew what she would do next. After reading the story to all third grade students, she would post information about the experience in the spider’s blog. And that is what she did.When the librarian searched online for a picture of the cover of the book, she found two extra resources:

• Margaret Read MacDonald’s website
• Links to lesson plans for the book, grades K-3

Coming up soon: the translated story is placed in a podcast (including the song).  Stay tuned!

Who is this mystery author?

Just today, Sophie came across two pages that were left by a third grade student at the circulation desk in the library. At this time we can’t divulge the student’s name; we can only say that he does exist and he appears to be quite a talented writer. The two pages capture something that recently happened at the library. This is what he wrote:

Fp! A change of light! The book in front of my lunch was suddenly pulled away… a monster lumbered away with it. Well, it wasn’t a monster. It was a human. But you could call them monsters if you were my size. See, I am an ant. I live in the library. Don’t ask me how I got here, because I don’t know.  Well, the human walked past what they would call an old man (I’ve picked some stuff up, here at the library), and he gave the book to an old woman by the desk. Then she shined a narrow red line on the book (I’ll never know why they do that), and gave it back to him. What he did next, I have no idea. I turned around to finish sucking the juice out of a piece of apple I had found.   Then I found a piece of wood that led down to the floor. I climbed on to it, and began to walk down. Yes, straight down. For any humans who read this, ant feet are very sticky. When I reached the floor, humans came down the hall. Enemies! Predators! Then I controlled myself. I knew that most of them probably didn’t want to hurt me, but they could on accident. I scrambled onto a sideways piece of wood.   Then, when they were gone, I jumped off the piece of wood, dodged two more humans, and then scurried up the leg of a table, and then walked up to a book. I just stood there and stared at the strange markings and dots that made so much sense to me as saying that ants are felines.  “Hey, you!” a voice called. “Who are you?” I spun around to see another ant facing me. “I don’t have a name. Neither do you. You know that ants don’t have names!” I answered. She smiled. Then, she looked at the book. “D-do you know how to read?” she asked. “Well, to be honest, no.” I said. “Do you want me to read you this story, ‘cause I know how to read.” “Sure!” I cried with glee. I was going to hear a story! That never happened to me before. Then, that ant began to read a story about a silly court jester and a comedian that made the king laugh so much that the walls began to shake. It was so fun. Now, I know something I didn’t know before: Reading is great.

The librarian and her friends try to podcast!

Here we have the first podcast the librarian and her friends did. They were putting together an assignment for their digital media course and decided to package it in the form of a podcast. Go to Podcasting534 and click on the Podcasting 534 tab. You should be able to listen to a few good reasons to podcast with your students.

I bet the librarian is going to try to put together her own podcast soon! Both Sophie and I have a feeling that it will have something to do with books. Aren’t tarantulas smart?

Krista’s close-up

Here I am after the librarian took my photo. Don’t I look just adorable? Take a look at those segmented legs!

The friendly librarian snapped the picture in the morning, right after she had provided both Sophie and I a tasty meal of tiny crickets.  I had been trying to listen in as she explained to a coleague about a new page she is adding to this blog. The page will be called Digital Media and it will contain information she will eventually use in technology instruction at the library. The librarian just put her hand in my cage, turning the camera upside down and clicking away. She wasn’t even looking through the viewfinder!

Look for this page on the tab titled Digital Media.

 

Library spider or library lion, which one will it be?

Here is proof that I, baby Krista,  have been paying attention to what the librarian does. In this photo you see how the librarian was reaching for a book while I watched carefully. I know for a fact that she was getting ready to read a book titled Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes.

In the book, Miss Merriweather, head librarian, first meets Lion when he goes into the book stacks. She declares that as long as the lion breaks no rules, he is welcome to come to the library. After being scolded by Miss Merriweather for making noices in the library, the lion promises to reform. He dusts with his tail, licks envelopes, and serves as a stepstool for small patrons. Everyone appreciates him–except Mr. McBee, a library clerk. When Lion lets out another tremendous RAAAHHHRRR!, the man bursts into Miss Merriweather’s office to snitch–and there he finds her on the floor, having fallen from a stool and broken her arm. Lion has saved the day, but he is so embarrased by his own rule-breaking behavior that he doesn’t return to the library. People miss him. Even Mr. McBee. The story provides the readers with a  feel-good ending and a reminder that sometimes, there is a good reason to break the rules.

Now both of us spiders agree that as much as that was a great book, we rather have library spiders than library lions. We tend to blend with the environment a lot better than that that hairy mammal.