The new storytime with Miss Annie at the bookstore has been a lot of fun. She reads three books instead of two and a related activity. Johann was upset about it not being the same. I pointed out that even though it was different, it was still good. The trade-off was an extra book. Besides, we could come up with our own activities, which was more challenging.
One of the books for September was Library Lion and since the other two books also had something to do with reading or the library, I thought it would be fun to create an activity that would also introduce the Dewey Decimal system and how to find books in the library. I made two worksheets. The first was completed in the library, where Johann located one book from each of the 10 classes of the Dewey Decimal system and wrote down the number. Then I had him circle the first digit of each Dewey Decimal number, to reinforce the beginning number of each class. Those numbers then had to be matched to the first row of numbers on the second worksheet. With that layer of the encrypted puzzle solved, the new numbers had to be used with an alphabet code key to reveal the secret message: Reading is fun!
Johann wanted to check out all the books we found from each section, which has been wonderful. We’ve spent so much time in the 500s (science) and 800s (literature), that we really had been neglecting the information in the other areas of the children’s section. I made sure to re-read Library Lion to Johann with the activity. He always feels defensive of the lion, since one of the people who runs the library is so strict about the rules. The moral of the story was that sometimes you have to break the rules, such as in an emergency, in order to help a friend. Johann often complains that Shanti School has too many rules. He doesn’t know how good he’s got it! So I had to laugh the day he came to me to announce, “Mommy!!! I just put Library Lion into Delicious Library under Shanti School, because it’s all about following the rules!”
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What a wonderful way to do this!!! I doubt that most 6 year olds have even heard of the Dewey Decimal System!!!! Tammy, you have a real knack for teaching in ways that make learning come alive, make it fun, without seeming like “school” at all!
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