Musical Chairs in the Library?

The frigid weather meant many indoor recesses for our students this week.  Instead of having Mrs. Forgiel's and Mrs. Pepper's classes sit for a story on Friday afternoon, I thought it might be a good idea to get them moving around by playing a library variation of Musical Chairs.  

This is a fun way to introduce first grade students to our Blastoff! Readers, a series of beginning to read nonfiction books published by Bellweather Media.

After reading one of the books to students and pointing out some of the nonfiction text features (table of contents, bold print, glossary, photos), we had students line up around the chairs and started the music.  When the music stopped, they had to pick up the book and sit down and start reading.

There were enough books and chairs to go around the first time.  When the music started up again, we started taking books and chairs away.  If the student couldn't find a chair with a book, they had to squish in with someone else and do some "buddy" reading.

We finished up by asking students to tell one fact that they learned from a book they read.  We showed them where to find these books in the library, and sent them back to class with a box of books to enjoy reading next week.  You can always tell they had fun when they ask if we can do it again!

For Parents:  Getting the Most Out of Nonfiction Reading Time