When Ithaca City School District (ICSD) Kindergarteners
visit the Tompkins County Public Library (TCPL) as part of Kids Discover the Trail! Ithaca, they are sure to run into a
familiar friend: the Library Lion.
Students often find the oversized stuffed animal lying on a
couch behind stacks of books reading or napping. They point and giggle with
excitement when they spot the lovable character from the book “Library Lion”
that all ICSD Kindergarteners receive as part of KDT! Ithaca.
“They
all recognize the lion from the book,” said Rocio Zepp, a parent who remembers
attending the trip with her daughter in 2012. “I think it is great the
connections they make.”
KDT!
Ithaca is a collaboration between the Ithaca Public Education
Initiative (IPEI), ICSD, and the Discovery Trail (DT). This year marks the 10th
anniversary of the program, which gives every district student the opportunity
to visit a DT site each year during elementary school. KDT! Ithaca partners all 3000 Ithaca students in more than 150
classrooms with another classroom at the same grade level for the trips and pre-
and post-trip activities.
KDT!
Books is an integral component of KDT! Ithaca. After the program’s second year, “teachers wanted
something else to extend the excitement and joy of the KDT! trip and make it long lasting,” said first grade teacher Randi
Beckmann. IPEI supported this vision, and teachers began working with the DT
educators and the KDT! Ithaca Steering
Committee to identify appropriate titles.
“KDT! Books were
first added to the program as an important way to re-enforce the content from
the trip and add a literacy component,” said Terry Byrnes, IPEI board member
and chair of the KDT! Steering
Committee. “They also create a connection between the family and the student's KDT! experience.”
All ICSD students since have received a book each year in
Pre-K-5th (and a second book in 5th since there are two DT programs for this
grade level as part of transition to middle school). The titles are grade-level
appropriate and connected to the curriculum and DT site. For example, first-graders
receive “Digging Up Dinosaurs” to complement what they learn through the Museum
of the Earth, and fourth-graders visiting the Eight Square Schoolhouse receive
“The Secret School.”
The books are integrated into the curriculum
both at school and during the site field trip. Lesson plans for each
book are shared among teachers.
Teachers often use the books as whole-class “read alouds”
or in small reading groups, Beckmann said. DT educators also incorporate the
books into the field trip. “Our focus is on educating the kids on what a
library is, what they can do at the library, and how a library can not only
help them in school but is also a fun, welcoming place to visit,” said TCPL
Librarian Sarah O’Shea. “With ‘Library
Lion,’ we designed a library tour/scavenger hunt based on the story about a
lion’s visit to the library. The children fill a large bingo card with lion
footprints that we find throughout the department, and in the end the children
discover an adorable large stuffed animal Library Lion. The kids love that!”
KDT! Ithaca Books also provide an
additional link to students’ homes. An activity flier—created in
cooperation with the Family Reading Partnership—accompanies each book, giving
families suggestions of how to use the book at home. When students take home “Library Lion”, for example, they also
receive a list of tips for encouraging love of reading at home and craft
activities relating to the book’s content.
“Giving a book is a wonderful way to remind the child of
their visit, and it is wonderful to be able to give a book to a child to have
as their very own to keep,” said O’Shea.
“Any way we can increase a child's at-home library the better. Children
should be surrounded by books! It's also
a very concrete sign to the families of what their child did.”
“To give a child a book that has been connected to an
actual experience in the community is magic, and it anchors their learning
experience,” Beckmann said.
Donors provide the funding for all students to receive the
book to take home after classroom and DT use, and copies are provided for the
classrooms and the school libraries. A bookplate in each recognizes the
collaborators and the donors.
“Family Reading Partnership is thrilled that books can be
used as part of KDT!, giving each
book more value by being used in conjunction with hands-on experiences on
Discovery Trail,” said Katrina Morse, assistant director of the Family Reading
Partnership.
Pre-Kindergarten
Herbert
F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell
ANIMALS
IN ART
ART, Patrick McDonnell
Matthew's Dream, Leo
Lionni
Kindergarten
Tompkins
County Public Library
BOOKS,
FRIENDSHIP, AND FAMILY
Library Lion, Michelle
Knudson
First
Grade
Museum
of the Earth at PRI
DINOSAUR SCIENCE
Digging Up Dinosaurs, Aliki
Second
Grade
Sciencenter
POWER
THE FUTURE
Our Earth, Clean Energy, Peggy
Hock
Third
Grade
Cornell
Plantations
WILDFLOWER
EXPLORATION
Wildflowers: A Peterson’s First Guide
Fourth
Grade
The
History Center in Tompkins County
EIGHT
SQUARE SCHOOLHOUSE: 19TH CENTURY LIFE
The Secret School, Avi
Fifth
Grade
Cornell
Lab of Ornithology
EXPLORING
HABITATS
Peterson
First Guide to Birds of North America, Roger Tory Peterson
Cayuga
Nature Center
ROPES
COURSE AND ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP
The Climb, Book 2, Gordon
Korman
Author: Heather Zimar, ICSD parent and IPEI volunteer who
is a higher education writer and editor.
