Students in fourth and fifth grades are using a new e-book titled, Think for Yourself: Avoiding Plagiarism to explore this complex idea. As part of the lesson, I introduced students to visual note taking. Visual note taking is a process of representing ideas non-linguistically (with pictures). Research indicates the human brain is able to retain and recall information more effectively if information is paired with pictures. For example, when you look through a photo album certain pictures may trigger additional memories and emotions. When students finish exploring the e-book, they choose a project from a menu to demonstrate their learning.
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In How I Became a Pirate, Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator David Shannon teams up with witty storyteller Melinda Long for a hilarious look at the finer points of a pirate's life. Students in kindergarten and first grade used the text to meet comprehension and sequencing learning goals. Students loved the story's plot and enjoyed bringing the story to life by chanting pirate phrases. At the conclusion of the lesson, students were asked to identify "treasure" they would like to find buried in their own backyards! This week students in kindergarten, first, and second grades are using the text, The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade as the basis for a courageous conversation about bullying. I'm proud of the honest and thoughtful contributions students have made when sharing their personal stories following specific protocols. Aside for prompting meaningful dialogue, we are using the text to review comprehension and inferencing skills. At the conclusion of the lesson, kindergarten and first grade students document what they will or are doing to make a difference in the world. Second grade students use their information about the book to design a front cover illustration (because I keep the cover hidden under construction paper until the very end of class). This simple activity reinforces their comprehension as many have chosen the transformational moment when Sally (the main character) takes a stand to change her school's culture. Mrs. Hollinger delivered two more eye-catching displays! One advertises ebooks based on student recommendations made during the digital book tasting lesson. Students identified a variety of books for each emoji. I've already seen a few students standing near the display with an iPad in hand finding books featured in the display. The other display sits on the circulation counter as a visual reminder to return all library books in only a few short weeks. Where did the year go?
This week students in kindergarten, first and second grades are reviewing features specific to nonfiction texts. To make the lesson more engaging, I elected to use three different titles: Lego Toys, Cool Creations in 101 Pieces, & Lego Play Book: Ideas to Bring Your Bricks to Life. There have been lots of "Ooh and Aah!" moments while students identify these elements: table of contents, captions, bold print, glossary, index, and headings. At the end of the lesson, students work at makerspace stations to complete at least two Lego challenge cards. Below are some of the creations made by our young Lego enthusiasts. Happy viewing! Kindergarten students have a shortened lesson this week because they have one coding station to finish. Subsequently, I am engaging them in a silly text recommended by my four year old son. Never Follow a Dinosaur has proven to be a hit! This text uses a repeating pattern to describe the dinosaur two children are pursuing. Ultimately, the children decide to set a trap to prove to their parents that dinosaurs do exist. This portion of the plot serves as the inspiration behind this week's makerspace challenge. Students are working in teams to design dinosaur traps using Legos. So far every class has begged me for more time . . . and I'm thinking of honoring their request next week :-) This week our youngest friends (kdg. and first graders) are reviewing the programming concepts of algorithms (steps to finish a task) and debugging (finding and fixing mistakes) while rotating through four stations. Actually, they participate in two stations this week and will engage in the remaining stations during their next lesson. I was the recipient of a community mini-grant earlier in the academic year. Subsequently, I used the funds to purchase "unplugged" resources to complement my computer programming instruction. Several of the resources featured in these stations were added to our resources thanks to grant money. The four stations waiting for students are: Code & Go Robot Mouse, ROBOT Turtles, Littlecodr, and Makey Makey. Ask your student to tell you which stations he/she completed this week and describe what he/she did at each station. Aside from learning, there are a lot of smiling faces and laughter in our library! Kindergarten and first grade students explored characteristics of fiction and nonfiction texts using, Snowballs and The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter's Wonder. After reading both books, students used a Venn Diagram to sort characteristics of both texts between three circles (exclusive to fiction, shared between both, and exclusive to nonfiction). At the conclusion of the session both grades engaged in a makerspace activity. Kindergarten students designed their own snowflakes and first grade students watched a quick sketch snowflake video prior to designing a snowflake progression picture. *Both makerspace activities asked students to incorporate elements learned about snow crystals and snowflakes. How do you make a card catalog lesson interesting? Create a Pokemon Go: Library Edition for students and watch them work with enthusiasm the entire session! Students in grades 2-5 are conducting title and author searches using the Destiny Online Catalog to retrieve select books from our collection. Fifty-nine Pokemon characters serve as overlays to book covers and keep students engaged through this augmented reality experience!
This week our library has been transformed into a Reading Cafe . . . complete with popcorn! Students in grades 4 & 5 were formally invited to the library (via a classroom invitation) to partake in a Digital Book Tasting during their weekly library lesson. Students were greeted by a host (Dr. Jones) and hostess (Mrs. Hollinger) and given specific instructions before settling down to explore the new ebooks recently added to our collection. Based on student recommendations, select ebooks will be promoted in future weeks. |
Meet Mrs. BaxterThis is my first year working in the Schwegler library. I seek to instill a love of reading and learning that endures. Archives
May 2017
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