Read Across America Week....Pt 2

Whew!  While I love the enthusiasm of the students and providing them with a fun "Seussy Makerspace" this week, it has been exhausting!  Between untangling fishing lines from our "One Fish, Two Fish" station or just handling 300 some kids in the library for our "Seuss Parade" on Wednesday, it has been a busy week!

So, I thought I would share pictures!  Of course, I didn't remember until Thursday to take pictures of each of the stations, but hopefully you will get the idea!

I made little signs for each station using some cute frames I had picked up at Michaels on clearance a few years back. They come in handy, but I wish I had picked up more than 6!

On Wednesday, students dressed up as their favorite Seuss character and we had a parade around the school so they could show off their costumes!

Make a Cat in the Hat station

Draw a favorite Seuss character

I pulled Seuss books from the shelves for students to access easier for checkout, and also found some free apps that read Seuss stories!  I locked the app in so I didn't have to worry about students straying into other apps!

One fish, Two Fish:  had great fun fishing from the pond, but boy, I think I only had 1 class that didn't tangle the fishing lines!

The photo booth:  students and teachers alike loved this station!  I let my 2-5th graders take their own pictures, but I went ahead and rotated around stations with K and 1 so I could take their pics!  This was a BIG hit!  I think I'm going to do it again, maybe for Children's Book Week in May, and create props of favorite book characters!

So, that was a peek at my week!  I got to announce our 3 winners today for estimating the goldfish and they were so excited!  We're also participating in the "IditaREAD" as well.  Can't wait til tomorrow for the start! :)

It's Iditarod Time!

I was so excited to teach about the Iditarod this past week!  Unfortunately, we lost two days this week due to unexpected snow :( so I still have my Tuesday groups to catch up, but hopefully we'll be able to do that this coming week!

I decided to teach it a little early because last year, I taught right before the race, and felt I could do a better job without feeling so rushed and trying to cram everything in at once.  Since this is our second year doing it, I was really pleased that my kids were so excited for it this year!  I had finished my display the week before and felt that it wasn't getting noticed....well, not anymore!

I pulled all my books on Alaska and sled dogs (fiction and non) to put in the case.  As students began checking out books from the display, I started filling in with some of my own about Alaska and the Arctic, from a unit I did in second grade.

I love the Iditarod and look forward to it myself every year.  I happened to get observed on Friday with my 2nd grade group and got an "excellent lesson - I thoroughly enjoyed it" from my administrator.  Wow!

So, what did I do?

First, you need to check out our wiki page:  www.secondaryfoxes.wikispaces.com.  There I have the videos I use with each group set and ready to go.  All students watched the "short intro" which is really cute.  The one I used last year was pulled from YouTube, so I found this one and while it's less of a "news footage" about the Iditarod, it's funnier and catches the students' attention.

While my goal is to get more books about this topic, I used the following books and videos with each grade:

K/1:  May Finds Her Way:  The Story of an Iditarod Dog by Betty Selakovich Casey
videos: short intro/huskies/ride with Jeff King


2/3:  The Incredible Life of Balto by Meghan McCarthy
videos:  short intro/mushing terms/huskies


4/5:  Togo by Robert J Blake
videos:  short intro/packing the sled with Dallas Seavy

I also included links on the wiki page, as well as bonus videos so students could visit on school or home time to explore more.  We also subscribed to iditarod.com, so that we can track the mushers using GPS.  (map skills!!!)

As for activities, this year we used the following:
K:  used husky cards to put in order from 1-20, then find a way to split the 20 huskies into 2 sled dog teams; coloring sheet with a dogsled team from a coloring website
1:  husky cards, but students ordered them in 2 teams using skip counting, even/odd numbers, or a designated pattern; coloring sheet; "mixed up sentence" sheet that students could also color

For 2-5, I created the following activities:
*bookmarks
*scavenger hunt
*mileage cards:  students put in order using a map of each checkpoint and its mileage to Nome
*matching game with Alaskan culture as well as public domain photos I used for my window display (I used the matching with my PreK/Autism students as we did an abbreviated version of the Iditarod)

I put this in a bundle on my teacher stores if you're interested in looking at them closer!
Teachers Pay Teachers
Teachers Notebook

So, now it's onto preparing for Read Across America Week!  Then, women in history (I'm focusing this year on Jane Goodall, Lucille Ball, and Malala Yousafzai).  Be sure to look for posts about those soon!

Service Dogs

We had a service dog come visit and its handler (a former student of mine!) talked with the students about what a service dog is, its job, and what to do (and not do) when you’re around one.  After our brief presentation, we rotated students to different stations/activities that were all dog-themed in some way. 

 Station #1:  Reading:  We pulled nonfiction dog –themed books from the library on all different breeds of dogs, stories about rescue dogs, service dogs, special dogs, etc.  Students could either

picture walk or read more about dogs. (As you can tell, it was our 100th day!).

 

Station #2:  Coloring:  Students had a choice of 2 color sheets:  a generic dog sheet (that students could decorate to look like our guest) and another that reminded students to let service dogs do

their jobs.  I downloaded this from kidsplaycolor.com and added a frame.  These could be shared with family members as students taught others about service animals.

  

Station #3:  Measuring:  Students used cubes, pawprints, and blocks to measure heights and widths of dogs on both an activity sheet and dogs on laminated card.   Students also had the

opportunity to play with a balance with the cubes, plastic dogs, and other related materials.

Station #4:  Puzzles:  I printed out, laminated, and cut the sheets apart.  I intentionally left them blank for use, but you can record numbers, letters, etc. of what you want students to put in

order, or you can simply leave the bottom blank and have them focus on the picture.

Station #5:  Students go to meet Halligan up close and, with his vest off, they knew they could pet him and maybe read a story to him during this station.

The math stations were a big hit with the students and teachers, so I uploaded them to my TPT store.  You can check them out {here}.

My Low-Tech Mobile Makerspace

Now that the Makerspace has been rockin' and rollin' since December, I've had some great feedback from the students as well as my administration!

So what do I mean by "low tech?"  Well, I took a webinar through School Library Journal and realized that I didn't need the 3D printer or laser cutter, chrome books, and all those other nifty things they have at the high school and other makerspaces.  What seemed to be lacking in education today was more "hands-on" crafty and imaginative play!  So with my second rotation of stations, I feel a bit more confident in the direction it's taking.

Now, we are not without technology.  I have 4 desktop computers in the library, as well as 9 iPads and 9 Kindle Fires (we use them for tablets more than for reading).  However, I am finding that some of our "dig in and get your hands dirty" (so to speak) have been the most popular.

I have modeled our stations after "STEAM-R" (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math/Music, and Reading).  In December, the stations were:

Science:  magnet exploration.  I set out different types of magnets, books about magnets, magnetic mazes, a variety of items that students could find if they were magnetic or not, and suggestion cards on other activities they could do with the magnets.

Technology/Engineering:  I did a VERY popular station students are still asking about, so it will need to resurface this year!  This was our "take apart" station, where students took apart a number of items to see how they worked (things I had picked up from Goodwill and other donations) including phones, cameras, and a tape player.  I had students save all the parts so that we could use the station again to make things out of those parts!  Students were fascinated looking inside and of course, just the taking apart itself!  I also offered a "Jenga" station as well for Engineering.

Art:  I offered several in this station, including "stamp your own bookmark", drawing (providing several drawing books we have here in the library), and weaving.  I found the idea on Pinterest to make cardboard looms and ordered plastic needles from Oriental Trading.  The weaving was a HUGE hit and I think I made about 100 different looms!  They're not hard to make and string, so the many went home (and still have not been returned) are not an overall huge concern of mine.  Some students keep me updated on how it's going and others simply return the looms and needles.  (I told students I'd rather have needles back and they could keep the looms!).  I had some yarn and got a huge donation from our art teacher, which was awesome!

Math:  I decided to play with the "M" and some months offer "math" and other months offer "music."  For this first rotation, I put out pattern blocks and tangrams, along with some suggestion cards, for students to play with.  It wasn't so long ago I was a classroom teacher and I know how much fun students had with pattern blocks!  There were several interesting designs and structures I saw out of these during the month!

Reading:  "Create A Character":  I put suggested books out, such as fairy tales, wimpy kid, etc. for students, as well as a huge box of art scraps and toilet paper tubes.  Students were to create a character (using the tube as a base) and boy, did I see some original characters!

You can see a lot of the activity below!

For my January/February rotation (because of weather and our STEM lab, which takes 3 weeks away from our library rotation), I changed stations and students are even more impressed!  I want to find some time in the morning that students can come in, but our day starts so early, I'm not sure if it will be possible!  I'll be sure to take some pictures of our current stations, which includes Legos, Little Bits, Coding/Hour of Code, chess, and viewmasters!

Weather Or Not, Here We Are!

I recently had a chance to work with classes on a flexible schedule where I collaborated with teachers in K-5.  I have mixed feelings about this.  Not about collaboration, mind you!  If you've read my earlier posts, you know that this year, we have a STEM lab that meets 3 weeks during the nine weeks during library resource.  It gives me a chance to have a flexible schedule.  The first week, no one signed up :(  The next two weeks, I had more and more classes sign up so that some days, I could barely fit in lunch!  I was excited to collaborate with the teachers and taught everything from math patterns in K to character traits in 5th!

This post, I'll focus on the weather review I created for second grade.  One of the second grade teachers asked me to help her review for the weather test for her class, which is the collaborative one in second grade. These kids are sweet, but low.  I wanted something to draw their attention.  I had just held a PD on using QR codes in the classroom, so I thought it would be fun to introduce these kiddos as well!

We read the story, Hurricane Hunters, which had the class fascinated.  It's a nonfiction story about how the Air Force works with the National Hurricane Center.


It really had them on the edge of their seats!

So, I followed up with introducing QR Codes to students, how to scan them (we were using android devices), and I kept the cards on the full sheet of paper, but created 9 sets (one for each of our library tables) for students to work together and scan some of the different websites, videos, and pictures.  We followed this up with students completing a fun activity that they were able to draw and create weather scenes.  That was also a big hit!

So, it was a very fun time in the library that day for both me and the kids.  I love to do things like this that show the library is much more than just a place to check out books! (Although I had to include weather bookmarks, mind you!  It's okay - the kids thought they were cool!)

If you're interested in seeing more of my packet, click on the picture below!

Cyber Monday Sales!

Both Teachers Notebook and Teachers Pay Teachers are having "Cyber Monday" sales!  Be sure to check them out.  On TN, products in my store are marked 50% off and TPT has the 28% off as well with the special code.  My TN sale has started if you need to stock up before Monday!

Happy Shopping!

A Little December Diversity

It's a little early, I know.  However, I am taking advantage of the time off for Thanksgiving break to catch up on a few things, including lesson plans!  Well, that and I am still pumped from attending the VAASL conference in Williamsburg last weekend, so it's nice that I have some time off to put some of these fantastic ideas swirling around in my head to work!

First, a little background. Every year, the resource teachers plan and present a "resource day" for our last day of school before winter break.  This year, we're working with our ELL teacher (because we finally got a full time one!) to do a "Celebrations Around the World."  In anticipation of that, I wanted the students to have a little background information on diversity and different cultures the week of our resource day (that Friday).  The world, lately, seems less tolerant of anything different, so I thought it would be a good idea for our kiddos.

So, after "researching" on my favorite site, Pinterest (hey, I'm a visual learner!), I found some great resources as well as ideas for books to use!

For K-2, I'm going to use the book, Whoever You Are, by Mem Fox.


For 3-5, I'll be using The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRolf


I found some great resources to use with each of these books.  For K-2, they'll be completing a matching activity I found at From ABCs to ACTs.  I was also inspired by a blog post by The Inspired Counselor about The Crayon Box That Talked.

As I was writing this post, my brain started whirring about other activities, which led to this:

If you're interested, click on the picture below to take you to see more.  It offers several activities that I'll use as centers on locating the continents/countries we're featuring for our resource day, and identifying the flags as well as some of the traditional dress from the countries. (Since TPT and TN are both having cyber sales soon, take advantage!).