One of my goals as I began this 2015-2016 school year was to begin incorporating more content standards in my library lessons. Last year, I was able to meet Social Studies content standards fairly easily in my library lessons. This year, I wanted to try to incorporate standards from all of the content areas. Math and Science are the hardest for me to work into my library lessons. When I taught Kindergarten and 1st Grade, Flat Stanley was one of my favorite activities to do with my kids! I decided to try it this year on a bigger scale with my 2nd and 3rd Graders in the library to help meet some Social Studies and Math standards.
I had several students color an extra Flat Stanley. I sent a few to my friends and family that live out of town. I also let each class choose one person or place they would like Flat Stanley to visit. We sent the "class" Flat Stanleys to Mickey Mouse and Cinderella at Disney World/DisneyLand, the White House, Mrs. Laura Bush at the George W. Bush Presidential Library, the Today Show in New York City, and Coach Nick Saban at the University of Alabama. We received replies back from everyone except the Today Show and Cinderella! Below is a slideshow of many of the pictures we received!
The kids have really loved the project! We have been able to revisit it briefly in library or on our morning show whenever we receive new pictures and letters. The kids have also really enjoyed continuing Flat Stanley's adventures by reading the Flat Stanley chapter books! I can't get them back on the shelf before they are checked out again. So not only were we able to meet some content area standards with this project, it also got them reading for enjoyment! I call that a success!
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I had been eyeing the Dash and Dot Robots by Wonder Workshop for quite a while but had not been able to purchase any for our school yet. One of our district Tech Coaches so graciously allowed us to borrow her set so that we could compete in the Wonder League's Robotic Competition. I chose a team of 5 students based on recommendations from our Instructional Coaches. The kids were so excited when I told them why they had been called to the library! One of the boys said, "Ms. Bishop, I am so excited you picked me! This is the first step for me to become an engineer!" Y'all, I could have cried right there! Dash and Dot have 5 apps available through the Itunes App Store. There is an app for every age group! My kindergartners picked up Go and Xylo very quickly and enjoyed "driving" Dash and programming him to play music on the attachable xylophone! The older kids picked up Blockly and Path pretty quickly as well. Blockly is a great app for beginning lessons on coding. The kids can see how the codes fit together and build on each other to program Dash's movements, sounds, and appearance. I would love to have had more time to work with Blockly! 2nd Graders figuring out the Go App! Name that Tune with the Xylo App! The Robotics Team used the Wonder app for participating in the competition. It is by far the more complicated of the available apps but the team learned quickly using the training exercises provided in the app. They caught on much faster than I did! And if I'm being honest, I still don't completely have it all figured out. But the good news is that the competition was for the kids and not me! :) Unfortunately we got started in the competition late, the Book Fair was set up on top of our grid (OOPS) and we had to return Dash and Dot before we completed all of the missions. I hate that the kids didn't get to finish what they started but they learned so much in what we did get to accomplish! Not only did they learn about programming but they also had to apply many different math concepts to each scenario we worked through. They had to measure, add, subtract, and multiply in order to complete the missions. They also learned to work together! This was huge. The first few days there was some pushing and pulling over who was "in charge" and coming to me when they couldn't figure out how to do something within the app. After a few days of me guiding them through working as a team and with the app they began to figure out the strength of each team member and work together to get to the finish line. Working on the first mission: I see so many possibilities for how Dash and Dot can be used throughout the school with different grade levels and across content areas. A second grade teacher and I have already discussed some super fun ideas on using them with her class! I am hoping to find some funding through grants this year so that I can purchase a couple sets of Dash and Dot and all of their fun accessories for our school!
I look forward to the November Family Reading Month projects each year! My students never cease to amaze me with their creativity and hard work! This year I decided to choose a project that would be a little more difficult and require the families to actually read the book. The last two years have been great projects but with both the Soda Bottle Book Characters and the Storybook Pumpkins, the kids could participate in the project without really reading the book. I wanted this years project to require the students to actually read the entire book. This year we held a Literacy Fair for 2nd through 5th Grades. Think Science Fair except with books! I presented to concept and rules to the students during their weekly library time. I also showed them examples I found on Pinterest and Google Images. I sent home a letter explaining the project to their parents as well as a copy of the judging rubric. Part of the focus of our November Family Reading Month is....FAMILY! Each year I want the project to be something that gets families working together and reading together! i always tell my students and their families that I want them to work together on the project but I want to be able to tell that the kids did most of the work. I was not sure how many students would actually participate in this project due to it being a little more complicated. We had 73 entries in the Literacy Fair. With less than 200 kids in 2nd - 5th Grades I count that a big success! Almost half of our students participated! And once again, my students did not disappoint! They never cease to amaze me with their creativity and hard work. A winner was chosen from 2nd and 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, and 5th Grade. I wanted the prizes to be a little bigger this year due to the extra effort this project required, so the winners received a gift certificate to the Scholastic Book Fair! They were so excited to pick out a new book and poster! Take a look at just a few of the amazing Literacy Fair projects below! Below the pictures you will find links to the parent letter as well as the judging rubric. Feel free to use them as they are or change them to fit your school's needs!
*Originally posted August 6, 2015* This Spring I found out about the PhotoStory app by Shutterfly. They were looking for schools to pilot the app in the classroom with students. I jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with a classroom teacher and try out a new way for students to demonstrate their learning. I collaborated with a 1st Grade teacher incorporating technology into a science lesson on animal habitats. The class studied animal habitats together in their classroom and we talked about research during their time in the library. The students were divided into groups of 5 to work on the project. We then spent a couple of Fridays using Pebble Go to research animals that the students would see on their field trip to the zoo. They took turns researching an "interesting fact" about a zoo animal using PebbleGo by Capstone and various library books. Pebble Go is a great resource for research in Kindergarten through 2nd Grade. Many of the go to databases are written on an older elementary student reading level and/or to hard for younger students to navigate. Pebble Go is easy for the students to navigate on their own. The information is written on a level that the students can read and understand. For the students that may have trouble reading the information independently it offers the option of reading the text aloud to them. Each article has great photographs and videos to accompany the written information. Pebble Go is a great way to introduce students to searching for information using a database and prepare them for using other databases in later grades. The students typed the "interesting fact" into the PhotoStory app and then added an illustration of the animal using the Doodle feature of the app. This feature was a hit! The kids loved looking at a picture of the animal and illustrating it for their book. After the writing and illustrations were completed it was time for the field trip to the zoo! The original trip was rescheduled due to rain and I couldn't attend The Zoo: Take 2 because it fell during our week of testing. :( I sent iPads with the class to the zoo to capture the images for their books. When they returned from the zoo we added the photos to the writing and illustrations and the books were complete! We were also able to add the students voices reading each page to the online copy of the book (there is a qr code with the link on the back of the hard copy of the book). Through the pilot, all of the kids recieved a copy of their book. The day that orange Shutterfly box arrived was the BEST! The kids were so excited to see their work in the form of an actual book. One students said "Ms. Bishop I can't believe we are real authors!" Here are a few pictures of the students working on the research and illustrations: The Final Products! Below are the links to the digital copies of each group's book! The first 2 links have audio of the students reading their books.
Book #1 (audio enabled) Book #2 (audio enabled) Book #3 Book #4 The app was very easy to use and the kids picked it up faster than I did! They were able to type their text and change the color and size by themselves. They especially loved the Doodle feature where they could draw the animal themselves. I think we so often underestimate what our students are capable of doing. I am so very proud of how they worked so well together! They picked up where their group members were struggling without being ask and without pointing out their classmates struggles, to complete their project together as a group. These kids continue to amaze me! We will definitely be using PhotoStory again! It was such a fun project that met so many standards across multiple content areas. We are already talking about ideas for next year combining multiple content areas. The only thing that we will have to really plan for next year will be how to pay for the books. Each child received their book for free through the pilot so we may need to find some fundraising for their final products in the future. If you have any ideas we would love to hear them! It was a great way for the kids to show what they've learned in a new and fun way and a product they can keep and share with their family. Thank you Shutterfly for such a fun project and for providing our kids with copies of their work! It was such a special treat for them at the end of their 1st Grade year! Shutterfly PhotoStory App Pilot Lesson Plan *Originally posted April 9, 2015*We had lots of fun activities planned for Read Across America Week 2015! Unfortunately our week was interrupted by more ice and snow! We are so ready for SPRING! *Reading Spirit Week Dress Up Days * Class Poetry Contest for Kindergarten-2nd Grade Each class was ask to create a poem in the rhyming style of Dr. Seuss. They did a great job! Here are our 2 winners! I hit the jackpot at the Target Dollar Spot for the class prizes! *Originally posted April 9, 2015* Our Tournament of Books had to start a little earlier in the year so that we would have time to read all of the picture books. The Final Four round and the Championship round lined up with the College Basketball March Madness Tournament. I selected 16 picture books to start the tournament. I ended up assigning each grade level a Sweet Sixteen match up. We read one book each week and then voted on the winner after reading the 2nd book. *Kindergarten and First Grade got 2 Sweet Sixteen match ups each because their books were shorter and we could fit 2 books into one library class. Here is how I broke down the match ups: The voting process opened the door for me to incorporate math objectives into my library lesson plans! I try to find a way to incorporate at least one other core subject in as many lessons as possible. Math has been the hardest one for me to fit in so this was a great opportunity to work that in! The 2015 Book of the Year is: The kids really loved these couple of months! I even heard them comparing and contrasting the books amongst themselves when trying to decide which one to vote for and trying to convince their friends to choose their favorite too. :) We will definitely be doing the Tournament of Books again!
Part #1: Little House on the Prairie Virtual Field Trip Part #2: American History Virtual Field Trip 3rd Grade's Virtual Field Trip location was a little selfish on my part. NYC is my VERY FAVORITE place to visit! I couldn't go in real life so this was second best...right? Week 1: Welcome to New York! For the first week I did an intro to New York City with a virtual tour of Times Square. YouVisit also has a great photo tour of New York City! It has really great 360 degree HD photos of most of NYC's most popular tourist attractions. Put these up on the Promethean Board and its almost like you are there...almost! We also explored the New York Philharmonic's Kids page. This is a great interactive page that the kids loved exploring later! During check out time I let them watch a few of YouTube clips of Disney Broadway shows. *We looked at several live web cam views of NYC. These are great...but you might want to preview them ahead of time to make sure there is nothing inappropriate! You never know what might be in Times Square....hello Naked Cowboy. Week 2: Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty Scholastic has a great interactive tour of Ellis Island. It walks you through each step of the journey a new immigrant would have taken. It has videos, photos, and audio that tells the stories of real immigrants that came through Ellis Island. It is a great first hand account of what coming to American would have been like. The National Park Service has a link to a couple of great live webcams of various views from and of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
Week 3: NYC Museums I began this week by introducing some of the many great museums in New York City. I showed the kids a few pictures of the museums I have visited while in NYC. Several of the museums have really great interactive websites for kids. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a great Kid's Zone! It has videos that teach about different artists and pieces of art featured in the museum. There are also some interactive exhibits that introduce pieces of art that are in the museum, the artist, and allows the kids to try out the technique used by that artist. The kids really enjoyed revisiting this site later.
The MOMA Art Lab App - The app includes information on art featured at MOMA and the artists' techniques. It allows the kids to try out many of these techniques. They can create a mobile, sound composition, line design, shape poem, draw with scissors, experiment with paint, and draw from instructions. This app was VERY popular with the kids. They could have spent the entire library time on this app alone. They had to work in pairs because we don't have enough IPads for everyone to work alone. It was really neat to walk around and hear the discussions about what they were creating and why they should use a certain object, color, ect. They wouldn't have had these same types of discussions working alone. We have revisited the Art Lab several times even after our Virtual Field Trip was over. Week 4: Central Park and The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade The last week of our virtual field trip fell the week before Thanksgiving. I had planned on visiting Central Park for the last week but decided to also visit the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Central Park: The Central Park Conservancy website has a great guided virtual tour of the park. You are able to "walk" through the park and read facts about the park and well as hear narration along the tour. Throughout the tour there are photos, videos, and 360 degree panoramas of some of Central Parks most famous landmarks.
*I put many of the links for both the 3rd and 4th/5th Grade Virtual Field Trips on my library website so that the students would have access to continue learning and exploring on their own in the computer lab, classroom or at home.
*Originally posted January 5, 2015* Part 1 can be found here: Little House on the Prairie Virtual Field Trip For this virtual field trip I grouped 4th and 5th grade together. Weeks 1 and 2 were spent introducing the concept of a virtual field trip and exploring one website together as a class. At this point, I felt that the students understood the purpose of our virtual field trip and could work independently. Weeks 3 and 4 were spent working and learning independently or in a small group. The kids really thrived in these weeks. I put together resources for these weeks, and they could also choose to go back to any of the resources we had previously explored as a class. They loved being able to choose what they wanted to learn about and what resources and technology they would use in their exploration. I gave each class a couple of guidelines: 1. You may choose any resource off of the 4th and 5th Grade list or in the 4th and 5th Grade Folder on the Ipad. You may not go to any other website. 2. You may work together in a SMALL group as long as you do not disrupt your classmates. Honestly, this went much better than I had hoped! : ) Even my most challenging classes stayed on task and enjoyed what they were learning. I'll definitely be using this again! Week 1: Monticello Monticello has a great interactive website. We briefly looked at the biography section and then moved on to the House and Gardens section of the website. The Monticello Explorer offers several different interactive tours of the house and gardens. Explore the Plantation gives a birds eye view of the property and helps to give the students an idea about the amount of land we are talking about and what the land was used for. Explore the House allows you to navigate through a 3D recreation of Monticello. There are also 3 Virtual Tours that have video of the actual house and gardens with narration of how each room and garden was used. A popular feature that was revisited during the 2 weeks of self guided learning was the House Builder. It allowed the students to build their own house making choices about building materials and giving reasons for each choice given such as cost, time to build, ect. Week 2: Mount Vernon This week was very similar to the 1st week. We explored the Mount Vernon website together as a class. It also has some great interactive features. The Virtual Tour allows you to explore each room of the house at your own pace. It has a photo of each room with information about the room, its furniture and purpose as well as stories about George Washington that might center around that room. The Mansion Room by Room Tour gives you the layout of the house by floor. It has pictures and a brief description of each room.
Week 3: Presidential Libraries I started this week by going over the guidelines for individual/small group learning. I had a folder on each ipad with bookmarks to each website and had a list of links on the library homepage for use on the computers. Some of the websites and virtual tours were not compatible with the Ipads so the desktop computers had to be used for those particular websites. The kids did a great job following directions and staying on task! John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Interactive Exhibits White House Diary: This exhibit allows you to look through the President's calendar that includes photos, videos, and/or audio of the events of that day. Virtual Museum Tour The President's Desk We Choose The Moon : This interactive exhibit allows you to follow along with the moon landing minute by minute with photos and audio. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum *I visited the Reagan Library and Museum several years ago when I visited Southern California and knew I wanted to include it in this unit. I showed the kids several pictures of my visit and they loved trying to find those same spots in the Virtual Tour and the Video Tour. Air Force One Pavilion: The Reagan Museum has the actual Air Force One that the Reagans used during their years in the White House. The kids loved this! Video Tour Oval Office Virtual Tour: When you click on the Google photo it allows you to use your arrow keys to navigate through the museum. This was very popular with the kids probably because it was similar to playing a game on the computer!
*Originally posted November 18, 2014* Last year for November Reading Month we had a Soda Bottle Book Character Contest. I was so impressed with my students' and their families' creativity! As I started planning for November Reading Month this year I searched for a project that would achieve the same results as the soda bottles....kids working together and talking about books with their families. I came across the idea for book character pumpkins. I wasn't sure how much participation to expect. I was blown away....again! I received 86 pumpkins!! And they are some of the cutest, most creative pumpkins I've ever seen! I may be just a little bit biased! : ) I sent a letter home to the parents and introduced the project during library class time. I went over the rules with the students and showed them examples of some I had found on Pinterest and Google images. I attached a form to the parent letter that was to be returned with the pumpkin. When it came time to judge I knew there was absolutely know way I could choose a winner. I gathered a committee that had a mixture of people from our school and from outside of the school. I created a rubric to assist in the judging this year. It took A LOT longer to judge and calculate the scores, but I felt like it made the contest a lot more fair. Storybook Pumpkin Judging Rubric Here are just a FEW of the fabulous pumpkins... And the winners are... Kindergarten and 1st Grade 2nd and 3rd Grade There was a tie... 4th and 5th Grade Honorable Mentions: Update: You may want to make the time between the pumpkins due date and the announcement of winners as short as possible. We had about a week in between and Sponge Bob didn't make it through the weekend. We had a little moment of silence for Sponge Bob and then I made a mental note for next year...don't leave pumpkins in the library for longer than a week! :)
*Originally posted November 12, 2014* This has been my favorite unit....EVER! A couple of years ago I was doing a unit on different genres and read a "Little House" book to the kindergarteners for the historical fiction lesson. The kids really got into it and we ended up talking more about it the next week. I had intended to come back and do a bigger unit at some point and it just never happened. Then I found this Little House Virtual Field Trip pin on Pintrest and couldn't wait to put together a unit! The website has the "field trip" broken down into stops. It includes maps, videos, and links to other information for each stop. It also lists the "Little House" chapter books that were written about each stop. Because I was teaching this unit to 1st graders I also found the "My First Little House" picture books that corresponded to each stop as well. Week 1: Stop 1: Pepin, Wisconsin Chapter Book: Little House in the Big Woods Picture Books:
Week3: Stop 3: Walnut Grove, Minnesota Chapter Book: On the Banks of Plum Creek Stop 4: DeSmet, South Dakota Chapter Books:
*The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum has a few online exhibits that contain photographs of the family and of their lives. We browsed through this site while making our butter. Ingalls Homestead Step 4: It will separate into butter and buttermilk. I poured the buttermilk into another jar. Week 4:
Stop 5: Malone, New York Chapter Book: Farmer Boy Picture Books:
This week was our final stop on our virtual field trip. 1st Grade and I were both a little sad to see it come to an end. They learned so much and I hope had some fun along the way! Here are some of their thoughts on our time with the Ingalls Family: *They get a bucket of water to wash their clothes. That sounds kinda fun. * I learned that Laura didn't have cars, trucks, and airplanes. They used a wagon with horses to take them places. *They had a school with only one class and we have a lot of classes.*Pa played the fiddle. It looks like a really little guitar with a stick. *They had to make their own toys because they didn't have Walmart. *They had a bonnet to keep shade on their heads. *I didn't know that they didn't have grocery stores. They had to plant their own food. *They had to make their house out of trees. *They had to make their own butter out of milk in a butter churner. |
AuthorI am an elementary educator in Birmingham, AL. I have previously taught preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. I now have the BEST job as an elementary school librarian or "The Library Lady" as I'm called by the kindergartners! Archives
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