Kindergarten Engineers

Last week in the Hillside library our kindergarten academy scholars were researchers and engineers. Kindergarten is in the middle of our NonFiction unit where students learn the difference between fiction and nonfiction. They also learn how the nonfiction, or dewey, section is organized in the library. My youngest students are not limited to a certain shelf like many other libraries have, but instead learn to make good choices about the right book for them. They learn to use the entire library.

This past week, we went further into our unit and learned how to extract information from nonfiction books. We started with penguins. I mean, who doesn't love penguins?! I read a nonfiction book, and students took turns telling me facts to add to our chart. 

After reading the book and taking down facts, we discussed interesting facts about penguins. The students mostly found the fact that penguins slide on their belly most interesting. I set out different materials at each table, and asked the students to come up with a slide for the penguin. A slide that the penguin could slide on his belly into the water. 

Each table has a different set of materials. I received these materials from a grant recently. 

The penguins are just images I printed out, then taped to a block. The kindergarteners had so much fun sliding their penguins down their slides. 

Text Structure with 4th Grade

Informational text structure is one of my favorite lessons to teach. There are so many activities that you can have students to in order to learn about informational text structure.

What are text structures?

Text structure is the way that an author organizes the information in a book. Is the author comparing two topics, describing a topic, etc... The message that the author is trying to get across goes hand in hand with the text structure the author is using.

• Description
• Sequence
• Compare/Contrast
• Problem/Solution
• Cause/Effect

Students have heard these words over and over throughout the school years, but have been asked to identify the sequence or identify the problem/solution, for example. Today, we took it farther and asked students to identify the way the author is organizing the information. 

Lesson

First, the teacher had been going over one text structure a day for the past week. The lesson in the library started as a review. I used these free images created by Deb Hansen to create a slide show for students. You can get these posters on TPT for free. 

I hung the text structure posters around the library, similar to 4 corner, but we had 5 corners. Each table group received a paragraph and had to decide which text structure the author was using. Once the group decided on a text structure, they moved to their corner with the matching poster. 

Once everyone was in their place, about 3 - 4 minutes, groups had the opportunity to read their paragraph while the rest of the class agreed or disagreed with their decision. Students had to say "I agree because..." or "I disagree because.... I think the author uses this text structure..." 

Students observed that all the paragraphs I gave the groups had something to do with ice cream. So, then it was their turn. Students chose their own topic, then wrote a paragraph using each text structure. I placed a Google Slides template in their Google Classroom, then they started writing. After writing students were given the option to add pictures. 

Hour of Code Week

My first love is BOOKS and READING, but my second is technology, coding, and computer science. I always have a blast teaching students the aspects of coding and watching them problem solve. 

This year, I decided to focus on robots for Hour of Code week, so every grade level had a challenge using the Ozobots. 

5th Grade

5th grade had my favorite challenge of the week! We use ozoblockly.com to program our Ozobots. If you have Ozobot robots and have never used Ozoblockly, you should really check it out! Each group was given an Ozobot, and logged into the website. Using the program, students were given the challenge to choreograph a dance for their Ozobot to dance to Feliz Navidad. 

They had a blast, and there was a lot of collaboration and problem solving going on. The students learned that the Ozobot would not blink colors and move at the same time, so they had to create loops within their program. Lots of learning going on this day! 

4th Grade 

With the fourth graders, I integrated Geography into our coding lesson. Each student recieved a map of the world, then students labeled the continents. It was a great review of the 7 continents. They drew their code to have OzoClause 😊 to visit all the countries. We added some flying tricks in as well. 

2nd and 3rd Grade

For the second and third grade class, we had a Grinch challenge. Students had to fill in the codes for Ozobot, or OzoClause to visit the houses and avoid the Grinch. We also had to be sure to code the robot to stop for milk and cookies. 

Kinder and 1st Grades

This is the first time the kinders used the Ozobot, so we did simply line codes. They had so much fun making their Ozobot move from one end to the other. Then we made the Ozobot go slow, then fast. The giggles in the room were contagious!

Most of the first graders had used the Ozobots the previous year, so we had a more complex activity. First graders had to use turn left or turn right codes to get the robot to the dog. We had fun, made some mistakes, and learned together. 

The Hour of Code is always one of my favorite weeks, even though the students on my campus code most the year. This week is a fun week where I get to see everyone in the library and learn coding.