Intro to the Outsiders and MakerSpace

I am finally starting to get settled into my new position and new library. It was more difficult than I thought, moving in the middle of the semester like I did. It made me realize how important that week of staff development is! I still have a lot to organize and changes I want to make, but I keep reminding myself -- "One Step At A Time!"

Introduction lesson for THE OUTSIDERS 

Our 7th grade Enriched Honors and Pre-AP English classes read THE OUTSIDERS by S.E. Hinton. I have been collaborating with the 7th grade English teachers to help with the unit. For an introduction, we discussed 'cliques' and what they look like. Students talked about what cliques are on our campus, and what cliques they felt they were part of. Then, the teacher stirred things up, and put them into random groups. Their task was to decide something they all had in common and form a clique. The groups had to give their clique a name, then create a poster that represented their cliques. 

This assignment helped them to understand the two social groups in THE OUTSIDERS, and how even though they were very different, they had similarities. The students really had to think out of the box to come up with their cliques. My favorite was the song that many of them came up with to represent their groups. 

Maker Monday

For the month of December, our Maker Monday was creating ornaments out of weeded book pages. I placed materials and instructions on the tables, and students came in to create the ornaments. I had several staff members join us as well. I will definitely plan on doing this MakerSpace every year. It was a hit.

Students and staff are all enjoying looking at the final products on our StoryBook tree, and many are asking for directions so they can make it them at home. 

Just 3 more days, then we have WINTER BREAK!! I am ready to lay on my couch and read ALL THE BOOKS! 

Engineers and Literacy in Art

1st Grade Engineers

This past week, I read THE LITTLE RED FORT by Brenda Maier to the kindergarten classes.

While reading the book, we made a text-to-text connection, then compared this story to THE LITTLE RED HEN. After reading the story, students went to tables with various materials and were given the tasks to build a fort. 

Who knew forts could have wheels. This little one told me his fort would be mobile. 

This sweet face! She is having so much fun. 

Literacy in Art

If your art teacher is amazing like the art teacher I get to collaborate with every day, then give them this idea!! Our art teacher decided this year to make a display of some of her favorite books from the library, all having to do with art. The students can pull the card of a book they would like to have and bring it to the library. We help them find it, they check it out. When they return the book, we return the book to the art room to be displayed again. 

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. 

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.

Family Engagement Month

The month of November is a time to celebrate and encourage Family Engagement in schools. A successful partnership between the family and school is important for our children. While family engagement should be encouraged all year long, we celebrate our accomplishments during the month of November.

To celebrate family engagement in the library, I invited parents of kindergarteners and first graders to the library for story time, an activity, and checkout time. I asked parents to RSVP to their child's library time so that I could have a parent account created for them before that day.

I read aloud I AM NOT A CHAIR by Ross Burach, which had the kids and parents laughing out loud. After the story, parents and their child went to tables where there were different materials set out, plus little toy rabbits. The challenge was for the parent and child to build a chair for the rabbit to sit in instead of sitting on the girraffe.

These kinders built a tower, but it still held the rabbit. 

I adore how this chair looks like the giraffe from the story! 

The parents also had the opportunity to be a part of their child's library choice for the week, plus with their parent account check out up to 5 extra books to read at home.

The turn out was amazing, and the parents loved being a part of library time. 

Powered Up Week #poweredlibraries

This past week, October 1-7, was Power Up Week, a week where libraries across the state showcase innovation and dynamic leadership. I was excited to participate this year and showcase some of my programs this year on twitter. Powered Libraries even used one of my pictures and tweets in one of their daily highlights! 

Advocacy Monday

I try my best to advocate for my library everyday! This year I sent out a smore showcasing everything that had happened in the library in the month of September. 

This was sent to my administrators, as well as the teachers on campus. This helps them to see what is done with all the grade levels, not just what I do with their classes. 

I also started the week with a collaboration project with the 5th grade teacher. They have been studying the US Regions, so she brought them in for a quick lesson on citing sources and using Google Drawings to create a poster and share with the group. Since they used Google, students were able to work on this at home together, using the comment section to collaborate. 

Tinkering Tuesday

Tuesday was probably my favorite day of the week. Kindergarten was introduced to the MakerSpace materials, which I will pull out once a month for them. It was the quietest they have ever been in the library, they were so involved in their building. 

Web Widget Wednesday 

Wednesday was another collaborative project, this time with the 4th grade ELA teacher. We worked together to review the genres, and for Wednesdays lesson I created a Kahoot for the kids to play.  Feel free to use this kahoot in your class/library to review types of genre. 

 

The best part of collaborative teaching and my flexible schedule, is both myself and the teacher work together to ensure that the students understand. The teacher tells me the skill they want and the end product, and we plan together. I created the Kahoot and she went over the concept and did the checking for understanding. 

Powerful Partnership Thursday 

This year, I decided to participate with the second graders in the 2017 Global Read Aloud. We are reading books by Mem Fox and connecting with other classes around the world. This week, we read KOALA LOU by Mem Fox, then looked at Australia on a map to see how far away it is.

We connected with other classes through a padlet created by Mrs. Ockey to connect with others. We added our favorite parts of the story, and answered some of the questions asked by other 2nd graders. We also looked at where the other students were from on the map compared to where we live. 

The students thought it was fabulous that other kids their age around the world were reading the same book. 

Another way we partnered up this year was with the author/storyteller, Mary Brooke Casad. Even though it took place on Friday, it still shows our partnerships with people in our community. Mary Brooke Casad is the author of the books Bluebonnet the Armadillo, and she lives not far from our city. She came to speak with our 4th graders this year about her stories and how she became a writer. Her message to the students is to "Keep reading and keep writing!" 

 

  

It was a fabulous week, and I can't wait to see what our school will do next year for Powered Up Week!! If you did not participate this year, I highly encourage you to get out and advocate for your library and all you can do for your school!

Pumpkin Contest and Pumpkin Catapults

Our pumpkin contest winner has been announced! This young lady decorated her pumpkin as Pinocchio.

All of the teachers and staff here were able to vote on the pumpkin they thought was the best and most creative. Each person told me that it was very hard to choose. We have so many creative scholars here at Hillside!

The pumpkin decorating contest is definitely going to be something I do each year! I cannot wait to see the fabulous pumpkins that the students will create next fall.

Maker Mondays

Every Monday afternoon we have Makerspace events in the library. Students signed up to participate, and right now I have 15 students. This Monday, I gave the students a challenge to create and build a pumpkin catapult. Each group was given a small paper cup, 3 rubber bands, 8 craft sticks, tape, and a candy pumpkin. The challenge was to see which group could build the catapult to sling the pumpkin the farthest. It was tons of fun, and it got really loud here in the library. 

New Books

The new books have arrived in the library! This is my first book order this year. After the book fairs this fall, I will order more. It felt like Christmas in the library when I opened the boxes. I can't wait to hear the stories from students about the new books they have read.