I love to see what books kids recommend to other! Today the grade 4 classes brainstormed ideas using Padlet. I loved seeing all the great titles they have gobbled up this year. Really good titles. These kids are readers.
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Inspiring students and teachers all day long, Jarrett J. Krosoczka spent Monday, April 28 with us at Korn and Brewster Elementary Schools. The students were psyched! I haven't seen a Lunch Lady book in either school in months. The waiting lists are long. We couldn't wait! Jarrett arrived early and was ready to meet our kindergarteners! I loved how he played music as the students were coming in and they settled right down. He shared with them about becoming a writer - how he had been writing since he was a little boy. They loved learning about his newly released Peanut Butter and Jellyfish and were thrilled when he read it to them. They also LOVED when Jarrett did some drawing with them! It was so much fun to have sea creatures have different emotions! From Brewster, we traveled over to Korn School where Jarrett shared about his author journey with the 3rd and 4th graders. They were very attentive as he talked with them about becoming a published author (it took a while!) and the inspiration for the Lunch Lady series. They asked question after question of him too! They were very disappointed to find out that the Lunch Lady series is finished for the time being. Excitement grew when he talked about the upcoming book, Comics Squad Recess! written with some of the best graphic novelists in the business and showed them the book trailer! We can't wait til July! Back to Brewster for lunch and then presentations to the 1st and 2nd graders. They loved seeing how Baghead came to be too! It was wonderful to hear from teachers about how much they really enjoyed his presentations and thought that he did an excellent job talking to the students. Jarrett's message about writing and drawing every day was perfect for our Young Author's Day! After each presentation, Jarrett was able to sign books for students who had purchased them, providing them with a special momento from a very special day. Visit Jarrett J. Krosoczka at: studiojjk.com Want a great way to catch 3rd graders attention in May? Start with a picture and a mystery. Get a suitcase and take out one item at a time and have them try to figure out what Jim Arnosky does for an occupation. A photograph, a date, a notebook, paint and paintbrush, a videotape of an animal safari, an award and finally a book. Amazingly enough, every year it takes them until the very end to figure it out, even though we are in the library! From the book Nonfiction Author Studies in the Elementary Classroom by Jenkins and White, this begins a series of lessons that incorporate exploration of this amazing author/illustrator with a myriad of language arts standards. Inferencing, skimming, noticing, looking for patterns are just a few of the things students will be doing. Arnosky is a prolific writer with topics like fish, lions, frogs, birds of prey, dolphins and more. These topics are intriguing to kids and over and over I heard, "Cool!" and "Awesome!" and "Look at this!" Students went through a book speed-dating process, looking at books from their pile for 1 minute and then choosing another one. It is chaotic and so much fun! While looking through these books, students have been asked, "What do they notice?" and "What patterns do you see?" They take 3 minutes or so at the end to record their thoughts. At this point, they are so curious about Jim Arnosky's life and have lots of questions. We will be using our next library class to learn more about his life and connect it to his writing. My favorite part? "Mrs. Lussier, can I take this book home?" I love when they are hooked! One of the times of year that I look forward to most is World Read Aloud Day. It has turned into an exhausting week, but the fun we have more than makes up for that! This year we celebrated with 31 Skypes: 3 authors and 28 classes from around the United States. Part of the fun is meeting all these new friends and connecting with old ones! Many thanks to LitWorld for sponsoring this amazing event! Both of my schools had activities going on to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday throughout the week, starting off with Brewster's "Wheel of Seuss" on Friday which I had the honor of emceeing. Korn classes had many different guest readers coming in to share favorite books. Tuesday afternoon brought guest readers to Brewster School for Brewster Loves to Read. I love to see all of the different ways we show that we are communities of readers! Bonus this year - no snow days! Happily we were able to fill in for schools who did have some winter weather to contend with! Monday, March 3Tuesday, March 4
Wednesday, March 5
Thursday, March 6Friday, March 7What an amazing week and I am so grateful to all who were able to connect! These celebrations of reading and learning provide our students with the opportunity to communicate and collaborate, important abilities for our students to have as they go forward! But most importantly, it is just so much fun!
Having an author visit at your school is one of the most exciting events of the school year! We are revving up the excitement for April 28, when Jarrett J. Krosoczka comes to Brewster and Korn! Extra-special thanks to the BKPTA for making this happen! So far, we have shared Lunch Lady books, read Punk Farm and Baghead at Brewster School and watched lots of booktrailers at Korn. We have partnered with our local independent bookstore, R.J. Julia Booksellers, to provide an opportunity for students to purchase copies of his books and have them signed when he comes! In the next week we will get started decorating and maybe . . . just maybe . . . having some Lunch Lady gadget fun! Be looking for lots of yellow showing up soon! Jarrett Krosoczka's latest book Peanut Butter and Jellyfish comes out April 8th! Check out the trailer here. Today 4th graders at Korn School played in the sandbox. No, we didn't bring sand into the library (although that might be fun). Our tech integration teacher and I shared a new app with them and let them figure it out. We talked with them about some C words: Creative, Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration (P21.org poster) and the folks at Fablevision added Compassionate. We loved talking about thinking outside the box too! A final thought before students got to work was the idea of Failure - not giving up and trying again in a new way to solve the problem. We believe that these are key ideas for 21st century learners. We want students to use these 5 C's as we use the 3D printer from Makerbot in our library in the next weeks. Students will be using the Blokify app to create designs that we will print. We cannot wait to see what they create! Adult and child read aloud thoughtsFor this week's challenge, we were asked to talk to a child about reading aloud. Since we have been snowed in and on vacation for 5 days, I found 2 eager participants right in my living room. They were happy to share!
Question 1: I think everyone in the world should read . . . . Me: Dr. Seuss - Very few people do not love Dr. Seuss. Everyone has a memory of hearing his books read aloud and reading them -finally- on our own. One of my earliest memories of school is making green eggs and ham in Kindergarten. It was amazing to me that we were actually eating green eggs! Dr. Seuss made reading fun and accessible for so many. Kids still love the rhyming, the funny creatures, the fun! When I started getting ready for World Read Aloud Day and Dr. Seuss's birthday a couple weeks ago, I just filled a table in the library with Dr. Seuss books. Students were drawn to them like magnets. It always makes me smile. Owen (age 9): Diary of a Wimpy Kid Tessa (age 6 3/4): Magic Tree House books and Dumpling Days by Grace Lin Question 2: If I could listen to anyone in the world read aloud to me it would be . . . Me: my mom. She and my dad were my first influences for reading and we always read books together. Always. Owen: Jeff Kinney Tessa: Mrs. Sibiskie, my teacher Question 3: When I read aloud, my favorite character to impersonate is . . . Me: Skippyjon Jones. I LOVE to do the voices in those books. I love laughing with the kids. Pure fun. Owen: Mudge from Henry and Mudge books Tessa: Pacy, from Grace Lin's Dumpling Days and Jack and Annie from Magic Tree House Question 4: The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is . . . Me: Mystery - my absolute favorite. Owen: Fantasy Tessa: Fantasy Question 5: My favorite part about reading aloud or being read to is . . . Me: I love when kids laugh during the story, try guessing what will happen next and then yell out, "Read it again!" That's when I know it was a great read aloud. Owen: You can just sit and listen and enjoy the story. Tessa: You can lay down and listen to the story. I like hearing my teacher's voice make the characters' voices. Students and teachers in Regional School District 13 showed a little courage and a LOT of excitement December 9-15 during Computer Science Education Week. Trying something new that most knew little or nothing about was a big challenge. But the Hour of Code was a huge success! Students and teachers in grades K-12 participated. Some used code.org to get to the Angry Bird/Zombie tutorial and learn some basic computational thinking. Some used iPad apps such as Kodable, Light-bot, Daisy the Dinosaur or Cargo-bot. However they did it, these newest coders loved it and wanted to do more. Watching kindergarteners, who, when asked if they thought they would be good at coding said, "NO!", grow big smiles on their faces and try again and again when they got stuck, was an absolute pleasure. Fourth graders jumped right in and helped each other when they were puzzled about what to do next. They were all building stamina and the ability to persevere, even when things got tougher. Teachers were taking risks here - big ones! It definitely made them feel better when they were reminded that they really didn't need to know what to do - the kids could do it! When teachers tried it, they LOVED it! Many confided that they became a little addicted themselves. The Hour of Code provided a way to show just how essential computational thinking and coding are for the future of these students. I think it truly helped teachers, who had little or no experience with coding, to understand students for whom this is a passion, a little better. I can't wait to see where this excitement takes us next! Click HERE to see 6th grade coders on Channel 30 news. Click HERE for article in The Town Times (see pages 14 & 19). It was amazing! Pierce, one of our Korn alumni, came over on Thursday afternoon and together we got the printer going. It was a little nerve-wracking; we actually read the directions. We really didn't want to break it or cause any problems. We followed the directions step by step (the screen on the printer tells you what to do). We got all the parts put in the right places and then we had to align it. That took a little time, but we figured it out. And then it was time to try it! So it heated up and it worked. The SD card that it comes with has projects already programmed, so we picked the shark and watched it work. It was really neat. It is a new way of thinking about printing, because there is that added dimension, but we could immediately see all kinds of possibilities. 18 minutes later (or so), it was finished. The 3D printer was fascinating to everyone! My 6 year old daughter was mesmerized. My principal and some staff members stopped by to ask a question and couldn't stop watching. We created another shark and then a bracelet (see picture below). Our next step is to program our own items. I asked Pierce to do a little research over vacation. He is so passionate about technology! It is a pleasure to work with him! I can't wait to see what he discovers and what we will create next! I also can't wait to share it with the students and see where it takes them! To be continued . . .
On December 4 & 5, Mrs. Martin was a special guest at our library! She came to help us get excited for this year's Science Fair which will be taking place on Thursday, February 27, 2014. Mrs. Martin talked to us about the difference between a demonstration, where we watch something interesting happen, and an experiment, where a question is asked and a hypothesis tested. We are hoping that all students will be presenting an experiment.
For more information and the permission slip, please go to the Science Fair page. |
AuthorMrs. Lussier is a Library Media Specialist at Brewster Elementary School in Durham, CT and at John Lyman Elementary School in Middlefield, CT. I am passionate about getting kids reading (ok, everyone!), wondering, using technology and having FUN! President of CT Association of School Librarians Blogroll
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