If I lived in a Snow Globe

Last Friday, we explored poetry by writing a 5 senses poem in the library.  Classes discussed what a snow globe was and imagined what it would be like to live in a snow globe. Once they wrote and illustrated their poem, they used the iDoodle Snow Globe app to put themselves and/or their poem in the snow globe.  Here are a few of our finished products.  We even had a 3rd grade class and kindergarten class create their poems together.

 

Idioms

I have discovered a new favorite app - Tellagami! My 3rd grade classes have been learning a out idioms so we took some time in the library to create videos using avatars that they created in tellagami to explain what certain idioms meant. Click on this link to check out their videos. Enjoy!

Save the Turkeys

Last Friday, as we were preparing for Thanksgiving break the students at Joy James Elementary started a campaign to SAVE THE TURKEYS! We read Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey.  After visiting a turkey farm for a field trip, 8 students in the book decide to rescue the turkeys so that they don't end up as Thanksgiving dinner.

Our kids worked on creating their own turkeys that then had to persuade people to eat something else other than turkey for Thanksgiving.  They had lots of great ideas and lots of wonderful reasons. Once they finished their turkey, they used the app Chatter Kids to make their turkeys talk!

Check out a few of them here!  

December JJE Extended Hours | Piktochart Infographic Editor

December JJE Extended Hours | Piktochart Infographic Editor

December Newsletter

App Smashing!

I love the idea of creatively pulling different apps together.  I also love collaborating with teachers to create projects that truly impact student learning.  During our library time, 3rd graders took the time to write their own math word problems. We worked together to proofread the problems and then typed them into pic collage.  The word problems were then saved onto the camera roll and I uploaded them all to one dropbox account.  

At this point, the students had written some really creative word problems but we wanted to make sure that they could take it a step farther.  I connected that dropbox account that we were using to educreations.  The students were then able to randomly choose a word problem to solve with a partner.  Check out a few of the examples below! 

Force and Motion with the Three Ninja Pigs

Last Friday, we held our second elementary puppet show.  This time, we took on the book The Three Ninja Pigs  by Corey Rosen Schwartz.  In this story, the three little pigs decide to go to Ninja school in order to fight off the big bad wolf.  Luckily, the third little pig listened and worked diligently on her ninja moves in order to face the big bad wolf.  After the puppet show, we discussed how many of the motions that we are talking about in science class can be seen in different ninja moves.  Our friends at Genesis Jujitsu created this video for us.





Students then went with their teachers to their dojos to work on their ninja moves and record some video clips of ninjas in training.

They worked hard and listened to their Sensei. 

Check out all of our awesome ninja moves in this video! 

Monster Goose meets Mother Goose

Following the Character Parade on Friday, October 31st our students at Joy James Elementary were so excited to come to the library for a Mother Goose storytime. Mother Goose was prepped and ready with all of her sweet nursery rhymes. Little did she know that lurking around the corner was her long lost sister Monster Goose. Monster Goose shared some of the rhymes from Monster Goose by Judy Sierra.  Some of the jewels that were shared included Mary Had a Vampire Bat, There was an Old Zombie and Werewolf Bo Creep. 

Students had a question and answer session with Monster Goose.  They had numerous questions for her.  Once they were done talking with our guest, they had compared and contrasted the characters of Monster Goose and Mother Goose including their character traits and tone during their storytelling.  

For those students who still had questions about Monster Goose, some have written her letters so that they could ask even more questions.  

If you want to get the full effect, check out our Google Hangout On Air 

November Newsletter

Frankenworms

For our fun Fridays in October,we are creating Frankenworms in the library!  This has been a great hands on experiment that the kids really enjoy while reinforcing tons of science concepts.

The kid were hooked from the beginning when I asked them if they thought they could make the gummy worms on their tables move.  They then went through the steps of the experiment to see if they could in fact make their gummy worms come to life.

Here is where the inspiration came from!

Here are a few pictures of the kids getting in on the fun!

And here are some of our frankenworms in action!

App smashing

So, I was amazed to learn that other day that this thing that I do with apps actually has a name.  I'm always thinking of and experimenting with how different apps can be used within each other.  The term is app smashing!  How cool is that?  App Smashing!  The basic concept is that you take an app, create a product in that app and then use it within another application.  I first started doing this when I would save power point slides as jpeg images in order to import them into movie maker or animoto.  Of course, I have found much more creative ways to app smash as I have moved along in my ability to integrate technology.

Here is a great example that anyone can use to start with app smashing. Have the students create a pic collage with their picture in the middle.  Upload that picture into chatterpix and the students can then make themselves talk within the pic collage. Check out the link here for more information.
http://mspanasays.com/app-smashing-pic-collage-and-chatterpix/


This link also gives some great app smashing ideas!
https://www.smore.com/9g1x-elementary-ipads

I hope you enjoy and are ready for some great app smashing in the library this year!

The Marshmallow Incident

On Friday, we had a GREAT Marshmallow incident in our libraries. The students at AV Cato, Castleberry and Joy James Elementary attended a puppet show based on the book The Marshmallow Incident by Judi Barrett.  The students giggled and shrieked with excitement as they saw the puppets peak up from behind the puppet stage. Many students excitedly told us that this was their very first puppet show ever!  The magic of seeing a book come to life with the help of puppets is something that they really enjoyed.  Our friends Bob, Sally and the Ambidextrous Knight made this story seem larger then life.

Once the puppet show concluded, students watched The Great Marshmallow Experiment and discussed what would happen to a marshmallow placed in the microwave, a bowl or water and in the freezer.  The students hypothesized about different physical characteristics and how those might change in each of the three scenarios above.  

They discussed: 

Size

Shape

Texture

Temperature

Color 

View both the video of the puppet show as well as the video of the experiment below.  

The Puppet Show 

The Science Experiment

Creepy Alliteration

We had so much fun creating Creepy Alliterative sentences today with recitethis.com.

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Math in the library

I have had the honor of connecting literacy and math with some of my 3rd grade library classes this year. We have had a blast in the library so far. Students have worked on math stations while in the library with one of the stations including books by Greg Tang. They had the opportunity to explore the different books and work through the riddles and problems in the books.

We then started a estimation project. The students were challenged to estimate how many books were in specific genre sections in the library. Students had to use their estimation/rounding skills as well as multiplication. They started their challenge with the following video.   

Then, they started to work! They counted the books on the median shelf by 2's, rounded and then multiplied.







Students then used the pic collage app to create a poster and present their findings.

 

October

October Newsletter!! Check it out!

Ahoy Mateys!!

Me is so excited to share with you about what was happening in yer library today! In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, all me bucos enjoyed some awesome pirate poetry read by some mystery pirates. We even had our very own pirate rapper!!

We also had some awesome pirate activities in the library after we heard from our pirate friends.  

Our 1st grade mateys worked on their map skills by creating their own pirate treasure map complete with a legend and compass rose.  

Our 3rd and 4th grade mateys created their own pirate wanted signs in preparation to write an awesome pirate story.  We discussed character, setting and conflict so that our stories would be complete.  

Books Can Take You Anywhere!

As an introduction to the library, we read A Mighty Fine Time Machine  and talked about how books can take you anywhere!

We even read the book in the Joy James Time Machine. 

Third graders then created posters predicting where their library books will take them.

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