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