Last week, we enjoyed a great story by Tara Lazar called The Monstore. The students loved all of the colorful monsters and discussing what they predicted would happen when more and more monsters were brought into the picture. At the conclusion of the story, I posed the questions, "What type of monster would you have in your Monstore? How would you persuade people to buy your monster?
The best part of the day was tweeting with Tara Lazar about her book. It was totally not planned, but ending up being such a great experience for the kids. Here is a little "snipet" of our Twitter conversation.
The kids were so excited that we were really talking to the author of the book. Since that activity, the book has not stayed on the shelf. It is constantly checked out and kids are asking for it on a daily basis. I'm going to have to add some more copies to my collection!
This past Friday, we had the opportunity to become spiders in the library. We had some awesome pictures of spiders and their webs to get us started with our activity. Then we watched a short clip from The Cat in the Hat Know a lot about That to learn how spiders build their webs.
We then gathered on the carpet in a large circle in order to create our very own spider webs. Students discussed the roles that they would play in the completion of the project as well as how important it was for them to communicate with each other. We had builders and observers. While the builders were building, the observers were looking for patterns and shapes in the creation of the web. They did a great job of explaining what shapes they saw as well as what made the shapes (vertices, sides, angels). They also discovered that the shapes changed based on how whether you were using 2 hands to hold your string or one hand (it effected the number of vertices). All we used was basic cotton twine that you can buy at the dollar store. I started the spider web by passing the string to another student, they passed it on to someone else and we continued until the whole class had a part of the string. Students then spent some time debriefing and discussing what they had to do to successfully create their spider web.
I had the honor today to present a PD session about using Weebly to increase student discourse alongside two of my colleagues. I must say that I learned so much from the process of getting ready for this session. Our district is in the beginning stages of implementing the use of Weebly for student digital portfolios/blogs. I had a few major take-aways from working on this process.
1. It is essential that we provide authentic opportunities for our students to interact with each other and with the world around them. Once they know that someone is really going to read what they write, the motivation immediately increases, especially if they know that the audience includes their peers. By using Weebly and providing opportunities to read the work of other students, our students will be able to reflect on their own writing and thinking in order to challenge themselves.
2. We must make sure that we don't get caught up in all of the technical aspects of Weebly (or whatever web tool we are using). There will always be things that we don't know as well as things that our students don't know. The great thing about using a web tool is that we have immediate help via the help feature within the tool or google. As we become comfortable admitting to our students that we don't know all of the answers, we create a true collaborative environment within our classroom. The students drive the learning. Ultimately, within a few months, the students will be doing the bulk of the work and will have awesome portfolios to show for it.
Here is the link to the presentation:
Our 3rd graders have had a great time setting up and starting to create their portfolios. By the end of this week, our 4th and 5th graders will have theirs set up as well. Here are a few shots of them working on their portfolios
This year is off to a great start. Our kids are loving the library, especially the opportunity to build, create and use their imagination. We have embraced a Maker Space mentality this year and are trying to give the kids multiple opportunities to problem solve and create in the library. Our Kindergarten classes have enjoyed using all of the hands on activities that are in the library this year including Legos and other types of blocks. The students have really enjoyed sharing ideas about what they have built. Some of their stories amaze me, they add so much detail!
We have also started implementing Maker Mondays in the library. Every Monday afternoon is set aside for Science related Maker Lessons. Each of them have been challenged based. The lesson is introduced as a Challenge and then the kids have to use knowledge of what they are learning in Science in order to solve the challenge and to reflect on what they did during the challenge.
Can you Blow up a Balloon with Pop Rocks?
This lesson was completed with 4th and 5th grade. We discussed the states of matter and what would need to happen to cause a balloon connected to a bottle of soda to inflate. Students made some great hypotheses and then had to reflect on why they hypothesized incorrectly or correctly. They had a great time reviewing the states of matter and it was also great fun to use pop rocks and soda.
Can you Create a Boat that Floats?
With second and third grade classes, we explored the idea of sinking and floating as well as what makes some items sink while others float. Students were then given materials including popsicle sticks, a paper bag, paper plate and tape and asked to build a boat that would float. They worked diligently and some of their creations floated while other sunk.
As a kid, I was always intrigued with the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I loved the idea of Willy Wonka inviting kids into his Chocolate Factory. I felt like I was on the adventure with them. In Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, Luigi Lemoncello is a millionaire toy-maker who has designed a brand new library. This library is like no other. It has an IMAX theater, holograms that can be used to research and electronic learning centers. It's the library that I truly dream of. For the grand opening of the library, Mr. Lemoncello chooses kids from the town to play a game in which they have to escape from the library. Will they get out before morning? What happens if they don't? Do they all play fair? If you love puzzles, libraries and adventure, be sure to check this book out!
Maker Space Week in the Joy James Library was a great success! Our students and teachers had a great time creating and exploring with different activities. Just to give you a quick reminder of what activities we focused on, here is the schedule from the week.
On Tuesday, students were challenged to build a boat from the following supplies:
- a sheet of tin foil
- plastic straws
- Popsicle sticks
- a piece of paper
- tape
Students worked in teams to design and build the boat. They then tested it in a tub of water and added passengers (buttons). We talked about how the buttons were a good representation of real passengers because they came in all sizes and shapes.
To get them thinking about boats, we watched a Brain Pop video about the Titanic and discussed caused the Titanic to sink. This led to great discussion about the design of their boats as well as how it needed to be sturdy at the bottom as to not allow any water to enter the interior of the boat.
Students ended with reflecting about the process as well as what they would do differently if they were to build another boat.
On Wednesday, we explored Slime...or Oobleck. The kids loved this activity. I started out by showing them a cup of slime that I had made and had them discuss if they thought it was a solid or a liquid. I showed them how it appeared to pour out of the cup but then allowed them to feel it to see that it felt solid.
Students then worked with a partner and created their own slime from corn starch and water. They then used their senses to explore it and discussed whether the slime was a solid or a liquid.
On Thursday, we had the opportunity to be architects. I found this great blog with a marshmallow and toothpick challenge for kids - Learn with Play at Home
Her idea for getting the kids talking about architecture was great. We looked at pictures of different buildings in Dubai and talked about similarities, differences and what made the buildings strong. There were tons of oohs and aahs as we looked at all of the pictures. I then challenged the students to create a building of their own with marshmallows and toothpicks.
Here are some of their creations:
On Friday, we ended the week with a volcanic blast in the library. We discussed volcanoes, parts of the volcano and what causes a volcano to erupt. The students then build their own volcano from play-doh and created an eruption with baking soda, glitter and vinegar.
Here are a few of our volcanoes in action.
I am looking forward to lots of awesome maker space activities in the library next year!
