Tuesday, March 26, 2013

March Library Bulletin Board

I saw a really awesome bulletin board on Seize the Day with Second Grade.  It inspired this rainbow bulletin board.  I put this up in March, just outside my library.  I filled the empty space with book covers and the saying "Luck is finding the perfect book".


(This picture was after a little oopsie! with the background paper...)

The saying is cut from the Cricut cart Birthday Bash at 3.5".  The book covers are from recent JLG book orders.  Kids really like seeing the book covers and it sparks interest in new books.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Second Grade biography projects

Second grade is working on completing their unit on biographies.  Students learned about the 921 biography section in the library and, after having time to browse, selected a biography that interested them.  They then completed a graphic organizer which listed at least five facts about their person.  I stepped in for the production portion of the project.

Students selected an image from Britannica Image Quest, a picture database we subscribe to.  We then used Blabberize to make our famous person speak about themselves.

Here are two examples from Mrs. Calabria's class:




And another:



What did I learn from this project?  Blabberize is as temperamental as ever.  I really love their service and the kids do too but I'm not sure I can suggest it's use anymore.  I could get about 5 bios recorded and then it just wouldn't work anymore.  It took many days of a few kids at a time to get this project done.

If you have alternatives to suggest, please do so!  I would love to hear them!

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

World Read Aloud Day 2013

Wow!  World Read Aloud Day was a whirlwind of adventure for our Parkview students!  World Read Aloud Day is sponsored by LitWorld and is a day to celebrate the right of everyone to read aloud.  This day has been in the works for our elementary students for a few weeks now and we were so excited for it to finally arrive.

There was a small hiccup when a snow storm blew through the country and two of our four planned Skype sessions had to be canceled but through a flurry of Twitter and Google Doc connections, everyone who was scheduled to Skype today got to do so.   Here are a few pictures of our day:

8:30am - Mrs. Calabria's second grade classroom met author Meg McKinlay.  It was very exciting that since she lives in Australia, we had just gotten up for the day and she was getting ready for bed!


 10:00am - All three first grade classrooms met with author Jamie Michalak.  We even got a sneak peak of newest not-yet-published Joe and Sparky book!




11:10am - Fourth graders in Mr. Laufenberg's class read I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen to a Kindergarten class in Massachusetts.

1:30pm - Mrs. Cardinal's Kindergarten class was read to by a third grade classroom in Iowa.  They shared the book Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett.

World Read Aloud Day was an amazing experience for our school, as it was the first time to Skype for many teachers and students.  Connecting globally is wonderful and exciting!

Monday, March 4, 2013

Book Fair: Story Laboratory science lab

I just finished out a very successful Book Fair at the largest of my elementary schools.  It was such a great year!  The spring theme from Scholastic is "Story Laboratory: reading gives you superpower".  I went all out with the science lab theme.

The first thing I made sure to do was order the decorating kit from the Scholastic Resource Kit.  I always use a portion of the $100 advance Scholastic Dollars they give you to purchase this.  While a majority of the items I use are re-purposed or purchased, these kits always seem to have the little details that you can't find anywhere else.

When walking up to the Fair, you see this bulletin board in the hallway:

This idea was born from this science bulletin board.

As you enter the Fair, the doors look like this:

The reading tube was an idea from Scholastic.  I purchased the clear PVC rooking panel and concrete form that the duct tape is wrapped around from Menards.

The check out desk:

A different view of the library:

One of our book-eating robot friends:
This robot was inspired by this amazing post on Book Fair decorations.

Are you having a Book Fair? I would love to see pictures of what you did.  Share your link in the comments!