Pegboard in the Makerspace

As our elementary school library makerspace develops, I am constantly on the look out for new ideas. I LOVE the idea of using golf tees in a pegboard for students to design their visions!

 I am lucky that my father-in-law gave me his pegboard, which I used at home for my crafting space for a long time. When we moved, it moved to the basement. Now I'm glad I didn't throw it out! This makes it it's third life!

My fabulous custodian built a box around the existing frame, which is important so that it stays far enough away from the wall for the pegs to both stay in and to not poke the wall. He then hung it in our library.

 The golf tees are 2 3/4 inch and were ordered off of eBay in a variety of colors.

 I made this instruction sheet to hang alongside it and as students create designs, I plan to take pictures of them and post them around the area for others to take inspiration from!

I can't wait to see what the students create!

My Instagram Feed!

Rooftops of Tehran {Book Club}

Hello! Over the summer months, we had another book club book to read! This time it was Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji. 

I must be honest and tell you that when this book was announced as the pick I was not interested in reading it at all. But I was a good little girl and got it from the library. I attempted to start reading it but the due date came and went. I gave it a second try when Megan reminded us that the deadline for reading was coming up. I am so glad I did! I ended up REALLY enjoying this book! 

Pasha's love for Zari is thankfully nothing I have ever had to go through. 

Pasha and Ahmed are wise beyond their years as characters. Yet I love that they are still believable as teens. The author does a great job of educating the reader about the culture and history of Iran while not boring the reader or over saturating the text. 

I thought the ending of the book was very fitting for the story. Of course I would have loved a happy-go-lucky ending but that is not realistic for this story line and I love that the author stayed true to the times and culture of the book. 

After a failed first attempt, I am very glad that I went back to the book and I would definitely recommend it to others! 

Thank you Megan at Cardigans and Caffeine for another book club rotation! 

Golden Archer 2015 winners!

And the 2015 Golden Archer Award winners are...

Primary:

Drew Daywalt   @DrewDaywalt

Intermediate:

R.J. Palacio   @RJPalacio

Middle/Junior High: 

John Green   @JohnGreen

Find out more about the Golden Archer Awards by visiting WEMTA's website! 

Golden Archer Award 2015 - The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

What a fabulous last book for the Golden Archer Awards! 

Our last title and activity was for Drew Daywalt's The Day the Crayons Quit. 

A major thing that helped me with the success of reading this book, as I was finding it was going over the heads of my first few classes, was to discuss what it means to quit before reading the book. Then as we read, I paused every few crayons and asked why did that crayon want to quit? As students summarized why that color wanted to quit, students were really connecting to the crayons and wanting Duncan to fix the problems. I highly suggest this method for reading this book! 

When we finished reading, students were asked to write a letter back to one crayon "explaining" why they did not want that crayon to quit. I used this freebie from Peace, Love, & Learning.

This student first drew this...

Then he had extra time left so I asked him to add more detail. Look how awesome his picture looks now! 

And yes, we did have the classic mis-spelling happen. I had to take this pic! 

We vote next week! I have a feeling I know which book my kids will like best but I can't wait to see for sure! 

Golden Archer Awards 2015 - That is Not a Good Idea by Mo Willems

Week four of the Golden Archer Awards! This week was SO much fun! Although, perhaps the shortest book I have ever used as a read aloud, the look on students' faces at the end of the book was priceless! 

We read Mo Willem's That is Not a Good Idea. 

After reading the book, we talked about all of the surprise elements and about the chicks who continue to scream, "That is not a good idea!" Students then got to do their own activity of making their own unique chick! 

The activity for That is Not a Good Idea was really a great way to let kids' creativity flow!

Golden Archer Awards 2015 - Pete the Cat and his Magic Sunglasses by James Dean

It's week three of the Golden Archer Awards! 

We read the much anticipated book Pete the Cat and his Magic Sunglasses by Kimberly and James Dean this week. Students are very familiar with Pete the Cat so they couldn't wait to hear this story. My perception was that they were not as impressed as they thought they would be but they did still like the story. 

After reading this one, we made our own magic sunglasses! I used this fabulous template from Picklebums.

Check out these cool cats! 

On to book four! 

Golden Archer Awards 2015 - The Dark by Lemony Snicket

Reading the Golden Archer Awards books to my students is so much fun! 

This week we read The Dark by Lemony Snicket. As a first soiree into picture books, he did a fabulous job. I mean, how could you go wrong with Jon Klassen as your illustrator?! 

After reading the book, students were asked to draw something they were afraid of. We then added the dark to it by putting a black piece of construction paper over the drawing. Then we got brave like Laszlo and took out our flashlights, i.e. cut a triangle shaped hold into our dark. Things are never as scary when you can see them! 

This student was afraid of Bigfoot. I love the perspective he drew his picture from! 

Add your light and it's not nearly as scary as it was in the dark!

 I had to include this amazing shark picture for you to see as well! 

The kids really liked sharing their fears and making them not so scary! 

Golden Archer Awards 2015 - Oh No! by Candace Fleming

Hello! It is time for the 2015 Golden Archer Awards! 

Kindergarten through second grade students are taking part in this statewide program that awards one exemplary picture book this award. The award is specific to Wisconsin and the book that wins it is selected by students around the state. We will read the five nominated titles during the coming weeks. Each student will cast a vote for their favorite book and those votes will be sent on to the committee. The Golden Archer Award is sponsored by the Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association. The Award winner will be announced at the annual WEMTA conference in late March. 

The primary level nominees are: 

This first week, I read Oh, No! by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann to my classes. (Side note: Did you know they are married? My kids loved hearing that. :) ) 

We read the story first. I had students participate by saying the animal sounds and the "Oh, no!"s. Then we re-enacted the story using animal masks. The kids had a ton of fun with this! They can't wait until next week for story number 2! 

Books worth melting for

My versions of an Olaf bulletin board I saw on Pinterest...

You'll find him at Lincoln...

And him at Parkview!

Sunday Scoop time!

It's been awhile since I've done a Sunday Scoop with Teaching Trio so here we go! 

Have to do...
It's Golden Archer Award time in Wisconsin! I begin my six week unit on it this Friday with the first group so I have to decide which of the five nominated titles I am going to read first and then what activity I am going to do. This is probably my most favorite time of the year in the library! 
WEMTA is our state library and technology association and registration just opened for the annual Spring conference. The sooner you register the cheaper it is! You should check it out - it is definitely worth attending!! 

Hope to do...
I recently created a research organizer for second grade space research and I hope to get it posted to TPT ASAP! 
Also, the littlest is changing sizes yet again so I need to get the too small out and the next size in! 

Happy to do...
I'm trying to read a bunch of the historical fiction that is on our 4th grade list as the unit is fast approaching. Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm is my current read and I am almost done. It's pretty good but I feel that the fourth graders will miss a bunch of things in the text. However, because they are more the character's age, I also believe that they will really enjoy it and hopefully it gets them a bit emotional as it is a very emotionally charged book! 

I hope you have a great week! 

Book Club Beauties - The One and Only

Hello! The Book Club Beauties recently completed our second book club book, The One and Only by Emily Griffin. Here are my thoughts:

A few notes...
I loved Neil because he is the quintessential husband - tries to leave the room, responds only when directly spoken to, etc. His character really made me smile to see such a "normal" secondary character.

I really enjoyed this book up until about 3/4 of the way through. Then the unsettling feeling of a young girl falling in love with someone who is basically her father took over. I couldn't make that right in my mind. Perhaps if that is what Griffin was going for, then this book is a success for her. For me, though, it is not.

I love being a part of Book Club Beauties with Cardigans and Caffeine! Head over to her blog if you are interested in joining us!

Sunday Scoop 11/9

Happy Sunday! It's time for another Sunday Scoop, hosted by Teaching Trio!

I am a busy gal at work these days! There are so many exciting things about to happen! We have a technology in-service morning coming up that I am planning. We will have sessions presented by our own staff on topics like Google Classroom, Moodle, ePortfolios, QR codes, and so much more. I love these mornings!

I am on to Book Fair #2 of the year and the kids will be so excited in the morning! I do 2 Book Fairs in fall and 2 in the spring, for a total of one fair at each of our four elementary buildings.

It snowed up north this weekend and we are supposed to get a good storm tomorrow! I love snow! Woohoo!

If you have ideas to share on a techie science project for second graders about space, I'd love to hear it!

I hope you have a fantastic week!!

Book Club Beauties - This is Where I Leave You

The first Book Club Beauties round has come to an end!

We read This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Trooper for the first selection. Here are my thoughts...

Check out Cardigans and Caffeine for others' take on this book or to join us in the book club!

October 2014 Currently

Hello! Welcome to October - a few days late :) I'm linking up with Oh Boy Fourth Grade for the monthly Currently!

I love when I catch the Google Play free albums. Makes me happy! And Jason Aldean? Yes, I'll take it! :)

No cold lunch for me today - a French Dip coming my way instead! Yahoo!

I have a girl in my Girl Scout troop (leading a Daisy troop for the first time this year) who has a dad who was big into Boy Scouting but had a girl so now is entering his daughter into Girl Scouts. He is ready to volunteer and last night I was able to confirm that he will be my Cookie Dad! This makes me over the moon excited!

The water pressure in my new house is AWFUL. AWFUL. Did I say AWFUL? Ugh, I hate it. We've had it looked at multiple times and I called yet another plumber a few weeks ago. He is going to come when he has time. I am sure hoping that is soon and he will have a new idea for us that we haven't heard yet. It's a real bummer when you start out every day with a shower that you despise.

My first Book Fair of the year is coming up! (I do four, one at each school.) Calling parents to volunteer really needs to get done!

I have a treat for you! Last month I talked about trying to start my TPT store. I've had one lonely product in there for 2 years. I really should have jumped on the bandwagon then but never had the courage. I am ready to now. In the past week I've posted four items to my store. Please check them out! Three of my total five items are free! I'd love some feedback if you need any library skills lessons!

Sunday Scoop!

I just love quick things like this! I love to read them on other people's blogs because... well... let's face it, I'm a little bit nosy! I love doing them for my own blog because they are fast and they help you get to know me! 

Teaching Trio hosts the Sunday Scoop each week and I am new to it but happy to link up! You should too! 

I just recently began as Daisy troop leader for my daughter and I need to find a co-leader to do it with me. 
Who doesn't have laundry to do on a Sunday?!
Tomorrow I give another Monday Tech Tidbit training after school. We are focusing on SMARTboards for the first couple of weeks because we were fortunate to add SMARTboards for all of our classroom teachers who didn't have one yet! 

I have thank you notes to write from my little man's baptism. 
I just started reading This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper for the Cardigans and Caffeine book club! If you are a teacher, you should join us too! 

I love cookies. I mean is there more to say?? Ha! We have Oreos in the house right now!

Back to School in the Library

Here we are - Friday! These first two weeks back in school have been all about introducing the library and the computer lab. 

My absolute favorite classes of this week are the Kindergartens! The kids are so excited to come to the library and get to check out a book! (In my schools, Kindergarten checks out 1 book, 1st-3rd grade gets 2 books, and 4th graders may check out 3 items.) "Do you have princess books? LEGO books? shark books? dinosaur books?"... on and on and on! Their enthusiasm is amazing. 

Taking them into the computer lab is fun as well. The biggest challenge for our Kindergarten students is the logging in process. The first step is to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete all at the same time. I teach them to hold up a one with their right hand and a two with their left. Press and hold the two hand down first and then press the one hand on Delete just once. Of all the things I have tried, this seems to be the easiest for them to understand. We use a generic username for elementary students so we don't have the trouble of usernames and passwords thankfully. 

For Kindergarten, we use a freeware program called Sebran to get them started on practicing mousing skills. They love it and you don't have the added steps of getting them out onto the Internet before they can actually do anything. 

I hope you had a fabulous week at school!