ZooBurst!

Mrs. Wall's 2nd graders have been working on personal narratives during Writing. After the students wrote about 1 event in their lives, we used ZooBurst to create our own 3-D pop-up books. The students worked very hard and would like to share their final products with you!

Henry's book:

Liam's book:

Jayla's book:

Abigail's book:

Peri's book:

Jason's book:

Kevin's book:

Emari's book:

2nd Grade Poets

Club Boulevard has a class full of poets in 2nd grade! Watch and listen to Mrs. Lopez's class read their creative poetry. We have such innovative writers at Club Blvd!

Run, Run As Fast As You Can!

Mrs. Goff's class wrote a story using directional prepositions about all the places they spotted the Gingerbread Man. Have you seen him running around Club Blvd??

Earth, Moon, and Sun

3rd grade students from Mrs. Dunlap's class created a voicethread to share what they've learned so far about the earth, moon, and sun. Make sure your volume is turned up before you watch!

Magic School Bus Contest



Winners of the Club Blvd. contest

Over 90 students submitted their own innovative designs for the Magic School Bus "create-a-cover" contest!! You can view their designs in the slideshow below. Mrs. Husketh mailed all of the entries to Scholastic and we will find out in January if a cover is selected as a winner. Mrs. Husketh selected two students from each grade level and one class to win a Magic School Bus book. These students’ names were drawn randomly from the jar in the Media Center. In addition, two classes won a Magic School Bus “hour of fun” in the Media Center. The winning classes were Mrs. Murray’s class and Mrs. Dunlap’s class. Congratulations! Thank you to all the students who participated in the contest.



Magnets are Everywhere!

Ms. Lord's 4th grade class began learning about magnets last week. As you watch the video, listen for the explanations of these key words about magnets: attract, repel, invisible force, north and south poles, atoms, and magnetized. Hopefully the students' illustrations will also help you understand what these words mean. Next up they'll be learning about electricity!

Shark Week!

Ms. Rogers' 1st graders kicked off their Shark Week learning by coming to the Media Center to complete online research. After brainstorming several resources we could use to learn about sharks (books, magazines, and computers), the class was excited to learn that we would be using laptops! First I showed the students an online database that is great for emergent readers--it's called PebbleGo. The students read and listened to information about the shark's body, habitat, diet, and life cycle. Each student wrote down information, their favorite fact, and drew an illustration of the animal in its habitat. I look forward to working with Ms. Rogers, Ms. Herring, and these young researchers again soon!

Colonial American Glogs

4th graders in Ms. Lisle's class were learning about North Carolina during the Colonial Period. After completing their research in class, the students visited the Media Center to begin their technology projects. Each pair created a Glog (online poster) to share one aspect the class learned about Colonial America. Below is a sampling of the Glogs made by these creative 4th graders! (I apologize for the amount of space in between each Glog--I could not eliminate it!)

Hatchet Character Analysis--Part 2

(click on Wordle to enlarge)

The 5th grade Battle of the Books team finished reading Hatchet and we created another Wordle based on on Bryan's actions and thoughts during the second half of the book. Has Bryan changed? Compare the adjectives from our first Wordle to this one. What do you notice?

Hatchet Character Analysis

(click on the Wordle to enlarge)

The 5th grade Battle of the Books team is reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. After reading chapters 1-8, the students worked in groups to brainstorm as many adjectives as they could about Bryan (the main character). We then copied and pasted their lists to make a Wordle. The words that appear enlarged occured the most in their lists. Based on the Wordle above, what kind of experiences do you think Bryan is going through? Would you want to trade places with him? We'll create a second Wordle after finishing Hatchet to help us see how his character evolves from the beginning to the end of the book.

Science Day

Thank you to all the presenters who volunteered their time to make Science Day a possibility for our students. And a HUGE thanks to Mr. Krieger for organizing the event!

Personalize a free picture slideshow

Hispanic Heritage Book Drawing Winners!

Over 40 students read a book from the Hispanic Heritage display in the Media Center and several students read more than 1! For each book they read, the student filled out the "book fun" information sheet that accompanied the book. After returning the sheet to me, students put their name in a jar to try and win a free book.

This morning Mrs. Husketh drew 6 names from the jar. These students came to the Media Center and chose a book that something to do with Hispanic culture. The students were very excited because they get to keep these books! Some of their selections included Endangered Animals of South America, a Peruvian folktale, Guatemalan ABCs, and the life of Frida Kahlo. Congratulations and happy reading :)

 

Our fabulous winners!!

Camp Read-a-Lot

I had so much fun hosting the K, K/1, and 1st grade classes for a sing a-long yesterday during Camp Read-a-Lot. Mr. Childress played the guitar and we enjoyed singing a few of our favorite camping songs. Can you pick out your favorite book character from the collage below (click on the collage to enlarge it)? I posed with two of my favorites: Emily Elizabeth and Clifford. Here is a fun fact about me (Mrs. Husketh)--I was named after Emily Elizabeth from the Clifford series by Norman Bridwell! I wonder if my mom knew all along that I would be a school media specialist? :)

Food for thought

Source: blog.cagle.com via hannah on Pinterest

2nd Grade Weather Tools

The second graders in Mrs. Lopez's class needed a creative way to review and explain what they learned about weather tools during their weather unit. We decided to create a Voicethread together to integrate writing, science, and technology, while also working on oral fluency. One small group worked with me in the Media Center each day to write down their thoughts and record them on the Voicethread.

We worked hard to answer these questions: "How did you make this tool? What does this tool measure? How does this tool work? How does this tool help us?"

We used a microphone to record our voices.

We could re-record if we did not like the way our first reading sounded.

We watched and listened to our finished project in the Media Center.

Please enjoy our finished project below! In order to hear our voices, please turn your sound up to the maximum volume.  

Hispanic Heritage Month--Author Yuyi Morales

As part of our school's study of Hispanic Heritage Month, I have created a literary display in the Media Center. This display features books by Hispanic authors/illustrators and books that teach about an aspect of Hispanic culture. To encourage students to check out these wonderful books, I am offering an incentive--free books! All a student needs to do is read one of these fabulous books and then tell me a few things about the book (using this form). If they return the form to me by Oct. 27th, they will be entered into a drawing to win a free book that supports our study of Hispanic cultures!

Senor Calavera

One of my favorite author/illustrators is the award winning artist Yuyi Morales. The happy skeleton to the left is the main character from her book, Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book. Watch the video below to hear Yuyi talk about the inspiration for creating this lively Day of the Dead story.

For more information about her books, visit her website: http://www.yuyimorales.com/2.htm. Here you will also find more videos, games for students, and teaching materials.

Generosity Benefits Club Readers

Jacob (pictured 2nd from right in back row) and just some of the kids who donated books to Club

Look at all those books! Guess what?! Because of the generous spirit of Club Boulevard alumnus Jacob Higgins-Keziah, they will be in the hands of our readers very soon. Jacob celebrated his birthday recently at a local park and instead of bringing gifts, he asked his friends and family to bring a book donation for the Club Boulevard Media Center. Thank you, Jacob, for thinking of us and caring about the students at Club. You are a gift to our community! We are very appreciative and hope you had a wonderful birthday!

Battle of the Books!

Check out the video below to see what books our awesome 5th grade team will be reading in order to prepare for the Elementary Battle of the Books competition. We will be busy this year!

Thanks to http://www.ncslma.org and Follett's Destiny for the pictures!

Severe Weather

As part of their Science unit, second graders in Ms. Small's class visited the Media Center last week to learn about severe weather. A small group came each day to research a different type: hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, blizzards, and floods. Students wrote down important facts and then used a microphone to record their information on a Voicethread. Please turn up your volume and listen as the students share their weather knowledge!

Summer Reading Celebration!

Congratulations to all the students who turned in summer reading forms to me during the first few weeks of school. I am SO proud of these students who made reading a priority during their busy summer. Over half of these students even read all 75 days--WOW!

On Wednesday, September 21, the students were invited to the Media Center for a Summer Reading Celebration. Anna Cromwell, from the main branch of the Durham County Library, was the featured story-teller. All students were awarded "I'm a Star Reader!" certificates, "Readers are Leaders" pencils, bookmarks, and a book. Students who read all 75 days were also awarded a gold medal.

Please watch the slideshow below to get a small glimpse of the fun we had together during the celebration :) I created this presentation using Smilebox for Educators.

Free photo slideshow made with Smilebox

Insect Mania!

1st graders have been busy studying insects! I have really enjoyed working with Mrs. Goff, Ms. Roger, and Ms. Foote's classes on special projects related to insects in the Media Center. Please enjoy our work below and make sure your sound is turned on!

Insect Poetry from Mrs. Goff's class:

The students created their artwork and poems in class and then each student worked with me to record their poetry. We used Microsoft's Photostory to make the presentation. We have such talented artists and poets at Club Boulevard!

Insect Slideshow with Ms. Foote's class:

The students in this group learned how organize their information before creating the slideshow on Animoto. We discovered that planning a slideshow on the computer is a lot of work but we had fun learning together!



Insect Research with Ms. Roger's class:

Every day this week a small group from Ms. Roger's class came to the Media Center to learn about a different insect. We discovered that all the insect books can be found on the same shelf! We read the books together, looked at pictures on the computer, and had to find out what our insect eats, where it lives, and our favorite facts. We really enjoyed learning about stink bugs, fireflies, goliath beetles, ants, and dragonflies.

Decomposers, Producers, and Consumers = 5th grade Science!

Mr. Nix's class learned how to use a helpful online resource last Friday during their ecosystems research ... Destiny's Webpath Express. Destiny is our school's online media catalog. To access Destiny, visit http://destiny.dpsnc.net/ and click on Club Boulevard Elementary from the list. Webpath Express is the 3rd choice on the left. Webpath Express is a search engine (similar to Google) but it is kid-friendly. The results are safe, trust-worthy, and appropriate for our students. It is my first stop when conducting online research with our kids. Try it out the next time you need to find a website and let me know what you think!

21st Century Sticky Notes!

I experimented with a new online tool today during Mrs. Bumgardner's orientation--it's called Lino. Lino is a free, web-based sticky note service.The fifth graders worked in pairs on laptops to generate ideas to support how our Manatee Manners should be applied in the Media Center. As the students were typing, their sticky notes popped up instantaneously on the canvas. With the canvas displayed on the Activboard, students were able to see their thoughts in real time and we could discuss them collectively.

When I asked the students for feedback about this new tool, I received these positive comments: "I thought it was cool because we didn't waste a lot of paper writing down our ideas;" "It was fun because we each got to share an idea and everyone's voice was heard;" "I like the sticky notes--they are cool!" Thanks to these students for exploring this innovative collaboration tool--they did a great job and I know they will be prepared to use their manners when working in the Media Center.

Check out part of our canvas below. Click on this link to view the canvas in its entirety:
http://linoit.com/users/ehusketh/canvases/Media%20Manatee%20Manners%20

First Day of School!

It was so much fun to stand in the entry way and welcome students and parents back to a new school year! Several students were eager to give me their summer reading forms and stopped to dig them out of their backpacks before even going to class! :) It warms my heart to know that the kids are proud of what they've accomplished over the summer and that READING was a priority for them. I know these students are coming back to school prepared for a new year of learning and growing. I will be collecting proof of summer reading until Friday, Sept. 2nd. I am also beginning to plan our Summer Reading Celebration to honor those students who read over the summer. I would love to have a few parents help with the planning and implementation of this celebration--please email me if are interested! Thanks!

Open House--Welcome Back!

Almost 40 families visited the Media Center during Open House tonight! I really enjoyed seeing so many smiling faces and meeting several new Manatee families. It warms my heart to see so many students excited about reading! Thanks to Anita Brake from the Durham County Library who was on hand with library card applications.

The Animoto slideshow below gave families a taste of what is to come in the Media Center this year. I am excited to learn and grow with all of our students!

NCSLMA Conference

I just found out that I have been accepted to present at this year's NC School Library Media Association conference with my good friend and collegue Diana Lisle (AIG facilitator)! The title of our session is "Literacy in the 21st Century" and we will focus on our successes, tips, and tricks related to digital storytelling with our students. We will show authentic student work from Animoto, PhotoStory, Prezi, Voicethread, and any other free resource we use before the October conference. I hope to see some of you at this conference in Winston Salem! Here is an example of a Voicethread I did with a small group of 3rd graders who just completed their unit on Plants. The students took photos throughout their unit of study and were asked to create a Voicethread presentation using the photos and their knowledge to demonstrate what they learned about the life cycle of Wisconsin Fast Plant.



I like Voicethread because it gives students the option of commenting using their voice or text. It is a great tool that allows students to collaborate as a group while giving each student their own voice. Has anyone else out there had success using Voicethread with your students?

Voki en Español!

I've used Voki in the past to send people messages, but I've never embedded it in a site. Today while I was creating a Voki in the image of my dog Ollie, I noticed the language option in "text to speech". This got me thinking about the families at Club. About 30% of our students come from Latino families and a  number of these parents speak minimal English. I used Google Translator to translate my message to Spanish--check out my Spanish speaking Voki in the side bar! Because I'm not fluent I have no idea if it makes perfect sense, but at least it gets the general message across. I want all the families at Club to feel welcome in the Media Center and anything I can do (no matter how small) will hopefully make a difference. Eventually I hope to add a tab at the top of my page that says "en Español." While I may not be able to make all of the content on this blog available in Spanish, I could at least include pertinent information about the Media Center under this tab.

Here is a recent pic of my boston terrier, Ollie. He was the inspiration for my Voki :)

Facebook with Elementary Kids--Yay or Nay?

I tried to post this as a comment underneath my previous "Tweet, Tweet" post, but I had difficulties. It looks like Alison Lesueur at Holt Elementary is asking the same questions about the reality of using Facebook in the elementary schools as I am. Read her post and my comment. What do the rest of you think about using Facebook to promote your classroom, school or Media Center?

Tweet, Tweet!

I never thought I would be joining the twitter world... and while I'm not ready to join for personal reasons, I am ready to test out the twitter waters professionally. I really have no idea how many of the parents at my school use this form of social media but I hope to be pleasantly surprised. Over the past year I've toyed with the idea of creating a facebook page for the Media Center, but I do not want to encourage my students who are not "of age" to join as well. SO, that makes me think twitter might be just the ticket to spread the word to parents about all the great things going on in the Media Center. I think twitter might be a quick and easy way for teachers to keep their parents involved and informed too! Students could even help type the tweets! :) On a side note, I am proud of myself for figuring out how to add the twitter widget to the sidebar. I've tried to shorten the length of the box but every time I make the number smaller, nothing happens... I guess there will be time to figure that out!

Jumping back in!

After a brief (haha) hiatus, I am back to try the blogging thing. You will notice all my previous posts are from at least one year ago... I stopped updating my blog because I didn't feel like anyone was reading! Our school website was not current and families did not visit it (and thus my blog because it was housed on the school site). Now that our school website is taking a new direction, I am inspired by the DPS technology challenge to begin again. Thanks to Jerry W. for exporting my blog content from Wordpress to Blogger. Although not everything transferred smoothly (when you see the word "gallery" there used to be a group of pictures), I am happy not all work was lost.

I will be using this blog as my media center website this year and hope to attract many parent and student followers. I love digital storytelling and want to share the wonderful creations by my students, as well as keep parents up to date on the latest media center happenings. I am happy to see several Club teachers are also taking on this challenge and I look forward to collaborating with them! Now that my first challenge is complete, it is on to challenge number 2!