Literary Pumpkin Patch

We received so many creative pumpkins this year for our Literary Pumpkin Patch! Great job to all families who participated.

This is the 2nd year we've done this project and I continue to be amazed by all the creative ways the students turn their pumpkin into a book character. I hope we have even more characters next year!

Below is a video of most of the students with their creations. They are so proud! :)


 This video has close up pictures of the awesome pumpkins. One teacher even used paper-mache on top of her pumpkin!

I asked each family to pick 3 character traits to describe their character. Below is one example:

Minerals Project: The Case of the Missing Key

Fourth graders in Ms. Whaley's class completed a complex integrated research project on minerals last month. This project is a perfect example of how a flexible schedule in the Media Center allows me to best serve the needs of our learners.

Ms. Whaley and I introduced the project by having the kids read Chapter 1 of The Case of the Missing Key (written by Ms. Whaley). In this chapter, the kids were told that the identification key for the minerals had gone missing and they had to do some detective work to find out all the properties of the minerals. Each time we progressed further in our project, Ms. Whaley presented another chapter in the story.

On day 1 each group selected a mineral out of the bag. This would be the mineral they would become experts on over the next few weeks. 

Students used books and websites to research their mineral. They learned the index was very helpful in finding pages with relevant information quickly.

They look detailed notes as part of the research.

They put their detective skills to the test to help identify each mineral sample. 

After all the research was complete, I introduced a great multimedia tool that the students would use to share their mineral information. It's called Board Builders and is found on the Discovery Education. Each student has their own log-in for Discovery Education. 

The students organized their notes and planned their presentation board before logging into Discovery Education. 

Below are a few pictures from their presentations. Each group was responsible for presenting their board to the rest of the class. Some of us were nervous but we know we'll improve and have even more confidence next time!

I asked the students to reflect on 3 questions after our project was complete:

• What did you enjoy about this project?
• What did you find challenging?
• Think about how well you worked with your partner. What would they say about you as a partner and worker?

Everyone had something they enjoyed about the project (and many asked when we could do something similar again!). Here are a few of the things we found challenging:

• Creating the board
• Finding specific information about a mineral on a website
• Putting pictures on the board
• Making the presentation
• Making sense of our research notes
• Speaking in front of the class

I look forward to working with Ms. Whaley's class again on an integrated project!

Hispanic Heritage Book Contest

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, I hosted a drawing to win a free book about Hispanic Culture. To enter the drawing, students had to check out a book from the Hispanic Heritage Month display in the Media Center. Next, they completed an information sheet about the book and returned it to me. Students could enter as many times as they wanted before the deadline--one student entered five times!



Below are the proud winners! Happy reading, manatees!

Guest Post - Ms. Johnston's Dewey Decimators!

I'm Ms. Johnston and I have been interning with Club Boulevard to learn how to be a media specialist like Mrs. Husketh this fall! Earlier this quarter, I worked on an extended project with Ms. Wall’s fourth graders to help organize their classroom library. In order to organize the books in their classroom, we first had to learn how books are organized in our media center!

We learned that the library is organized by using the Dewey Decimal System, which groups books into categories based on subjects. Teams of two students were given a section of the media center to explore more in-depth to learn what was in that part of the Dewey Decimal System.

Groups of 4-5 pairs came to the media center for a 45 minute period to gather their research on their section. They counted and recorded the number of books in each category – it was a lot of hard work! 

After we finished counting the books in our section it was time to create word clouds! Word clouds are a graphical representation of the frequency of words. The more often a word (or in our case a category) appears, the larger it will be in our word cloud. For this activity we used ABCya! I really like this website - it has a variety of online games that incorporate learning (without seeming like learning).

Our word clouds were filled with the categories of books in each section -- the more books in a category, the larger the word! Students can use the word clouds to easily see what types of books are in each section of the library, and estimate how many will be there!

Students were able to manipulate their word clouds until they were happy with the way they looked. We printed their word clouds and they took them back to class to continue with their projects. I'm excited to see how they turn out! 

Check out a few of our word clouds below and create your own at ABCya!

Sea Horses Can Change Color--and more!

Did you know that sea horses can change colors to blend in with their surroundings? And puffer fish puff up like a spiny balloon to warn predators? Ms. Noble's first graders were super writers this week in the Media Center. Each student researched an ocean animal and constructed a paragraph of their information. We used PebbleGo to find our information. This is a great non-fiction website for students that Club Blvd. subscribes to--please contact me if you would like the username/password for access at home.

Students found 3 interesting facts as well as information for a topic and closing sentence. We wrote a rough draft of our facts and then turned it into a final paragraph--it was a lot of work! 

We also explored information from our collection of ocean books---you should check one out! 

The students were eager to share their information so I used the Educreations app to record each one reading their paragraph. I love this app because it allows students to practice fluency while honoring their creative voice. 

We loved listening to ourselves on the big screen! 

Turn up your volume to enjoy our presentation!

Peru with Culture Grams

2nd graders in Mr. Wallace's class used Culture Grams this week to learn more about Peruvian culture. We used our Durham County Library card to access the Culture Grams database on the DCL website. Culture Grams is a database containing reliable, up to date information on more than 200 countries. We are lucky that our local library provides this excellent resource for its patrons!

Students chose what topic to research and found out information on food, holidays, sports, the economy, language, animals, landforms, and much more! Color photographs helped students understand and comprehend the new information.

At the end of research time, students gave me a thumbs up to show they learned something new about Peru-- we had a lot of thumbs in the air! I can't wait to see how the students decide to share their information with families for Hispanic Heritage Night!

1st grade Entomologists--Part 2

1st graders from Ms. Noble's class had fun researching, writing, analyzing, and creating this week in the Media Center. Each student randomly drew an insect to research and took notes about the insect's habitat, life cycle, physical appearance, diet and abilities.

On days 1 and 2, we used the iPads to access PebbleGo, an engaging non-fiction database for young learners.

I love this database for many reasons: the students are able to navigate it independently; students have the option to hear the information read out loud; and key vocabulary words are defined for clearer understanding. Not to mention the kids love it! (please contact me if you would like the username and password for access at home)

I stressed to the students that good researchers ask questions. Some of the students had questions that could not be answered by PebbleGo so we turned to Twitter to contact the scientists at The Entomological Society of America. 

After gathering their data, I paired students and challenged them to use a Venn diagram to compare/contrast their insects. 

The students were very proud of their diagrams!

Grasshoppers and Cicadas

Dragonflies and Moths

Flies and Painted Lady Butterflies

I took a picture of each diagram and imported it into the Educreations app. The students had to decide what information they wanted to share and I recorded their voices. Even though we practiced a bunch, a few of us got nervous and mixed up our words. In the interest of time, we did not re-record but just corrected ourselves in the next clip. We tried to use a 'loud and proud' voice, but it's still hard to hear some of us. Make sure to turn up your volume :) We hope you enjoy our presentation and learn something new from our hard work!