Book Character Pumpkins

 

 

Mrs. Ellis with her paper-mache pumpkin pigeon

About 35 families created a book character pumpkin for our first Literary Pumpkin Patch. It was wonderful to see so many creative characters! We even had a few teachers and 1 whole class (Ms. Linville's) participate. Please watch the slideshow below to see pictures of all the pumpkins in our patch!

Families were encouraged to fill out a description of their character to hang beside the pumpkin.

Planet Research with K/1!

Mrs. Overby's K/1 class visited the Media Center in small groups last week to research a planet. This research supported the learning in the classroom for their space unit. First we talked about what research is and why the Media Center is a good place to go if you want to learn something new. This is Step 1 (Planning) of our research process--thinking of the resources we could use to find out information.

Then students used PebbleGo to listen and read information about their planet. This is Step 2 of our research process--writing down what we learn. (Parents--if you would like to access PebbleGo at home with your child, please contact your child's teacher or Mrs. Husketh for the username and password. The kids love it and it's educational and fun at the same time!)

Mrs. Overby developed a template for the students to take notes and draw an illustration of their planet.


Here we are--working hard on our research!

We are proud of our work!

Our finished work is on display outside of Mrs. Overby's classroom!

Hispanic Heritage Projects

Many classes collaborated with Mrs. Husketh on projects for Hispanic Heritage Night. Here is brief recap of all the learning!

Mrs. Murphy's 4th graders analyzed the artwork in Mexican author/illustrator Yuyi Morales' books. They kicked off their author study by visiting the Media Center to learn about Yuyi Morales and her artwork. You can read more about their visit here: http://clubmediacenter.blogspot.com/2013/10/yuyi-morales.html 

Mrs. Baynham's 3rd graders read Latin American trickster tales. Each group was assigned a trickster tale and a specific job: mapmaker, write, illustrator, or headliner. Groups also worked to write a summary that included a main idea and at least 3 details.

The students used oil pastels and/or pastels to create the illustrations. You can see a display of their fabulous work outside of Mrs. Baynham's classroom!

Mrs. Hayes' 4th graders used the Biography database on PebbleGo to research a notable Hispanic-American. Partners worked together to take notes in their own words and then use their information to create a Trading Card using Microsoft Word. Students had a checklist to make sure their information was complete before printing their final product. Here is what some students enjoyed most about the project: "Learning new information about our person; Using the computer to type; Doing the research; Finding the picture; Using PebbleGo."

Mrs. Murray's 2nd graders worked together to create a class book on Guatemala and Costa Rica. First we worked in groups to research the country using books and the globe. Each group was assigned a topic: Food, Holidays, Map, and Flag. The students included several NF text features in their writing (title, caption, diagram, label, etc.). We used a checklist to make sure our work was complete before writing our final draft!

I don't have photos of the last project, but each 4th grader in Mrs. Irving's class researched a Latin American country and then used Microsoft Word to create a place mat for our dinner celebration. The place mat included information about the country's people, activities, flag, and lifestyle. Students also included drawings to support the information. 

I am already looking forward to next year's Hispanic Heritage learning! Buen trabajo!

Sea Creature Riddles

Students in Mrs. Roach's first grade class researched a sea creature of their choice used Frank Serafini's book as a model to write riddles about the creature.

We used PebbleGo to find information about our sea creature: what they eat, what they can do, where they live, what they have, and other cool facts. 

After our research was complete, we used our notes to write sentences about the sea creature. I was impressed with how much information the students were able to find. They were very curious and focused!

Next it was time to create our riddles!

We practiced reading our riddles and information fluently to each other. We listened to make sure our writing made sense and the information flowed. 

Writing the riddles was our favorite part! We hope you can read them soon.

Community Brochures by Second Graders

The following is a guest post from our library intern, Tisha Woo. Tisha is a graduate student in the library science program at UNC Chapel Hill. She has greatly enjoyed learning the ropes from Mrs. Husketh and spending time with books and students at Club!

 

The second graders in Mrs. Derby's class have been studying communities this month. After learning about the different kinds of communities there are, the students were asked to design one of their own based on the things they had learned and create a brochure with important and relevant information about their communities.

Before getting started on the brochures, we discussed what they had learned and  what someone might want to need to know if they wanted to visit or learn about their communities. It was a great opportunity to talk about what it means to write for a specific audience.

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Introducing the students to Printing Press

The students had never used the media center computers for project work before, so we needed to find a program that was simple and user-friendly. Thankfully, ReadWriteThink has plenty of great resources for educators, including their Student Interactives - online programs for creating and publishing their written work. I was able to create a template in ReadWriteThink's Printing Press program for the students. I also came up with a planning sheet on which they could design their communities.
 

The students then spent four days in the media center learning how to log in to the computers, access Printing Press on the Internet, and interact with the program. At the same time, they were working in pairs and learning how to share the work, make decisions together, and help each other out. They were impressively quick at getting comfortable with all this, and it was fun to see their communities taking shape, word by word, on the screens!

Before they printed out their brochures, we discussed what it means to edit our work. Why do we need to review what we've typed out? What are some important things we should be look for as we do so? The students were given a checklist to help them through this process.

 

Later, the students added drawings of people and places in their communities and a map to the brochure. Their finished products proudly hang in the second-grade hallway!  

Yuyi Morales

 

Our Author of the Month for October is Yuyi Morales. Yuyi (pronounced Juji) was born and raised in Mexico. She immigrated to the United States at the age of 24, not knowing a single word of English. Today she is known for her beautiful stories and illustrations - in both English and Spanish – that celebrate Hispanic culture and heritage.

As part of their Hispanic Heritage Month studies, Mrs. Murphy's class will analyze Yuyi Morales' artwork. They visited the media center last week for an introduction. The visit began with the students making 1 minute observations about her picture books. I was impressed with what they noticed about the illustrations: bright colors are used to convey emotion; many books show mothers and children; she uses paint and collage in her artwork; there are words in English and Spanish; many books have skeletons.

 We watched a video clip of Yuyi discussing how folktales and fables from her culture influence her work. Sharing stories was an important part of her childhood and it influences the way she writes/illustrates today.

Next I gave students 1 of Yuyi's books to analyze the artwork. For this first exercise, students were not supposed to read the story (this will come later!)--we wanted them to focus solely on the illustrations. Students worked collaboratively with their partner or group to answer questions such as:

What do you notice about the colors in the book?
What artistic medium do you think Yuyi used to create the illustrations?
Do you notice any items that come from the Mexican culture?
Without actually reading the story, please summarize it based on the artwork.

We ended by sharing some of our observations (we noticed many similarities among the books) and we watched a clip of Yuyi Morales making the illustrations for My Abuelita by Tony Johnston. We learned that it took her 3 years to complete the artwork! With photographs taken over a period of three years, and ranging from the construction of armatures, sculpting, felting, sewing, staging, photography, painting, and digital work, here is a look at the making of illustrations of My Abuelita:

 

Making My Abuelita from Yuyi Morales on Vimeo.