Kindergarten Forest Animal Research

Recently Mr. Childress' kindergarteners visited the Media Center to learn about forest animals in conjuction with their camping unit. Although the students come weekly for storytime and check out, this was their first time to do research in small groups. We talked about what the word "research" means and why the Media Center is a great place to go if you want to learn more information about a topic. After looking around the Media Center, the students decided that books, magazines, and the computers were all things we could use to find information.

For this project, the students used PebbleGo, a wonderful website with four non-fiction databases. Our school subscribes to this site and students may also access it from home (parents--please email Mrs. Husketh or Mr. Childress for the username and password). We used the pictures in the animal database to help us find the article about each group's animal. Each student had a book to write down information and draw pictures about their animal's body, habitat, and diet. After learning about their animal in the Media Center, the students shared what they learned with their classmates.

Check out some of our learning in action!

Hispanic Heritage Month

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Mrs. Lehotsky (our media intern) created a beautiful display of books related to the culture in the Media Center.

To encourage students to read these fiction and non-fiction books, we created a drawing. For each book read, the student completed a learning sheet and turned it in to Mrs. Husketh. Around 40 students participated in this contest and Mrs. Husketh drew 6 names from the jar today as winners.



These 6 lucky students selected a book related to Hispanic culture to read and keep.  Congratulations!

Latin American Folk Tales

Mrs. Baynham's 3rd graders visited the Media Center last week to kick off their Hispanic Heritage project. For their project, small groups selected a Latin American folktale or trickster tale and created a display that included: an illustration of an important scene from the tale; a written summary; a map showing the country or culture of the tale; and the title and author.

Mrs. Husketh shared one of her favorite trickster tales from Panama: Conejito, retold by Margaret Read McDonald.

First we found where Panama was located on the world map:

Then we enjoyed hearing the story out loud:

Next we summarized the book with a partner and chose 1 important scene that we might illustrate:

After discussing Conejito as an example, groups looked over their directions and rubric for the project.

Students completed their projects in class and created a display of Latin American folktales to share at Hispanic Heritage Night!

K/1 Music Fun!

Mrs. Childress' K/1 class visited the Media Center this week as part of their Hispanic Heritage studies. Mrs. Husketh showed them a map of the world so we could see how many countries speak Spanish as a native language. First we found the continent that we live on and then we noticed how many Spanish-speaking countries are close to us.

Mrs. Lehotzsky (our media intern) introduced an instrument called the guiro (pronounced we-ro) that is played in many Latin American countries. We also learned that this instrument is sometimes called the "fish instrument" because it looks like a fish!

The friends in K/1 learned how to hold this instrument and how to use the stick to make sounds. A few students demonstrated how to make music with the guiro.

Mrs. Childress' class will be making guiros to share at Hispanic Heritage Night next week. We can't wait to hear their Latin American rhythms!

Landforms

Mrs. Baynham's third graders just finished a unit on landforms. They visited the Media Center several times during this unit to learn and share information. At the beginning of their studies, the students visited the Media Center to learn about PebbleGo--a wonderful non-fiction online database. Each partnership used PebbleGo to learn more about 1 specific landform. Students worked hard on writing down the information in their own words and also using diagrams to help explain the meaning of words.

At the end of their unit, the class came back to the Media Center to learn about a technology tool to help them share information about landforms. In class the students created a collage out of cut paper to give a visual demonstration of their landform. They also created a script of information to share their knowledge. Students had 3 things to remember when reading out loud: know the words, sound smooth, and read with expression! They practiced these fluency tips many times before moving on to the next step.





Mrs. Husketh scanned the landform collages and then we used Photostory to record each pair's information about their landform. Students loved recording their voices and decided it was funny and strange to hear their themselves through the speakers. Please watch the movie below to hear and see a glimpse of what Mrs. Baynham's class learned during their landform unit!

Storytelling with UNC

Mrs. Lehotsky (my wonderful intern) and some of her classmates from the School of Library Science at UNC-CH visited Club a few weeks ago. They are taking a storytelling class and offered to share their folk tales with us. Ms. Lopez's 2nd graders were the lucky audience members!

We learned what makes a story a folktale and also reviewed where we can check out this traditional literature in the Media Center. We have many interesting folktales to explore this year!

Myths/Legends with 4th Grade!

Students in Mrs. Irving's class have been working hard to create digital stories in the Media Center. The students first compled their pre-writing, editing, and revising in the classroom. Mrs Irving noted they worked especially hard on peer-editing. Mrs. Husketh showed the class 3 examples of digital storytelling programs: Zooburst, Photostory, and Mixbook. The students then selected which type of story they wanted to create and made a plan to move forward. Digital storytelling is a great way to integrate the NC Information and Technology essential standards with ELA. We applied two objectives for this project: 4.TT.1.2 and 4.TT.1.3.

Students are still in the process of creating their stories--we learned that it takes a lot of hard work, planning, and critical thinking to complete a digital story. We'll post a few examples of each type of digital story when the class finishes!

Epiphany works on typing first



Hannah adds pop-up characters to her Zooburst story



Typing is the first step for Zooburst and Mixbook

Aileen edits her page in Mixbook

Illustrating our stories for Photostory

Jon and Fedora practice orally in preparation for recording their voices in Photostory

Storyboarding and illustrating our stories