We're starting the year in style, game show style! This year all library orientations will be a game show format. Our first graders will play Library Lingo to review vocabulary taught last year. Second grade will try to "Beat the Teacher" and test their library skills and knowledge against me whereas third and fourth grade will play Double Dare Library Edition. Things might get a little messy (and loud) with this game but I cannot wait to see how much they know! Six grade will play the classic game of Jeopardy. After reading the book "Too Tall Houses" by Marino, students were challenged to design and create their own tall house using no more than 10 index cards. At first students didn't think this was possible without some sort of adhesive but after one great idea after the next, and a lot of trial and error, Congress Park's record is 59 cm! Now the question is can we go even higher? Global Day of Design is a day focused on creating, making, and building. This year I had the privilege to work with two first grade classes. Since they focused on fairy tales earlier this year, we set up a design extension challenge to the traditional tale of the Three Little Pigs. Their task was to build a new house for the pigs that could withstand the breath of the wolf (AKA Big Bad Blowdryer). Students were given the budget of $10 design dollars to build their house. If successful, they moved on to the next level which added another layer of difficulty. After the event, students reflected on their product, collaboration, and process. Inspired by the book, "A Book is Just Like You" written by Fox, Kindergarten students learned about the many different parts of a book, how they are like us, and most importantly, how they help readers. We've been working hard doing various activities to learn these parts and showcased our knowledge with a final book surgery and green screen filming. Miss Sullivan's first grade students walked the carpet on February 16th for their premiere party before publicly showing of their student created films. Students wrote, directed, filmed and starred in their own collaborative pizza box green screen movies. After the viewing and in true Hollywood style, students were individually recognized as they stamped their hands in the “cement.” This event celebrated their work after learning about fairy tales then writing their own creative tale. The audience recognized all of their hard work with huge smiles, laughter, and loud applause. How well do you know these famous African Americans who helped shape and change our nation? Take the challenge with our interactive hallway display! Our display includes trivia, vocabulary, and quotes from these incredible people.
Could you stay calm and silent while confined in a tiny box if it meant freedom? That's exactly what former slave Henry "Box" Brown did. Students from Mrs. Grundke's class learned about his life with the beautiful picture book called "Henry's Freedom Box."
Here's a peek in our next themed Makerspace lunch. I cannot wait to share this topic with the students!
Our pizza box green screen filming is BACK! Miss Sullivan's class has been hard at work writing their own fairy tales. These incredible tales were published using a pizza box and the user friendly Do Ink app. It was such an incredible experience to push in to help publish these. The students are so proud of their hard work and I think it shows through on every video. It's time to get out the red carpet for these authors, illustrators, and puppeteers!
Someone recently asked me why I haven't been updating my blog that much this year. To be honest, I just haven't made the time so this post contains a little bit of everything that we've been doing in our library. Hope you enjoy! |
February 2024
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