Global Read Aloud

I am so excited about the upcoming Global Read Aloud project. We have participated in the GRA the past two years, but this year there are more students worldwide, and more students in our school participating.



During the Global Read Aloud, students all around the world read the same book in their classes. This year, 1st-3rd grade students are reading Marty McGuire by Kate Messner. The 4th-6th graders are reading Out of My Mind  by Sharon Draper. Both are excellent books that I can't wait to get started on!







We have 10 out of 12 of our 1st-6th elementary classrooms participating. They will be reading the books in their classrooms with their classroom teachers and making connections throughout the country and world during their library time. We have connections in Hawaii, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington, Canada, other Iowa towns and several others already!

To make connections, we use Edmodo, Kidblog and Skype. Edmodo is a safe social network, built for students and teachers. All groups are password protected to ensure safety. Kidblog is a place where kids can write blogs that are moderated by the teacher. We will be using Skype for video-conferencing. This week we started out by writing introductory posts about ourselves and our school and our predictions about the books after watching book trailers. I love seeing the kids connect with other kids, and they think its so cool when anyone responds to them!

I am very thankful for our classroom teachers that have volunteered to do the reading part in their classrooms, and we are all excited to get started on the project next week! We have a Skype set up with Canadian 6th graders, and one with kids from Iowa!

Happy Dot Day!

This past week and a half we've been celebrating Dot Day which is based on the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds. We watched the story on BookFlix and then discussed ways that we could make our mark on the world in both big ways and in small ways.

I didn't know this, but the Disney Channel has been running short commercials or PSAs about making your mark. The kids had seen several of them and they gave us a great discussion about how kids can make a difference and make their mark. I found a playlist of them online, and there are some great stories.

After brainstorming as a class, each student filled out one of these "Make Your Mark" papers with something that they could do to make a difference. I told students that it could be something as small as helping your mom or dad set the table for dinner to as big as what they want to be when they grow up.

Our kids had lots of great ideas. Some of them made me tear up. A few kids wrote about going into the Army and fighting for our freedom and a few wrote that they want to be teachers. Several also chose service positions, such as police or firefighters, and some wrote about working in hospitals as doctors and nurses and radiologists. I love that even our youngest kids are thinking about these things and have dreams in mind for when they grow up. I also loved reading the ones that focused more on the present and wrote about being a good friend, or helping brothers and sisters or parents. There was also one that simply said, "I want to do the little things." I had talked to them about how even little things can make a big difference, even if they only make a difference to one person. I told them about how I rescued a kindergartner last week in the commons during the crazy time before school when we have K-12 students in there at the same time, and explained that doing that was an easy, simple thing, but that really helped out this little guy. I truly believe that the "little" things are some of the biggest things in life.

After filling out that paper, kids colored dots. Many of them chose to use the dot coloring page from the ColAR website and a few used plain paper. I bought some new watercolor color pencils that you dip in water to give it the effect of watercolor paints. Those were really fun!

Here's a video of just a few of our dots & ways that we hope to make a mark! The rest of these are on display in the hallway outside the library.

Summer Readers

Yesterday morning, I invited all of the students who had turned in their summer reading forms to come to the library to pick up their prizes.

For summer reading this year, I handed out a Genre BINGO form. Students wrote the titles of books they read into the corresponding boxes and turned the sheet in in the first week of school.

Because of all our early outs and crazy schedules we had to keep pushing back the prize handouts, but we finally got to it Thursday morning. Those of you who know me know how much I love Target, and I especially love their dollar spot. I'd been collecting things from the dollar spot throughout the summer: bags, pencils, erasers, bookmarks, stickers, books, etc. As a prize for turning in a sheet, students got a bag full of those goodies. Students who accomplished a blackout received a gift card to Barnes & Noble, courtesy of PTO.

I took the basic template for our Wildcat's Read teacher posters and turned them into student certificates.

The goodie bags--thanks Target!

I'm very thankful that our PTO has sponsored the summer reading program again!

And here they are! Congrats to these readers!

First QR Codes of the Year

Scanning QR codes is one of my kids' favorite things to do. This year, I decided to use QR codes to link to the AEA resources that we'll be using throughout the year. That way, they have them to use in their classrooms, as well as here in the library.

I created codes for Student News, iClipart, Britannica Online, GALE Infobits, TrueFlix, and NetTrekker. I also created one for the library website. Kids went around to each table and scanned the codes, then added the site as a button on their home screen. When they were finished, they put those bookmarks, plus Destiny Quest and Follett Reader into a folder. We should be set!

Wildcats Read!

Towards the end of last year, I got inspired (from an awesome librarian somewhere out there on the internet whom I don't recall right now...) to create these READ signs for our staff. I made several different templates for them to choose from. I gave the option for boxes with book club, in class, and at home reading, or any combination of the three. Teachers could also have just a big empty space for whatever they wanted. If they wanted one, they let me know, and I put their name into their chosen template, and tried to pick a clipart that went with their subject area or interests. 

Due to a printer issue and end-of-year craziness, I didn't get them handed out until the start of this year. It's been fun seeing them in the hallways and looking at what everyone is reading. I'm hoping that they spark conversations between staff and students about books! 

Here's some that I spotted while walking around this evening: