Thanks Coach Sloth

Last month (I'm a little behind!) we welcomed author Coach Ryan Sloth. Coach Sloth has written several books about his character Sammy Sloth. I was able to share these books with students before he came in, and they thought they were awesome!

We also did some research about sloths using Britannica Online and posted them out in the hallway for Ryan to see when he came in. Our 1st-3rd graders listened to or read the article on sloths, and picked out their favorite facts to write down. The fourth graders used Keynote on their iPads to insert a picture and some facts.

We were able to amaze Coach Sloth with all we knew about sloths.

The kids really enjoyed hearing about Coach Sloth's history with football, movies and how he decided to become an author. He has inspired a few of our students, who have showed me books that they are writing. He also inspired me! I wrote a book about a year ago, and hadn't done anything with it, but recently I've started sending it out to publishers and literary agents. We are all thankful to Ryan for joining us, and inspiring us!

Hour of Code

This past week, we joined in with millions of other students around the world and participated in the Hour of Code. Granted, we didn't complete the full hour because of scheduling, but the kids enjoyed it all the same. It was quite possibly the quietest I've ever seen some of them, and then there were others shouting suggestions across the room. I absolutely loved it, and I think that the students did too.

We are lucky because we have opportunities for elementary, middle, and high school students to participate in robotics through FIRST which includes programming. The elementary and middle school students use a drag-and-drop programming software, and the high school students use more of a linear code with RobotC, and some drag/drop with LabView. I am also hoping to start up a programming club using iPad apps after school in the Spring.

These three 5th graders finished the first 20 lessons in under 30 minutes. They are rockstars. Two of them are programmers for our Lego League team, and we're going to recruit the third one!

The code.org games were by far the favorite, since they featured angry birds and plants vs. zombies. Some of the students played with Tynker, as well.

Overall, this was a super fun experience, and I'm hoping we make this an annual thing!

We Are Thankful For....

At the end of November we spent some time during library talking about things we are thankful for. We put a big turkey on the wall, and students cut out their handprint and wrote some things they are thankful for on it.

Our turkey looked a bit like a peanut before he got his feathers, but he turned out cute!

This was another one of my favorites: thankful for his bff's.

I enjoyed this one!

I appreciate that Keara wrote that she was thankful that her family's money. 

This 3rd graders was thankful for myself and Mrs. Smith, the library associate, and for one of his friends. He earned some good brownie points here!

Books!! Success!!