Best Valentine Book for All Ages!

If I HAD to choose a favorite picture book I will dive in and say it: Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch takes the cake. Run to the shelves and pull this classic for Valentine's Day. It is not shiny or overly heartsy but it is a lovely heart warming story.

Unite for Literacy - Primary Grades Alternative to Overdrive

I AM IN LOOOOVVVVVEEEE with our District's online Library. How can I count the ways? The selection, the ease, the updated titles, I seriously could go on and on.....

This afternoon I hosted 21 Kinders in the Library with the intention of walking them through their first ever Overdrive check out. These Kinders have their own iPads! These Kinders are savvy users of technology! These Kinders are readers - a better fit there never has been.

About 35 minutes before they arrived their teacher mentioned offhand that they all use the generic Kinder login - fghjkl vs a personalized username and password. No problem! The above qualifications mean they will adjust.

About 17 minutes before they came I realized I did not have 21 individual Amazon emails and passwords. No problem, they could all use my generic one for the library.

About 3 minutes after they arrived I realized I was insane. As I crawled around on the rug from kid to kid checking logins and adding 00s their teamwork and enthusiasm impressed me. As I told them I would be in Wednesday morning to split into Centers and load books my tunnel vision overwhelmed me. What was I thinking? As many successful downloads as we have had this month in our small library, these are Kinders!! Savvy and intuitive, yes; 10 years old, no.

OK, this is where www.uniteforliteracy.com enters. NO PASSWORDS!!! NO BOOKS ON HOLD!! ENGAGING PHOTOS!!

This FREE website is filled with over 100 Titles my Kinders can access in one click and be reading instantly. The text is accessible and designed for emerging readers. Just exactly what we need, and a perfect springboard for my adventure in Kinder Overdrive.

Each book can be narrated in a Global choice of language - amazing and just right for our ELA kids and families.

This reminds me of RAZ-Kids minus the subscription fee and testing. Like I said, a one click reading resource.

Love is in the Air (or on the Bulletin Board at least)

I think I have documented my love / hate relationship with Bulletin Boards!! We are in the very center of the school and they are sooooo important to engaging my kids and making the Library a fun place to be. But, oh, do they have to be changed so frequently? There is no faster way to speed up a month than change your Board.

This cutie was relatively easy, I pulled out the Cricut and my favorite Valentine colors. Part of me did not want to use this board because I thought everyone on Pinterest would roll their eyes and think "You can't come up with more original boards?" Ahah! Good thing my K-5 kids are NOT on Pinterest. So up he goes and the very first teacher that walked by lifted dreary late January spirits with giggling.

Another homerun, Pinterest : the magic lives for sure.

THANK YOU, OtterBox

Right before Winter Break, OtterCares, a division of OtterBox visted our school. We were thrilled to have the possibility of a partnership with this local Tech firm (www.otterbox.com). Little did we know that not only was this the beginning of such a partnership but a trip with purpose! OtterCares gifted us that day with 25 iPads for our school AND OtterBox cases for each iPad in our school. Can you say Holiday Miracle? We can not express how grateful we are as a staff to grow our Technology reach.

Thankfully, kids are far better at that so we left it to the professionals. This morning I had the chance to visit OtterCares with my Principal and deliver some Thank Yous right from the mouths of students.

Our 4/5 Classes knocked it out of the park with this Thank You!! This giant 2' x 3' iPad is filled with Gratitude Apps designed by our students. Once you scan the QR code you get a chance to see their Thank You Dance.

I could not help myself and had to laminate these rules our Kinders created for their new iPads. The sincerity behind #3 is real!

1B created this iMovie slideshow highlighting their Thank You Letters. My favorite pictures show the friends sharing letters.

My upside down 3A Thank You was created from www.tagxedo.com after the kids brainstormed how they could thank OtterBox.

Why NOT finish upside down? 1A created this interactive writing and we attached the QR Code to show the read aloud portion.

Worm Wars ACCOMPLISHED 38,919 Minutes READ

Whew!!! I will admit, I was sweating this morning, literally!! Everywhere.

Our reading goal (every kid 20 minutes a day 5 days a week for 2 weeks) was 50,000 minutes. We did not hit the 50K minutes but came in a 38,919 minutes. For our first challenge I WILL TAKE IT.

I have outlined before my extreme frustration when our kids do not read ANYTHING over break. This was worth the prep for me and I would do it again. In a second.

Fortunately, I did not have to eat worms!! So pumped about that, I have the BEST Principal that was 150% behind this from the start. Not many are and the kids were impressed this morning when they saw an adult live up to their word and really be disgusting.

WORM WARS are on their way!!!

 Winter Break is coming. Aside from all the things I look forward to, thinking about this makes me cringe. A school break means most of my students will STOP READING. Not cut back or slow down, but STOP. Through the last few years I have promoted reading logs with almost every incentive imaginable.

Bluntly, if I hear one more time that "I didn't really have a lot of time to read this week...BUT I killed it in Minecraft" I think my head will explode.

This idea woke me up in the middle of the night and it is kind of a last ditch for me. Kids love gross and history shows me (clearly) they don't need or particularly want any more slushies, movie tickets, pizza parties or goodie bags.

 

So here's the deal: over the break, my Principal and I are splitting the school into two teams. If our school hits a reading goals of 5,000 minutes (20 minutes a day x 5 days a week x 250 students) we will have an assembly on the Friday following Break. At this assembly one of us will eat REAL WORMS.

The kids with the most reading minutes will actually up the gross by adding ketchup, relish, hot sauce, etc to our worm plate. 

Do I want to eat worms? NO NO NO. Aside from hoping it is not my team that comes in last, I REALLY want these kids to READ over break. Consistently. Enough to FINISH some books.

We are rolling out the sign on top this week and not telling the kids details. Those will come next week in some fun Rocky style competition. I have ordered large Engineering prints of the above sign for the Lobby and Library. Here is the simple log they will use over Break.

 

My husband is REALLY disgusted by this, he does not even discuss it. I will keep you updated on the progress and hopefully will have some super nasty pictures of my Principal eating worms in January!

 

Hour of Code - More Needed Than I Thought

Our Teachers are bringing the Hour of Code to life next week in the classroom. We have combined time in the MacLab as well. This week in the Library it is my job to do an introduction. I have been really surprised by how much of an introduction it has been. So far, I have learned we need the Hour of Code much more than I thought!!

This is a great video that I have been showing. The second video is from www.csedweek.org and our students will watch this in their classrooms This website has grade level activities for online and hands on, it is a fantastic resource!!