Children's Book Week

This time of year always gets a bit crazy, yet somehow between our state standardized tests, field trips and other schedule changers we managed to celebrate Children's Book Week.

We had two always fun, always informative and always bookish Skype visits with John Schumacher (@mrschureads) of Watch.Connect.Read and his students.  

The students made posters celebrating the books that made them readers.  

The students made bookmarks celebrating reading and the books they love to read.

The students took on Mo Willems' story starter challenge and made these comic strips:

And...of course...we read books!

  

On capturing an amazing conversation about The Lions of Little Rock

When students are left to their own devices, or mine, unexpected gifts often result.

Their own device? Their voices in a free flowing conversation.
My device? My laptop with Voicethread open.

Below is a Voicethread conversation about The Lions of Little Rock, the book by Kristin Levine. Those of you who follow the blog know that we had a Skype visit with Kristin and that I really love her book. 

Check out this conversation about the book.  It is amazing.

Have your students read the book?  If so, please have them join the conversation!

Let me just say a few things about this recording.

These four girls - Carrie, Tove, Ella and Ruby - all took our state standardized test for math this morning.  

Two of them came in to library having a conversation about the book and the other two came over to to join the conversation.  I asked if they would stay after the library period and talk about the book then.  

After library, I uploaded a picture to Voicethread and gave them my laptop.  I eavesdropped a bit (but not much) and as I listened I got a bit teary.  I wish all students could experience an authentic, free flowing conversation around a book like this one.  I am trying to figure out how to make the experience a part of the library program.  Thinking...Thinking...Thinking....

"A hawk eats my chickens"

In the library, I hosted Jim Parks of Wingmaster's, a birds of prey rehabilitation program. Jim comes into our school twice a year, courtesy of the PTO Creative Arts and Sciences Program.  He shares his knowledge of birds of prey with both our 5th and 1st grade students. Here is what my first grade students learned today.
 
They used Kid Pix 3D, pen and paper and Voicethread to share their new knowledge!

Normally I use the time that Jim is in the library to catch up on tech trouble shooting or spend some time collaborating with another teacher, but not today.  Today and I stayed, and today I learned.  I learned a lot. I am so excited to go home and share with my family what I know about peregrine falcons (whose name means wanderer).  They are the fastest animal on the earth and they travel up to 15,000 miles a year.  Holy cow, that is twice as many miles as I put on my car a year! Yikes! 

We'll be continuing our research on birds and animal adaptations next week. Stay tuned!