First Grade Information Gatherers...

First Grade Information Gatherers are a beautiful thing to experience. They listen and read. They take notes. They create diagrams and label them. They are amazing. Look and see.

Exploring new ways to teach location and access

As a way to get the fifth graders into the different neighborhoods of the library while reviewing the ins and outs of our Destiny catalogue, I created a project that I hope will benefit, not just them, but all the students at Mason-Rice. 

I am reviewing the projects to ensure the groups have met all the criteria. I think these two students did a fine job. One place that I might have them think about is their choice of theme. What do you think?

I'll put up the rest of the projects and the work behind the scenes this weekend.

Behavior Expectations as explained by fifth graders

The students were tasked with creating Google presentations that would communicate our school community expected behaviors. 

You can read about the first part of the project on this post: Fifth Graders Take Charge. The projects are coming to completion and they look incredible. I know I am biased, but I am really pleased with how the students approached this project and impressed with how effectively they communicated their messages. 

There is a specific element in each of these projects that I think the student group did very well -- font, theme, design, layout, word choice, etc. Is there one that you think is particularly effective? Let us know!

Here are just a few of their projects:

Sharing passion-driven exploration

Thursday's news of the landing of Philae on a comet lead me to revamp my lesson for my fourth graders on Friday.  I mean, really, how often is it that scientists can land a device on a "dirty snowball" 317 million miles away? 

After greeting the students I began telling them about my grandfather and how he would take the grandchildren outside after dinner and talk about the stars, the galaxies, and the solar system. I shared that I always thought of him when I looked up at the night sky and how easily I could remember the warmth of his hand as it wrapped around mine when we stood out there star gazing on cooler nights.  I explained that my grandfather was a mathematician and chemical engineer who studied the creation of the Universe. (I wrote a bit about my grandfather in the post about The Fourteenth Goldfish.)

I went on to say that I thought of my grandfather on Thursday and imagined that he would be as excited to hear of the successful landing of Philae on the comet. I recounted a few of the facts: the comet is 317 million miles away; the comet is only a few miles across; and the comet is moving at an incredible speed. As I was going on to explain that the scientists had waited ten years to see if their mission was a success, a number of hands shot up. It turns out that quite a few of my fourth graders (in each class) are space buffs as well. The students took over the details and we were off on our learning adventure!

What if you wanted to learn more about comets? What resources can you access through the library Webpage?  

This lesson was the perfect opportunity to emphasize that our library resources are available where ever they have a device and an Internet connection.  Why wait until school the next day?  The library Webpage is a just-in-time resource.

I launched Chrome, talked about our browser bookmarks, and opened the Library Webpage.

We began with Destiny, our library catalogue. I typed "comets" into the search box on the home page and explored the results with the students. We talked about search results, call numbers, neighborhoods. We expanded our search after exploring the subject headings under a few titles and finally decided on these five titles for their currency and subject matter.

Back to our library Webpage we went and I modeled how to get to the electronic resources. 

We started with the Encyclopedia Britannica. We searched for articles on Comets and read the first article after perusing the search results. We explored the accompanying images and videos. We went back to the search results and read this article about Maria Mitchell.

I couldn't help but bookmark a few articles from the NYT and NPR. The students were equally jazzed about the images and videos.

Given that it is Picture Book Month, I gave special note to the nonfiction picture books, biographies, and story picture books that related to our search and finished up the lesson by reading this great picture book:

At which point thirty minutes had passed. Luckily I had alerted the classroom teachers and had asked for an additional ten minutes for browsing and borrowing.  I am eager to see if this lesson inspired the students to follow their own interests and engage in passion-driven exploration with the library resources.

Reading nonfiction books is good for their brains...and mine

My second graders have taken on a nonfiction picture book month challenge.

I asked them to share a fact or interesting piece of information that they had learned from their first week of reading. 

Really? Penguins drink water from the sea and spit the salt back out? That is so cool.

Answering those wondering questions...

To answer our wondering questions after reading Denise Fleming's Time to Sleep, the kindergarten students and I will be exploring these resources from our wonder wall (information neighborhood, nonfiction books) and from our databases.

We will begin with:

Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner

What is Hibernation? by John Crossingham

Hibernation by Carolyn Scarce

Under the snow by Melissa Stewart

We will listen to this article and others in the PebbleGo Encyclopedia...

And explore additional titles about specific animals, such as...

 Animals Prepare for Winter by Elaine Pascoe

Woodchucks by Amy-Jane Beer

Of course, we could continue on with some wonderful picture story books about bears, such as:

Or books about winter and snow... 

Who knows? We're on a journey and we will see where it takes us!

Denise Fleming gets my students wondering about winter

My kindergarten students and I are reading Denise Fleming's books. We are exploring her work as both an author and illustrator. 

Before we read Time to Sleep, the students shared how they know, using their five senses, that winter is coming.  Here is what they said:

It is getting colder.

The leaves are falling.

There is frost on the ground.

There is snow falling.

It is windy.

It is cloudier.

It smells crisp.

There are trees with no leaves.

The days are getting shorter.

My shadow is getting longer.

I asked the students to do two things while we read the book:

Thing One: Listen for how the animals knew winter was coming.

Thing Two: If the book made them think or wonder about something, to please share it.

As each animal mentioned how it knew winter was coming, we made connections with the text and referred back to our list. 

I collected their wondering questions as we read.

What is a den?

How does a bear get into its den when it is so big?

How do snails seal their shells?

What are grubs?

Where does the turtle dig down deep?

How does the turtle dig down deep?

Why doesn't a turtle just sleep in its shell?

Do turtles breathe when they burrow down?

Do woodchucks eat wood?

Do the turtle and woodchuck dig down in the same place?

How does a ladybug not get squished when it slips under a log?

What other animals sleep in the winter?

Do the animals breathe while hibernating?

Do squirrels and chipmunks sleep in winter?

What do fish do in winter?

What do penguins do in winter?

I love this introduction to inquiry and how easily and naturally it occurs for kindergarten students. I fear that we strip this inclination as they get older by assigning research topics and rarely giving them opportunities for passion-driven research. These are fish to fry on another day, for right now, we've got some questions to answer! Stay tuned...