ReedALOUD: Book Scavenger

It's a book! It's a game! 

It's Book Scavenger 

by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman!

"Twelve-year-old Emily is on the move again. Her family is relocating to San Francisco, home of her literary idol: Garrison Griswold, creator of the online sensation Book Scavenger, a game where books are hidden all over the country and clues to find them are revealed through puzzles. But Emily soon learns that Griswold has been attacked and is in a coma, and no one knows anything about the epic new game he had been poised to launch. Then Emily and her new friend James discover an odd book, which they come to believe is from Griswold and leads to a valuable prize. But there are others on the hunt for this book, and Emily and James must race to solve the puzzles Griswold left behind before Griswold’s attackers make them their next target." ~ about Book Scavenger

Readers and finding and hiding copies of Book Scavenger. I found my copy of Book Scavenger outside my local library after following a picture clue I spied on Twitter.

This happened to be a day I drove to work, so I got in my car and drove to the library. I apologize for the cliché, but I drove a bit like my life depended upon it. I banged a uey in front of the library and parked in the 15 minute spot. I was worried. I might be too late. I knew there were others searching. I two-stepped to the sculpture and exhaled upon seeing the book. I took a picture and tweeted it back out. As I snatched the book off the sculpture, I turned to see a young girl watching me. I was tempted to hand her the book, but selfishness prevailed. I needed to read it first.

I brought the book on a mini break this weekend. We were heading to the lake to put the docks in and open the house. I hated to leave the book on the wall while I worked. 

There it sat, beckoning me. 

Three hours later, we had completed our chores. It was time to settle into the chairs that I brought from the second story of the garage and reward myself for my hard work. I didn't move for the next two hours. The sun dipped lower and as it neared the hilltops, I closed the book.

I pulled myself out of Emily's world and fell back into conversation with the family, knowing that this morning would bring time to read. 

I finished Book Scavenger about an hour ago and am experiencing that happy/sad aspect of finishing a book that has pulled you into it's world. That said, I am excited to re-release it into the wild for someone else to find and read.

I love this book and am excited to create book scavenger activities for my students. Jennifer Chambliss Bertman has created characters to believe in and root for. The ciphers in the story will inspire readers to learn about and create their own. I plan to buy a few more code and cipher books for my school library. I am even hoping to send some books into the wild for my students to find a read this summer.   

 

There are fifty books in fifty states, so head to the Book Scavenger website to find the current location of the book in your state. 

You can release more books in your state. The book published on June 2nd, so why not go buy your own copy, read it, and hide it? 

Look at the fun others are having:

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Go buy, or better yet, find, your copy today!

Sees the world through a lens: Six Word Memoirs

Explaining six word memoirs to elementary students can be a bit challenging because many of the examples and teaching materials that have been prepared are geared to an older audience. I have found it best to create my own and find a few examples on the web. Smith Magazine is the home of six word memoirs. They highlight classroom projects, produce books, and provide background information. There are also Pinterest Boards.

I wrote these:

Seize the world through a lens*

Day by day my life emerges

It's not over, turn the page.

They wrote these:

Approaches learning like it's an adventure

My place is with the animals

The future holds my past and present

Words are precious, use them wisely

Life is made up of pages

I love in search of memories

Climbs to peaks to find adventure

Cake is good, cupcakes are better

You compose your own best seller

Devour a book, not literally

Find your passion, and follow it

I get hooked on books easily

Your mind wanders to the impossible

You keep hiding form the truth

Every single location, a new destination

Every book you read, you exceed

Imagination is more powerful than knowledge

Sports is all I see daily

Life is seen through different perspectives

September starts slow, much to come

A beat that never stops beating

I see world from pitcher's mound

Horseback riding begins with falling off

My world revolves around home plate

My life's on a music stand

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Prior to writing their own, I showed my students these examples:

 Six Word Memoirs created by last year's 5th graders. 

I pulled these from Smith Magazine's Twitter contest calling for six word memoirs.  

I pulled this from The International Literacy Association site and a video produced by a teacher.

The students will be using one of four technology tools (Animoto, Storybird, PicLits, and Read Write Think) to share their memoirs. I will be posting the final projects next week!

*I had originally written "sees the world through a lens," but a students suggested that I change it to "seize the world through a lens." I like it so much better! Two heads are better than one (That's my six word memoir for that experience!)

Star Wars Yoga? Yes!

I know, I thought it was too good to be true as well, but it is!  Thanks to Cosmic Kids, my second graders and I engaged in some serious and fun yoga this afternoon. It's June. It's been rainy. It's been cold. There are fourteen days left of school, which bring the full range of emotions. We needed yoga.

Check out our experience:

Try it on your own:

Link to video

Which US geographic region would you like to visit?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Map_of_USA_showing_state_names.png

Background: The fourth graders spend the year learning about the geographic regions of the United States. Embedded into the units are lessons on conducting research, using databases, taking notes, citing sources, and conveying knowledge. For each unit the students share what they have learned. 

This year, we are finally trying an idea that I have been wanting to try for some time. As a culminating project, the students will create a sales pitch demonstrating reasons to visit a geographic region. The students will use knowledge they have gained about a geographic region in the United States (landforms, points of interest, climate, and interesting facts) to convince a group of third grade students to choose that region for their annual family vacation.

Premise for the lesson: Each third grade student can choose where his or her family will vacation next year. The third grade students will vote via Google Form. The fourth graders job is to sell their region as a vacation destination. The vacation can occur at any point during the year, therefore a region with snow may want to promote winter sports and amount of snowfall. In order to do this, they will need to ascertain the significant and unique attractions in their region. 

Goal: Working in groups of six, the students will review notes from research on the geographic regions conducted throughout the year. They will supplement that information with additional research on each state in the region.  The students will decide, as a group, on the top four reasons to visit the region.  The students will create a slogan for their region and craft a leading question to pique the viewer’s interest. After this, the students will create a Google Presentation supporting these four reasons.  The students will create an Animoto movie highlighting the region’s assets and reasons to visit.

Timeline: We are really squeezing this into the end of the year. The last day for students is June 24th!

May 29th -  Introduce the project

June 3rd -  Collaborative research

June 5th -  Finalize top four/develop slogan/craft question

June 10th - Create Google Presentation

June 12th - Create Animoto and embed in Presentation

June 17th - show to 3rd graders

Exemplar for the Project: I used the Northeast Region as no students would be using this region.

Link to slideshow

Student work templates:  Click this link to find the student work templates.

Third Grade Voting: After watching the presentations, the third graders will be using this form to vote.

Link to form

I will be posting the presentations when they are finished!

Meet the students of 4M

The fourth graders are deep into the Civil Right Unit. The classroom teachers are reading The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine. 

Our experience using this book last year was a valuable in many ways. You can read what my 4th graders learned during a visit with Kristin Levine.  You can listen to my students talk about the book. You can read this student's review:

A student's response from two year's ago led us in a new direction of focusing on character traits.

"I learned how to describe characters without saying or writing how they look. This is useful because there is no "right" or "wrong" of how characters look, (for readers) but you still know what personalities they have.  I learned how to do this because the author of "Lions of Little Rock" wrote that in her second book.  The character Marlee describes other characters as beverages.  I can't wait to use this in my writing!" 

As Kristin Levine does in The Lions of Little Rock, the students described themselves as a beverage and then brainstormed different character traits that described them. 

They each created a Tagxedo of their beverage:

They each then used Wordle and brainstormed character traits/beverage descriptions for themselves:

Meet the students of 4M:

Can you guess the Dewey number?

The fifth graders are refreshing their knowledge of library organization including the connection between our card catalogue and the Dewey Decimal Classification System. They worked in pairs to create book spine poems that captured the themes and subjects of a section of Dewey. 

Can you guess the Dewey number?

ReedALOUD: Student review: Jack: the story of Jack and the Beanstalk

Jack: the true story of Jack and the Beanstalk

If you are normal, you would write the short version of Jack and the Beanstalk and it would be boring. But if you are Liesl Shurtliff you have a good imagination that makes things better. Jack is based on the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, but way better in the way there are more events. Jack was named after his great-great-great-great-great-GREAT-grandfather. To his mother Jack was a “naughty boy.” After you read this, a few pages later Miss Lettie Nettie's cabbages are stolen. For Miss Lettie this is really disappointing and she is (of course) accusing Jack since he is “the troublemaker.”  All of a sudden a man named Jaber told them that it wasn’t Jack who stole the cabbages it was giants that came from the sky. Now that was what made everyone laugh - giants that live in the sky stealing cabbages. Jaber tried to defend himself by showing them a giant bean that had fallen from the sky. That bean changes Jack's life. Later, Jack goes on a big journey. This journey is filled with descriptions of Jack’s adventures with the giants. I would recommend it any time. 

~Leni, 4th Grade