Holiday One Pagers

During PLC classes, students researched how different countries celebrate winter holidays. The students worked in groups to look through a book and find important facts about celebrations.

Bradfield is an AVID campus. AVID stands for Advancement Through Individual Determination. Students are taught note taking and organization skills while focusing on becoming better learners. 

The students used their AVID skills and research skills to find details for their one pagers.One pagers are an AVID strategy to show what you have learned about a topic.

Students learned a lot of facts from other countries and got experience working in groups as they completed their one pagers. 

 The final products were very informative and creative! It was so nice to see the cooperative groups working towards a goal.

This week we are reading holiday stories and comparing the books to our own traditions. Merry Christmas everyone!

#HourofCode

This week is Computer Science Education Week. Each year we celebrate computer science by doing some coding and learning facts about coding over the announcements. The official hashtag is #HourofCode although it can be for any length of time. 

In the library, we have been using Tynker's Candy Quest with 2nd grade. The students have loved moving the blocks around to make the monster walk and jump to get to the candy. 

#Girlscode is a popular thing on social media to encourage girls to enter the field of coding as well. In the library, boys and girls love coding!

Ms. Fallad's class was the first to win a certificate for completing the whole course.

For kindergarten and 1st grade, we used a new Santa coding game from Google. The students worked as a class to help Santa get to all the presents. 

On Monday, we took a pause from coding to enjoy #nationalninjaday! The students loved hearing a holiday ninja book.

Then, we practiced our ninja skills by dancing to "Kung Foo Fighting" and doing a ninja training video from GoNoodle.com. 

It sure has been a fun week in the library and it will continue next week as we learn about holiday traditions. #superspecialsholiday

Appy Holidays

This year, one of the goals for our district has been to get teachers to increase their use of technology in the classroom. I blogged earlier in the year about our fun during October with the Trick or Treat Twitter challenge.

For November, the teachers participated in a Thankful for Technology Bingo game that included many technology-related challenges. Shout out to our magnificent music teacher Mrs. Nelson on completing her Bingo card and winning a pair of new ear buds! Check out her winning card below.

For December, I have created an appy holidays display of QR codes that lead to free apps for teachers to download. The apps are comprised of time savers, note-taking, and creativity for the students to use in the classroom. The teachers will be able to stop by at their leisure to download the apps they want.

We have also been busy decorating the library for Christmas. There is holiday music playing and seasonal books everywhere!

Lots of cool holiday books on the recommendation table!

Holiday books and festive bells adorn the end of each aisle.

The Grinch in normally stuck hanging out with the other Dr. Seuss buddies but during the holidays he gets a prime spot in the library!

We even have an elf on the shelf in our library! Can you spot him?

Stop by your local library and enjoy a holiday story. There are so many fun ones. Currently, we are reading Clark the Shark Loves Christmas and Bad Kitty Christmas.

Thankful

Last week our country shifted and divides became more evident. I know that the library is a safe place where all opinions, races, ideas, and values are welcome. My hope is that the focus remains on uniting instead of separating.

I did not teach the students about the candidates or about the election process. I felt like we all needed a break so I chose to still teach the students about letting their voices be heard through voting but with two lighthearted books. We read Lauren Castillo's TroubleMaker and Nana in the City. Students across the world were also reading these books as part of #GlobalReadAloud.

The students loved how the little boy in this story changed his mind about the city. We discussed how the facial expressions of the little boy helped us, the readers, see how he was feeling as the book progressed.

This book was a clear favorite in the voting. I think many of the students found humor in the raccoon taking precious items for his own.

Our first graders had the pleasure of having Mr. Dillard from the Garland Retired Teachers bring them books for their home libraries.

The students loved getting to pick out their own book to take home. The excitement filled the library and we are very thankful to the Garland Retired Teachers.

Since Thanksgiving is coming up next week, we have been reading a book from our latest book fair called There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey by Lucille Colandro. The students have been howling with laughter as I turn each page. It has been nice to laugh with the kids and know that there is still light in our world.

Lastly, I am forever thankful for my job as a school librarian. It has been my dream and now it is my honor. It is a huge responsibility to help shape a student's love of reading and it is one that I treasure.

Interactive Books

Fun fact about Mrs. Ray=I have 5 nieces. My husband had 4 when we got married and then I had one on my side of the family. Elissa, Lily, Annabelle, Emily, and Lizzy are all under 10 and a lot of fun to hang out with! My husband pleaded with me to choose a boy from the Salvation Army Angel Tree so that he gets to finally shop for a little boy. :)

I remember seeing one of my nieces get a game based on the book Press Here by Herve Tullet. At the time, I had never heard of the book and I did not understand why a book would ask the reader to interact with it.

For Dot Day celebrations this year, I needed another book about dots since I let another teacher check out The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. My eyes landed on Press Here and I thought "why not?" I read it to a kindergarten class and they thought I was a magician! As I called a kid up to do each instruction in the book, the students eagerly waited to see what would happen when I turned the page. The ooohhss and ahhhss were so loud I thought we would get in trouble by the classes around the library. The same thing happened with the other classes that I read the book to.

As I was getting ready to teach my annual lesson about fall, the music teacher asked to check out my favorite fall book Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson. I was sad, but I knew that more students would get to enjoy they book so I said goodbye to Fletcher for this year.

I searched the shelves for another book about fall or leaves and I landed on Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson. I skimmed through it and saw that it was similar to Press Here so I thought it would be fun.

I was sure that the magic would have worn off and the kids would know that their actions did not really impact what happened in the book, but they were still amazed! It was so fun for them to connect what they had learned in class about leaves and trees to what was happening in the book.

So, I am definitely a believer in interactive books now. I purchased more Herve Tullet books for the library and I hope to find even more that are similar to these two. Anything that gets children to see how magical books can be is a plus in my mind!

Trick or Treat Twitter Challenge

For the month of October, I challenged our staff to a Trick or Treat Twitter challenge! Many people won treats including candy and stylus/highlighters/pens.

-Tweet a ”shelfie” of you and one of the books from the book fair that starts on October 10th. Include the tag @ReadingRay or @BES_Cowboys. You can use the #gisdreads if you want the district to see how awesome you are.

-Participate in the #gisdchat on Tuesday, October 4^th at 7 p.m. The topic is Goals for New Teachers. 

-Tweet something going on in your classroom. Include a picture following the guidelines. You can tag @BES_Cowboys or @ReadingRay so I will see it.

-Tweet #motivationMonday with a motivational message or image. Include the tag @ReadingRay so I will see it or you can email me with your Twitter handle.

-Tweet a selfie with your team or a coworker with the #bradfieldbest and include the tag @BES_Cowboys

I was so excited to see the tweets roll in. Here is a collection of just a few of the great moments that happened during October's twitter challenge.

Ms. Bedolla tweeted about the artwork for Day of the Dead that was being created by her art pullout students. It was so fun to get a glimpse into the specials' classes. 

Mrs. Orsini highlighted her teammate's hula hoop club in a tweet. Ms. Bennett's Schoolahoop club was a hit! 

The challenge was during book fair so "shelfies" were a fun challenge to complete. Here is Super Green with her favorite book from the fair. Mrs. Green was one of the most active tweeters between H.E.R.O. week and Red Ribbon Week. Thanks for showing off our school spirit all month long!

youtu.be/m5yCOSHeYn4  I love Kid President! #motivationmonday #positivity @BES_Cowboys was a tweet from our awesome counselor Ms. Green. Check out the video!

Ms. Quiros made a PicCollage to show a learning strategy called carousel being used in her classroom. 

Kami Nelson ‏@mrsnelsonmusic  Oct 5

Can you figure out one of the songs we sang in 1st grade today? There's a hint in the picture! @BES_Cowboys #bradfieldbest #kodaly

Pumpkin bowling! @BES_Cowboys #bradfieldbest This tweet was from field day by Ms. Dossey.

Here is a tweet from H.E.R.O. week featuring two super girls-library aide Mrs. Lopex and music teacher Mrs. Nelson. A special shoutout to Mrs. Nelson for being the lone staff member to complete ALL 5 challenges!! Woohoo! #superspecials 

A hashtag was born out of #bradfieldbest that we will continue to use all year. It made my heart so happy to see Atomic Learning even tweet our school using the hashtag!

Jessi Schultz Retweeted Bradfield Elementary

#bradfieldbest you each bring so much to your students every day! Thank you! Let me know what you strive to learn, #collaborate with me!

Thank you to all of the people who participated. This month, we are doing a Thankful for Tech bingo card and I cannot wait to see all the cool tech things our staff does in November. 

Halloween in the Library 2016

We have been getting into the spooky spirit of Halloween by decorating the library, reading Halloween books, and doing some Halloween activities. Check out the fun below!

I enjoy getting to decorate the library for each holiday. I especially love decorating for Christmas, but Halloween will do for now.

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

I also love getting to choose book recommendations for each holiday. These are just some of the Halloween books I have displayed. We have quite a collection in our library and they keep flying off the shelves/tables.

The students were excited to read with spooky witch and vampire fingers during library time. I told them they had to be actively reading in order to keep using their finger. It was so quiet in the library it was spoooky!

1st graders enjoying reading their witch fingers.

These two first graders chose vampire fingers to read with. 

PLC classes created their own monster crayon inspired by Michael Hall's book Frankencrayon. This was not in my plans for this year, but when the book arrived with our order I knew it would be a fun activity for Halloween time. The crayons all have names and are so creative!

Here are the books we have been reading this week during storytime. They are fun reads that are not too spooky for my kindergarten and first grade friends. 

We even involved some Halloween candy into our makerspace by having a candy corn building challenge. The students worked in groups to build towers with their candy. This was also a part of our library being involved in #GlobalMakerDay and #TexasLibrarySnapshotday.

It was great to see all the teamwork going on during the tower building. The students had some great ideas on how to use the toothpicks to make their towers grow.

Of course the kids were also excited to get to eat the candy after building, but not surprisingly they found out that candy corn is not very tasty!

Finally, I just have to share a cool moment from makerspace time this week. These first graders (dressed up for cowboy day!) were practicing their news reporter skills. The box they were using is about telling the weather. I asked the student with the microphone what the weather was going to be and she replied "I am not doing the weather. I am reporting New York news." Then, she told me in an amazing reporter voice all about the twin towers being hit by a plane on September 11th. 

I love my job! :)