Digital Learning Day 2017

According to the Digital Learning Day website, "digital learning is any instructional practice that effectively uses technology to strengthen a student’s learning experience." Thursday, February 23rd, 2017 is this year's Digital Learning Day. 

Currently, I am tutoring 4th and 5th grade students to prepare for the STAAR tests so I do not get to do much teaching in the library on Thursdays. I incorporated technology into my lessons from earlier in the week so our Digital Learning Day became a Digital Learning week.

On Monday, the specials' classes all combined due to a team member being out with no sub. We used GoNoodle to get the kids up and moving. Also, we discussed President's Day by viewing an animated version of the book So You Want to Be President by Judith St. George.

On Tuesday, the second graders got to learn about Abraham Lincoln using the library digital resource PebbleGo. This resource has biographies that can be read to the students. 

After hearing about Abraham Lincoln's life, the students viewed a timeline of events.

They worked in groups to arrange events in their own timeline of Abraham Lincoln's life. 

Today, the third graders used a Padlet to share their ideas about what they would do if they were president. They had very creative and detailed answers. 

Makerspace Magic!

Our library makerspace has been blessed with many items from grants. I use the same basic information and just ask for different things that I think the kids would enjoy using. It does not take much time at all and the donations arrive fairly quickly. Our makerspace started with some Legos that I won at a librarian PLC meeting, some Play Doh that I bought on sale at Walmart, some drawing books, some origami books, and some Lincoln Logs. Today, all but the Play Doh (too yucky!!) is still in the rotation. 

I was so excited to stop by our administration building to pick up two big boxes of our latest donations. I won a grant from the Garland Education Foundation. I have been entering and winning this grant for about 8 years now. They make it so easy and are great to work with. Check it out cowboys...all of this will be making an appearance during makerspace time soon!

First up, we have more duct tape. The students love making different projects such as wallets or flowers with the duct tape. It has been flying out of the makerspace area. We will have to come up with a good system of making this selection last a while.

These Fashion Plates are going to be great for the students to use as they learn about design principles. We have art at our school so the students are familiar with shading and color theory.

The childhood favorite is back in a reusable format. Students can make pictures with the pegs and then just take them out without messing up the background page. 

I have been trying to get our library some kinetic sand for a while. I made sure to get some with a deep tray because I heard it can be a little messy. 

Students will be able to design their own Shrinky Dinks or use the templates we got. 

Another childhood favorite, the Spirograph lets students be creative using angles and shapes.

I have also been wanting to get one of these Code and Go Robot Mouse kits for our library for a long time because they are so fun! I think especially the younger students will enjoy learning how to code in a hands-on manner. 

Soon I will be able to share with you some of the amazing things students will create using these items. I cannot wait to see how excited the kids are to try everything. 

Pam's Legacy

I had jury duty this week so it has not been a very learning-filled week, but I want to keep my commitment to blogging each week. 

I am glad to share this year's book that has been donated to the library in honor of our former music teacher Pam Taylor. She was Bradfield's music teacher for over 25 years.

You can learn more about Pam here.

Pam loved to read and in her memory we have now had three books donated to our library.

The music-related books will be enjoyed by students and staff for many years to come. Each book has a book label inside remind students to "keep singing" in honor of Pam.

This is a tradition that we will continue in the future and I am excited to see which book will be added next year!

Global School Play Day 2017

Today is #GSPD2017 which is Play Their Way - Global School Play Day - Feb. 1, 2017. A day to bring awareness to the importance of unstructured play without adult direction. Students in the library participated in this day by having makerspace time in the library. 

Some makerspace areas in libraries have specific challenges for students to complete. We have done some of those around certain holidays, but for the most part I prefer to let the students create or play whatever they want. 

School can be a stressful place these days-for kids and teachers! The students get excited about just being able to create and have fun without being told exactly what to do. 

Our library has a new addition-a student teacher! Ms. Hensleigh will be joining us in the mornings on Mondays-Wednesdays until late April. We are lucky to have her around to practice for her future as a librarian because she has already been so helpful. Stay tuned to see some of her amazing lessons and displays around the library. 

I modeled story time with 3rd grade today for our student teacher by reading Groundhog Weather School by Joan Holub. It is a really funny book and the kids loved it. This semester has been busy so far so it was nice to get to read to the older kids again. 

We finished up by comparing fictional groundhogs with facts about woodchucks on PebbleGo. It said that they like to eat pawpaw fruit. I did not know what that was so I brought up an image of it and we all learned together about a new type of fruit. 

I really enjoyed getting to share PebbleGo and the other digital resources with parents at the GISD TechFest last Thursday. I think next year's event will be even bigger and better!