Ozobot, Sphero, and Safety!

Before school started, the librarians were all excited because our coordinator Richelle O'Neil was able to give each of us an Ozobot for our library makerspaces. If you are unfamiliar with what an Ozobot can do, check out this short video. Once the craziness of back to school settled down, I tried out the Ozobot at home and fascinated my dog with it. I brought it to school after being absent as a reward to the class that was the best while I was gone. The students really enjoyed getting to see Ozobot follow their commands based on what colors they used. They even named Ozobot different names and talked to him like he could understand them. We had some trouble getting Ozobot to show off his tricks, but as I told the kids...we just have to keep trying!

I am the i3: Innovation in Instruction person for our campus again this year. At our first training of the year, we got to play with a robot called Sphero. Check out this short video to learn more about Sphero. We were all very intrigued and we also started Googling how much it would cost to write a grant for a Sphero robot. Little did we know, as soon as it was time to put Sphero away...we all found out that each school was going to get to take one back to our campus! Thank you to Brian Dean and the Garland Education Foundation for giving our students the opportunity to learn using Sphero. I am still learning about Sphero and will be photographing all of Sphero's parts before he starts getting checked out by teachers to use across Bradfield. Soon, Sphero will be the most popular robot in the school!

Lastly, it is Cybersafety week in Garland ISD so students have been hearing a tip each day on the announcements, receiving lessons during library and in their classrooms, and there is a poster contest going on across the district. I cannot wait to see which poster wins for our school and goes on to compete for a BB-8 robot like Sphero. Here are some of the cybersafety booklets that my 3rd graders created today.

#DotDay

September 15th is International Dot Day! This was the first year that Bradfield students got involved with Dot Day in the library. Students either viewed The Dot by Peter Reynolds on Tumblebook or heard it read aloud by my sub. The book encourages students to leave their mark and to not doubt what their contribution can be even if they think they do have talent. I love the message of this book because it shows that everyone has their own genius. We, as teachers, just have to help kids believe in themselves.

Monday's flex day classes each started with the same blank circle. They used markers, pencils, and colored pencils to make their mark on their dot. Check out the amazing display of dots below.

I had to be out on Wednesday for a technology training (more exciting information about that is coming soon!!), so I saved our dot drawing activity for my Thursday morning class. The 4th graders worked together or individually to create a dot using sidewalk chalk. Not only did they make the playground look awesome, they were excited to have no restrictions on what their "dot" was supposed to look like.

Even the rain and the sun decided to collaborate on making a dot! I cannot wait for next year's #DotDay. I hope to help the students make it even bigger and better.

Llama, Llama...Read with Mama

So, my goal this year is to blog every Wednesday...however, I really did not know what to write about today since we have only had one day of school this week. Then, last night I found out on Twitter about the passing of a great author named Anna Dewdney. She was the writer of the Llama, Llama books. In her obituary, she requested that people read to a child instead of having a funeral for her.

How amazing is that?!?!? Ms. Dewdney was an advocate for children's literacy throughout her career. Her relatable and fun stories have made story time a safe, comforting place for children across the world. Her Llama, Llama stories will be missed by my students and myself. However, I am comforted by the fact that there is a TV series coming soon based on the Llama, Llama books. Kids need to hear that it is ok to miss mama or having sharing drama.

 

My favorite Dewdney book is Llama, Llama Holiday Drama because it tells a great story about how material things are not what is important during the holidays. I always read this book to at least one grade level during the crazy holiday times. I did not know much about the author until I read the article above, but it appears that the meaning behind this book was also echoed in her personal life. She values experiences, specifically reading with children, over stuff that can be bought with money.

Our fabulous P.E. teacher Mrs. Newberry gives a speech at the beginning of the year to the students about how when you are at school, the teachers are your mamas and that our job is to make sure they are safe. If you are in P.E., then Mrs. Newberry is your P.E. mama...if you are in library, then Mrs. Ray is your library mama....etc. I plan to read to my students as their library mama this week in honor of Anna Dewdney. Please join me in honoring her final wishes by reading to a child today, tomorrow, or sometime this week...and keep doing it!

Curious Kids Visit the Library

There is a book called Curious George Visits the Library that I love to read to my younger grades each year. It's what we librarians called an "oldie but a goodie." It is what I think of whenever I hear the word "curious." I have started teaching classroom habitude lessons based on Angela Maiers' book. The first habitude we are focusing on is curiosity. We have been using Wonderopolis to discuss wondering throughout our weekly library lessons. I was nervous to try out my first PLC habitude lesson with first graders, but they blew me away. My second and third graders this week have also been great wonderers.

We read The Mysteries of Harris Burdick and I modeled being curious while wondering what was going on in each one sentence story. Students in grades 4 and 5 will be writing their own one sentence mysteries. I cannot wait to see what they come up with.  Next, I showed the students an old super bowl commerical for Doritos where a goat loves to eat chips. There are no words spoken, but the students could all tell what was going on. Then, I told the students we were going to read The Cat in the Hat. However, after I checked the shelf for the book...it was missing! This led to us using clues to solve the mystery of whole stole the missing book. I wish I could have a video of the thoughtful and creative responses that my firsties gave as we dug into the mystery.

The library makerspace also got off to a great start this week. Our new instant film camera has been a huge hit with the students. It is so fun to see them get excited to share their masterpieces. The camera is going to be a major fixture in our makerspace. I will share our experiences with the camera once I have FERPA papers back. :)

Back to the Books

I am so excited for this year! The books and I have missed the students so much. Some fun things going on right now are that I hid math word problems in the books so that the students can reinforce some of their math skills while being encouraged to check out more books. I wonder who will find one first?

Also, we are going to be learning about habitudes this year during PLC time in the library. Habitudes are habits and attitudes that I want the students to develop. The first one we are working on is curiosity and the students are going to be doing a lot of wondering in the next few weeks.

Our makerspace is still going strong and will be better than ever. Thanks to donors, we were able to add a button maker, a camera for instant pictures, and Osmo coding. Our book fair bonus points enabled me to get some magnetic building blocks and some circuit activities. I cannot wait to see the wonderful creations that will be made this year!

It is definitely a great time to visit the Bradfield library and see all that we have going on. Come on in...we are getting #futureready!

Cinco de Mayo

Usually for Cinco de Mayo I show a video to the kids because I have not found a book I enjoy reading about Cinco de Mayo, but this week I took a chance on a book I had never read before. It has turned out to be such an awesome book! I know that I will look forward to reading it year after year. It has made kids laugh and sing along in every grade I have read it to so far. The book is called Ole! Cinco de Mayo by Margaret McMannis.

A young boy Pablo bring his pet cow Rodeo to school for Cinco de Mayo and he causes chaos. I loved how each of the "specials" classes were featured and that allowed for us to laugh as we thought about how the art teacher, PE teacher, and music teacher might react to having a cow visit class. The kids even pointed out that in library the cow did not use his shelf marker! At the end of the book, there is a glossary of the Spanish words used and a recipe for flan. There is also a brief history of Cinco de Mayo that was very kid-friendly. The end of the book has been the most fun because we got to sing R-O-D-E-O. It is like BINGO, but singing about Pablo and his pet cow RODEO.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Tumbling into Learning

Today, we had talent show auditions in preparation for our Bradfield is SUPER Talented Night. I was covering some classes to allow for the auditions and I wanted something to hold the students' attention. My hero was Tumblebooks and Robert Munsch stories. Even my 5th graders were rolling with laughter! Tumblebooks is a great resource and can be accessed from home through Bradfield's (or any GISD elementary school's) library catalog. It is a great way to get summer reading resources because every story comes with online quizzes and other activities. The stories are animated, entertaining, and fun! They even have stories in Spanish. Check it out!