Penguin Pals

Hello! 

Miss Hurley here, and I'll be taking over the blog for a little while.  I have been student teaching in the library for the past three weeks and I've been working on some pretty cool projects with the students.  But, before I get to talking about the classes, I’d like to take some time to share some information about myself. 

As Mrs. Mann mentioned in her post a few weeks ago, she was my librarian when I attended Ashaway Elementary!  I loved my time at this school, especially in the library, and I am thrilled to be back.  For those interested in knowing a little more about me, I love to write (though I’ll try not to get carried away in my blog posts), read (of course), and run (so far I’ve raced one half marathon and I hope to do many more in the future).  I could go on and on about myself, but I’d much rather talk about what’s going on in class.  If anyone does have any questions for me, please post them in the comments and I’ll do my best to respond as soon as possible.

For the past three weeks, I have been working on a project with the third grade classes that involves one of my favorite creatures…penguins!   Mrs. Ward, the librarian over at Richmond Elementary, has been doing this project with her third graders for several years, and this year she introduced it to me so that I could give it a try (thanks Mrs. Ward!).  For the past few weeks, we have discussed how the Emperor Penguins live in a community called a rookery.  Just like people, the penguins each have their own roles and responsibilities in order to keep the rookery alive.  We’ve discussed proper note taking skills, and recently the students were able to begin their research on the computer.  

 Here are the websites that the students are using (they can also be found on the Ashaway School Library website):

• http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/03/crittercam/antarctica/  
• http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/emperor-penguin/

This eager beaver checked out the websites at home and started research on her own!

At the end of the project, students will be writing a journal entry from the perspective of the mother, the father, or the baby penguin, explaining the responsibilities it would have in a rookery.  The students have been very eager with their research and I can’t wait to see what they come up with in their journals!