Guest Post: Miss MacLaughlin, Student Teacher

Hello! This is Mrs. Mann’s student teacher, Miss MacLaughlin. I have been in the library since the end of February and I will be concluding my student teaching this week. I wanted to share some of the things we’ve been working on in library for the past couple of months.

Second and fourth grade have been working on coding using code.org. We collaborated with the second grade teachers on this unit; we did two “unplugged” activities to help students build coding skills without using a computer. The first lesson was a perseverance experiment--build a structure at least 6 inches high that can hold the weight of a notebook for ten seconds. The catch was that they could only use toothpicks, craft sticks, and gumdrops!

Our second unplugged lesson was building paper airplanes using a set of picture instructions. This was to introduce the concept of algorithms, which is following a set of steps in a certain order to complete a process. We got many successful paper airplanes, collaborated with classmates in groups, and had a lot of fun!

 Fourth grade explored algorithms by playing a dice game and recreating the step-by-step instructions in their own words. This was an introduction to looping, which is a difficult concept, but our coding curriculum emphasizes persistence and I was very impressed by their efforts.

First grade has been working on algorithms as well. We read Audrey Wood’s Sweet Dream Pie, then wrote and shared our own step-by-step recipes to reinforce the concept of steps needing to be in the right sequence in order to achieve a goal.

Kindergarten has been working on ways to show friendship and be a good classmate. We read The Adventures of Beekle, the Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat and wrote about all the kind and fun activities we can do with our own (real or imaginary) friends!

Third grade has been learning about call numbers, Dewey Decimal, and using our Destiny Quest catalog. Soon they’ll be able to search the catalog independently to satisfy their own information needs.

I have had such a wonderful time working with Mrs. Mann and the students of Ashaway Elementary. I’m going to miss you all!

Reading Week 2018: Readers Are Leaders!

Reading Week 2018:

"Readers Are Leaders!"

We enjoyed another amazing week celebrating readers and reading!  Events were planned for every day, and I'm so happy to share some of these incredible memories!!





Kick-Off: Illusionist David Garrity
Students and staff enjoyed a hilarious and eye-popping magic show presented by the vary talented David Garrity.  His pro-reading message was the perfect kick-off to a week of fun and surprises!  (Huge thanks to our PTO for sponsoring this terrific event!)

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Tuesday: Guest Reader Day
Community leaders and special guests visited classrooms and shared a favorite story with our students!

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Wednesday: Pop and Swap
Our PTO sponsored another successful Pop and Swap after school.  Students and their families were invited to pop in to select from an enormous number of donated books and, while there, enjoy a popsicle, a lollipop and some popcorn!  Games and activities were also available, and everything at the event was absolutely FREE!

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Thursday: Reading Buddies
Some wonderful book sharing took place as older students read aloud with younger students!

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Friday: Family Read-In
Families were invited to come in to the school to enjoy some reading time together!

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ALL WEEK: Spuds in Duds
My student teacher, Miss MacLaughlin, got this idea from another librarian and we agreed to bring this fun new activity to Ashaway School!  Students were invited to dress up a potato (yes, a real potato!) so that it resembled a book character of their choice.  The response was incredible, and everyone enjoyed the display throughout the week in the library.  We knew they wouldn't last forever, so I took lots of pictures to preserve the students' creativity and hard work!  Awesome job, kids!!!

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Thanks again to everyone who contributed to making this year's Reading Week an enormous success, ! 

It was truly a spectacular celebration!

Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky I Am?

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

For this year's celebration of Read Across America (planned for March 2nd, Dr. Seuss's birthday), reading specialist Mrs. Vocatura and I decided to highlight the Dr. Seuss book Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?  Not only did we love its message, but it tied in with the upcoming St. Patrick's Day!  




Every class in the school enjoyed a read-aloud of the story, and students and staff were invited to wear green.  It was a fun switch from the usual red-and-white, and lots of people joined in on the fun!

Just a few of our enthusiastic green-clad participants!

In addition, every student was given a blank shamrock to decorate and to write down something that  shows that they are lucky.  We loved reading all of their contributions!

In hindsight, I wish we had given a shamrock to each staff member to fill out (although we definitely would have needed to take over another bulletin board)!  If I had created one, I'd have written I'm lucky because I have the most wonderful job, work beside an extraordinary team of dedicated people, and enjoy the most remarkable students!  

Thanks for another wonderful celebration, Ashaway School!

Time for a Rooster Booster!

I've been talking up the Rooster Games all year with my fourth graders, and a lot of the kids are super excited about reading their books and qualifying!  A handful of them, however, are letting an awful lot of time slip by without earning many stars on our book tracking poster.  I've seen students procrastinate and then panic as the deadline draws closer, so this year I held a "Rooster Booster mini-games" in the hopes of providing some motivation!

I prepared mini versions of rounds that we play at the real Rooster Games so the students get the chance to experience the fun of the games, just on a smaller scale!  We did an Objects Round, Questions Round, Illustrations Round, and a Settings/Characters Round. 

This year's games will also feature some "games of chance" in honor of RICBA nominee Fortune Falls.  The characters in this story actually have to take a test to determine if they are "lucky" or "unlucky", and this determines which school they will attend!  I thought it would be fun to see who was the Luckiest Kid in Fourth Grade.  One of the games we'll play at the Rooster Games is Egg Hunt.  Each students reaches into a bag full of plastic eggs and selects one to open.  Most of the eggs are empty, but some of them have a cotton ball inside.  Students who found the piece of cotton inside were declared to be "lucky"!  There weren't any prizes, but the kids were excited to see what was inside their eggs!

My goal was for our "Rooster Book" shelf to be empty before the students left on Friday for vacation, and I'm thrilled to report: mission accomplished!  Every single copy of the RICBA nominees were signed out before the end of the day.  We had some rainy days this week, so I'm hopeful that those book borrowers enjoyed some time curled up with a good story.  I'm excited to see how many more stars will be going up on the poster next week! 

At the actual Rooster Games I award medals to the students who read all of the books on the list that I bought for Ashaway School.  To conclude the Rooster Booster event I awarded MVP bookmarks to the student on each team who had read the most books! 

Rooster Booster MVPs!

While I created the "Rooster Booster" games to help motivate the students who needed to read books to qualify for the Rooster Games, I'm hopeful that they also encouraged students who already qualified to keep reading!  I always tell them that the games are even more fun when they recognize more of the books during each round.  Considering how many eager book borrowers I encountered afterward I'm optimistic that it worked!  YAY!

Building a Magical Snowman!

One of my favorite books to share with kindergarten in January is Snowmen All Year by Caralyn and Mark Buehner.  This fun and imaginative story explores what might happen if snowmen were able to last all year long.  They catch fireflies, visit the zoo, watch fireworks, and go swimming!  The illustrations are wonderfully cheerful and the students love listing to the rhyming text.




Before I begin reading the book I explain that the snowman in the story is magical and can even live indoors!  To set the stage for the story I tell them that we are going to build our own indoor snowman.  Of course Mr. Scanapieco won't let me bring snow inside so we'll have to use some magic of our own!

I ask the students what we'll need to build a snowman, and as they name each item I add each piece to the felt board: a hat, a scarf, arms, eyes, buttons, a mouth, and of course, snow!  (The snow is a couple cotton balls I've stretched out a bit.)  The students watch as all the pieces go into the "magic bag" and then I prompt them to name things that are cold. After all the students have a chance to share their ideas they stretch out their fingers and send their thoughts into the bag.  Watch the video to see the transformation revealed!

After we read the book I place the snowman back into the bag.  I have the students name things that are HOT and then we melt him!  I take all the individual pieces back out of the bag and place them back onto the board, and one observant student will point out that the snow is missing.  So it is, I'll confirm; it melted away!

As a follow-up activity I ask the students to draw pictures of what  they would like to do with a magical snowman.  It was a lot of fun to see so many beach pictures in the middle of January!

Visit https://buehnerbooks.com/ to learn more about the other books by this talented pair including three more stories about magically non-melting snowmen!

Gazing at the Stars

Our Ashaway School fourth graders have been eager readers of the Rhode Island Children's Book Award Nominees!

As I was updating our "Rooster Poster" will all the new stars the fourth graders earned recently, I found myself thinking about what a wonderful activity this is.  As I broke into yet another fresh pack of stars, I thought about the fact that the reason I've needed to open so many new packages is because I keep running out of the gold ones!  I'm sure that the goal of qualifying for the Rooster Games has been a huge motivator for the students, and it's just so gratifying to know that the students have been exposed to such a variety of high-quality literature.


After the students earn a star for a book they read, they get to tell me which color star they would award the book: gold = "I loved it!", silver = "I thought it was good, you should read it", red = "It was okay", and blue = "I didn't like it".  Today when I asked one student what color star she would give to the book Wish she gushed, "A gold star isn't high enough! What's above a gold star?!"





It's so fabulous to hear their enthusiasm about books, especially since I know most of them never would have picked up these titles on their own.  I love this program!!

Animals Should Definitely NOT Borrow Library Books!

As a culminating activity for our unit on taking care of books and library procedures, my first grade classes created their own version of Judi and Ron Barrett’s Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing. 


This classic story shows some of the troubles animals would have if they wore clothes.  It’s a really fun read-aloud, and it was the perfect springboard into discussing book care.  After all, if we let animals borrow books it wouldn’t be the animals that suffered the worse hardships.  It would be the books!  The students loved imagining all of the silly situations that would happen if these critters were given borrowing privileges!  They acted suitably horrified by all the sorrowful situations that might befall their beloved library books, and they enjoyed taking on the roll of Book Care Experts who know better!

Pages from the original book -- Click image to enlarge!

Before we began writing the text of the story, I opened up the "Sad Bag" of hurt books to remind them of behaviors that might result in a book getting damaged.  Each student selected an animal to write about and then created an illustration.  The students were thrilled to see their work put together into a book that will be on display in the library for all to read and enjoy.   

 

Isabella - 1D

 



Nora - 1B

Mackenzie - 1D

Austin - 1B

 

Lainey - 1D

 

Alyson - 1B

 

 

Max - 1D

 

I wanted them all to be able to share their creations with their families, so I imported their illustrations into PhotoStory and gave them each a chance to read their pages aloud.  I recorded their voices and created a video that you can watch right now!  Enjoy!

 

Mrs. Breault’s class video can be found here:
https://youtu.be/QjgocdeAv8k

 

Mrs. Dicocco’s class video can be found here:
https://youtu.be/1GgYVVHQfwc