Showing posts with label lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lessons. Show all posts

Friday, February 5, 2021

Author Presentation for Second graders~

Author Presentation

   This came up on Face book and I thought I would share. As librarian , you get to provide many extras for your students. This was from a time at school when I gave the Second graders a presentation about the story that  had just been published in Highlights. I talked about how I got the idea, how I wrote the story, and then did revisions, I showed them my writers notebook. ( at the time they were working on writing stories and they we keeping a writers note book , so it really fell into place.

  So any time you are asked to do something not on the ordinary, make every attempt/offer to assist This particular event earned me a lot of brownie points with my teachers,

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Online sources for Internet safety

 If you are looking for additional information and activities for student online safely, here are some links to check out . Parents, teachers, and librarians can use the information to 




 FBI Inerent safety-Information ,games, activities for students and teachers to promote on line safety


https://www.fbi.gov/fbi-kids



 US Department of Justice-  Links that lead to information for teachers and parents


https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus/keeping-children-safe-online

https://www.ojp.gov/feature/internet-safety/online-safety-youth




FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Consumer Information  look under Privacy,Identity &o nline security for resources


https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/topics/protecting-kids-online




U.S. Dept of Education-

Ways to keep students safe online


https://www2.ed.gov/free/features/cybersecurity.html



Homeland Security

Resources to keep students safe when at  home


https://www.dhs.gov/blog/2017/06/12/five-tips-keep-your-kids-safe-online-summer


Monday, December 14, 2020

The Girl Who Lived in a Shoe- Book Review

 The Girl who Lived in a Shoe ( and other torn up Tales) is an independently publication written by a group of authors. ( L Smith,  B. Seward, M. Rietz, J. Quist  , & B. Warren) They are actually a writer's group who collaborated to produce this body of work.

   The book is written at a 2nd / 3 rd grade reading level. But it could be used with other grades also. The stories are updated and fractured for the 21st century. Students will love them!! 

   Each author  takes a fairy tale and makes it her own. The stories are geared for today's students  and beyond. Each story is catchy and invites student discussion and engagement.

 My personal favorite story is Rita Van Winkle ( Loreley Smith) and Tara and the Wolf ( Jesse Quist). They are fractured but still retain enough of the original story.  They have updated and unique items incorporated into the stories.

 The illustrations are also unique.. The authors used torn paper to build the illustrations which are extremely well done and very appropriate. On the verso, they also provide a link for free printable activities and information about creating  your own torn up tales, which is great in these times of virtual lessons/

 The book can be found on Amazon. This would be a great addition when you are introducing fairy tales and fractured fairy takes to students . It can be used for 2 and 3rd grades , which is when I introduce both, But I can also see it used in the upper grades!  It would work well  up to Middle school and could be a story starers  for student writers to produce their own , just to analyze differences and similarities , or just enjoy!






Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Abby the Librarian

   I keep finding different websites for librarians and just want to share  in case you have not  found then yourselves. Abbythelibraian  is a great site for librarians ( school & Public) who do preschool or Kindergarten lessons or sessions.
    There are routinely Picture book Roundups which I love! She gives us brief summaries and also shows the cover. So if you are looking for  recommendations for new books you will be pleased. Some of the titles are brand new or soon to be released.
   She also gives short reviews of new books for elementary / middle school students . Again a big help for your collection development. She also gives book recommendations for special days and seasons.
   There are several other advantages to this site. Abby gives ideas for programs for preschool/ kindergarten and family reading. So if you need ideas  for story times this is a good place to check out.n There is a link on her site that gives themes    and book lists to go with them.

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Read Across America Day/ week

I read this on the Future Ready Librarians Facebook and thought it was a great idea,   I took the main idea and lent some titles that I thought would work. Use these ideas or come up with some of your favoites!

Day 1: Books about Families
         Three days oh a river in a red canoe/ Williams
          In our mother's house/ Polacco
          Tell me again about the night I was born/  Curb

Day 2: Books about taking action
         The Giving Tree/ Silverstein
          Boxes for Katje/ Flemming
           One Plastic bag/ Paul
           Stick & Stone/ Ferry

Day 3: Read a silly story
      Horton Hatches an egg/ Seuss
       Don't let the Pigeon drive the Bus/ Willems
      Any book by Jan Klassen

 Day 4:  Books about different cultures
     Brown Girl dreaming/ Woodson
     Boy who harnessed the wind/ Kamkwamba
     Goal/ Taylor
     House that Baba built/ Young

Day 5: Books about Famous People
      Abe Lincoln the boy who loved books/ Winters
     The story of Ruby Bridges/ Coles
    Let the Children march/ Clark- Robinson
    Inventors who changed the world/ Poelman



Day 5 : Books about famous people.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

A Book and A hug- Great site

   This is a great site  ( A book and a hug) . If  you haven't seen this site yet , check it out. I think you will be impressed. I only just discovered it and I am loving it!
    First of all you can search for books to read  by author , title and  Everything! There is also an advanced search tab- like category, reading/ age level, and reader personality type and other additional options.
  Students can take a reader personality type to determine what type of reader they are. There are basic and advanced tests.
   Up at the top there are tabs: Books by category, read alouds, authors, lesson plans and a blog. Barbara Langridge  is the creator of the site. She is also a speakers about books and librarians. Barb was a former librarians and book store owner , so she has the experience of a book lover. Her goal is to create readers, and connect students with books.
  At the bottom of the site, there are more links. My favorite is the " If you liked, then you'll like" a great tool for students!

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Teaching with Primary Sources


     Primary sources offer direct insight to show case history as it was happening. Original photographs, newspaper articles, journals, diaries, speeches and artifacts give details to the time and place of the event.,
      Lesson: 1. Selecta primary source to share with the class (check out The Library of congress American Memory.
  2. Make copies of the document and also a graphic organizer and distribute them to students
 3.  Provide the historical context of the primary source document. Help student fill in the Organizer. Students can work on their own or in groups of 2 to 3 to do this.
4. Students study the document to help them describe what they observe. They can record observations on their organizer. Have students ask questions about elements of the source that seem important. See if students can determine the purpose f the document.
Other questions to ask: 1) how dependable do you think this source is?
2) Would you recommend this source for others to use.

5. Have students rank the document from 1 to 10. 10 being the most dependable. Have them support reasons for their ranking.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Google arts and Culture

Google arts and Culture


 Google arts and Culture is a fascinating site to explore!  There are collections of art, history, and   images / stories about people and places around the world from a variety of  sources.  I could spend hours and hours just browsing. But there is also a search box so  you can ask for specific topics to see what you come up with- I put in World War I and got tons of information  including  articles, videos , images, and primary sources. There is art work, from the time period, photographs, illustrations,  and flyers from this time.  Just check this  out- you will find something that is interesting and you can use!
History, Music, Art and Social Studies teachers are most likely to use this in their classes February's theme is Black History Month - which includes( Under Home)  Black History and Culture. There is enough material here to explore black History  for several months!!

Friday, November 24, 2017

Using Elink


 I am using Elink for my project pathfinders. I had used Livebinders to do this previously but am at my limit for my free subscription. So I needed to find another way to curate a series of web links for students to put on the library page.
 Elink is a visual collection of web links, I find it very useful when students are researching topics for their projects.  If I know the topics the teachers are having students do investigation’s on , then I will be able to find relevant & accurate  links for them to pull from.
  Students can use the websites in the elink pathfinder  and they will have a quick easy way to find accurate information quickly.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Using Non-Fiction Books/ articles with students


I am searching four ways to use and help teachers use non-fiction selections with students. Here are just two easy ideas.
1.       Teach students how to summarize, paraphrase and pull out main ideas. This shows students how to put ideas into their own words. Also this will reduce the amount of plagiarism. It will also determine if the student is understanding the material given. Start with a small amount of text.

2.       Give them choices- Use some different articles, books, selections on a unit of studies. Students choose what they want to read. Give them a variety of items on different levels-

This is where the library comes in- we can help getting together books on your topics.

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Active Learning- What is it?



     In  Education. Active Learning (engaging students in activities/ projects/ problems) is the way to provide students with an interesting and effective way  to learn.
     Active learning is the practice of doing, practicing investigating the material during each class session. It is not having student’s listening to the teacher and taking notes.
    So what is it?  Active learning is designing activities around learning outcomes of each lesson or session. The students are ‘doing’ something with the topic at hand. They are reading, hearing, seeing/ viewing, investigating the topic, or, discussing materials.

       Active learning can be done singly, with a partner or in a small group.

Friday, February 3, 2017

Teaching Databases

    When is the best time to teach students how to use databases? Last year I had fixed classes and I taught the databases  in isolation.( when there is not a specific purpose the use)  This year I am teaching the databases in an as needed basis. When the students have a research project or something they need to find out for their content teacher, I work with the class  and determine when to introduce/ review the ease of use of the databases that we have available.

    For example, at the beginning of the year I worked with the FACS teacher ( Home Ec in my day) to  develop  a major unit on researching a possible career. I placed the career resources on the library web page, There was a career survey , and specific sites that she wanted them to use. These were not actually databases but government sites  that we wanted them to use. 

   The language teachers did  research projects . So I showed the student  the Culture Gram database . This database madd their project extremely easy.

    I find that teaching students  databases when the are needed  for a project much more effective  for students  to actually leann about them and then USE them in their search for information.

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Library or Classroom Project- Did you Know?

      An interesting and little different author/ reading project is an Author Poster, which could be do as a small group or individual  project  .  Students choose a favorite author to research . They will find interesting biographical information  about the author. "Did you know?" can be the heading and the information can be listed in bullets or around  appropriate images or clip art or the authors photo. This poster will also have a list of titles  written by the author. 
       This will provide students with good suggestions for excellent  reads. The posters can be displayed in the library, in the hallways and in classrooms. After having several done, the posters can be swapped out for different ones  to provide variety, interest and surprise.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Great Website for digital media- Middle & High School

     I am using Nsteens  in my Information Literacy classes . Actually what I did was put up several links to some of the items on this site on my Google classroom for the students to do - some as part of a class activity when we were in the computer lab, and some to do when they were done with their assigned work.

    Anyway , the students  seem to think that this is a very cool site .  They enjoy and go back to several of the games.   The purpose of NS Teens  is to make students aware of the issues  about using different internet sources , internet safety, & social media.   The programs are designed to think about what are posting and doing online.  Hopefully they will stop and think about  what they are doing  online and if it inappropriate.

   Along the top of them main page you will see the different items available!
 First there are videos related to  digital citizenship. Here is a quick listing of just a few: Friend or Fake, Gaming, Cyberbullying, & Post to be Private.

   Another Tab is Games, which my students thoroughly enjoyed.  Website Warrior and Password Plunder were on my google classroom and many students return to Website Warrior  again and again.

  The Quizzes  tab has 4 quizzes- the first was completed by my students but  some of the wording was confusing to them.  There were two comic strips , my students viewed one.  The remaining tab is biographies on all the characters throughout the different  programs.

  

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Summer Learning

  In the past year, I have reviewed and learn to use many  web 2.0 tools and seen many interesting websites . Make if one your goals this summer to learn how to use maybe two of these so that you can use them with your students and staff for the next school year,
   By using a neat web 2.0 tool with your students , they will be more engaged in their learning of the information skills you are imparting. Students in the 21st century need to be able to know about  and use these 'cool' ways of collaborating , interacting, and collecting information.

    Make a presentation ( think power point, prezi) for your student and teacher orientation of the school library.  Teach students about  blogs or pod casts, and have them share what they are reading and learning.  Develop a wiki for students to use for collaboration on a research topic for a certain unit or lesson.

    Don't forget your staff!!  What tool can you teach them to use? Power Point, Prezi, Blogging, or podcasting,wall wisher,? ( Just to mention a few). Do some staff development workshop[s and show them how they can  be used to engage students.

    So make a goal for the  summer , but don't just stop learning at two.  When you have mastered those, make another goal to learn two more, Let me know what you will be doing with your Web 2.0 Tool!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Interesting Writing Sites for Students


More sites to try
 
   Use storyjumper.com to motivate students to write and make books!  Students will have fun with this one and be glad to get into writing. They show 7 simple steps to help the story progress. There is a tutorial  and a short video to help you get started.

 Students can use storyjumper’s art or they can create their own.  They do offer hardbound books printed for 24.99.

  There is a classroom edition made just for schools. Students can read some examples of other student works. 

 


 

On Scribblitt there are many assists to help students be motivated to write. This site is for older students with a more modern look.  This site has a lot to offer for student- make an avatar, illustrate your book, word games, and fund raisers for schools. Under several tabs you  can find a place for messages, contests' story starters,  and writing competitions. There is also a verh short video on some of the items on Scribblitt.

Friday, August 9, 2013

3rdgradereading.net

http://3rdgradereading.net/


   This fun site leads you to other sites  which have reviews for other grade levels. I am not sure if  this is an expansion of the 2nd grade reading site with reviews that I explored  in an earlier post.  But the site has lots of ideas for books . You may want to check this out for ideas for book purchases or  show to your teachers if they ask for books on a grade level.

   This would also be great for public libraries to have linked to their website if you get a lot of questions about good books for a certain grade / age level.

   There is also Common Core news and tips .  You can search by categories .  A monthly newsletter is offered . Most importantly is the side bar where you can sign up to see other grade level book recommendations!
  

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Technology Tuesday-Summer Goals

  In the past year, I have reviewed and learn to use many  web 2.0 tools and seen many interesting websites . Make if one your goals this summer to learn how to use maybe tow of these so that you can use them with your students and staff for the next school year,
   By using a neat web 2.0 tool with your students , they will be more engaged in their learning of the information skills you are imparting. Students in the 21st century need to be able to know about  and use these 'cool' ways ot collaborating , interacting, and collecting information.

    Make a presentation ( think power point, prezi) for your student and teacher orientation of the school library.  Teach students about  blogs or pod casts, and have them share what they are reading and learning.  Develop a wiki for students to use for collaboration on a research topic for a certain unit or lesson.

    Don't forget your staff!!  What tool can you teach them to use? Power Point, Prezi, Blogging, or podcasting? ( Just to mention a few). Do some staff development workshop[s and show them how they can  be used to engage students.

    So make a goal for the  summer , but don't just stop learning at two.  When you have mastered those, make another goal to learn two more, Let me know what you will be doing with your Web 2.0 Tool!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Wired Wednesday- Technology Tools

     365 Project is a fun way to record your year in the library and share the experience with other educators, students, and  your community.  365 Project is a photography project , where you take one photo each of the day . The photo can really be on any theme. So what you are doing is a daily photo journal.

     You can use this photo journal to show what you are doing in your library programs. This will also serve as a memory tool of all that you have done and accomplished during the year in the library.

     It is easy to create an account and it is free.  Then you can upload your photo's, and do one each day.   The images are easily shared on Facebook, your library page,  your blog, or through the 365 site.

    This is a great tool when it time for your yearly report, or if  your administration wants to know how you have positively impacted student achievement and learning.  It also serves  to keep you and  your students motivated and interested  in the library happenings.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Wired Wednesday - Technology Tools

http://www.librarygames.com/

    I found this site and had to use it this week when I am discussing games and gaming in the library.  It is really a great site and it has a lot to offer.  There are lots of free activites and games to help make the library a really fun place to be.  There are tabs - some which are clickable- Funbaraian, Fun Workshops, Activities, Books and Games,
   At the bottom of the page there are links to many different items that can help make your library a really fun and learning place. I can't guarantee it will be quite  but the students will love to come to the library and use the library for all their learning and reading. So check this out and I am sure you will find something fun and useful.


http://www.librarygames.com/