Summer reading!

 What are you doing for your summer reading lists this year? Does your district want a list attached to the website? Is your library open during summer school( if you have it) . I am going to do a little research and see , so let me know what  your school/district does.  In the last district I was in we had to have a list on the website .  

Bookopolis- on line book-site for teachers and students

 

Bookopolis is a wonderful website to assist teachers and students in their love of books and reading. It is used for students in grades 2-7. Bookopolis give new ideas for reading .Students can also connect with other students about what  they are reading.

Students can explore new books, make a bookshelf, recommend books and invite friends to join,

  Teachers and librarians can use Bookopolis to build a team of readers in their classroom and libraries. Students can produce book reviews and they can give book recommendations to their classmates and peers  ( While doing this they are practicing their writing skills  and typing skills)  Students can keep a reading logs online. 

Bookopolis offers badges and  points for students who use Bookopolis to keep book logs, write reviews and report,  and invite friends to use the site. 

Earth Day activities!

     Earth day is Thursday April 22.  Here are a few sites that have activities that engage students and  bring awareness of Earth day and global conservation!

Education. Com

https://www.education.com/resources/earth-day/?msclkid=72ef303863821bc8cebd504f6a6c81cf&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Search%20-%20Spring%20Holidays%20-%20BMM&utm_term=%2Bearth%20%2Bday%20%2Bactivities&utm_content=Earth%20Day

  

  This has some good worksheets and activities for students  to celebrate earth day

Tinkerlab

https://tinkerlab.com/fifty-earth-day-activities/

  Another site using natural materials for students.

Project Learning tree

https://www.plt.org/educator-tips/earth-day-activities/

   Some more interesting activities!

Online story creators

 .https://studentreasures.com/s

Student treasures is an online book creator that student will enjoy. It looks to be fairly straightforward and it is free to create. They do sell classroom books and parents can buy their child's books for  $20.00.

There are many resources for teachers : lesson plans, writing work sheets, and ideas for projects. Check this out!

 https://storybird.com/

  Story bird’s  claim is that anyone can produce visual stories in seconds.  Illustrators and artists around the world have their art work available for use by creators of stories.  Families, student’s & teachers, and authors use story bird to create  & publish their own stories.

  Visitors to the site can read books from their favorite writers. They can create their own stories and share them with friends and families.  Teachers can help their students use Story Bird to have them learn the art of writing and have them produce their own books. (This encourages  reluctant writers and readers) Authors use story bird to give them a growing audience and connect with more readers,

Library Web Page-What is on it?

  I think it is a good idea to periodically check  your Library Web Page. 

1. Are all the links working?  Check the databases or  give student helpers a job and check them. Check other links as well. Sometimes students or teachers may tell you, but more than likely they will just turn to something else on the page or go to Google. 

2. How does the catalog look? is is up to date-sometimes just changing the background if you can , will grab some more attention.

3.If you have a place for comments or questions, check those at least weekly. Or if you have a place for student comments, that needs to be checked.( Glogster, Library Blog, ect)

4. If you have a review section, add reviews weekly. Some catalogs let students review which is a great tool.

5. If you use Google Classroom- make sure it is linking up correctly and looks right.

Wide Open School

 https://wideopenschool.org/  ( Wide Open School) is a new resource provided  by Common Sense Media. It looks to me to be a wonderful site for students, teachers , and parents ,to assist students in learning and growing and furthering their education.

    There are a multitude of learning activities that will work for students.  There is of course, Math, Science, and core school subjects with activity  links- there are also off line activities,  arts and crafts, digital activities,physical fitness,  emotional well being,life skills and virtual field trips. 

     The neat thing is also a  a daily  planning page where a day of activities / lessons are laid out.  They  also provide planning sheets for teachers/ parents/ caregivers to plan their own depending on the student. The plans are based on grade levels so students just pick their grade levels and complete the activities.

   The activities ( games, lessons, ect) are shareable with Google  Classroom , so if you are a teacher you can send specific activities to your student. The plan lays out each day of the week and activities to go with them, The students are even given a screen break and ideas on what to do! 

   I think this site will be invaluable to teachers and parents  working on virtual learning . The activities would also  be doable in the school setting. 

 

StoryJumper.com

  StoryJumper.com  is a great site ! A few years ago I did a very brief post about StoyJumper. It has come to my attention again , so I decided to really look and see what they had to offer.

 

    I think teachers and librarians would really like to use StoryJumper with their students. There  is information on the site for teachers . They give examples of projects for student activities in each subject area.( even Math & Science!!)

   There are also  ideas for different types of writing: nonfiction, expository, collaborative projects, and creative writing ideas. And there is opportunity to use student art work or use the StoryJumper art work.

 Students can have their book published online for free; Of course , there are options for the publication of the book in both hardcover or paperback for a fee.

There is a wide selection of student work,that can be read online, which will also give students a chance for reading and a spark to create their own work,

I 

https://www.storyjumper.com/school

Virtual learning / read aloud ideas

 Here are some sites with read alouds and  ideas for story times. 

Storytime with Ryan & Craig:  These two guys have a ton of  read alouds The site is easy to use . You can also search for specific titles .

Emily Arrow: Librarian Emily Arrow shares singalongs with music and stories on her YouTube channel. This will give you lots to use if you are doing storytimes this is a good place to look for ideas and songs.

Story Time From Space:  This site has  stories from space . Astronauts  read the stories

These may be helpful if you are doing in person or virtual learning. Do you use any others? I am really looking for more for the middle school age level.

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,

World Read Aloud Day!

     On February  3rd,  there will be a World Read Aloud day with several author volunteers doing a quick virtual read aloud with classrooms around the world to share the joy of reading. 

  Some of the authors are Tracey Baptiste, Debbi Michiko Florence, Hena Khan, Meg Medina, Ellen Oh, Dawn Quigley, Rajanni LaRocca, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Linda Urban, Anne Ursu,  Kate Messner and  Renee Watson. 

  Each  author will  read a five-minute sneak-preview from one of their upcoming books for readers in grades 3-7.  The whole segment will run about an hour.

 The link to the video will be on Kate Messner’s site and she will post it  a day early so that teachers / librarians can embed in Google Classroom if they want . You could also use it in classrooms or share with parents.

The presentations won’t  be long, Kate’s site has the following information.

• 1-2 minutes: Author introduces himself or herself and talks a little about his or her books.

• 3-5 minutes: Author reads aloud a short picture book, or a short excerpt from a chapter book/novel

• 5-10  minutes: Author answers a few questions from students about reading/writing

• 1-2 minutes: Author book-talks about a couple of  other books they love.

https://katemessner.com

Library bulletin boards for February

 Now it is time to think about February and what to do about the bulletin boards.   Here are some ideas :

We love to Read!- Give pink or red hearts  to students and have the write their favorite books. Students can write I Love...   and give the title and their name. Place on BB with letters of slogan on top in black letters - Can use a light background and heart /scallop edges.❤

Black History Month- Place pictures of famous African Americans . You can number them, Give some clues under each one. Students can use references or online sources to find out . Students can give guesses in to you- At the end of the month, place names under each one.

Tech tie in- Tweet a sweet Book! Give students an enlarged note. Place a cute bird on each side of the BB- Students can write their favorite titles on each note and then placed on the BB.💻

Presidents Day- You  can do this similar to Black History Month.( Use presidents that students do not know) Or you could place some presidents  and have students find little know facts on each person.

Fiction to Film: Scan covers of books that you have in your library that have been made into movies.  Place the slogan in the middle and the covers around. A slogan to add  would be: Have you read these?📺💟💟❤

Quizizz.com- another tool for library and classroom

   Here is another on line tech tool that students, teachers, and librarians will love to use. It is perfect for virtual learning and compatible with Google classroom.

  There is a lesson and quiz creator. But there are also numerous lessons and quizzes already  created that you can use . Some lessons use power point. The Quizzes are self check. 

    There are tutorials to help you set up lessons , which I did not go all the way through, But the steps seem to be easy. Teachers can assign lessons and quizzes. There seems to be a lot of information to assist teachers in using this with their classes.

 

  There are quizzes in English/ Language arts, Math, Science , Social Studies, World languages,

Creative arts, computer skills, and career/ tech education.

Check this out , I think it will be helpful!

https://quizizz.com/teachers?ref=header_tab

JeopardyLabs- great tool for library & classroom

  You are going to LOVE JeopardyLabs!  The site was created by Matt Johnson, while working on his undergraduate degree at Washington State University, Vancouver. 

  JeopardyLabs makes it easy to create jeopardy games to use with your students. Building one is easy with the template provided. The games can be played online and students will love them!!

  If you don’t want to create your own, you search for games made by others. There are over 2 million games on jeopardylabs. You can also  keep track of points during play, add more than 3 teams if needed, and edit the games to fit your specific needs.

  This is a really useful tool for review, or post/pre testing of  skills, vocabulary, or topics.

  If you go to the site and search for library skills, reading skills, or literature you will find many games that will be useful for you and your students.

https://jeopardylabs.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Library /Reading Bulletin boards for January!

  Here are some ideas that I have used in January for displays and bulletin boards

 
    Let's read til we get snowed under-  snowflakes with book titles in the center. Blue sky in background. Bottom can be a silhouette of the town or school building.

   Sink into winter reading-  student/ teacher in a cozy chair reading, book jackets surrounded the chair.

   Hibernate with a good book- bears reading ( in a cave or in the snow)

  "READBOX"-  a redbox( movie rental box)  with titles around that align with popular books that have been made into movies.

   Snow's the time to read - Make large snowflakes, place  blue titles in the center- These can be put all around the shelves and walls in the library, by the computers, on the tables, ect.

  

Books For Snowy Days~

  I have some books I like to read during the winter months- Some our old favorites and some a little newer!

  1) The Snowy Day/ Keats. This is a classic . Peter goes out into the snowy day and explores his neighborhood. When he is cold and tired , he goes home and his Mama warms him up with dry clothes and hot chocolate.

                                                              

2) The Snow Man / Briggs. Thin is a wordless picture book that the young students love to study the pictures and tell the story

3) Bear can't Sleep/ Wilson. All of Wilson's books are excellent. This one , Bear is having trouble going to sleep for winter!

4.Katy and the Big Snow/ Burton- What can I say? Students love to hear the story about Katy. The illustrations can be explored over and over.

5. Christmas at Long Pond/ George. This is another of my favorites to read. The illustrations are rich and the story is a simple one about going to cut down a Christmas tree.