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
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!
.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!
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.
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 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
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.
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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,
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.
Now it is time to think about February and what to do about the bulletin boards. Here are some ideas :
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
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.
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
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
Here are some ideas that I have used in January for displays and bulletin boards
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!
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!
December is almost around the corner so it is time to start thinking of new bulletin boards. I like to plan ahead so I start now to figure out what I will put up. I usually keep my bulletin boards from year to year, So many times I can just pull on out and put it up. I do not put the same one up each year- I alternate.
We had a rough week last week. Family friends of ours lost their young daughter at the age of 14 month. The young mother said that her youngest son who is about 3 years old didn't have a clue what was going on.
So I was trying to remember what books on death of a family member or pet would be good for that age group.
1. I miss you/ Pat Thomas. This book explains that death is natural and that feeling grief and loss are feelings that you may have. As a counselor and psychotherapist, Thomas brings a simple story line for ages 3-6 that is easy to understand.
2. Ida Always/ Carson Levine. A story of two polar bears, Gus and Ida. Ida becomes sick with an illness.
She can't seem to get well, and she later dies. Again told in simple language that is easy to understand.
September is National Literacy Month. You can challenge your students and patrons , young and old, to go to the library and pick a great book to read.
Parents, teachers, and librarian can encourage making reading part of daily life. You can also tell stories, talk to students about their favorite books, take them to the library or book store to get books. Every ordering online will encourage students
Some other ideas: Read to you children/ students. Volunteer to read to grand kids, school kids, or neighbors.
You can donate books that you have already read.
Here is a website that you might checkout.
How can we help students this fall in the library? What if the library is not accessible?
First of all Encourgare reading and learning
1. If students can not come to the library for books that consider "curbside Pickup" or "Delivery".
Do a video / zoom ( YouTube or something your school uses) and explain to student how to do holds on your computer system. Then staff can handle materials , get them delivered or have them picked up bu the students.
Develop a system also ( and explain it ) on how to do returns to make sure the student knows what to do,
( Make sure teachers and staff also know how to request materials) Do this even if you open so that if students are really busy they can still get books and resources)
2. Do read alouds. Again if you cant do this in person, set up a video / zoom/ google meet or whatever works . Take time at the end of discuss the book Set up a program where students can answer questions or further discuss the book.
3, Promote digital books that you have in the library system. Promote Digital book sites that have free online reading, Promote digital resources that you have for classroom use. Put it on your website, and promote with flyers or anyway you can.
Getting your teachers to buy into this will help and give you time to advance the library!
