Ms. McGill's Library Website

One-Pagers in the Library

5/7/2019

Students created one-page reading responses in the library.

This work was inspired by an NCTE article by Jill Yamasawa Fletcher, linked below:
www2.ncte.org/blog/2018/11/the-magic-of-one-pagers/ .

5th Graders created responses to poems, during National Poetry Month:

4th Graders created "Lost" posters for "The Lost Words," by Robert Macfarlane:

Students were most intrigued by conkers and how to play it!
My big takeaway was how this activity not only brought insight on the readings,
but also taught me so much about the students.

Images: McGill, J. (2019). Library activity photos. CC-BY NC

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Students and staff have enjoyed several celebrations in the library over the past few weeks!
Most recently, Black History Month saw the library turned into an interactive museum;
tables displayed photos and information about famous African Americans,
as well as books and manipulatives to enrich the experience.
Students also had the choice of using QR codes to access additional information.

On Valentine's week, students experienced a "Heart to Heart" diverse book tasting,
complete with LED candles, tablecloths, and classical music.
Two school-board members joined us;
students demonstrated how to complete the Google survey at the end.

We began February by celebrating Chinese New Year; students enjoyed related books and activities, such as learning to use abaci and creating and sharing tangrams.

January saw our first "Camp Out for Reading" event--over one-hundred community members joined us! Thanks to Scouts for helping set up and take down the tents.

Other highlights include: a 5th-Grade collaboration bundling a story, writing,
spuds, and creativity:

a Kindergarten collaboration introducing them to coding with LIghtbots;

and primary students using story props on trays to retell fairy tales.

Favorite library moment: when a student experiencing
the Black History Museum explored
using a stethoscope to listen
to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong jazz
at our music station.

Images: McGill, J. (2019). Library activity photos. CC-BY NC

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Balloon Work: Rise of the PikaDragonKitty

12/15/2018

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Students in PK - 5th grades collaborated on creating balloon 'floats' to display to the school.
Melissa Sweet's Balloons Over Broadway was our mentor text.

Partners began by reading a rubric adapted from the Buck Institute for Education (www.bie.org/objects/cat/rubrics), and then revisited this rubric after finishing.
Below are some of the "Something I Learned" statements;
those from the youngest were scribed by staff.

Rise of the PikaDragonKitty: One Balloon's Backstory:
Despite extensive discussion and mediation, a set of partners could not reach agreement on what to make. The first session ended in a stalemate. At the second session one week later, they agreed to work together and created the PikaDragonKitty, a hybrid of all of their wishes combined. This partnership explained their learning in one word: "compromise."

To close, one young student's joyous comment on the project:

Images: McGill, J. (2018). Library activity photos. CC-BY NC

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October Library: Hacking Lunches, Augmenting Reality, Creating Stories

11/6/2018

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In October, students hacked their school lunches as part of National School Lunch Week;
they used Makey Makey to turn fruits and vegetables into musical instruments
and game controllers.

In the spirit of the season, students hunted book characters using tablets and
augmented reality app HP Reveal.

Students also created and shared 2-sentence scary stories.

"Aha!" moment:
when a kindergartner taught a staff person how to use HP Reveal to find a book character 'spirit,' I realized that technology is one of those great levelers, where the children can teach us as much or more than we can teach them.
Images: McGill, J. (2018). Library activity photos. CC-BY NC.

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"Like the World, Here to Spin:" Library as Affirmation

9/26/2018

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Our new school year began with a school wide common text: I am Enough by Grace Byers, Illustrated by Keturah Bobo. Students then created affirmation statements,
modeled after the ones in the book.

Like the World, I am here to Spin.

Some presented an intriguing juxtaposition--as the 2 below illustrate--

It shows the cycle--we teach and learn from one another.
Some affirmations raised questions--

--but ultimately they created a rainbow of affirmation in our school hallway.

Like the blog post, I am here to be read . . .

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"My Elementary Life in Book Covers"

6/3/2018

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5th Graders created maps of their elementary-school journey, through book covers.

The Process:

I introduced the idea
I shared a partially-completed model I was working on
Students brainstormed with peers
Some students reconnected with their past by reviewing their history of book checkouts, in our online catalog system
Some students reconnected by exploring the kindergarten and first-grade books in the library
Students created their own elementary school history in covers of favorite books.

It was fun to see some familiar faces--

Reflection:

I was interested to note how the gender of the main character on the book cover chosen compared with the reader's gender. As shown in the slideshow examples, girl readers self selected books with female main characters (such as Fancy Nancy, Junie B. Jones) and male characters (Captain Underpants, Harry Potter, Calvin and Hobbes). Boy readers, however, largely chose male main characters only; the one possible exception I found was the Magic Treehouse brother-sister duo.
This, to paraphrase Hercule Poirot, causes me "furiously to think" and to ponder future read-aloud choices; it also strengthens my goal of providing empathy-themed literature.

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Poetry Month Activities!

4/27/2018

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April poetry activities included Open Mic Poetry in the library.

I provided poetry stems:
My Name is ______
You can find me ___________
I dream of / wish for ___________.
The students rocked it!
Below are some of their gems.

My name is Pluto.
You can find me beyond Neptune.
I dream of being a planet again.

My name is Nobody.
You can find me Nowhere.
I dream of being Somebody someday.

My name is the Sun.
I am hiding today.
I dream of coming back tomorrow.
(This was inspired by our weather that day,
which was cloudy and cold.)

Our whole school participated in an April Poetry Bracket for the 2nd year in a row.
The big winner: "The Poltergeyser" by Calef Brown!

Students used tablets and Scratch Jr. to create images
representing the poems in our bracket.

Some students preferred to create their own original poems in Scratch Jr.

Reflection
What strikes me the most is
the creativity of the students, and
how poetry evokes enjoyment
in both solitary and collective experiences.
Images: McGill, J. (2018). Library activity photos. CC-BY NC.

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March Library Highlights

3/30/2018

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March fun included dressing as book characters,

Festival of the Book events,

our school-wide Free Book Swap,

and touching history,
as students enjoyed special floor maps and artifacts,
thanks to the Albemarle Resource Center and the Virginia Historical Society!

Images: McGill, J. (2018.) Library activity photos. CC-BY NC.

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School Library: Transforming and Transformative Space

3/2/2018

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February saw our library shift from a planetarium and camping space, to three new incarnations: discotheque, restaurant, and museum.

Global Play Day

Students "tasted" books from a diverse literary menu representing over 20 countries.
Later in the month, in a collaboration with the first grade team,
the library was transformed into a Museum of African American History.
Students explored hands-on materials, books, and used tablets and QR codes
to learn more about the famous African Americans.

My favorite image, blurry though it is: one student dancing, another reading.
Ideally the library space can accommodate such diverse needs.

Unless otherwise indicated, all photos McGill, J. (2018). Library photos. CC BY-NC. Thanks to L. Gibson and C. Nolan for sharing photos as indicated.

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Tent Ventures in the Library

2/5/2018

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The New Year brought new tent adventures in the library.

Last year, one of my biggest "aha's"
was that most students only knew tents
through inflatable bounce houses.
So this year we began by sitting outside the tent and discussing:
"How is a real camping tent different
than a bounce house?"
Then we read aloud the rules and entered.

Students used rulers and tissue paper
to build 'campfires' and tell stories around them.

Older students enjoyed adventure-genre book talks;
younger ones heard about Curious George going camping,
and the picture book Shelter by Celine Claire.

Later in January, the tent went down and
the library transformed into a planetarium,
thanks to a Bushnell star machine, a shadow book, and a flashlight.

The tub of constellation books was almost emptied!
Our month ended with the "Super Blue Blood Moon" event--
check out the NASA info. including time lapse video, below.
www.nasa.gov/feature/super-blue-blood-moon-coming-jan-31
Photo credits: McGill, J. (2018). Library Program Photos. CC BY-NC.
2 photos of J. McGill by Johnson, A. (2018). CC BY-NC.

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<<Previous

One-Pagers in the Library

Library Winter Celebrations

Balloon Work: Rise of the PikaDragonKitty

October Library: Hacking Lunches, Augmenting Reality, Creating Stories

"Like the World, Here to Spin:" Library as Affirmation

"My Elementary Life in Book Covers"

Poetry Month Activities!

March Library Highlights

School Library: Transforming and Transformative Space

Tent Ventures in the Library

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