as students enjoyed special floor maps and artifacts,
thanks to the Albemarle Resource Center and the Virginia Historical Society!
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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February saw our library shift from a planetarium and camping space, to three new incarnations: discotheque, restaurant, and museum. 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.
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. In December, we held a Toy Repair Clinic and invited secondary students and staff to come help the elementary students repair or re-purpose their toys. My trip to the World Maker Faire, where I witnessed children teaching adults, inspired me to think of a way the middle and high-school students might return to their elementary school and collaborate with the younger students. We started with 4 stations: a glue station (liquid glue, hot glue, and duct tape), a sewing station (hand needles and 2 machines), a battery station (with battery tester and new batteries donated by Lowe's Hardware Store), and a take-apart station (with screwdrivers in assorted sizes, among other tools). Above: a fully caparisoned spider monkey! Boots, cape, belt, sword, crown . . .
This event would not have been possible without the middle and high-school librarians and ed tech staff supporting it, as well as the secondary students, parents, community members and businesses who donated time and materials. *THANK YOU!* Students in preschool through 5th grade made balloon floats in the library. Melissa Sweet's Balloons Over Broadway was our mentor text. Classroom teachers preassigned student partners. We began our work by partners reading the rubric together (the Buck Institute for Education's Creativity and Innovation Rubric https://www.bie.org/object/document/k_2_creativity_innovation_rubric) and making suggestions for how to tweak it. After two building sessions, each child completed a revised rubric. Below are student responses to the rubric's stem statement "Something I learned:" Rubric Revelations:
Credits: Thank you Leslie G., for the processing and thoughtful suggestions; all photos McGill, J. (2017). CC BY-NC.
October library explorations included emoji immersion. After learning about inventor Shigetaka Kurita, 5th-grade students created their own emojis. 3rd and 4th-graders worked collaboratively to decode emoji fairy tales and idioms. 2nd graders made connections with emojis and Native American pictograph stories. Thanks to fellow librarian Charli N. for sharing this connection! 2nd graders created their own picture stories. One student was delighted to have her library work complement her outfit. Finally, it warms an educator's heart when choice time arrives and
some students choose to keep on working. The new school year always brings reiteration of what it means to be a responsible digital citizen, using technology acceptably. Kindergartners and first graders engaged in think-pair-share discussions, based on one statement explored four ways (see below). Second graders created digitally responsible superheroes. Students were given 6 "starter" superheroes from our technology department; some students chose to take it a step further and create their own original ones. Upper elementary students played a responsible use "Kahoot" game, which I revised to reflect our district's guidelines. To complete the statement "I understand that in all of my online communication, I will be--" every student chose "respectful and polite" over "snarky and flatulent." Kudos to that one student who told me that she knew what flatulent meant--and proved it.
Flatulence happens. Fourth graders each made a silhouette of themselves in art, with Ms. Mary Lou. Then, as part of our end-of-year Quest Fest celebration, Mary Lou and I collaborated to create a Where's Waldo-style search game: "Find the 4th Grader." 36 silhouettes were numbered with chalk and hidden around the school. Gameboards were created and given to students. The hunt was on! We will miss you, Ms. Mary Lou, but hope you enjoy your retirement! Images:
Lundgren, M.L. (2017). Silhouettes of 4th Graders [top photo]. CC BY-NC. McGill, J. (2017). Photos of SPES students and activities. CC BY-NC. Our school enjoyed an "April Madness" poetry bracket! We started with a hallway display board. The advance work in March included:
With all that in place, we launched! We started at the end of March, due to spring break schedule & fitting all contests in by April 30th. Takeaways/Celebrations:
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March 2020
AuthorMs. McGill is a public school librarian at Stony Point Elementary. She has previously taught all subjects in 4th & 5th grades, and creative nonfiction at UVa's Young Writers Workshop for nine summers. Categories |