Photos: McGill, J. and Passman, S. (2017). SPES activities. CC BY-NC
Our school enjoyed lots of book celebrations this month! In early March, we dressed as book characters and celebrated Dr. Seuss-- Then the first day of spring marked our First Annual Spring Book Swap! The 2017 Virginia Festival of the Book brought us the wonder of hearing Kwame Alexander and Ekua Holmes-- --and then Tom Angleberger and John Claude Bemis enchanted students with their creative interactive presentation! Magical, it was! Thank you everyone for sharing your hope and inspiration.
Photos: McGill, J. and Passman, S. (2017). SPES activities. CC BY-NC
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The library became a discotheque for Global School Play Day Feb. 1, 2017. Welcome to Club Dewey! Great to see staff dancing, too!
To jump-start the new year, I set up a class-sized tent in the main room of the library. One of the students asked me: "Did you stay here over winter break?!?" * * * This slideshow below details some of our activities over the weeks-- an Eagle Scout sharing outdoor survival skills, children exploring camping gear and challenging themselves with how many ways to use a bandana, enjoying nonfiction books on the outdoors, as well as fictional "survivor" stories. The final unit lesson was on the night sky--I used a Bushnell star machine to project the early February sky onto the ceiling of the Quiet Room. We practiced locating Polaris and heard some myths, while viewing the constellations. Children thanked me afterwards (wow!) and one boy insisted on giving me a 75-cent tip. I told him I would frame it and put it on the library wall. Below are some of the print resources used in the lessons. Finally, all of this aligned beautifully with the constellation ceiling tiles our fourth-graders have been making for the library, in collaboration with their teachers and the art teacher. These ceiling tiles were inspired by the ones I saw at Cale Elementary,
shared by librarian Anna B. Thank you for inspiring and sharing, Anna!
Follow up video: you've got a friend in the Stony Point Library!
SPES Library by Slidely Slideshow Students enjoyed excerpts from the book Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them, then used planning pages to create their own beasts. A tip of the hat to Lynne Farrell Stover, for this fantastic lesson! The beasts ranged from fierce to kind. One observation that jumped out at me was how upper elementary students created increasingly complex beasts. Their work not only included drawing the beast, but also noted seasonal phases and other adaptations, habitats, and care of the young. Examples are shown below, and include: seasonal coats of a beast; a beast in its lair; a beast with morphing capabilities; and a mother sea-beast carrying eggs on her chest; Fantastic work, students!
Paired text lessons with fiction and nonfiction led to rich balloon exploration. We began with the nonfiction book Balloons over Broadway. After partner and whole class discussions, students K through 5th worked building their own balloon 'floats.' We stored "works in progress" in the Quiet Room--which students renamed "Balloon Day Camp" (see below). Students brought their balloons snacks, books, and advised them to "be good" and to "play nicely with the other balloons." By the end of the week, the library had transformed into a balloon farm. Next, we read and discussed our fiction text, Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm. Students created their own balloon crops. The final step was reflecting--younger students had sentence stems of "I made" and "I learned," older students had balloon blanks to complete. Final thought: whoopsies happen! Image credits: photographs by J. McGill.
What started out as a library read aloud of Newbery-winning Last Stop on Market Street led to a collaborative audio art project. Details below. First, I read the book to our elementary students. During the reading, we paused for "Think-Pair-Share" questions I made (which you see above tabbed with the sticky notes). Examples are: "What do you think is the straw?" "What does C.J. wish he had?" "What are C.J. and his nana doing?" and "What is the last stop on Market Street?" Then, we discussed as a whole group some of the ways in which this book connected with our big-picture concept of the month--"Place." [Above: the key word, which is posted by our library door.] How did this lead to audio art? In the book, C.J. and others close their eyes and listen to music. I told the students how they could try the same, and they would see images and perhaps even words on the screen of their mind. They asked to try it, so I met with the art teacher to collaborate. Ms. Mary Lou and I noodled around with music, and finally chose the first track of this C.D. The song is called "Australian Daybreak," and opens with nature noises; gradually flutes and other instruments join in. We listened to it multiple times, and decided that listening with our eyes closed for 2 minutes was the sweet spot. After that, we opened our eyes and began drawing what was saw on our mind's screen. It was a rich experience--and we found some interesting similarities in our drawings, even though we'd done them independently! Next stop: roll it out with students! We chose third grade as the first to try. Here's how we structured it: I began by holding up the book and reminding students of the music scene on the bus; we dimmed the lights, and instructed students to listen to the music with their eyes shut for 2 mins.; after 2 mins., we quietly handed out paper and colored pencils, and they began drawing what they saw on their mind-screens. Students were very engaged and had not seen Mary Lou or my drawings-- yet the swirls, spirals, and other shapes repeated, which is intriguing. Below is a slideshow of some of the students' artwork. One student took it to a new level--he created a personalized TV screen so that it would somewhat more literally represent his "mind's screen!" Extension possibilties: other classes have requested the activity--what might happen with different music? Another idea: instructional coach Leslie G. recently attended the World Maker Faire and experienced a "sound massage"--older students might create a "sound massage" for younger students to experience. That "sound massage" might be creating a soundtrack from the book--or linked with the music--or whatever the students chose. Image credits: photographs by J. McGill.
Our digital citizenship lesson began with posing the question, "What is technology?" Thanks to mentor librarian Andrea for modeling this for me--the kids gave wide-ranging answers, and the brain and gluestick comments provoked intense debate!
We began our year by exploring the renovated library space. Lessons included library routines and a "letter splash"--younger students fished for letters and ID'd them, older students worked on parts of speech
by creating nouns from their letters.
The summer of 2016 marked my transition from classroom teacher to librarian / media specialist / phoenix. Our library is being renovated, so I made this trailer to show the work in progress (which includes me).
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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 |