The year has flown by! Click on the link below to see a short video of some of the happenings in the HCS Library this year!
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Welcome back to a brand new year! This year we shook up the traditional summer reading activities by giving students a Summer Reading Game Board with suggested reading activities. This approach was designed to encourage students to try different reading-related options with the hope that they might discover a new reading experience they would enjoy. I have had positive feedback from parents who told me their children enjoyed having a variety of options to explore.
Third graders worked very hard on their biography Power Points. They read and took notes on their chosen person using information from two different sources, a book and a website. They were looking for important events in the person's life as well as character traits and challenges they had faced. (See the earlier post to see how this project began.) The nuts and bolts of building a Power Point were new to third graders. They learned how to select images that were copyright friendly, store them in a folder and insert them into their project. On the final slide of their project, students cited the sources where they had found their information. Finally, they presented their projects to the class. Students learned a lot from this project. Aside from the skills required to create a Power Point, they had to synthesize information from two different sources and decide which facts were important to include. They also had to consider keeping the design of each slide simple and appealing to viewers. Following student presentations, we had a class discussion about what they had learned. In many classes the conversations centered on the accomplishments and character traits of the people they had studied. One student commented, "I learned that if you work really hard at something you will probably do it." I thought that was a great take-away from a third grade inquiry project. Click on the link below to see a few examples of the third graders' projects: Amelia Earhart Albert Einstein Jacques Cousteau Jane Goodall Grade 1 students have been finishing up an inquiry project that began with us reading one of Kate Messner's newest books, Over and Under the Pond. This book was inspired by the author's trip to a pond in upstate New York. The illustrator switched the viewpoint from a bird's eye view looking down on the pond to a view from the bottom of the pond looking up at the characters paddling around the pond on a row boat. There are glimpses of squirrels, herons, crayfish, mink, moose and many other animals that live in the vicinity of a pond. After reading the book we brainstormed animals that might live near a pond in the Connecticut woods. We created a list as a class. Then each student chose an animal to research. They read a book and gathered information from PebbleGo, taking notes using an organizer. Then students used their notes to write about their animals. They described their animals special features and gave details about where its life cycle, where it lives, and what it eats. Students recorded their information using the Chatterpix app. Click on the links below to see and hear some of the first graders' work: Otter Duck
Fourth grade students did a super job writing biography poems after reading a biography about a person they had known very little about. This inquiry project was based on a project from Carol Kulthau's and Leslie Maniotes' book, Guided Inquiry Design. Their task was to read and discover their biography subject's character traits, motivations and accomplishments. After reading and taking notes using a graphic organizer, students used a biography poem template to write a poem about the person they had read about. If they had done their job well, the class was able to understand the important attributes of the person they described in their poem. Here are a few examples of their work:
One of the most powerful ways to engage students in their own learning is to give them opportunities to ask questions and the opportunity to investigate to find answers. Inquiry based learning has been found to be an effective way to meet the rigorous Common Core Standards. Furthermore, studies have shown that when students discover information for themselves, rather than being taught with the "stand and deliver" method of instruction, they are more likely to retain what they have learned. NextGen Science Standards and the new Connecticut Social Studies Framework both favor inquiry based learning. With this in mind, I have launched my own study of inquiry based learning. I have read multiple texts on inquiry learning and have designed lessons for students that provide many opportunities for inquiry. I have undertaken this exploration to discover for myself what methods of inquiry based instruction prove to be most effective. Following are some of the things I have found to be true: Students become better at asking questions with practice. This is most clearly observed with kindergarteners. Since the beginning of the year we have done a lot of work with questioning. Before we read a nonfiction text, I will ask students what they know about the subject and what they wonder about. If I hold up a nonfiction book about elephants at the beginning of the year, and ask kindergarteners what they wonder about elephants, most response will be statements. Many times, they have mistaken beliefs about a subject so I will model turning their statements into questions. We write those questions on the board and listen for answers while we read. Kindergarten students have had Skype visits with two authors: Jeff Mack and Monica Carnesi. The authors have read one of their books and told students a little bit about themselves. A highlight of the Skype visit is the opportunity to ask questions. I have learned that it is best to choose questions ahead of time. When I first asked kindergarteners what they would like to ask the author, they often responded with statements. "I like your books." When prompted what they would like to know about the author, I have heard questions like, "What is your favorite color?" They need guidance, especially the first time, to come up with some questions about the author's work. I helped them compose questions for the first visit. They asked Jeff Mack, "How do you make your pictures?" "How did you get to be such a good artist?" "Do you have a favorite character?" Jeff Mack did a wonderful job responding to their questions. He had asked have their questions sent ahead which gave him the opportunity to have visuals prepared while he answered. His answers made an impression on our students. They loved having Jeff Mack read to them, but being able to ask him questions gave them a personal connection to him. When the second opportunity arose to have a Skype visit with author/illustrator Monica Carnesi and ask her questions about her work, students came up with questions that reflected their experience with Jeff Mack. One kindergartener, recalling that Jeff Mack had given them a sneak peak of a book he was working on asked Monica Carnesi, "What are you working on now?" Objects or powerful images are good ways to stimulate students' interest and questions. First graders did a brief inquiry project on dinosaurs after reading a fun fiction book called, What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night which featured photographs of toy dinosaurs creating mischief. With kindergarten and first grade, I often explore the differences between fiction and nonfiction. First graders had the opportunity to create their own mischievous scene with toy dinosaurs. The next time we met, we explored the nonfiction world of dinosaurs. I gave them each a small toy dinosaur that was modeled after a real dinosaur. I asked students to carefully observe their features and draw a picture the dinosaur. Then I asked them to do some wondering about their dinosaurs and write some questions. For example, 'Why does this dinosaur have such a large tail?' We used PebbleGo to try to discover what kind of dinosaur it was and to try to answer some of the questions they had wondered about. Students were very engaged with this short project. Asking questions using the QFT and Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Fourth grade students did an inquiry project on national parks and famous landmarks in the United States. We started by reading a book called, Lady Liberty's Holiday, a fiction picture book about the Staue of Liberty traveling around the U.S. visiting well known places. I wanted students to become familiar with the library's reference sources before embarking on an investigation of the landmarks mentioned in the book, so I had all students work in pairs and generate questions about the Statue of Liberty using the Question Formulation Technique Dan Rothstein wrote about in his book, Make Just One Change. I projected a large image of the Staue of Liberty on the Smart Board. Students came up with as many questions as they could, changing any statements into questions. I then had them categorize their questions as closed: could be answered in one or two words or open: needing a longer explanation. Student pairs were instructed to choose one open question and one closed question to investigate. I introduced them to Britannica School and Webpath Express to search for answers to their questions. When students stop to consider if a question they have asked is an open or closed question it focuses their attention on the question and gets them thinking about what kinds of questions are helpful for different situations. A closed question with a short answer may be just the thing to provide information about something they are curious about but an open question is often more suitable for a research project where they will be diving into a topic in greater depth. The next phase of this project was for students to choose one of the landmarks from Lady Liberty's Holiday to find out more about. Their mission was to create a custom map with a pin on the map for their landmark. The were to pretend they were tour guides and were to provide information a visitor might want to know about their location. This time I had students come up with questions using question starters Where? When? What? Why? How? I chose this method because I wanted to steer students to ask questions that would encompass all the important features of their place much like a newspaper reporter would write an article. This project was both challenging and time consuming. Ultimately they were successful generating questions and finding answers to them. See the link below to visit one of the class's maps. Lady Liberty's Map Looking for connections in the Immersion Stage of Inquiry
Carol Kuhlthau and Leslie Maniotes write about finding a "third space" in an inquiry project in their book Guided Inquiry Design. Third space is where the student's world meets the curriculum. School subjects are more engaging to students when they have a connection to the topic. Learning becomes more relevant and long lasting. I kept this is mind when designing a biography project for fourth graders. I chose a good selection of picture book biographies on the categories of Black History and Women's History. We did a "book tasting" with the books which meant I put a number of books on each table. Students chose a book that looked interesting and dipped into it for a few quiet minutes trying to get a sense of what the book was about. Then we switched tables 3 times so students had a chance to sample a number of books. I emphasized that I wanted them to find a biography about someone they had a connection to in some way. I was pleased when students indicated they had found someone they were interested in reading more about. Their job was to read their chosen biography and look for character traits and motivations of that person.
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Squishy Circuits Playing with Play Doh was a fun blast from the past for our fourth graders when we explored Squishy Circuits. This project was the original idea of Anne Marie Thomas of St. Thomas University. She discovered that salty Play Doh conducts electricity, while a play doh made with sugar will act as an insulator and will not let electricity pass. With that knowledge, building colorful sculptures and integrating simple circuits becomes possible. No soldering needed! Hook a battery up to a couple of lumps of dough, stick in a bulb and you have a simple circuit! That is, if you have thought through the path of the electrons. Those electrons will take the easy way home ( a short circuit) if given the chance, without the trouble of lighting the bulb. Once again, some tinkering was necessary. In our second STEM Club session, lights were lighting, motors were spinning and buzzers were buzzing during our Squishy Circuits night. |
The votes have been counted. Our second grade students favored Finding Winnie, by Lindsay Mattick and illustrated by Sophie Blackall as the book they thought deserved to be the 2016 Caldecott Award winner in our Mock Caldecott Event. (The real judges agreed with them, they will be happy to learn!) A distant second choice for our second graders was Wolfie the Bunny by Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Zachariah Ohora. Clustered in third place were the books Water is Water, Toys Meet Snow, and Drum Girl Dreaming.
Some of their comments were insightful, "I like this book because the pictures helped me understand the book and I loved the bright colors." And "the pichers are good it even did reflechin on the water like it dose for real."
I look forward to sharing the results of the second graders' votes as well as the real Caldecott judges' decisions.
The work of evaluating and comparing requires a lot of thought. Putting themselves in the shoes of the judges gives students an opportunity to read a book closely and really think about it. What is the book trying to say?
How much additional information do the pictures offer? And finally, which illustrator did the best job?
Some of their comments were insightful, "I like this book because the pictures helped me understand the book and I loved the bright colors." And "the pichers are good it even did reflechin on the water like it dose for real."
I look forward to sharing the results of the second graders' votes as well as the real Caldecott judges' decisions.
The work of evaluating and comparing requires a lot of thought. Putting themselves in the shoes of the judges gives students an opportunity to read a book closely and really think about it. What is the book trying to say?
How much additional information do the pictures offer? And finally, which illustrator did the best job?
Second graders have been learning about the Dewey Decimal System and how the library is organized. We took a break from Dewey recently, to have a Mock Caldecott Contest. Every January, a panel of judges, representing the American Library Association, meets to award the next Caldecott Medal. This award is given to the illustrator of the "most distinguished" picture book published in the United States the previous year. The judges consider things like the illustrator's technique, how well the illustrations convey the theme of the book and how well they believe the illustrations appeal to children. The real Caldecott committee considers hundreds of eligible books in their decision. Our second graders looked at ten.
The ten picture books we included in our contest were books that children's literature reviewers and bloggers thought were front runners for the award . To kick off our contest, I read aloud Lindsay Mattick's wonderful book Finding Winnie, the True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear, illustrated by Sophie Blackall. This book is the story of the author's great-grandfather, Henry Colebourn, who purchased a bear cub from a trapper at a train station in Canada. At the time, Henry Colebourn was on his way to fight in World War I. 'Winnie," as Colebourn named the bear, was soon beloved by his regiment. She traveled with them by train and overseas by ship to England. Before the regiment reached the front lines of the war, Colebourn brought her to the London Zoo to live. Winnie became a favorite of many children who visited her there, including Christopher Robin, son of A.A. Milne. The friendship between Winnie and Milne's son inspired the well-known series Winnie-the-Pooh.
Second grade students loved this book! I did not tell them ahead of time that this was the story of Winnie-the-Pooh (although a few guessed). It was great fun to see this realization occur. The kids marveled that Winnie was so friendly she was allowed to have visitors right in her zoo enclosure! The author includes photographs in the back of the book that show Henry Colebourn with Winnie and the real Christopher Robin petting the bear. The photographs and journal entries in the back matter of the book drove home the fact that this was a true story.
We discussed how students would judge this book and the nine others in our contest. It was up to them to read each book with a partner and then evaluate how well the illustrator had done. On a scale of one to five, they had to rate how well the illustrator used the medium. I explained to them that this word meant what the artist used to make the picture. They had to pretend they were an art teacher grading the art work. Did the illustrator do a good job using watercolors? They could circle five. Next they considered how well the illustrations helped them to understand the story and third, if they thought children (like themselves) would like these pictures and want to read the book.
It was very enjoyable watching students squirreled away around the library taking turns reading to their partners. They were very engaged in this activity. The comments I overheard showed that students were taking their evaluations quite seriously. "This illustrator uses beautiful colors." "The pictures have a lot of detail." Stay tuned to find out the winner of our Mock Caldecott Contest.
The ten picture books we included in our contest were books that children's literature reviewers and bloggers thought were front runners for the award . To kick off our contest, I read aloud Lindsay Mattick's wonderful book Finding Winnie, the True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear, illustrated by Sophie Blackall. This book is the story of the author's great-grandfather, Henry Colebourn, who purchased a bear cub from a trapper at a train station in Canada. At the time, Henry Colebourn was on his way to fight in World War I. 'Winnie," as Colebourn named the bear, was soon beloved by his regiment. She traveled with them by train and overseas by ship to England. Before the regiment reached the front lines of the war, Colebourn brought her to the London Zoo to live. Winnie became a favorite of many children who visited her there, including Christopher Robin, son of A.A. Milne. The friendship between Winnie and Milne's son inspired the well-known series Winnie-the-Pooh.
Second grade students loved this book! I did not tell them ahead of time that this was the story of Winnie-the-Pooh (although a few guessed). It was great fun to see this realization occur. The kids marveled that Winnie was so friendly she was allowed to have visitors right in her zoo enclosure! The author includes photographs in the back of the book that show Henry Colebourn with Winnie and the real Christopher Robin petting the bear. The photographs and journal entries in the back matter of the book drove home the fact that this was a true story.
We discussed how students would judge this book and the nine others in our contest. It was up to them to read each book with a partner and then evaluate how well the illustrator had done. On a scale of one to five, they had to rate how well the illustrator used the medium. I explained to them that this word meant what the artist used to make the picture. They had to pretend they were an art teacher grading the art work. Did the illustrator do a good job using watercolors? They could circle five. Next they considered how well the illustrations helped them to understand the story and third, if they thought children (like themselves) would like these pictures and want to read the book.
It was very enjoyable watching students squirreled away around the library taking turns reading to their partners. They were very engaged in this activity. The comments I overheard showed that students were taking their evaluations quite seriously. "This illustrator uses beautiful colors." "The pictures have a lot of detail." Stay tuned to find out the winner of our Mock Caldecott Contest.