- Grab an audiobook for those long (or short) car trips this summer.
- Download an ebook from your public library to your mobile device (if your not sure how, talk with your public librarian) --> 5 ebooks are lighter and take up less space in your luggage than 5 print books!
- Checkout some great bedtime stories to share.
- Recommend a favorite to a friend.
- Keep a book with you, wherever you go....you never know when you might have a little free time to catch a read!
Summer finally feels as if it might be here to stay for awhile! Summer is a great time for families to reconnect, slow down (hopefully) and enjoy time outside. It is also a great time to catch up on all that reading you've been meaning to do!
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Students and staff are back from break and full of ENERGY! For the rest of April, we will be working on reading and writing poetry. 3rd graders are writing and illustrating a line of poetry similar to Shel Silverstein's "One Inch Tall" poem. 2nd graders are writing an "I Am an Animal" poem for the animal that they have been researching in class. 1st graders are finishing their "If I was President" projects and we'll be reading and writing poems next week. K5 students created a class list poem and then worked on their own list poems, doing their best with spelling. Check out each grade's SKILLS page for more details and some pictures! Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words. - Edgar Allan Poe I have always loved reading stories that rhymed. Sandra Boyton books were some of my favorite to read to my children when they were little. Which was great, because they want to hear them again, and again, and again!
The great thing about poetry is that it comes in all shapes and sizes and covers any topic you can imagine. Pick up a book of poems today and start reading! Click on the "National Poetry Month" image on the home page and go to the Poetry Page for some poetry fun! I had the opportunity to attend the WEMTA conference in Wisconsin Dells this week. The conference brings together librarians and technology specialist, to have discussions about what we can do to bring fun and learning into the classroom with literature and technology. One of my take aways is to increase my use of QR codes. QR codes can be used anywhere & everywhere! In support of the Wisconsin Golden Archer nominees, we read each of these engaging books during library for the K5 and 1st grade classes. For the 2nd and 3rd graders, I recorded each book and the students partnered up to listen and follow along with the book (I visited three public libraries to gather enough copies of each story). They loved this! I used SoundCloud to record the stories, then embedded the audio into the Parkway Library website.
At the WEMTA conference, I learned more about QR codes and came up with an idea on how to use them inside & outside of the library. I am creating QR codes for each audio recording, pasting the QR code into the library book and establishing a QR station in the library. That way, students can check out the book, scan the QR code (requires a PC/Mac or smart device with a QR code reader app) and listen to the story in the library at the QR station or at home, snuggled into their favorite reading spot. One of the 3rd grade teachers is also looking to work with her students to record their reading of a favorite picture book. They can then create QR codes that we can paste into the library books, so everyone at Parkway can enjoy their read alouds! Visit the Pics & Vids page to We have had fun reading the Golden Archer Award nominees in library over the last couple of weeks! The K5 and first grade students have loved the books and will have a hard time selecting their FAVORITE one. I look forward to the voting process.
K5 will complete a paper ballot, as well as create a graph of their votes. Grade 1 will vote online, using a Google Form, and analyze the results. Look for the results from Parkway and stay tuned for the official results from WEMTA for the book that wins the Wisconsin Golden Archer award. We look forward to placing the official seal on the award winning book I've been taking pictures of the students working in the library. I want to capture the creativity, collaboration and fun they are having. As I download these pictures from my iphone, I am loading them to the website in order to share with everyone.
Also, since I haven't played with one of my favorite video tools lately (ANIMOTO), so I decided to whip together a quick video of January in the Parkway Library. Check out the Pics & Vids page. Mrs. Werner has challenged her third grade students to select and read 40 books this school year. She was inspired after reading Donalyn Miller's book "The Book Whisperer." I love this idea and enjoy seeing her students come to library class with their Reader's Notebook. They use this resource to keep track of their book choices. I have decided to take on this challenge as well. I've begun tracking my 40 books using my LibraryThing account. Visit the Olympics 2014 page on this website for all sorts of links, videos and activities about the Winter Olympics. The Olympics are a great opportunity for integrating the real-world into the classroom: the health and fitness of the athletes, the science of increasing speed on the ice, the geography of Russia, the history of the Olympic games; not to mention all the great literature available on the Olympics and the athletes.
In the library, we will have displays about the Olympics and we'll be keeping track of the Olympic Medal count! We can't wait for the games to begin!! The internet is a blessing and a curse. Since it is readily available all the time, I can find great ideas to share with teachers and for my own use in the library, BUT I can also loose hours of my day trolling this vast and wonderful resource for information. It is easy to follow an idea and link to another and still another!
My 2014 priority is to start my web browsing with an idea in mind, in order to keep my focus. I will concentrate on finding the resources that I am interested in and in the process free up some of my time for other activities that I enjoy. How will I accomplish this? - focus on my top twitter feeds; there are several folks I follow closely on twitter, as they are full of great ideas and recommendations for grade school. - use Pinterest for activity ideas after selecting a topic, book or author. If you haven't used Pinterest before, you have no idea how much time you can lose when browsing the unlimited ideas for work, home, travel, etc, etc, - shut it off after a predetermined time! I love my technology, but sometimes you just need to turn it off (or at least turn off the ringer). The third grade students had a great time taking the Almanac Challenge. See their page to see pictures of the winners! (go to Skills > Grade 3)
Grades K5-2 had read alouds about SNOW to get them ready for winter break. I hope that there is enough snow for the kids to have fun, but not too much to keep parents busy shoveling or to ruin holiday travel plans! Check out the WINTER HOLIDAYS page (last link on the left-hand side nav) for some fun holiday games. The students especially had fun creating snowflakes online. Give it a try......it's lots of fun! Wherever you are over the winter break, read a little, share a little and have some snowy fun! I look forward to seeing everyone in January 2014! |
Mrs. GallitzMy name is Mrs. Gallitz and I am the librarian at Parkway Elementary School. I received my teaching certification and library media certification from Cardinal Stritch University. I also hold a Masters of Library and Information Science from UW-Milwaukee. Previously, I was a project manager and computer programmer. Archives
May 2014
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