And We're Back!

After a month hiatus from blogging, due to our Scholastic Book Fair and Thanksgiving break, we're back! The month between Thanksgiving and Christmas is one of those times where the days seem long but the time actually goes so fast. Since next week is Computer Science Education Week and Hour of Code, we decided to hit coding in the library and in the computer lab for grades K, 1, and 3. 2nd and 4th graders will do coding sometime in January or February, as they are both in the middle of projects right now. In the computer lab, students are playing coding games at code.org and in the library, we're of course learning with robots.

The kindergartners listened to one of my very favorite stories, Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman. Kids always love this simple story of friendship.

After reading, we used Bluebot & Ozobot. I created some mats for Bluebot with numbered spaces to get him to go to. We talked about thinking one step at a time to make him go forward, backward, and turn. With Ozobots, I let them play with markers and huge sheets of butcher paper. Here's a few photos, and here's a link to an album with plenty more pictures!

First graders did the same activities, except we read a book called Cookiebot by Katie Van Camp. Who doesn't love a great adventure that ends with cookies raining down from the sky?

Again, here are a few photos, and here's the link to a bunch more!

Second graders kicked our week off on Monday morning, Skyping with author/illustrator Salina Yoon. She was absolutely amazing, telling us about many of her books, and talking about how she gets many of her ideas from toys! She also read to us her book Be a Friend, which is one of our Mock Caldecott selections. Our friends from Council Bluffs and Arkansas were also in the conversation with us! It was the best way to start our week!

In class this week, we read two more books from our Mock Caldecott list: It is Not Time for Sleeping by Lisa Graff, and Twenty Yawns by Jane Smiley. Both books were illustrated by Lauren Castillo. In the computer lab, they logged in to Google Classroom and commented about which book they liked the best. They also used Google Drawings to draw something they'd rather do than go to bed at night. I absolutely love this project and all that it allows our students!

Third graders started reading the book House of Robots by James Patterson. We will read a few chapters each week. After reading, we played robots--of course! Third graders also played with Beebots & Ozobots this week. I showed them some of the color code combinations for the Ozobots, to add to just drawing lines. I love the versatility of the Ozobots! Here's the link to all the photos.

Fourth graders worked on moving their notes about states from our Google Read & Write highlights documents into their state slideshows. This new tool makes it so easy to organize notes. After highlighting important info, students summarize it into their own words, and then they can copy/paste into their slideshow! Next week we'll work on citing sources and adding photos.