We Make It Wednesdays-- Maker Clubs Begin!

One of the goals for the library this year is to have maker clubs with specific projects. Last year, our only maker club was a digital maker club. This club met throughout the year and used digital tools to promote reading. This year, with our makerspace stocked with all kinds of awesome things, we needed to provide opportunities for our students to use the space. Thanks to a Donors Choose project that was funded, we received the Hokki stools shown below. 

We also added MakeyMakeys and a Sphero robotics ball thanks to many donors, but the items we are using for the first maker club session were received through our Weatherford ISD Education Foundation. The littleBits, K'Nex, and Legos would all be put to use, as well as many craft items that we have stocked the makerspace with. littleBits are one of our students favorite things to use in the makerspace. If you aren't familiar with LittleBits, they are electronic modules that snap together with magnets. They are very easy to use and the students LOVE them!

A couple of parents had mentioned volunteering their time to help in the makerspace, so I visited with one at the beginning of the school year. Fortunately, he has knowledge and experience that lends itself to making. After talking, it was decided that we would have two clubs-- one a maker club (for creating with different objects) and one a media maker club (to use our new green screen) and then we would combine the two to create a haunted movie.

Students had to complete an application, sharing why they wanted in the club, and get a teacher recommendation. We were able to get all of the students in that turned in an application, which made me very happy. This was possible due to having an extra person, so I was very appreciative of Dr. Keith's help with our maker clubs!

The first meeting was this past Wednesday and the students were very excited! We met together as one big group and talked about what our goals were for the first session of maker clubs. We then separated into the two clubs. 

Maker club students gathered around Dr. Keith as he talked about circuits with them. He had built a ferris wheel and connected some of the littleBits to it. 

There were lots of "ooohs" and "aahhhs" as the students watched Dr. Keith connect the circuits to create buzzers, lights, and more. Then the students were given the opportunity to explore all of the pieces of the makerspace.

Also during this time, the media maker club was discovering how the green screen worked. Previously, I had contacted the creators of a green screen app called DoInk. They had shared some great tutorials for using the green screen, one of which we watched together during our meeting. It was created by dc2Norfolk and is shown below.

The students then worked to find images to use to create spooky scenes that would go into their haunted movie. Our hope is that the maker club will create the buildings and objects that will be in the movie, and the media maker club will take pictures and add those to their green screen creation. 

It seems that our first meeting was a success! We are excited to see what this week brings! 

Student Review of the New MakerSpace by Sierra & Kayla

Hey, this is Sierra and Kayla filling in for Mrs. Ford! This is the first time that we  got to see the maker space room. It was so fun there was Legos, K'Nex , and Little Bits. This Maker Space room is fun for kids to Create, Connect, Collaborate! In the room many kids enjoyed the Little Bits! Little Bits are fun creative circuits that you connect to make lights come on, and motors start up! This was a very enjoyable visit, I know that everyone loved it. To be honest though, We believe that 2nd-6th enjoy and use it the most! I would not recommend K-1st to use it because there are a lot of higher level thinking tools in this particular area. To conclude this, everyone really enjoyed this fun Creative Room.

WRAD14 Week 2 Blogging Challenge

I'm joining Matthew Winner and others in the World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge. It is not too late to join us! And certainly join in Lit World's World Read Aloud Day celebration on March 5th!

Week 2: February 17 - 23

Adult & Child

Answering the following questions with a child. The child can be a student or your own. Age does not matter. Make sure to exchange and enjoy answers with one another before sharing them with us.
I had a lot of fun answering these questions with some of my Digital Bookworm members! They came in during lunch and shared their thoughts.


1. I think everyone in the world should read…

Me: Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. Maybe because I taught 4th grade for so long, and this was the book I always started the year with. The students always wanted to read more about Fudge & Peter!

Reagan: Percy Jackson books (she has read ALL of them MULTIPLE times! :))


2. If I could listen to anyone in the world read aloud to me it would be…

Me: my grandmother because she loved to share stories. When she would read a book, she couldn't wait to share parts of it with other readers. 

Alyssa: the author who wrote the book because then you hear his/her voice reading his/her words too.


3. When I read aloud, my favorite character to impersonate is…

Me: a character from the south. I loved reading the voice of Dovey in Dovey Coe by Frances O'Roark Dowell. What an opening paragraph... "My name is Dovey Coe and I reckon it don't matter whether you like me or not.... I hated Parnell Caraway as much as the next person, but I didn't kill him."

Kayla: Gil from The Gollywhopper Games because he is so funny.

4. The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf (or e-reader) is…

Me: realistic fiction. I like finding characters to identify with. I am branching out though, so who knows in the future! 

Sierra: Suzanne Collins- her books have a lot of action, and there is always something happening!

5. My favorite part about reading aloud or being read to is...

Me: getting so involved in the story that no one wants to stop reading. I love when my students beg me not to stop, just one more chapter!

Jeffrey: When someone reads aloud to me it makes understanding the book and story easier because I don't have to figure out the hard words. 

I loved sharing these questions with my Digital Bookworms club! They had some really great answers! 

Media Maker Club, aka Digital Bookworms

As you can see by the title, our students exercised their voice and changed the name of their club. They decided, after some debate, that they wanted to be the Digital Bookworms, and so they are!

 

The club members first worked on creating an account on Biblionasium. We talked about what a great tool this is for not only keeping up with our books, but also recommending books to others. The students were very excited about logging in and making recommendations!

We have been connecting with my friend, Shannon Miller and her students in Van Meter, Iowa.  At our last meeting, we were able to connect again, which was a lot of fun!. After several students from Van Meter performed a song they were working on, we talked about ways we could connect and create. After some discussion & brainstorming, we decided to collaborate on a blog to share different types of projects. These two clubs have lots of great ideas, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with!


Already, students have created videos to advertise our book fair, brainstormed questions to ask other students about making book trailers, and had some of our group members explain how to use Animoto.

At the end, we posed for a group photo that will be a part of our new blog that we are doing with our friends in Iowa. You will have to check it out!
Creative Connections Club


Our goals are to connect, collaborate & create and this new joint blog is sure to help us meet these goals!


 

Media Maker Club - First Meeting

During the Summer Library Check-out, a soon to be 5th grader dropped in to talk books with me (well, AND to check out books!) and shared with me that she consults a video book reviewer on YouTube when she is thinking about what to read next. My  question to her was "Why don't you do that for Curtis students?" Guess what- on the first day of school, Reagan handed me her very first video book review! And from this conversation, back in the summer, the Curtis Media Maker Club was born!

We had our first meeting this past Tuesday, with thirteen 5th & 6th graders in attendance. Just the day before, I had seen something I wanted to share with them. My Twitter friend Shannon Miller, who is a teacher-librarian (and more!) in Van Meter, Iowa, had presented a keynote along with one of her 4th grade students for the K12 Online Conference. The focus of the keynote was transform the way we do things by listening to our students.  You can see it here:



We just watched the beginning so that the students could understand that this was THEIR club and I wanted to know what THEY wanted to accomplish. They brainstormed ideas with other members of the MM Club, and then shared their ideas. I took notes! :)

 

Media Maker Club Notes
 

•Interview teachers & students about books

•Book trailers about new books
•Voice to be heard about my opinion about books
•Book trailers about favorite books, work in groups-Wonder
•Book trailers to encourage others to read books
•Get more people interested in books
•Expose students to creative way of thinking,
•Group, hands-on activities
•Recommend books to students

 

I liked what they were saying! The excitement was building and they kept sharing! It was decided that they would create book fair advertisement for their project of the day. Some wanted to do video and some wanted to do audio, so they split into groups and began scripting out what they would say & do. It was fun to watch the students take on the different roles. Some were comfortable in front of the camera and others were more comfortable behind the camera, but they all worked together and before the meeting was over, we had three videos and several announcements ready for morning announcements.

 

 

 You can check out our videos here:

  

 

The members of the Media Maker Club definitely let their voices be heard during our first meeting! I can't wait to see what creative ideas they come up with for our next meeting! We are hoping to connect with some of Mrs. Miller's students next week and begin collaborating on a project!