Let the Research Begin!

After a wonderful Christmas break, we started the new year on Monday.

With research projects on the horizon in each grade level, it is important for the students to know HOW to find information and WHERE to find information. Our students have access to several different databases, but too often these are forgotten when research assignments are assigned. One way to make sure teachers don't forget about the paid databases is to go through the students. If I teach the students all of the databases then they will remind their teachers about it! 

One of the things that make accessing our databases so easy is MackinVia. This is what we use to house all of our e-resources. Students can access ebooks, online databases and audio books. With our recent update, students only need the User ID and the Password. There is no need to select a school.

Here students can easily locate our online databases without additional logins. Several of these databases also have read along capabilities which make them a great tool for Daily 5 time. 

We also looked at World Book online. This is our first year using this database. One aspect the students are really enjoying is the Dramatic Learning part. Here they can find plays and reader's theater  grouped by grade level, subject and title. 

We explored both World Book Kids and World Book Student. Students talked about the differences between the two, recognizing that sometimes it might be more effective to use one rather than the other.

Fifth graders are doing research on US regions, so that was our focus as we looked at World Book Online as well as TrueFlix. TrueFlix is a perfect tool for this, as there is an ebook for each region of focus.  Students can also easily find additional resources on TrueFlix, as well as a short video clip. Fifth graders will be presenting their research with either a Weebly website or a Thinglink.  Before Christmas break, students came to the library to learn about these two tools. I can't wait to see what they create!

Third graders have been enjoying PebbleGo Biographies, so we looked at the new PebbleGo Science and all it has to offer.  While looking at this, we talked about using key words to search for specific topics.  

  

In addition, we discussed the importance of citing sources while doing research. PebbleGo makes it easy for students to cite sources!

My hope with these lessons is to equip students with research skills that will enable them to get started on their assigned projects. As a classroom teacher, I remember it being difficult to teach research skills, assign a project and also have the time to actually have students complete the project. By teaching research skills to students before the classroom teacher assigns the project, it allows the teacher to focus more on the actual project. 

In future lessons, we will focus more on keyword searches and practice citing sources. 

Library Centers

With encouragement and help from my fabulous fellow librarians, my Twitter PLN, and Cari Young's Library Centers blog, I set up library centers this past week and couldn't be happier!  Several of the other librarians in our district had started using centers recently and then the Twitter chat #TLElem was all about library centers this past week!  It seemed like NOW was the time to jump in so I am starting out with a few, and using them for just two weeks.  Due to our schedule, classes come to library for lessons every two weeks, so this way, everyone will have a turn.  

This is what we started with this week:

The Puzzle Table- a definite hit with students of all grade levels!  I'll change this out as the puzzle is completed. 

An ocean themed puzzle paired with ocean related books

The Pop-Up Book Center- FINALLY I have a way to share the pop-up books with students!  Even the books that come with the extra inserts, like this year's Texas Bluebonnet winner Postcards From Camp, are perfect for this table.

The Bookmark Center- students have card stock, markers, crayons, etc to create their own bookmarks.  For the younger students, there our bookmarks to color. Stickers would make a great addition to this center.


The Research Center- here, students are given the opportunity to research a topic of their choice using databases and resources provided by the library. Bubble maps are at the station so that students can document their learning.  Students enjoyed using TrueFlix while here, as well as WebPath Express.  The hardest part seemed to be narrowing the topic, which would make a great library lesson in the near future!  

The Almanac Center- I found a set of almanacs with a question of the day flip chart in the media closet.  The almanacs are a bit outdated, but the students are still enjoying them.  I also added a 2013 almanac to the table for the students to compare.  There are activities to go with the almanacs but the students enjoyed just looking through it on their own for the first time.  I even had a teacher come through and learn a couple of new things!  :)

The Book Review Center- This is something I have done in the past and it fit perfectly into the library centers.  Students will create a speech bubble with the title, author and a short summary of a book they have recently enjoyed.  These will be displayed in the library windows for other students to use when searching for a good book to read.

Leisure Reading Area- The LRA is always an option for students because sometimes you just want to read the book you just checked out!  It was surprising that with all of the new centers, several students in each class wanted to READ.  Love it!  

After one of these girls finished her book, she passed it to her friend and went on to the next one!  

Depending on the grade level, small adjustments had to be made during the week.  When 1st grade came in and enjoyed A Butterfly is Patient by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long, they had the option of going to a table with butterfly books as one of the centers.  Students used the books to draw and write about butterflies.

As one of the other librarians said, centers won't replace reading books with the students, but it is a nice addition to our library program!  Now for some fine-tuning for week 2 of the library centers!  Any other center ideas??

Busy End to January!

Whew!  What a week!  There was a lot of fun and excitement in the Curtis LMC this week!  Here are a few highlights:


Monday we celebrated The One and Only Ivan  by Katherine Applegate winning the Newbery Medal and This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen winning the Caldecott Medal.  The students were excited to see what books actually won since we have been looking at potential winners for awhile now.

Wednesday our Morning Book Club had a 
special guest.  January is School Board Appreciation month and Weatherford ISD School Board President Charlie Martinez came to visit Curtis Elementary.  He sat in on our meeting and listened as we read Kate Messner's Capture the Flag.  The book club members were extra excited because we had finalized details for our Author Skype!  We are all very excited about Skyping with Kate Messner on March 5th!



On Thursday, I enjoyed having my sixth graders in the library and talking with them about creating a "reading community" that talks about books.  I shared with them a new "library center" I was going to set up for February, where they can create "Book Talk Bubbles" when they finished a book they were excited about.  I had seen some examples on Van Meter's website and seen Shannon Miller talk about it on Twitter.  It seemed like a great way for readers to share books they had recently finished.  It was an easy set up, and the students that created the Book Talk Bubbles this week did a fabulous job!

And then it was Friday!  Friday, 4th grade classes came in for a Research/Web Evaluation lesson. Many of the grades are working on Informational Text and Research right now, so students (and teachers ;) ) were reminded about some of the extra resources we have available.  TrueFlix was a favorite resource and provides a great opportunity for students to experience nonfiction text features.

We had a great week!  Now it is time to get ready for BOOK FAIR!!  Our Book Fair will be Feb. 11-15, with two family events.  We will have Family Night on Feb. 12th and Breakfast & Books on Valentine's Day.  Look for more information coming home this week!