Actually, It Is Rocket Science!

This week, some of our students Skyped with members of the Tarleton State Aeronautical Team, or Rocket Team as we are calling them. 

Dr. Keith Emmert, our parent volunteer who helps lead our maker club, is a math professor at Tarleton State University, and he helped arrange this partnership. The plan is for the rocket team to Skype with our 5th and 6th graders, as well as our after school maker club. Then the team will visit Curtis in March, bringing their 3D printer and rockets. Fifth and Sixth grade students will be able to watch the team launch one of their rockets, after learning more about rockets and seeing their 3D printer up close.

On Tuesday, our 5th graders Skyped with the team. Michael Daigrepont and Andrew Olbrich, explained about the competitions they participate in, shared the process of building their rockets, and answered questions from the group. 

The students were very interested in how high the rockets could go and how much it costs to build the rockets! They were also able to see video footage from a competition and footage shot from inside the rocket! It was interesting to learn what all is involved in a competition, including how they track their rockets.

The rocket team, now including Suleima Rangel, repeated their presentation with our after school maker club. 

The maker club was excited to learn that they would be able to work with a partner to design their own rocket to launch. The Tarleton rocket team will use their 3D printer to print these pieces and bring them with them for our rocket day! 

The rocket team explained how their 3D printer works, and showed students some of the things that they have printed. Dr. Keith brought rocket parts that had been printed so students understood what they were selecting for their own rockets.

For our the last Skype for the week, our 6th graders listened intently as Michael explained all about their competitions, 3D printing, and what would take place during their visit on March 4th. 

During this Skype, we had approximately 20 visitors come in from the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce Leadership group.  We were happy to have them see the great things that are happening in Weatherford ISD and in education in general!

To say we are excited about the visit from the Tarleton Rocket team is an understatement! Stay tuned for news of our rocket launch! More information about the Tarleton Rocket team can be found at www.tsuaeronautics.org and on Twitter at TSUAeronautics.

Mrs. P's Writing Contest & Skype Visit

Today was our first connection of the year, and we all had such a great time! Last week, I saw these tweets and jumped at the opportunity to connect some of our students with Mrs. P! Thanks to my friend, Shannon Miller, I have had the opportunity to Skype with Mrs. P before, and knew our students would love connecting with her again!

I sent an email to our teachers and had immediate responses from multiple grade levels! Our teachers are used to connecting and jump at the chance when it is presented! We settled on first grade & third grade. Both grades wanted to come as a grade level, which was easy thanks to our new library set up!                                                                                                            

Mrs. P wanted to talk with our students about reading & writing. She has an annual writing contest and we were hoping some of our classes might enter the contest this year. 

The theme for this year is Time Travel! When I walked by classes before the Skype visit I could hear all of the excitement as classes talked about possible topics! What I think is so fun about this writing contest is that it is a class contest. Only one entry per class is accepted, so a class can collaborate on one story or vote for the story they want to enter. There are so many options, and it makes it easy for a teacher to choose what fits best for her classroom environment!

Mrs. P was very entertaining and shared with our students how important it is to read. She even gave the students her secret about writing a story: If you can tell a story, you can write a story! Sounds easy, right!?

Mrs. P told the students that she has over 1,000 pets! She talked about polar bears and wolves! They weren't quite sure if she was "telling a story" or not, but they She then asked our students about their pets, and even about brothers or sisters.

 

She used their answers to create a story right in front of them! Our students enjoyed listening to Mrs. P create a story with characters they gave her!

It was a wonderful visit and I know our students left excited about writing a time travel story to enter into Mrs. P's writing contest! You can find more information about her contest HERE.

Reading & Connecting with Read Across America & World Read Aloud Day Day Part 1

We had a wonderful week full of reading and connecting! It was busy, but since it was our 2nd time to celebrate these two events, it was even more fun than last year, if that is possible! Like most great events, this began with a Google doc & Twitter! :)

Our celebration actually started on the Friday before as we enjoyed D.E.A.R. time and an early Dr. Seuss Birthday. Curtis readers cuddled up with their favorite stuffed animal and read or listened to a story. As I went around the school snapping pictures, it was fun to see the teachers in the older grades taking time to read aloud to their students. The days are always so full for these kiddos, and sometimes teacher read alouds are left behind.

With Monday came a late start for us due to weather, but cancellations for many others. The two author Skypes were still a GO, so I was excited! A favorite trilogy of my middle grade readers is The Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer Nielsen.

Our entire 5th grade was able to participate in a Skype visit with Jennifer NielsenIt was fabulous to be able to visit with her and have her share her thoughts about the characters and the story of Sage and how this trilogy began. Our students were able to ask Nielsen questions. They were also excited to find out that there would be a signed copy of the new release, The Shadow Throne, put in a drawing for one lucky reader! 

The day ended with a Google Hangout visit with Ame Dyckman! She is always so energetic and fun for our students! What was even more exciting was that I was able to bring in another school from our district. Seguin Elementary librarian Lori Tucker agreed to join us after our other group had to cancel. I don't think this will be her last GHO or connection!

Ame read Boy + Bot to our kinder students and they LOVED it! It is always so much fun to see the students reaction to Ame's hair color. 

I'm always amazed at the kindness of authors and how they connect with their readers. It means so much to our students, AND I can't keep their books on the shelves after a connection! ALL books by both of these authors are checked out! 

Third Grade Learns About Biblionasium

Today our 3rd graders had an awesome opportunity to connect with Marjan Ghara, the founder of Biblionasium. I first learned about this site from my friend, Shannon Miller in Van Meter, Iowa. Her students even Skyped with our students last year to help us learn more about the site.  Biblionasium is a safe, online place for young readers to keep up with their books, as well as to recommend books to friends.  You can find out more about their site HERE.

 

After students sign in, they set up their shelf with book categories, such as Favorites, Recommended, and more. We can even set up challenges, so that we are reading a variety of books.

Biblionasium has offered support all along the way as we experimented with their website this summer. Several students enjoyed keeping up with their books and earning badges while reading during their summer break. And they also earned Book Fair Bucks for logging in!

I knew this was something I wanted to use more this year, so I planned on introducing it to my 3rd graders. Through Twitter, Biblionasium reached out and offered support, which is something I've noticed about their company. If I have a question, I only have to tweet or contact them and someone responds almost immediately! They listen to suggestions from their members and then make changes so their site is even better!

 

Mrs. Ghara shared with us how Biblionasium came to be, telling us about how her children were always looking for their next book to read when they were younger.

 She answered questions from our Curtis students, who asked some great questions, by the way!

Mrs. Ghara explained to students about how important reading is and also, why it is important to be safe online.

And then she gave us a peek out her window! The students were THRILLED to see a bit of
New York!

 





It was so great to connect with Marjan and to learn more about Biblionasium. We can't wait to start setting goals, logging in our books and making recommendations.

 

Thanks so much to Biblionasium and Marjan for helping us along in our reading journey!

 

Day 3 of Dot Day WEEK!

Just when you think you have had the BEST Dot Day connection, another one comes along! Today our 3rd graders Skyped with 3rd graders in Texas and Connecticut. We shared dots and thoughts and had lots of fun!

Our first visit for the day was with my Twitter friend, Mrs. Alaniz. After we introduced our school to our friends in Coppell, we showed off our cool 3-D dots we made with the colAR Mix app.  We created our dots and then scanned them with the free app. They look like this, but they spin and play music with the app! We had great time sharing and connecting! 

Our friends in Connecticut had made some great trading cards, with dot art on one side and a challenge on the other. They will be sending some to us, so we will create some to send to them! We shared information our our schools and communities.

Probably high on the cool factor was discovering that the colAR Mix app works through the screen! We had the app, but no pictures (they were in the classroom) and Mrs. Lussier's students had the picture, but not the app. We decided to see if we could scan the picture through the computer screen and IT WORKED! 

The most exciting part of our day had to be our Google Hangout with Matthew Winner's kinder friends AND author Ame Dyckman! Matthew is a librarian in Maryland and helped organize a lot of the connecting for International Dot Day! Ame Dyckman wrote BOY+BOT and has a new book coming out in October called TEA PARTY RULES. The students were lucky enough to have Ms. Dyckman read her new book to them! It is a really funny book and we can't wait to have it in our library! 

Ame Dyckman also shared with us her dot picture, which she used hair dye to create! A fun thing about Dyckman is she loves to color her hair vibrant colors like purple and blue! The students enjoyed her hair, her energy & excitement and also her stories! It was a fabulous way to celebrate Dot Day!! 

There was time for questions from the students, who were very excited to be able to talk to a real author! 

Our Curtis students were definitely interested in all that Ms. Dyckman had to say! It was an incredible experience for all of us! ;)

And when it was all over, the students even got a goodie bag with bookmarks, stickers, and a BOY+BOT bracelet that Ame sent for them! 

I wonder what Day 4 of Dot Day WEEK will bring?!?!?!

International Dot Day Celebration - Day 1

The fun began bright and early in the library today, as I hung the polka dot banners and blew up polka dot balloons!

Notice the banners and balloons! :)

Here was our first day:

We connected with students in Pennsylvania and shared our Dot Day Padlet.

We read THE DOT and helped our friends put their "Make Your Mark" statement on Padlet.

 

 

Some of our kinders came in and loved having THE DOT read to them from TumbleBooks.

 

 

And then we bravely went where no other Curtis Kinder class had gone before... we SKYPED during the FIRST WEEKS of school with some wonderful 5th graders from a nearby district.  They were kind enough to read THE DOT to our students, who loved every minute of it! We then went to our tables and decorated our own dots, to make our mark!

 

It was a dot-filled, wonderful day!!

I can't wait to see what Day 2 brings! :)

 

 

International Dot Day Celebration

We are getting excited about the connections we will make this week for International Dot Day! We will read the book, THE DOT by Peter H. Reynolds and then Curtis ES students will connect with students in Texas, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, Wisconsin AND (thanks to Matthew Winner) we get to Skype with Ame Dyckman, author of BOY+BOT and soon to be released, TEA PARTY RULES! It is going to be a GREAT week!

Check back throughout the week to see pictures & read all about the fun!

Morning Book Club Meets Kate Messner

 

 

 

 

Our Curtis Morning Book Club has been meeting each morning before school to read Kate Messner's Capture the Flag. The students have really enjoyed the book and I promised them a "visit" with the author when they finished. This was such a success with our fall book club, who Skyped with Laurel Snyder, that I knew this was the perfect way to end our book club. When students are able to ask the author about their book and writing, it seems to deepen their understanding and connection to the book. We invited anyone who had read any of the books Messner has written to join us, including two homeschoolers who had read Capture the Flag.

It took us about six weeks to read the book and then we were ready for our visit!  The students were able to Skype with Mrs. Messner early on Tuesday, March 5th for an hour!  She shared with students how she began writing and even gave us hints about her new book, Hide and Seek, which students were given the opportunity to order signed copies!  Messner shared pictures of her community and family, which the students loved! Students also enjoyed learning that one of the books she wrote was actually started on a bus ride home from a field trip.  And there were lots of giggles when Mrs. Messner told the students about her "research" that she does for her books, including kissing a frog for her Marty McGuire book!

After she talked to the students about her books and the writing process, the book club members were able to ask questions about the characters in the book, future books, and even which book was her favorite.  It seems authors find it VERY difficult to pick a favorite book, just like you would never choose a favorite child!  :)

Our visit with Kate Messner was a wonderful way to end our Spring book club!  For more information about Kate Messner and her books, check out her WEBSITE.  


We are now anxiously awaiting our Hide and Seek books to arrive so that we can  find out what is in store for the youngest members of the Silver Jaguar Society!