Third Graders "Hangout" with Zoo Atlanta

We had our first Google Hangout in May and it was an incredible experience!  A third grade teacher, Mrs. Crowley, came into the library one day wanting to arrange a Skype with her students before the end of the year.  They were just finishing the Newbery winner, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate so I thought we might try to Skype with the Atlanta Zoo, where the real Ivan lived for part of his life.  Unfortunately, Zoo Atlanta said that they were not doing Skypes at this time, but would let us know if something changed.  Well, a couple of weeks later, I received an email that invited our students to a Google Hangout. Hmmm, I had heard of a Google Hangout, but had never done one, so I quickly started looking for people to "hangout" with!  :)  

I went to the Zoo Atlanta YouTube channel and saw how cool it was!  I couldn't wait for our students to have this experience!  Not only would they be talking to people at the zoo, but they would also see and hear classes from other parts of the country.  The students prepared questions and we submitted those to the zoo officials before the hangout began.  Mrs. Crowley's and Mrs. Vestal's third graders came to the library and anxiously waited for our "hangout" to begin.  After introductions were made, students were able to hear from Ivan's caretaker at the zoo.  

The students listened intently to Carvel, the education instructor with Zoo Atlanta, as well as Jodi Carrigan, who took care of Ivan for the past 10 years.  It was fascinating to hear about the "real" Ivan and what his life was like at the zoo.  

We even got to see one of his paintings!

Here is the entire Hangout where you can see some of our Curtis students ask questions! Our students are in the sixth tile at the bottom.  :) In addition to the classes that were shown, many other classes across the country watched the live feed of the hangout!  We can't wait to try this again!

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!