Southwest Media

Summer Reading (and other Fun Activities)

I’m a bit late in saying this, but Summer is finally here!

I know you’ve been riding your bikes, enjoying a local pool, and sleeping late. Don’t forget about reading this summer. You may get tired of hearing it, but it is super important that you spend some time each day reading a book, magazine, newspaper, or other reading materials. Southwest has some suggestions on our Summer Reading Page. It’s a special Rocket Ship web Launch page to get your on your way to some good books!

We’ll see you back at Southwest in August for our Open House and for your next Learning Adventure!

Kindergarteners Eat Eric Carle’s “Pancakes”

I’m working my way back to blogging about our spring library adventures. During March Kindergarten students read Eric Carle books. They acted out House for Hermit Crab, watched a video of Eric Carle’s painting and collage process, made Seahorse tissue paper characters, wrote their own “Mister Seahorse” sequel, and made pancakes!

We followed the recipe in Mr. Carle’s “Pancakes! Pancakes!” book and used Bisquick instead of flour. Most of the students even tried the pancakes with strawberry jam! Yum!

Second Graders Research Sports

Students are working pairs and trios to follow the Super 3 Research Process in a simple way. They read for information about a sport of their choice and have criteria for sharing information on a poster. This is the “Plan” step. The step shown in the poster is the “Do” step when they use what they have learned to draw a picture. (Next week we will be writing facts on the posters). When they are finished, students will “Review” their work. They will talk about what went well and what they could have changed in either the process or the product to do a better job.

Book Fair Success!

Thanks to everyone for supporting the book fair last week! I’m pleased to say that we exceeded our funding goals for the spring fair. We will have $600 to purchase the nominees for the 2012 North Carolina Childrens Book Award and $250 to buy new headphones for the computer lab. The extra will go into the library account for general supplies.

The photos above are from our Potato Character Contest. I’m thrilled with how creative their designs were! I am going to send them home before they turn from a literature-art project into a science project. A few potatoes are getting a bit sprouty! Thanks to our ‘secret’ judges, Mrs. Eckard and Ms Williamson, who made the hard choice in deciding which potatoes won coupons to the book fair. I look forward to seeing what your creative minds come up with for the contest next year!

Book Fair is Coming! Join the Reading Carnival from March 7th-11th in the library. We are selling books to raise money to buy new library books and to purchase headphones for the computer lab.

You may shop from 8-3:30 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. On Thursday students have a half day and the fair will be open until noon. Join us for Science Night on Tuesday from 6-7. Students will be displaying science projects, the Science Center is providing hands-on centers from their Inquiry Festival, and we will be serving pizza!

Lemonade Stand

Fifth Graders need to practice using spreadsheets before going to middle school. To generate data we can use in Excel, students played the game Lemonade Stand. Each student has 15 game days to make decisions related to economics. Their partner records data in the Excel spreadsheet, and then the roles switch. Playing the game will certainly be the highlight of the unit, but the ultimate goal is to build knowledge related to formatting and using a spreadsheet. We had some game pros in the 5th grade, so you might want to test your business sense and give Lemonade Stand a try. Currently the record for a full game is a profit of $55. Try it at home and see how you do!

PowerPoint Narration

Second graders have been studying weather and landforms in the context of learning about another country. They have used the Super 3 steps to do their research and are at the final point of their multimedia presentation, which is to add the narration. In the past, this has been a tedious recording process done with individual groups. This year we have acquired a few Digital Voice Recorders. Each group took turns recording the narration for their slide on a single track. It is an easy step to add these sound files to their project. We can’t wait to have ‘movie day’ and watch all of the 2nd grade projects!

Jack and the Beanstalk

Kindergarten students have been reading fairy tales during January. This week we are finishing our unit by creating puppets students can take home. Each student got 6 character puppets from the story to color and assemble. We talked about how real people usually don’t have hair the same color as their shirt and pants. Developmentally, some students still like using all the same color on a picture, but some students decided to try different colors. Doing a craft as a whole class is always very exciting in Kindergarten! I hope students enjoy retelling the adventure of Jack and the Giant at home with their families.

PebbleGo

Second Graders are learning about different countries around the world. The goal is to connect knowledge they are learning in social studies about geography concepts. In the computer lab, we took the time to use PebbleGo, an online database. PebbleGo has many features and topics. The teachers love it because it includes articles about hundreds of animals, weather, landforms, seasons, and space. The students love it because it reads aloud, is colorful, has videos and sound clips. You can access PebbleGo at home, but you do need the password. Students might remember it, but if they don’t, you can ask their teacher or me.

In the next two weeks, second graders will be creating powerpoints about their assigned country. We couldn’t do it without great books and websites like PebbleGo!

Potential Caldecott Winners

     All Second Graders and a few First Graders learned about the Caldecott Medal. This award is given each year to one book for expert illustrations in childrens’ literature. We looked at 12 books that have wonderful illustrations in different styles. Students worked in pairs to write a short booktalk about their book to explain why it should win the Caldecott Medal. You can see the rest of our videos here.

     In doing this project, students practiced the Super 3 Research Model: Plan, Do and Review. They planned their project, wrote a script, video recorded it, and will watch their videos in the computer lab.

     The Caldecott Medal Winner will be announced on Monday January 10th from ALA’s Midwinter meeting in San Diego. We’re excited to find out if any of our students predicted the winner!