January already!!!

I can't believe it is already January! As one teacher said "It's all downhill from here!" There is still so much to do. This past week I did a fun lesson with 5th Grade. I divided them into groups of three or four. I had them brainstorm one or two word phrases describing things that we can do in the library, things that happen in the library and things associated with our library. Once they created their lists they gave them to me. I showed them the site www.wordle.net and began to create a word cloud. So that the students were not just sitting around waiting as I typed, I let them check out. Once check out was done, we created our word cloud. They thought it was cool. Then I began to click randomize and different word clouds appeared. I chose 5 that they seemed to like. I used the print screen button to capture the image and then pasted it into Microsoft Word. Then they voted on which they liked the best. The one pictured is the one my Thursday class liked the best. I also gave them a slip that had the website listed.

As I was typing I did do some editing, if one group had word learning and another then had the word learn I change learning into learn. This was just so there would be similar words. The kids had fun with this lesson. I noticed when this class went to the computer lab later that day, most went to the Worldle site and explored.

Cute K Comment

One of my Kindergarten students said today, "Media is the best! There are books and we do music, art, and crafts. It's everything in one!" I love being reminded of why I chose this job!

My Classes Current Projects

Here is what my classes are currently working on:

Kindergarten is hearing stories about families and are practicing cutting by creating unique faces using pictures cut out of magazines. Scissors & Kindergartener always make for an exciting activity!

First Grade & Third Grade are both studing quilt so I have read The Kindness Quilt & The Name Quilt. The First Graders are making kindness quilt squares in Pixie. The Third Graders are using Pixie to create a name quilt square with their name & then writing personal narrative stories about themselves. The students are having a great time expressing their creativity through their quilt squares. My dilema is that it would be cool to print them in color but I worry about using too much color ink.

Second Grade is studying owls so the students are using www.enchantedlearning.com to find owl facts. We are discussed plagarism & practiced writing the facts in our own words. The students are recording the facts in Word. They have learned to place the web site & the word document side by side--they think it is very cool! Finally the students will be making owl puppets to display a fact of their choosing.

Fourth Grade is studying animal habitats. I am having the students use www.enchantedlearning.com to research a mammal of their choice--I asked that they choose a mammal they knew nothing about & was not a pet or farm animal-- a few weren't happy about this but I was trying to make sure that they were doing research not just pulling facts out of their own brains. We discussed plagarism also.

Fifth Grade is exploring our unique Earth. Using the site www.exploratoruim.edu they calculated their weight & age on the planets---great fun for everyone! They are gathering additional facts about the planet they choose.