For 3 years, I have organized an online picture book smackdown in honor of Picture Book Month. Over those 3 years, our Google Hangout event has grown stronger thanks to the collaboration of librarians, students, and authors around the country. We are busily planning this year’s event, but you can go ahead and put it on your calendar now! It will be November 19th from 1:30-2:30PM EST.
We made a Smore to host all of the content of the event:
During the smackdown, you can expect to hear:
An introduction and welcome from Picture Book Month founder, Dianne de Las Casas
Students from at least 5 states share favorite picture books and why picture books matter in a fast-paced format
Authors such as Laurie Ann Thompson share her favorite picture books along with our students
We would love for you to watch the event with your students or share with classrooms. You can even participate by tweet about the event or tweeting your own picture book recommendations during the event using the hashtag #pbsmkdwn
Even if you can’t join us, we hope you are inspired by our event and consider having your own Picture Book Smackdown online or in your own space. Feel free to use our hashtag to connect our events together. Happy Picture Book Month!
P.S. If you can’t wait for this year’s event, here’s a little taste of what we did last year:
The day before fall break is always a special day at our school. It is our annual Storybook Celebration. Organizing this day takes a tremendous amount of work, but the students have such a great day. Students and teachers are encouraged to dress as any storybook character.
We spent about 2 weeks ahead of the event advertising various costume ideas on our morning broadcast. I wanted to encourage students to think about how they could use things they already had around their house or things they could make in order to create an awesome costume. Some of my BTV crew chose books and shared some simple ideas for creating an awesome costume. An example was Max from Max the Brave where you could just dress in black and tie a red cape, blanket, sheet, or towel around your neck.
Students poured into the library for the past 2 weeks to ask for assistance finding a book for the parade and costume ideas. We had students coming in right up until the parade actually started, which was definitely a little crazy without much help.
Also ahead of the event, I sent out a Google spreadsheet to all of our resource and specials teachers to offer special opportunities during the day for classes to have literature-focused activities and a chance for teachers to have a planning time. Resource and specials teachers blacked out times that they weren’t available and teachers signed up for the rest.
My volunteer coordinator, Courtney Tobin, created a Signup Genius to recruit 2 guest readers for every classroom to kickoff the day. This was sent out to grade level parent representatives who encouraged people to sign up. I also shared the link with my own list of past guest readers as well as CCSD board members and district leaders. I also published it on our library Facebook page. We didn’t quite reach our goal of 2 readers per class, but every class had someone to share a great story with them at the start of the day. These readers gathered in the library, chose from a selection of books, took a photo, and were off to classes to read.
After guest readers, we gathered in the cafeteria for an assembly. We broadcast students onto the big screen as they entered using Google Hangouts.
Evan Bush from the Athens Clarke County Public Library came and told several interactive fall stories to almost 600 students. I loved how he took the energy of the crowd and got them all snapping, clapping, and sharing parts of the stories. It kept them focused. I reached out to Evan about 2 weeks before our event, and he graciously agreed to come. I love that he gave our students a great storytelling experience and also one more connection to the public library and what it can offer.
After Evan, each class stood up twirled around to show off costumes, and sat facing the back of the cafeteria. This prepared us to go out on our actual parade as well as gave students a chance to show one another their costumes.
It was during this time that I found out all my preparation for the parade route suddenly had to be changed. I was so organized this year and provided maps of the parade route to families and community ahead of time. However, Georgia Power had to do some work and closed part of the sidewalk on our route. I had to make a last minute change, but it all worked out.
We took off into the community shouting “Read More Books!” and showing off our costumes. It was fun to see community members, families, UGA students, construction workers, and more cheering us on along the way. Our 1st-5th grade took a longer route and our Prek/K took a shorter route around the school.
Our 5th graders have a tradition of stopping along the parade route for a special treat, and for the past few years we have stopped at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education for hot chocolate. Mimi, our family engagement specialist, organizes this piece for us by having the cafeteria prep the hot chocolate and taking the hot chocolate to setup. Students have some time to just hangout, talk, and enjoy their treats before heading back to school.
Finally, back at school we go to our special classes as well as do more literature activities in class. In the library, we focused on pirate stories since I was dressed as Captain Hook. I also used the great pirate video from All the Wonders.
Students moved to tables and colored a pirate sheet or designed their own pirate using Chromville augmented reality.
Somehow in all the craziness, we also organized a big book giveaway. In the back corner of the library, there were tables of books that had been donated or weeded out of various collections and needed a good home. Courtney Tobin and other volunteers helped get the books put out, and teachers brought classes or small groups of students to pick out new books. It was fun to glance over and see so many students excited to add books to their home libraries. We will keep these tables going next week since there are still books left.
It seems that each year something new comes along for storybook celebration that makes it a little more special. This year I loved seeing so many creative costumes: Little Elliot, the Bird Woman from Circus Mirandus, Minecraft creepers, Martin Luther King, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and more.
I loved seeing our reflection in the glass of the UGA coliseum.
I also loved that our public library was involved in the day and I want to think even more about how community is represented on this day.
It’s been awhile since I’ve shared what has been going on in our open makerspace time, but there has definitely been a lot. Through our collaboration with Gretchen Thomas at UGA, we have been able to offer an open time on Tuesdays and Thursdays for students to come and explore various parts of our makerspace. Students sign up for a 30-minute segment to come and explore a pre-chosen topic. Last year, we tried just letting students decide what they wanted to do, but we found that most of them were either unsure of what to try or all wanted to try something different and didn’t know how to start. It was hard to manage and it was hard to accomplish anything in 30 minutes. This year, we decided that for the first half of the year we would offer 2-3 opportunities at each makerspace session. One of the experiences is technology-focused and the other is more craft-focused. Sometimes these experiences compliment one another. For example, students might get to make a figure out of pipe cleaners, clay, or Playdoh as the craft and then use that figure to create a stop motion video with the iPad.
At each session, 3-4 UGA students come to support students. They often lead the work while I assist other students in the library or teach classes. However, I also participate in the makerspace and learn alongside the students. This is a great time for me to see how students are using the tools in a smaller setting. I can think about management pieces to make the process more accessible to students. I can also reflect on how various tools or activities fit into grade level curriculum.
In today’s makerspace, students created stop motion animation using clay figures. For some of them, it was the second time using stop motion animation, so they had a better understanding of how it worked. They were able to get to a point that they could actually upload a short video that they created in a 30-minute window. Some of them even worked together to use pieces that they had each created in order to make a collaborative video.
It was a busy time and the UGA students worked so hard to get students creating figures and encouraging them to give the video a try. I love hearing how the elementary students and college students talk to one another. They both amaze one another with some of the things they come up with and share.
As usual, voices emerged with artistic talents or technology expertise. One of our students, Anarian, who we learned is an expert at making figures with pipe cleaners is also very talented at making figures out of clay. There’s so much potential for his work to develop into a stop motion video for any of his content areas.
While the UGA students supported the stop motion, I pulled out our Finch robots, which are on loan to us this year from Birdbrain Technologies. We opened the basic version of Snap, and student tinkered with programming these robots with simple block coding. We are going to do a lot with these robots this year and open makerspace is a great time for me and the students to learn a few of the basics so that our content work can be more productive.
By the end of the first semester, we hope that many students have gotten a small taste of all of the tools in our makerspace, so that the second half of the year can be spent focusing on how these tools can work together to create something great. We have no idea where the makerspace will take us, but we know that miraculous things will happen along the way.
Each year, Jumpstart sponsors a day for readers all around the globe to join their voices in reading the same book. A different book is chosen each year, and this day has become a day that we love to connect with other schools to read the book together. This year the featured book was Not Norman: A Goldfish Story by Kelly Bennett and illustrated by Noah Z. Jones. Jumpstart puts the book online during Read for the Record so that readers can easily access the book to read aloud. I love having a large full screen version of the book for students to look at while we read alone and with our Skype partners.
Ms. Sandifer’s Kindergarten class started our day by reading the book with me on our projection screen.
I loved hearing the students make noticings about the images that weren’t included in the words. We also had fun making predictions before we turned the pages such as when a tree branch is making a noise outside but we got to guess before we found out. One student thought it would be a zombie!
Next, Ms. Kelly’s Kindergarten class (my daughter’s class) came and connected with Jennifer Reed and her 3rd graders in Newton, MA. We had fun looking at a map before the call and learning that we were connecting with students over 1,000 miles away. Our students also got to introduce themselves to one another.
Jennifer’s students did choral readings of pages, while I read most of our pages with Kindergarten students joining in for words they recognized. Students were amazed that Jennifer Reed and I know each other in real life and will get to see one another at the AASL conference in Columbus this November.
Finally, Ms. Choate’s Kindergarten class came to the library to enjoy a live Google Hangout with Kelly Bennett reading Not Norman and sharing the answers to several questions about being an author and getting ideas for writing.
This was a great addition to the event to allow many classes to enjoy hearing the author. We wish there had been more interaction between students and the author, but it was fun listening in to her voice and ideas.
There’s still time to participate in Read for the Record. You can read the book for free online today and count you and your family in the numbers toward the record.
We have been excited since the very beginning of this year about author/illustrator Mike Curato visiting our school. Thanks to Henry Holt, a division of Macmillan, and Avid Bookshop, our local independent bookshop, Mike visited all of our Prek-2nd grade classes. We all read Little Elliot, Big Cityduring library orientation this year, so we were super excited to meet the person who created it.
On field day, students created a massive window display of Little Elliot and cupcakes. They worked for 30 minutes designing their own special cupcake. They also added dots to a collaborate Little Elliot. Many volunteers worked to get all of the cupcakes and elephants onto our windows to celebrate the author visit.
It was a busy time at our school during the visit because it is also our fall book fair. Instead of having our visit in the library, we moved everything to the cafeteria stage.
Students enjoyed a reading of Mike Curato’s new book Little Elliot, Big Family.
Mike had the book’s pages displayed on the large screen so that students could easily see what he was reading from the book. They were mesmerized by the story and were such careful listeners.
After his story, Mike shared some slides and stories about how he works as an author and illustrator. Students saw sketches beside finished artwork as well as a time lapse of a drawing being created. He also showed students pictures of how Little Elliot has changed through the years. He has been drawing him for several years, and he has gone through some changes along the way. We also saw sketches of some of Mike’s early artwork, which was a wonderful connection for our young learners to see how work they are doing right now could inspire a future career or hobby.
Students even got to see the cover of next year’s Elliot book Little Elliot, Big Fun.
Next, Mike worked with the entire room to create 3 pages of a new story. He wrote a sentence to start the story: “Elliot went to school”. Then, he drew Elliot on the page and let the students take it from there. They suggested things to add to the picture and Mike added them in. For the next 2 pages, Mike took suggestions from the audience about what Elliot should do. Students decided he would read a book and go to lunch. Once again, Mike added details to the drawing that were suggestions straight from the audience. The best part was that we got to keep the 3 drawings to enjoy in our library!
Finally, students got to ask questions. Mike jumped right out into the audience with the students to take their questions and give thoughtful answers. The kids were so attentive during the whole process.
Before Mike left, he took time to sign all of the books purchased by students. Our incredible PTA bought a copy of each book for every PreK-2nd grade classroom, so he signed those as well.
He also took time to look at the big window display and marvel at the students’ creativity. If you ever get the chance to have Mike Curato at your school, don’t hesitate. He was wonderful and the kids and teachers have talked about it all day. Be sure to check out both of his Elliot books, add them to your home and school collections, and enjoy the many positive messages that your sure to take after reading the books with kids.
Thank you Mike Curato and Avid Bookshop for a wonderful day! We can’t wait to reconnect once the Polka Dot Express arrives at our school soon!
Our amazing 1st grade team and students have been working on their Wizard of Oz unit. I love this unit because they weave in so many content standards with Wizard of Oz as their guiding text. A part of this unit is the weather standards from science. Students have to know various kinds of weather as well as how to dress in that weather. Since this is a part of what meteorologists do, we decided to try something new this year by looking closely at the role of meteorologists. The goal was for students to write a weather report for the Wizard of Oz regarding the cyclone and to record the forecast in front of our green screen.
Students came to the library and we looked at a few videos of meteorologists reporting on severe weather. As we watched, students noticed things about the posture and speech of the meteorologist. They also pointed out many of the weather words he/she used.
As weather words were noticed, we added them to a shared Google doc.
This doc was shared with all classroom teachers to continue to add to and use in class. We also looked at another student-made video and noticed how the student introduced himself in his weather forecast and pretended to be outside in the story.
In the library, we also spent some time beginning the writing process of creating a weather report. Students continued working on this in class during writer’s workshop. The list of weather words continued to be used and added to. They also did a bit of rehearsing.
Finally, students returned to he library and one by one recorded themselves in front of the green screen with a tornado or other weather behind them. As students were recording, the rest of the class practiced, looked at weather books, and searched for the current weather in our area using apps on the iPad.
They loved seeing the weather magically appear on our iPad using the DoInk app on the iPad. We took all of the videos from the iPad and uploaded them to class playlists to share back with the class.
You can enjoy the variety of videos in each of these lists.
One of my favorite parts of this short project was how it tied to a real career and gave students experience with a real-world job related to the standards they were studying in science. They were each able to be a bit creative in their forecasting, and each student had a chance to use a cool technology to make their voice heard at such an early age.
A few weeks ago Ms. Tesler, a fourth grade teacher, dropped by the library and started talking about a wish for her students to have ways to share the books that they are reading. I love impromptu brainstorming sessions because I never know where they will lead. So often, they lead to miraculous things.
Before she left, we had decided to assign her class an area of the library to be their recommendation space. As a part of their leadership in the school, they would find ways to share with others about the books that they were reading. We didn’t want to decide too much for them, so we just got some initial ideas to begin sharing with the class.
We held a book tasting where students started selecting books for independent reading and we planted the seed that students would have an area in the library to share their book recommendations. During that session, the students and I talked about ideas such as a digital display using Flipgrid to share book talks. We talked about space to create art projects to spark interest in a book. We also briefly talked about shelf talkers. At the time, we just talked about putting “signs” on the shelf to tell about the book, but I knew that students were really talking about shelf talkers.
I immediately thought of Avid Bookshop and the wonderful shelf talkers that their book sellers put on the shelves of the shop to connect readers with books, so I emailed Janet Geddis at Avid to see about the possibility of Skyping into the shop to see the shelf talkers, hear a few, and get some tips on writing them.
Will Walton, bookseller and author extraordinaire, agreed to Skype with us. Students came to the library and we connected with Will. He walked us around the shop to actually see the shelf talkers on the shelves. The first one he showed us was for Anne of Green Gables. He pointed out that the text was written in green to go along with the book. We saw that the handwriting was inviting and legible and the shelf talker gave a lot of description about the book.
Will pointed out to us that it’s important to include the title and author on the shelf talker because sometimes the books get moved down the shelf or even the shelf talker gets moved. Having the title an author helps customers still learn about the book even if it gets moved. We connected this to the idea that books in our library will most likely get checked out, but the shelf talker will remain to inform readers about a book they might consider in the future.
I also loved that Will pointed out the language that was used in the shelf talker. He specifically said that they don’t say that a book would be good for boys or girls. Instead, they connect the book to the kinds of things readers might enjoy reading about. For example, this book would be a good choice for middle grade readers who like magic and horses.
Will was sure to show us many shelf talker and how each was in the handwriting of the person who created it. They were fun, inviting, and even had personal touches like sketches.
I loved that Avid customers were just as interested in what was going on during our Skype with Will.
Students also got to meet Janet, bookshop owner, as well as hear the names of several other booksellers at the store.
Before students disconnected, they shared some things they were taking away from Will’s Skype. After we disconnected, students continued to talk and even started talking about the book they wanted to write a shelf talker for.
We are already planning a time for them to return and create the shelf talkers and begin constructing their space in the library to be leaders in our school for recommending books for others.
I hope many of these students will visit Avid and see the shelf talkers in person and continue to ask Will and Janet questions about the shop. Some of them were asking how close it was to the school, so I know there is curiosity brewing. I’m so thankful to have a bookshop in our community that reaches out and supports our schools.
Since the first day of school, students have been asking me when our makerspace will start up. Last year, we developed a great collaboration with Gretchen Thomas and her students at UGA to hold an open makerspace that students could visit on a weekly basis. UGA is now in full swing, so we are finally ready to start our collaboration again.
This year, Gretchen has an eager class of students who will be coming in groups of about 4 every Tuesday and Thursday. Rather than have every piece of the makerspace available right away, we’ve decided to focus on different aspects so that students develop some knowledge about the parts and gradually move to making choices about what they are really passionate about. Students signup on an open signup sheet hanging outside the library. There are 10-12 slots in three 30-minute sessions. Each day has two choices.
Eventually the UGA students will plan activities to bring, but for now, they are introducing things we already have in the space. For our first session, I was excited to have Carlos and Carlena offer their craft. Their story has grown so much since my first post about a craft they discovered in a magazine. Just this week, Carlos and Carlena shared their craft during our Dot Day celebrations by telling Sherry Gick and her 2nd graders how they are making their mark by teaching others how to make this craft that they discovered. I loved seeing them grow from an uncertainty of their interests to finding something they are excited to read about, make, and share with others.
The UGA students in our makerspace this week brought supplies to do this beading craft with students as one option. Carlos brought even more beads to use and shared his expertise with students in the makerspace as well as people just visiting the library with their mentors.
This aspect of our makerspace was very successful and calming.
The other choice was to use the iPads with our Sphero robots. Students were so excited to try out Sphero this year, but we ran into lots of problems. First, the Spheros didn’t charge like they were supposed to. Then, they were all connecting to random iPads instead of the one they were supposed to be connecting to. Luckily, we had Sterling Bailey with us who had helped in our space last year. He stay cool and collected through the whole epic failure and continuously thought of things he could try. He helped the students to push through the frustration and keep trying different things to get their Spheros to connect and work. While it wasn’t successful on the programming side of things, I think students learned a valuable lesson in maintaining patience in frustration and persevering.
We are ready to try again every Tuesday and Thursday through December!
What a week! We connected the dots with so many places around our country, shared great stories, learned about other perspectives, and viewed student-created masterpieces. I love the conversations that Dot Day brings out in our students.
It was an amazing week, and this time I’ll just let the pictures and tweets speak for themselves.
September is National Library Card Signup Month. I’ve always dreamed that every student in our school would have a library card, but each year it seems to slip off my plate. This year, I brought the idea up at our monthly media specialist meeting and we started brainstorming ideas with Evan Bush, the children’s librarian at the main branch of the Athens Clarke County Library. At the same time, Deirdre Sugiuchi, librarian at Oglethorpe Elementary, shared how she invited students to meet her one night at the library to sign up for library cards. This evolved into all of the 14 elementary schools signing up for a night to encourage families to visit the library.
Two weeks before the event, I sent home a flyer and wrote about it in my monthly newsletter. I also created a Facebook event page on our David C. Barrow Elementary Facebook page. Our principal also added it to her own newsletters that go out to families electronically and in print. Each morning on our broadcast announcements, I shared 1-2 things that a public library card can get you. I included things like holds from any PINES library in Georgia, ebooks, audiobooks, Bookflix, Mango foreign languages, ukuleles, and up to 50 books at a time. I reminded students what families would need to bring in order to sign up for a card. I also told students there would be a tour, a raffle, and a ticket to get a popsicle at school the following day.
From 5:30-7:00PM, I stayed in the children’s department of the Athens public library, and the Barrow students flooded in. We had 43 students visit the library and multiple family members came along too. Our principal and assistant principal came as well as several teachers.
Students received bookmarks and buttons, entered a raffle, received their ticket for an ice pop, and had a great tour of the children’s department and all it had to offer. Families connected with one another, and I showed several people how to search the online catalog and how to pair audio books with printed text.
I would of course love to see more families attend, but this was a great first event. We plan to hold a second event at a smaller branch of our library system that is right next to where some of our families live.
Expect the Miraculous 