Lewis and Clark Learns

Each year we celebrate the amazing readers who reached the goal of reading all of the Mark Twain or GKCRead nominees!  Mrs. Haynes and I so appreciate Dr. Palmer and Mrs. Ferguson covering our lunch duties and our PTA for funding the pizza for readers.  Our kids really look forward to this day and we love seeing them having fun and enjoying lunch in the library.

Bringing a MakerSpace to our library has definitely changed the way we learn in our library.  But we continually strive for a balance of making, thinking, and reading.   Yes, we read!  We read visiting author books, we read books to help us as makers, we read holiday/seasonal books.  We read for information and we read for pleasure. Page Turner Book Club members read every Wednesday morning. Book clubs read with Mrs. Haynes at lunch and at the end of the day. Our school PTA gives books to kids on their birthdays. Our library has a Little Free Library where kids can take a book anytime they wish (even if they don't bring a book to swap). We have classroom checkout times scheduled and we have open access checkout so kids can come to the library every day if they wish...and some do. I read the Building Block and Show Me Nominees aloud to K, 1st, and 2nd grade.  I read one GKCRead nominee to get our 3rd graders started on their award books, I introdu...

The end of 2015 is bringing new units and much excitement to our Library Maker Center.  Here is the lowdown on what is happening... KINDERGARTEN Kindergarten kiddos have been working on a whole group research project trying to determine what animal our mystery skeleton belongs to.  After questioning and conducting research through print and online resources we determined that our skeleton belongs to a bat.  My kindergarten researchers will be working on learning more about dinosaurs while learning how to record what they learn by using picture notes.  We will share our learning using our MakerSpace resources. FIRST GRADE First grade kiddos finished up their marble mazes (saved for our upcoming Maker Day of Play) a while ago and have been working on an insect inquiry unit.  We are learning to take great notes using PebbleGo, Britannica Kids, and print resources.  After our research is completed, kids will partner up and create a SuperBug by combining...