Lewis and Clark Learns

Last year, I started most library sessions with a book talk, book trailer, book chat, or series highlight as a way to share the love of reading and recommend good books to our readers at LC.  I was thrilled with the enthusiasm around reading as a result of sharing books with one another. While we viewed some really quality book trailers, I realized I wanted to give my kids a chance to show their creativity and their love of books by producing their very own movie trailers to share with our school community through various avenues. So, over the summer I set about making plans for the beginning of the year.  As usual, I jumped in with both feet and fell in over my head:) but that is how I roll and get things done!  At Lewis and Clark there are 200 kids creating videos!  Some decided to work alone and others in small groups. To begin, we viewed A LOT of trailers and wrote down our noticings, good and bad!  From there we selected books and began creating a pla...

So, as a celebration of reading, the Missouri Mark Twain nominee readers were going to be attending the movie Wonder based on the book by the same title.  Unfortunately, the movie release date was moved from April to November so our plan fell flat.  To replace that event, Mrs. Haynes and I put our heads together to create an afternoon of book love!  Our 4th and 5th grade teachers made arrangements to allow those kids to spend the entire afternoon in the library and Dr. Palmer ok'd a sub for my classes.  We started at 11:45 with lunch for 42 kids...hot dogs, nacho chips, apples, grapes, and drinks.  We then made duct tape bookmarks, enjoyed a quiz bowl of Mark Twain nominee questions, had a book tasting session of 2017-2018 Mark Twain and Truman nominees, and engaged in great character analysis session created by Mrs. Haynes.  This involved answering questions about last year or the upcoming Mark Twain nominees such as, what character made you think differ...

Our fifth graders have worked for the past couple of months learning Tinkercad and designing a 3D item that they wanted to print.  Recently we have been working on a design that is needed in our library.  We need a few additional ipad stands to use with stop-motion animation.  The kids started by drafting several ideas on paper, taking into account the size of our ipads.  They then created a prototype of their best design, built it in Tinkercad, and finally we voted on the best stand in each 5th grade class.  One of the four will be selected and printed to be used by our students. Next year we will not be doing a 3D printing unit together.  Rather, students will learn Tinkercad when necessary and needed for individual genius hour projects.  I finally feel comfortable enough with printing and Tinkercad to go this route.  It has taken me a while to learn also!

My fifth grade students are learning everything they can about 3D printing...how it works, why 3D printing is important, and what is possible to 3D print.  Now we begin learning how to create 3D designs using a couple of different programs.  We are going to explore the Gravity Sketch app and learn Tinkercad, an easy to use CAD design tool.  Below is our first look at our Ultimaker 2 in action.  The kids are always amazed by the printer and seeing it work.  

  Our annual hot cocoa party was a great success.  HUGE thanks to Mrs. Haynes for keeping our cocoa bar running smoothly all afternoon for our readers.

Working our way through the Design Thinking LAUNCH Cycle to build Rube Goldberg Machines. L ook, Listen, and Learn: Read about the man and the machines.  Watch many, many examples.  A sk Questions:   Ask and answer questions through the inquiry process U nderstand:  Looking at our Rube Goldberg guidelines, requirements, and task. N avigate Ideas:   Begin planning and designing our machines. C reate a Prototype:   Begin constructing based on our ideas. H ighlight and Fix: Fix what is not working. Launch To The World! Rube Goldberg:  A complicated a machine that  completes a simple task.   The photos below show my students in the Navigating stage of the LAUNCH Cycle.  Each group plans a little differently.  Some got right to work drawing and sketching ideas, others started listing step-by-step descriptions of what would happen in their machine, some simply talked things out and had nothing on their paper, o...

Our 4th and 5th graders are reading up a storm!  These cards represent the kiddos who have read 4 or more Mark Twain Nominees and are already eligible to vote for their favorite title in February.  Many have already read all 12 nominees and are working on the Lewis & Clark Above and Beyond list.  I am so thankful for our teachers who, during their very busy days, encourage and challenge their students to read great books.   Mrs. Haynes tracks all this reading like a boss!

We are entering our 2nd full week of school and I have seen each class two times. So far we have reviewed our Missouri Reading Award Programs, checked out for the first time, learned how to access digital materials at home, set up Google Classrooms, and become familiar with Overdrive ebooks.  Mrs. Haynes met with each class before their second checkout (first with their classroom teacher) and chatted with the kiddos about checkout expectations and a couple of other new things she is working on.  She is so good about being proactive instead of reactive to what we know happens each year in our library. Tomorrow each grade level will begin their first maker unit.  These units will include inquiry, mini lessons as necessary to teach/review note-taking, selecting best sources, questioning, citing sources, locating materials in our library and on our website, and instruction/exploration on databases and apps we will be using. This is our plan... Fifth graders are des...

For the last few days my fourth and fifth graders have been sharing their Genius Hour projects.  We did not create formal presentations this year, instead we shared in a much more informal setting.  My kids truly worked toward their passions while working independently or collaboratively with others.   An Emoji Pillow Lettering and Caligraphy Sewing Tinkering Sewing Cheerleader Bows Photography and Scrapbooking Robotics

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...