Caldecott Mock Elections....better late than never!

With the Hour of Code and our winter break I was a bit behind on starting my Caldecott unit but it is so much fun that I am squeezing it in.  I love to watch students browse, read, and discuss books.  This week in the Media Center third and fourth graders have led literature circles while discussing possible Caldecott 2016 winners.  They have 3 minutes to look at the books and decide how well the book meets the Caldecott criteria:

1.)  Excellence of Technique

2.)  Appropriateness of Technique

3.)  Importance of illustrations

4.)  Appeal to children

Here is what the process looked like...

They then cast their votes!

The fourth grade Caldecott 2016 Mock Election Winner was Waiting by Kevin Henkes.

       Caldecott Mock 4th grade Election Breakdown Results

Night Animals	17
If Your Plant a Seed	11
Waiting	27
My Pen	6
Lenny and Lucy	2
Water is Water	13
Finding Winnie	7
Yard Sale	1
Leo	5
Last Stop on Market	0

Night Animals	17	19.1%
If Your Plant a Seed	11	12.4%
Waiting	27	30.3%
My Pen	6	6.7%
Lenny and Lucy	2	2.2%
Water is Water	13	14.6%
Finding Winnie	7	7.9%
Yard Sale	1	1.1%
Leo	5	5.6%
Last Stop on Market	0

The Mock Caldecott 2016 3rd Grade Winner was If You Plant a Seed with 30.4% of the votes.   Night Animals 8 If Your Plant a Seed 21 Waiting 0 My Pen 5 Lenny and Lucy 0 Water is Water 14 Finding Winnie 12 Yard Sale 2 Leo 7 Last Stop on Market 0 Night Animals 8 11.6% If Your Plant a Seed 21 30.4% Waiting 0 0% My Pen 5 7.2% Lenny and Lucy 0 0% Water is Water 14 20.3% Finding Winnie 12 17.4% Yard Sale 2 2.9% Leo 7 10.1% Last Stop on Market 0 0%

14.6%30.3%12.4%

Night Animals	17
If Your Plant a Seed	11
Waiting	27
My Pen	6
Lenny and Lucy	2
Water is Water	13
Finding Winnie	7
Yard Sale	1
Leo	5
Last Stop on Market	0

My 6th Graders are Geniuses

My 6th graders are embarking on their Genius Hour time.  The first step on this journey is for us to start thinking about deeper questions, such as "Not what do I want to be when I grow up, but what problems would I like to solve" This changes the conversation from who do I want to work for to what do I need to learn to be able to do that.  -Jamie Casap (Google Global Education Evangelist)

Click on the AnswerGarden below and post your answer to the question.  You must post in 40 characters or less.  You do NOT need to put your name on your post.

Students watch inspirational videos to help them start thinking about their interests/passions.

Mock Caldecott Unit....which one will prevail?

Ok so I am starting my Mock Caldecott Unit too late once again but I have so much fun with it that I am not going to skip it.  I will start it and we will just announce our Mock Caldecott winner after Jan. 11 (the day of the actual announcement) if that is what is needed.  So this week my first graders spent sometime exploring two of the books that we think may potentially win the 2015 Caldecott.  The first two are:

We are really excited because Loren Long lives in Cincinnati, OH.

We examined them with the following criteria and then students cast their vote on which they felt met the criteria the best.  

Excellence of Technique

Appropriateness of Technique

Importance of Illustrations

Appeal to children

Last minute change of plans....YOGA in the Media Center.

So today during my plan I was reading a blog from a Media Specialist that I model so many of my lessons after because she is amazing.  Her blog is Reederama.  She was helping her students stay focused by doing some Star Wars yoga in the Media Center so I quickly decided to do the same.  With the excitment of the new Star Wars movie my kiddos were thrilled with the dramatic storytelling of the lady on the video and managed to relax on this exciting day.  Take a look at some pictures and video.

Here is the story/yoga video. 

May the FORCE be with you!

 

The Perfect Gift...All Summit Kindergartens Recieve a Public Library Card from the Public Library of Cincinnati

What better way to start our Christmas Break then to give the gift of Literacy to my kindergarten friends.  There is country-wide initiatave to get public library cards in the hands of all kindergarten students.  The Anderson Public Children's Librarian reached out to me about coming out and passing cards out to our students and my principal and myself jumped right on board.  Many parents are uneducated on to the possibilities of what a public library can give them.  This card will allow students to check out up to seven items and not receive any fines. 

 

Kindergartener friend proudly wears his

 "I got a Library Card today" sticker.

HAPPY READING AND JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS BREAK!

5th graders are creating Digital Projects with CODING!

So we have been coding at Summit.  I have given my students, grades 4-6, three weeks of CODING experience.  We have used Code.org, Code Academy, Scratch, Tynker, and Light Bot to practice all the amazing skills that coding offers.  Including problem solving, critical thinking, reading, math practice, writing, analayzing data, and the list goes on and on.  One of my excellent 5th created a Google Doc, in which she shared with students and asked them to place some of the coding projects on it.  I love how she listed the DIGITAL EXPECTATIONS  at the start of the doc.  Here is what the doc looked like.

Here are examples of what students posted here:

Small Talk Kylie G.
Christmas Small Talk Audrey S.

2nd graders explore Google Docs while writting what they are OK at

After my 2nd graders read The OK Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal for the Global Read Aloud Project.  We loved The OK Book so much we decided to tie poetry into it.  Students talked about words that describe being better at than OK at something.  We made a list of these words.  Students then created poem listing activities they were OK at and then activities they were better than OK at.  Here is what are word list looked like.

   

Students then created a poem with 10 sentences using these words.  They then typed these in Google Docs.  Students learned about changing font sizes and colors.  They also learned how to spell check and center words.  

Here are a few of their poems.  We will be adding pictures to these after our Christmas break.

Words That Describe Better than OK

                      by Maureen Carpenter

               

I’m an OK dancer.

I’m a super star gymnast.

I’m an OK ice skater.

I’m fabulous at arts and crafts.

I’m an OK reader.

I’m a super star at roller skating.

I’m an OK runner.

I’m a great writer.

I’m an OK waiter.

I’m a brillant pottery maker.

Words that Describe Better than OK

by Audrey Mendralski

I’m an OK waiter.

 I’m a number 1 ice skater.

                                          I’m an OK somersaulter.

                                        I’m an outstanding dancer.

                                              I’m an OK sleeper.

                                            I’m an epic swimmer.

                                             I’m an OK swinger.

                                            I’m an  perfect singer.

                                              I’m an OK hiker.

                                           I’m a fantastic friend.

Here are what the final projects look like. They are so cute. Next year I will do them earlier in the year so I can learn more about my students sooner.