Global Read Aloud: Viva Frida

This week for Global Read Aloud, we read the book Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales.  

This beautiful book uses strong verbs to tell what makes Frida "live".  Our second grade students have already been introduced to Frida in art class and several weeks ago, they created artistic self portraits with Mrs. Ryan (our art teacher). 

After reading the book in library this week, students created a more simple self portrait.  Then, the students used the Chatterpix app to make their drawings tell what they enjoy doing.  The Chatterpix app is very simple to use and is perfect for this activity! Here are two of their videos:

After saving their short Chatterpix video, most students uploaded their videos to our Global Read Aloud Flipgrid board (a few students didn't have time to upload).  This is how we are able to share the videos with our Global Read Aloud friends.  Visit this Flipgrid link to see all of their cute videos.  If you are a Global Read Aloud 2019 participant, feel free to have your students add their own videos!

Happy Reading!

Global Read Aloud

We recently kicked off Global Read Aloud at Harrison School!

Several of our grade levels are participating in their classrooms and every year I choose one grade level to participate in the Global Read Aloud picture book study during library time.  This year, I chose second grade and both classes are reading picture books by author/illustrator Yuyi Morales.

      

After introducing Global Read Aloud to our students, each class created a video to send to our Global Read Aloud partner classes in Canada.  The video tells our new friends about our school and our community.  I used Adobe Spark Video to create both videos because it is so simple to use!  One of our partner classes posted a video on Twitter showing their students watching and reacting to our video and it was so much fun to see!

 

Then, we jumped right in and read the first book: Dreamers.  This beautiful book is about the author's experience immigrating to the United States from Mexico.  She shows how important the public library was when they were first learning to navigate their new country.  After reading the book, we discussed why Ms. Morales named the book Dreamers.  Finally, students used Flipgrid to record videos introducing themselves to our partner classes and telling what they dream about.  One of our partner classes responded back with their own videos!



This week, the students in Mrs. Gieseke's class connected live with their partner classes!  We used Zoom to video chat while talking about our schools, our communities, and the book Dreamers.  It was so much fun!

  

Sadly, one of our two partner classes has backed out of the program.  Instead of connecting live, the students in Mrs. Hermann's class heard the author, Yuyi Morales, read her book Just a Minute.  Going forward, this class will participate by joining other group projects.



We can't wait to read the rest of the picture books and connect with others about the books!

Literature and STEM: Alfie (The Turtle That Disappeared)

The students and I LOVE combining literature with STEM projects!  When we combine the two, students have better comprehension of the story and they seem to remember it longer.  Also, the book gives more meaning to the STEM project.  Finally, it's just plain fun!

The past two weeks, we read Alfie (The Turtle That Disappeared) in most of our K-3 classes.

This fun 2020 Monarch Award book is told from two different perspectives.  First, Nia tells how she got Alfie and all of the things she likes to do with him.  However, Alfie didn't appear to be paying attention so Nia kind of forgot about him...until he disappears!  Then, Alfie takes over telling the story and we learn a very different perspective.  After leaving his tank, Alfie embarks on a long journey to find the perfect gift for Nia.  We used this book to work on skills such as: sequencing, story elements, and point of view.

There are various ways to combine the book Alfie with STEM projects!  First, many of our kindergarten students were provided various building materials.  They were given the task of building a home for Alfie.  Here are some of their creative designs!

Students in grades 1 & 2 had fun drawing maps of Alfie's journey!  Drawing maps helps to support sequencing and spacial thinking, which are both necessary skills for coding and other STEM projects.

Alfie would be a great book to use with mini-robots such as Ozobots and Mini-Spheros.  Students could draw Alfie's journey on a large piece of paper and then code the robot to travel Alfie's journey. This book could also be used for coding Alfie's journey using SCRATCH.

New Library Seating

I'd like to give a special thank you to our Harrison PTO for providing our library with awesome new pod rockers!

These pod rockers, purchased using funds from our Scholastic Book Fair, are big enough for ALL of our students and they are so sturdy.  Our students love them already and they are a fun addition to the flexible seating options in our library.  Thank you PTO!!!

Happy Reading!!