Wolf in the Snow Collaborative Art/Library Project

We just finished a 1st grade collaborative library/art project that was so much fun!

We wanted our students to practice retelling a story read aloud.  The book that we chose was Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell. 



This is a beautiful picture book about a girl who finds a wolf pup lost in the snow.  She brings the pup back to it's pack but then she is lost and tired.  The wolf pack surrounds and protects her until her parents find her.  It's a wordless book so it's perfect for retelling.

After reading the book, during library time the students drew out the four main events in the book.



In art class, they worked in groups to create beautiful winter backdrops to go with the story.

Finally, in both art and library, we used Flipgrid to record the groups retelling the story.  

Here is one example:

Next week in library, we will use their retelling pictures with our new Ozobots to retell the book in a different way.

If you have a 1st grader at Harrison, ask them to retell the story to you!  

New Ozobots

This week, most of our K-4 students tried out our new Ozobots!

 

We were recently awarded a foundation grant from the Illinois Delta Kappa Gamma Society for Key Women Educators for "Storybook Coding".  Money from this generous grant allowed us to purchase a class set of 12 Ozobot robots to be used in our library and classrooms.  The grant project "Storybook Coding" is designed to reinforce reading comprehension skills while also teaching critical thinking skills in an engaging way.  Ozobots are amazing because they can be coded in two different ways.  First, the robots can be coded using block coding, similar to Scratch.  The robots can also be coded using markers and different color combinations.  This makes it very easy for even our youngest students to practice coding skills!

 

The plan for this project is to read a picture book aloud and then have students draw out the main events of the story on a piece of paper.  Then, after trying out the robots and learning how they work, students will code the robots to travel around the events of the story while retelling the story out loud.

 

This week, we have been reading the books aloud and then students have had an opportunity to practice using the robots.  The students LOVED using the Ozobots and they did an amazing job experimenting with the different ways that the robots can move.  Next week, students will draw out the events and then code their robots.

Here are several more pictures from the week:

 

 

The students were so excited to use the robots and they did a fantastic job working together in pairs.  I'm looking forward to using the robots with 2nd grade next week!

World Read Aloud Day 2020

World Read Aloud Day is always such a fun day!  It's a day to celebrate the power and the joy of reading books aloud.  

On this day, many authors volunteer their time to connect (Skype, etc) with classes, which we've participated in several times over the years.  Unfortunately, this year WRAD fell on an early-release Wednesday so the library schedule didn't allow for that to happen.

  

Instead, we celebrated reading aloud within our own building and it was magical!  First, during library time a couple of weeks ago, we (Mrs. Ringa and I) invited students in 7th and 8th grade to sign up to volunteer to read a book aloud to a PK-4th grade classroom.  The junior high students were really excited and many chose classes that their siblings/neighbors/friends are in.  They signed up in pairs and chose a book to read at the same time. We encouraged them to practice reading the book a few times during the following week's library class.

  

When World Read Aloud Day arrived, the students were given their schedules and their books and then each pair visited one classroom at some point throughout the day.  

 

Afterwards, most of the junior high students said that they had fun!  One student even stopped in the library the next day to thank me for the opportunity to read to a younger class!

 

Feedback from the PK-4 teachers was equally positive!  Many teachers said that they would love to have junior high students come back and read aloud to their classes again.

Reading and sharing stories aloud is always magical, but it was extra special to see the older kids and younger kids enjoying books together! 📚❤️