Pumpkins have started arriving in the Media Center for our 2nd Annual Storybook Pumpkin contest.  Mrs. Rideout's class did an amazing job on the Rainbow Fish.  To see the rest of the pumpkins, come by the Media Center during the month of October.  At the end of the month, we will post all of the pictures online.  Last year's pumpkins can be seen here.

We have a new book in the Teacher Resource Room:

Crash! Bang! Boom! Exploring Literary Devices through Children's Literature

According to the table of contents, this book contains activities for the following language arts skills:

Titles for teaching main idea; Titles for teaching setting; Titles for teaching cause and effect; Titles for teaching prediction; Titles for teaching inference and drawing conclusion; Titles for teaching point of view; Titles for teaching characterization; Titles for teaching word study; Titles for teaching alliteration; Titles for teaching onomatopoeia; Titles for teaching similes.

On the table of contents page, I highlighted the books that we actually have in our library.  If you need any of the other books, you can check them out from the public library.  You can search the Waycross Public Library's online catalog to see if they have the books.  

If you are teaching any of the literary devices, I have created a list of other books that we have that are good for teaching those skills.  Not all of them are mentioned in this book. 

We have had a lot of poems added to the wiki this month.  Even some teachers posted poems, including Mrs. Inman, Mrs. Cowart, and myself (Mrs. Thigpen).  There have also been a lot of students writing poems as well.  I encourage everyone to visit the wiki and read what everyone is writing.

We have 3 new class sets of books.  They are Night of the Twisters (AR:3.8), The Phantom Tollbooth (AR:6.7), and Charlie’s Raven (AR:4.6).  These class sets are located in the Teacher Resource Room of the Media Center and must be checked out as a set.  Each set has 30 copies of the book.

I have added a page to the Media Center website called Digital Storytelling.  On the Digital Storytelling page, there are projects that the first and second graders have worked on in the library during exploratory time.  More projects will be added throughout the year.  Feel free to take a look at them.  During October, the first and second graders are writing Halloween poems, although not all of them will be posted online.

When you click on the link, the project will open in Windows Media Player.  For best results, wait until it finishes buffering before playing.  If teachers in other grade levels want to create similar projects, let me know and I can show you how.  I used Audacity, which is a free software download, to record and edit the audio.  The pictures were scanned into the computer.  The audio and pictures were put together using Windows Movie Maker, which you probably already have on your computer.  If not, you can download it for free.

There are some new databases available on Galileo that are worth checking out.  I wanted to share some of the new ones with you so that you would be aware of them.  You can get to Galileo by going to www.wacona.com and clicking on the Media Center website.  When you get to the Media Center site, click on Research, then click on the link to Galileo. 

When you get to Galileo, click on the tab that says “Databases A-Z.”  This will give you an alphabetized list of all of the databases.  Below are some that I would recommend:

Book Collection: Nonfiction- This is a cross-curricular database that contains searchable full text for more than 3800 popular non-fiction books for students.  Whatever topic you are teaching, you can type it in and find a number of full-text nonfiction books that can be printed or read online.  You can narrow your search to books for elementary school or you can narrow your search to books within a particular reading range.  This would be a great tool for differentiation, as you could provide students with content information written at their reading level.

Britannica Learning Zone- “designed specifically for young learners. Students will find engaging and developmentally-appropriate activities including an interactive atlas, learning games, engaging audio and video, and effective vocabulary builders. The Britannica Learning Zone teaches concepts such as geography, time, shapes, numbers, and reinforces relevant vocabulary, all in a fun and safe online environment. There is also an area where students can demonstrate their creativity and practice what they've learned.”  I definitely recommend this site to all K-2 teachers.

NovelList K-8- “an online readers' advisory tool aimed at elementary and middle school students. NoveList K-8 helps readers find new books based on books they've read or on topics in which they are interested. NoveList provides enhanced subject access to over 46,000 fiction titles and full-text book reviews or annotations from trusted sources. A Teacher Resources page provides materials that will guide faculty to new titles and new ways for translating curriculum standards into classroom action.”

These databases aren’t new to Galileo, but don’t forget that they are available:

Encyclopedia Britannica Online Elementary School Edition

Encyclopedia of Animals- Has information about animals and habitats

Kids InfoBits- Magazine articles and reference materials for students in kindergarten through grade five.

New Georgia Encyclopedia- A great resource if you teach Georgia history

Professional Development Collection- You can read full-text articles from 500 journals that cover topics related to Education.

Searchasaurus- database for elementary students

You can access most of the databases that are intended for elementary students on the Research page of the Media Center website.  There is also a link to Galileo.  Keep in mind that you need the Galileo password to access it from home.  If you don’t know where to find the password, let me know.

We had a lot of fun in the library this week.  The kindergarten students read the book Cookie’s Week.  Cookie is a mischievous cat who gets into trouble every day of the week.  At the end of the story, the author hopes that Cookie will rest on Sunday, but the picture shows Cookie about to get into something.  We reviewed the days of the week and talked about what we think Cookie will get into on Sunday.  Then the students drew a picture of what they think Cookie will get into on Sunday.

The first-grade students read Harold and the Purple Crayon.  Then we made a “purple cow” as a special snack. A purple cow is simply a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a cup of purple grape juice.  It was a cold, delicious treat on a hot day.  While enjoying the purple cow, we watched the video “A Picture for Harold’s Room.”

The second-grade students are learning about fables.  We watched four of Aesop’s fables on the computer.  Then, the students illustrated and retold one of the fables.  Some of the fables are being posted on our digital storytelling page.

We’ve had quite a few students post book reviews on the Wacona Writer’s Wiki.  Shyenne G. won the $10 gift certificate to the book fair for August.  We have some new contests for September, including a poetry contest and the Creative Writing Challenge.  Everyone who submits a poem in September will be entered in a drawing for a $10 gift certificate to the book fair.  The book fair will be held at the end of October.

What an exciting week it has been.  We began having kindergarten, first, and second grade classes in the library during their exploratory time.  The kindergarten students enjoyed the book Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen.  Howard is a rabbit who always gets in trouble because he doesn’t listen.  After being sent to time-out, Howard decides to become a better listener.  He gets a star at school the next day for being such a good listener.  After the story, we talked about how to be good listeners and the students made rabbit ears that said “I’m a Good Listener.”

The first graders enjoyed reading What Happened to Marion’s Book.   Marion is a hedgehog who loves books so much that she wants to be a librarian when she grows up. She is excited to go to school and check out books from the Media Center.  But Marion spills jam on her library book and tries everything to get the stain off of the page.  After rubbing toothpaste on the stain, putting the book in the bathtub, and washing it in the wash machine, Marion realizes that she will have to pay for the book.  When she takes the book back to the library, Mrs. Carlson the librarian shows Marion how she fixes up books that need repair.  After the story, we talked about ways to take care of our library books and keep them healthy.   The students colored a picture of Marion reading her book in the bathtub. 

The second graders listened to The Library Dragon.  The Library Dragon is Miss Lotta Scales, who doesn’t want the students to touch the books for fear that they will mess them up.  The students soon quit coming to the library.  When Molly Brickmeyer accidentally wanders into the library and begins reading aloud, Miss Lotta Scales realizes that the library is for the children.  Her scales fall off, but Miss Lotty keeps her tail, because “every librarian needs to be a bit of a dragon—or else, WHO WOULD GUARD THE BOOKS?”  After the story, we talked about which of the Library Dragon’s rules were good rules and which were not.  The students pretended that they were librarians and made posters listing their rules.

David Sargent Jr. Visits Wacona!

We had so much fun Tuesday when David Sargent Jr. visited Wacona.  He brought his four little doggy friends with him.  The dogs did tricks like dancing, jumping through a hoop, and walking down a teeter totter.  Mr. Sargent read one of his books to the students (Emma!) and we got to meet the real Emma.  After the program, Mr. Sargent came to the Media Center and autographed books and posters for the students.  It was a lot of fun and the students really enjoyed the visit.

The first week of school has come and gone.  It was a really busy week for everyone.  We had many new students register for school this week and our attendance is up to 639.  I don’t think we’ve ever had so many students.  I know this is going to be an exciting and wonderful school year.

In the library, we began orientation on Tuesday.  Most classes in grades 1 -5 came last week to learn about our library program.  The remaining classes will come this week on Monday or Wednesday.  Students will begin checking books out on Thursday.

On Tuesday, we have a special guest coming to our school.  Author David Sargent Jr. will be coming to Wacona to talk to our students about his books and how he writes them.  His books teach a character lesson and the main characters are his dogs.  He is bringing his dogs to Wacona.  I cannot wait to hear what he has to say.

A couple of years ago, I was attending a technology conference where I heard someone speaking about Wikis, Blogs, and Podcasts.  I knew what a blog was, but had not heard of the other two terms.  The speaker made them sound very interesting and I knew that I wanted to learn more about them.  I can now say that I have experimented with all three. 

You are currently reading my experiment in using a blog for the library.  Blog is short for Web Log and it is just like a journal.  We do a lot of journal writing in our elementary school but that occurs primarily in spiral notebooks.  A blog is a journal that is online for anyone to read.  You wouldn’t want to put your deepest, darkest secrets on a public blog but there is a fun aspect of knowing that other people will read what you write.

A wiki is a type of website that allows different people to make changes or add content to the site.  A regular webpage requires you to use a software program (like Composer or Frontpage) to create your page then upload your page to a server on the internet.  A wiki page has an edit button right there on the page.  When you click on the edit button, the page changes and looks much like a page in Word.  You type what you want to say or make changes to what has already been written, then click publish.  The page instantly goes back to being a webpage.  You don’t need any special software.  I’ve just started a wiki for the library as a place to post book reviews, poetry, and creative writing by students and teachers.  If you have something that you want to post on the wiki, let me know and I’ll help you.  To view the wiki, click this link.

My latest experiment has been the hardest but most exciting of the three to learn about- podcasting.  The term podcast is a combination of ipod and broadcast.  There are podcasts available on almost any topic .  The best place to find podcasts is through the podcast directory of the itunes store.  Although many people download podcasts to their ipod or other mp3 player, you don’t have to have an ipod to listen to podcasts on your computer.

Creating podcasts is really very easy if you have the right equipment.  Mrs. Miller and I went to a technology workshop this summer where we learned how to create a podcast using Garage Band on a Mac Book computer.  The problem is that we don’t have access to a Mac Book computer.  So I did some internet research and found a free software program called Audacity that handles the audio part of the podcast.  I created a very simple podcast that you can listen to here.  What I really want to do is learn how to create a video podcast.  I think I have figured out how to do this using Windows Movie Maker.  I hope to have one posted in the very near future.

Our school theme this year is “We’re all on the same team.”  You’ll see decorations all around the school that reflect this sports theme.    When I think about sports, I think about competition and the “you versus me” aspect of sports.  But our theme isn’t really about the competition.  If you really think about it, this theme means that we should all be cheering each other on and helping each other learn.  If you are really good in math and someone in your class is having trouble, you could help them by explaining how to work a problem or helping them to practice their math facts.  The thing about a team is that everyone on the team has different strengths.  What if everyone on a baseball team was good at pitching, but no one was good at fielding the ball?  It wouldn’t be a very good team.  

That leads me to the next point about a team- everyone has a job.  The teacher’s job is to teach.  The student’s job is to learn.  The bus driver’s job is to make sure the students get to school safely and on time.  The job of the ladies in the lunchroom is to make sure we all have something to eat for breakfast and lunch.  Each of us has to do our part, or we let the team down. 

By the way, parents are on the team too so if any parents are reading this, take a moment to think about your job on the team.  Parents have a really important job on the team.  The parents have to make sure that the students have the supplies they need, do their homework, get to bed on time, eat a good breakfast, and get to school on time.  All of these things are crucial to the success of our team.  The parents and the teachers have to work together to make each child the Most Valuable Player on the Wacona team.