Category Archives: Library Resources

Celebrating National Poetry Month 2020!

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Hello Everyone,

Even though the majority of school librarians aren’t able to see their students face-to-face, April is still National Poetry Month! The elementary librarians in my district are working together to make choice boards of activities for students to complete during their weekly virtual “Library” time, and we’ve decided to celebrate poetry.

There are lots of awesome kid-friendly poems at PoetryMinute.org, and one of my colleagues found an online magnetic poetry kit where students can write their own poems. I made the sample poem below.

Poem

The poem I wrote with the Kids Magnetic Poetry kit.

Last, but not least, we’re giving students the opportunity to try their hands at writing acrostic poems. I made a brief video to explain this particular type of poetry and demonstrate how to write an acrostic with a few examples and a step-by-step. The video is on my YouTube channel and is embedded below.

Happy National Poetry Month!
Ms. Tyler

#BookSnaps Update

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Hello Everyone,

Just a quick update to say I’ve finally figured out Snapchat as a efficient way to create and share Book Snaps. I use my personal smartphone to create the Book Snaps. The Bitmoji images are integrated into the Snapchat sticker/emoji collection without my phone it asking for all the scary permissions that Snapchat wanted access to on my iPad. So… I’m working with a smaller screen, but I can still make fun (and awesome, if I do say so myself) Book Snaps.

To share them, I have Snapchat synced to my new Instagram account (@readlearngrow14). Using, If This, Then That (IFTTT), I apparently have my Instagram and Twitter accounts linked appropriately, since my Instagram Book Snaps are showing up as “native” Tweets on Twitter, which is fantastic! (That means the pictures show up on Twitter as photos, not just a link to Instagram.)

Adiós,

Sra. Tyler

My First Ever #BookSnaps

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Hello Everyone,

News Flash:
Google Drawing is my platform for making Book Snaps!

I’ve decided to use Google Drawing, rather than Snapchat, like I thought originally. On my iPad, Snapchat wanted to link my Bitmoji account, which I thought was great….but, to sync the two, the Bitmoji keyboard on my iPad wanted permission to access all information I have ever typed on the device.

No way! The “digital security” portion of my brain had red flags go off. I deleted the Snapchat and Bitmoji apps from my iPad and re-downloaded Bitmoji and logged in, just in case.

Long story short: Google Drawing is how I’m going to make Book Snaps like the one below.

My #BookSnap for the introduction of “Reimaging Library Spaces” by Diana Rendina.

As a venue for sharing my Book Snaps in addition to Twitter, I’m working on setting up a professional (and my only thus far) Instagram account so I can also follow other educators (like Tara M. Martin, the originator of #BookSnaps at @tarammartin.real), organizations, libraries, and museums. Stay tuned.

Adiós,

Sra. Tyler

#KYGoDigital Virtual Conference 2018

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Hello Everyone,
Last week, I was so excited to be a history-maker! I attended the first-ever #KYGoDigital virtual conference.

We used a Google Slides presentation to archive all the YouTube Live session links. Through technology, we were able to connect with keynote speakers and educators across the country. Here is my Google Doc of notes: https://tinyurl.com/KYGoDigital2018notes.

Enjoy the linked resources and the sites I curated with the Google Docs sheet I shared above; feel free to use as you see fit!

Adiós,

Sra. Tyler

PS: Fun Fact: “Sra.” is the Spanish abbreviation for “Señora” (“Mrs.”), “Señorita” (“Miss”), or the “unknown marital status” address of “Ms.”, according to different pages on SpanishDict.com, like this. #learnsomethingneweveryday

#BookSnaps

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Hello Everyone,
I love when surfing Twitter, reading Tweets on my News Feed and checking on the latest Tweets using some of my favorite “following” hashtags leads to awesome ways to use technology with students. Today, I’ve been introduced to the #BookSnaps movement or concept (whatever it actually is).

Tara M. Martin is the originator of this idea of snapping a picture of a passage from a print book that really speaks to the reader and “teching” it up with Bitmoji and emoji images, as well as a sentence or chunk of the text being highlighted through an on-screen caption. She starting making Book Snaps in light of her fifteen-year-old spending a ton of time using the app Snapchat. Rather than force him to decrease his time, she asked for his advice and starting using it professionally with the books she was reading.

I’m going to give it a try. I post reviews of titles via Goodreads.com (only my professional reads and embed them here that are relevant to children or being a school librarian). I thought about linking my Goodreads shelves here that are applicable to everyone who reads “Read + Learn = Grow!” I toyed with the idea of joining Instagram to show the book covers of what I’m reading or passages from my Kindle of current reads. After some reflection, I think Snapchat will be my venue of choice for starting my own Book Snaps. Somehow, I’ll connect them here and on Twitter, so everyone can enjoy my musings while I read!

There are so many possibilities for using this idea with students! Tara has some great how-to resources and videos, where she shows different applications to use to create Book Snaps and the origin/reasoning behind the idea. She also shares a student-led example of using Seesaw to make a Book Snap and her own collection of examples of her bookish habits. Check them out here!

I watched her vlog on #BookSnaps, and two ideas really resonated with me. Below are the gist of two comparable ideas from the vlog post, which I Tweeted about this morning (embeded below):

My morning Tweets regarding #BookSnaps

I’ll keep you posted and will embed/share/link (not sure what I’ll be able to do yet) my first Book Snap when I get it done with week.

Adiós,

Ms. Tyler

Memorial Day Read & Color (Grades 3-5 Lesson)

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Hello Everyone,

Well, my school has made it to the last week! We didn’t have school this Monday due to Memorial Day, and I love to teach students why we get the days off from school we do when they are actual holidays (not Fridays we have off for teacher professional development).

The lesson starts with another PBS LearningMedia video, this time about Memorial Day. (Incidentally, PBS Learning Media has some fantastic resources and videos about different holidays throughout the calendar year. Check out their iBook here!)

After we watch my read-aloud of a short story that I expanded from the original I found about Memorial Day (my video is available here), I introduce the “Read & Color” activity. The story uses lots of colors to describe different objects. Students have a collage to color with colored pencils the specific colors listed in the video.

This whole lesson is one last session of following directions. I have a pencil bucket for each table of students with two colored pencils of red, blue, green, black, orange, purple, yellow and three lead pencils, which double as the color “silver.” I remind them to take turns. If they finish early with the entire list, they can complete the Brain Bender on the other side of the collage.

Note: I didn’t create the student handouts I used in this lesson. The coloring sheet that accompanys the short story is available here on TeachersPayTeachers. The coloring sheet has a reading passage with it, and that I where I got the basis of the expanded short story. What I call the “Brain Bender” is available here on TeachersPayTeachers.

Adiós,

Ms. Tyler

GoNoodle

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Hello Everyone,

State testing is underway in my school, and we have condensed Special Area classes. This week, the whole school is experiencing whole-group movement activities in the Library with the free resource GoNoodle. I have a K-2 and a 3-5 “class” set up with favorites chosen, so students have a controlled amount of options that are on their developmental level.

Image from GoNoodle.com

For example, I don’t allow my littles to do the guided dance to “How Long” by the KIDZ BOP Kids, while my olders would roll their eyes if I made them do “Pop See Ko 2.0.”

GoNoodle is a truly fantastic resource. All you need is an email address, a computer that is connected to a project and some speakers! It seems most of the content is on the company’s YouTube channel, if you want to check out “Hola, Bonjour, HELLO!” by the Champiverse. See below!

Adiós,

Ms. Tyler

The Thank-You Note Project (Grades K-5 Lesson)

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Hello Everyone,

This week, I am on a mission with my students to have each teacher, administrator, bus driver, and non-certified staff member receive a “thank-you” note from at least one student during or following “Teacher Appreciation Week,” depending on how long it takes me to sort all the notes from over 600 students.

We start by looking at the history of this May “holiday” with a PBS LearningMedia video. After the story video for Patricia Palacco’s Mr. Lincoln’s Way or Todd Parr’s Teachers Rock! depending on the grade level; we discuss who else at school, besides teachers, need to be thanked for their hard work this year.

Finally, I reveal what I like to call “The Thank-You Note Project.”

All students in grades K-5 get to pick individuals in the building to thank. There are different amounts of notes students can complete based on grade, and there are specific note sheets students use based on their choices. Students can choose from: bus driver, librarian, speech therapist, secretary, guidance counselor, cafeteria worker, janitor/custodian, music teacher, art teacher, P.E. teacher, school principal/assistant principal, computer teacher, school nurse, school resource officer, family resource center coordinator, physical/occupational therapist, special education teachers, and homeroom teachers.

Incidentally, I found a fantastic, $4 packet on TeachersPayTeachers from “My Little Teaching World” that provided me with most of the note templates. Check it out here! I removed the “Glue Here.” Instructions inside the images, so the pages could be double-sided notes on white paper, rather than cut-outs to paste together. This particular collection doesn’t have one for the “School Resource Officer,” which is a new type of person in my district (it seems to be a police officer who spends all day, every day at our school as a safety precaution), so I made my own note template for that individual.

It’s wonderful to see how many students are excited about making notes of appreciation for the grown-ups in our building! If someone is stuck on who to write to, I always have suggestions and am tracking the individuals chosen to make sure each person gets a student note, as well as all bus drivers who service the school. Some students ask me who hasn’t gotten a note yet, when I mention that some grown-ups haven’t received a note. What a great example of kindness starting to bud!

Adiós,

Ms. Tyler

A is for Appalachia (Grades K-2 Lesson)

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Hello Everyone,

From Goodreads.com

This month, we’ve been studying Appalachian culture in the Special Areas, so I dug out a copy of A is for Appalachia. What a fantastic way to incorporate a culture while simultaneously practicing the alphabet with my primary grade students?

Each of the three grades of students had a different writing/paper task after the story video (which is incidentally available here). Students in grade 2 identified labeled images of items that belonged to or represented Appalachian culture, such as ploughs and slates with chalk, while ruling out more modern items, like refrigerators and cars.

I’ll explain the grade 1 and kindergarten assignments below.

While teaching this lesson, I’ve really been able to see that sometimes within each class of students, it is necessary to differentiate assignments to facilitate the learning of students with differing abilities in the same homeroom.

After watching the story video, I expected grade 1 students to identify the beginning sounds of words, such as identifying the “m” of “mountains” by looking at the mountain range picture and circling the “m” from the provided options. In one of my grade 1 classes, there is a student who cognitively functions on a kindergarten level. While his classmates completed the grade 1 writing assignment, I provided him with the kindergarten assignment for Appalachian culture. On that sheet, I asked him to trace capital and lowercase letters with corresponding relevant pictures. Through differentiation, the student was able to successfully complete the independent writing assignment just like his peers.

Adiós,

Ms. Tyler

Read Across America Week 2018 (Grades 3-5 Lesson)

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Hello Everyone,

Read Across America Week is finally here! This week is most likely my favorite week of all in elementary school!

Since each day has a dress-up theme, which I suggested to our ELA committee, I knew students in grades 3-5 would need something super interesting to match their excitement at the week’s festivities.

Enter, a bit of drama in the form of Dr. Seuss Reader’s Theatre!

To get students thinking about the importance of scripts to theater, I made a “Girl Meets World” mash-up, which I call “Girl Meets Swapped Parts.” Check it out on ViewPure here!

Covers from Goodreads.com

Using free scripts I found on various blogs and websites, I made excerpt scripts for Mr. Brown Can Moo, Green Eggs & Ham, Daisy-Head Mayzie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Yertle the Turtle, The Lorax, and The Sneetches with different numbers of student performers. Green Eggs & Ham only needs two students, while The Sneetches has enough parts for several students. I purposefully chose some of Dr. Seuss’ lesser-known books, as well as some beloved titles to adapt into readers’ theatre scripts.

I let students choose their own groups, knowing only the number they need. I have final approval of groups, and then give students their Seuss story title and request they get scripts and highlighters. After highlighting and practicing a few times (hopefully), with me stepping in as “artistic director” to handle squabbles, the groups perform.

I think my favorite part of this activity was seeing the comedic flair of some of my quiet, shy kids and the confidence in some of my students who receive special education services. Everyone got the opportunity to speak, if only announcing the group order as “assistant director.”

Adiós,

Ms. Tyler