Science in the Library
2nd graders did the rock sorting science experiment in the library after reading the book "Hector the Collector" by Emily Beeny. After they sorted their rock collection, they used the ChatterPix app to describe their sorted collection.
Novel Engineering
Using an idea from Novel Engineering, students created their own solution to the problem of keeping rabbits out of the garden from the book "Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!" by Candace Fleming. We used the Flipgrid app to record their explanations.
STEAM Challenges
Working with another elementary school in the district, we challenged each other to see which school could create puff mobiles that would travel the farthest using only breath power. Here is our video challenge and we can't wait to see what the other school sends us!
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Choose Your Own Adventure Book Scavenger Hunt
Using past Texas Bluebonnet books, I created a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book scavenger hunt with QR codes linked to video book trailers. Students chose where to begin their adventure based on yes or no questions such as "Do you like fractured fairy tales?" or "Have you ever wished you had super powers?" Each station then lead to either a book to check out if they were interested in reading it, or another choice to go further on their adventure. Students enjoyed moving around the library hunting for their next great read!
Student Video Book Recommendations
Students used the Flipgrid app to create video book recommendations. The app creates a QR code linked to each video, so the codes are printed and attached to the bookshelves near the books. Students use their iPads to scan the QR codes and get book recommendations from their peers.
Makerspace Fridays
This year, the library is hosting a makerspace on Fridays. Students can choose from different activities, such as building challenges, origami, stop motion movie creation, and much more. Follow @cce_library on Instagram to see more pictures.
Amazing Animation
5th graders shared their learning about the Bill of Rights using whiteboard animation and the iMotion and iMovie apps.
Animated Book Talks
5th graders used the iMotion app to create whiteboard animations about a favorite book. They then imported the animation videos into the iMovie app and recorded a voice over narration for their whiteboard animations to create video book talks and promote their favorite books.
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Math Stop Motion Videos
3rd graders created stop motion videos to introduce the concept of area and perimeter.
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Revolutionary War Song Parodies
Fifth graders in Ms. Raygor's social studies class created song lyric parodies to show their learning about the beginnings of the Revolutionary War.
"Fight Song" by Sophia & Layne
"Sorry" by Kate, Lainey, Merceilles & Reese
"Heathens" by Tyler & Braeden
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"Rude" by Jordan, Landon & Brodie
"Counting Stars" by Carly & Eva
"I'll Make a Man out of You" by Dan & Peter
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Global Read Aloud
Kindergarten and first grade students have been participating in the 2016 Global Read Aloud. We have had Skype video conferences with schools in Washington, Kansas and South Carolina who are reading the same books. Students also used the Chatterpix app to share their thoughts on being brave after reading Lauren Castillo's book "Nana in the City" and the Flipgrid app to share their bedtime rituals after reading Jane Smiley and Lauren Castillo's book "Twenty Yawns."
Favorite Picture Books
2nd graders have been reading and discussing the Caldecott Award winning books and how the story and the artwork go together to make a great book. They have been sharing some of their favorite titles on a Flipgrid.
Presidential Research
In order to make the Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee "Rutherford B., Who Was He? Poems about Our Presidents" more meaningful, students each researched a different president. They transformed their notes into a short speech as if they were the president introducing themselves to the class in the form of a Chatterpix video.. As we read the book aloud as a class, students presented what they learned about their president after reading the poem about him.
Scary Poetry
3rd grade students wrote poems about topics that scare people. They then used the http://www.duckduckmoose.com/educational-iphone-itouch-apps-for-kids/chatterpixkids/ChatterPix app to record their voice reading their poem. We bound a physical book of all the students' poems which can be checked out of the library, as well as creating an electronic version which was a compilation of all the students' ChatterPix movies.
Hour of Code
Click here to join Scratch
Click here for the Scratch coding tutorial
Click here to add your project to the Cedar Creek Elementary gallery
Click here for the Scratch coding tutorial
Click here to add your project to the Cedar Creek Elementary gallery
Explorers in Texas: Heroes or Villains?
4th grade students researched explorers in Texas and created a video response to the question of why that explorer should be considered either a hero or villain. 5th grade students later watched the videos and responded on a Google form survey with their vote for hero or villain. Thank you Andy Plemmons of David C. Barrow Elementary in Athens, Georgia for this lesson idea!
Dot Day 2015
Students used the Flipgrid App to record a voice-over explanation of their Dot Day inspired art work. We began the project by reading the Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee "Grandfather Gandhi" and learning how Gandhi made his mark on the world. Then on Dot Day we talked about connections between the book "The Dot" and ways we could make our own mark. Students then created a visual dot representation of how they could make a mark. We then shared our work through the app.
Using Social Media to Share Opinions
Students used the Flipgrid App to quickly and easily share their opinions on their favorite Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee. Once they had recorded their opinion, they could watch all the other student responses.
Student Created Audio Books
Kindergarten and 3rd grade buddies chose their favorite picture book from the Texas 2 x 2 list to make an audio recording. I made sure all the book choices were short enough to be read completely in 2-3 minutes. The first meeting, students just practiced reading the book aloud together and decided which buddy would read which parts of the book. The second meeting was spent practicing their recording on the iPad so they could hear how they sounded and getting their practice recordings approved by an adult. Once an adult had approved their practice recording, they were allowed to go into the "recording studio" to use the Vocaroo web site to make their final recording. We set up a few "recording studios" in the library by using offices, storage rooms, closets, etc. I planned on only downloading the few best recordings, but in the end they were all so good (because we had spent so much time practicing) I put them all up on my audio books page of the library web site.
Student Created Book Talks
4th and 5th graders wrote their own book talks to introduce other students to books they might enjoy. Using the Vocaroo web site allowed them to easily record their book talks. Since we wanted to save these book talks permanently, I downloaded the audio files from Vocaroo and uploaded them to the book talks page of my library web site. There is one QR code on the book cover that goes to my web site so students can listen to that book talk as well as any other book talks they might find interesting.
Poetry
3rd graders read "Face Bug: Poems" by J. Patrick Lewis, one of this year's Texas Bluebonnet Award nominees. The book contains poems about different insects. Students then used the Pebble Go database to research the insect of their choice. With the help of the rhyme brain online rhyming dictionary, they wrote their own poems about their insects. We then used the Vocaroo web site to record the poems, which generates a QR code so others can hear the students reading their poems by scanning the QR code with their iPad while looking at their artwork displayed in the library.
Persuasive Writing
3rd graders read "The Day the Crayons Quit" by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers, one of this year's Texas Bluebonnet Award nominees. In this humorous book, a boy's crayons write him letters persuading him to do various things such as use them more or color inside the lines. Students then brainstormed what various personal items would have to say to them. After a rough draft, editing, and revisions done in the library, the final drafts were compiled into a class book of letters. The class books are now available for check out in the library.
Library Centers
Kindergarten and 1st graders now have center choices after checking out library books. First we have a story (currently we are reading the Texas 2 x 2 books) and after checking out their library books, students can choose from any of 8 different center activities that connect to the story. This week's story, "Digger Dozer Dumper" by Hope Vestergaard, is a book of poems featuring all different kinds of trucks, from ambulance to skid-steer loader.
Puzzle center with fire truck puzzle
Game center playing Memory with different types of vehicles
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Art center with how to draw trucks
Puppet center to create your own show
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Building center with K'Nex four wheeler instructions
Listening center with "Alphabet Rescue"
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Computer literacy center watching and reading the book "I Stink" from a garbage truck's perspective
Tangram center with truck patterns
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Poetry Tag!
4th grade students used the Kindle Cloud Reader to read the poetry anthology "Poetry Tag Time" compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. Once they had seen some examples of poets playing poetry tag, they then played themselves with their own poems.
4th Grade Book Spine Poetry Projects
Fourth graders used the spines of library books to inspire a poem about Texas--their year long topic in Social Studies class. They used the Pic Collage app to add any necessary words to their poems and then imported their collage into the Explain Everything app or iMovie so they could record their voice reading the poem.
3rd Grade Beasty Projects
Third graders read and compared two stories in the "beasty" tradition, Wiley and the Hairy Man by Molly Bang and Precious and the Boo Hag by Pat McKissack. Using craft supplies, they then created their own beasty. After writing a planning sheet about their beasty, students were free to create any project to present their information, either on the iPad or on paper.
2nd Grade Caldecott Projects
2nd graders read a variety of picture books and discussed the art work so they would be prepared to vote for which book they think should win the 2014 Caldecott award. After voting, they made their own video using the Explain Everything app on the iPad and included a math problem based on the number of votes each book received.