Mountain Lions Throw Me an All-Week Surprise Party!!!
What I Learned in the Library This Year:
*I learned about different habitats and the animals that live in them.
*I learned how to do research on the computer.
*I used PebbleGo.com to research strong women in history.
*I learned how to vote for the President of the United States in the library.
*I learned about different genres.
*I learned about the Bluebonnet Reading Program.
*I learned library manners.
*I learned about different types of poems.
*I learned how to find fiction books.
*I learned about the adventures of Skoob the shelf elf.
*I practiced sorting books and learned how the nonfiction books are arranged in the library.
*I learned how to be safe on the Internet.
*I learned about folktales.
*I learned how to act in a play.
*I learned about how to write a poem and about elements of poetry like alliteration and onomatopoeia.
*I learned how to research animals on PebbleGo.
*I learned how to do research on the computer.
*I used PebbleGo.com to research strong women in history.
*I learned how to vote for the President of the United States in the library.
*I learned about different genres.
*I learned about the Bluebonnet Reading Program.
*I learned library manners.
*I learned about different types of poems.
*I learned how to find fiction books.
*I learned about the adventures of Skoob the shelf elf.
*I practiced sorting books and learned how the nonfiction books are arranged in the library.
*I learned how to be safe on the Internet.
*I learned about folktales.
*I learned how to act in a play.
*I learned about how to write a poem and about elements of poetry like alliteration and onomatopoeia.
*I learned how to research animals on PebbleGo.
Dress Rehearsals Begin...
This week our second graders are beginning dress rehearsals for our version of Little Red Riding Hood, that I have adapted from a Reader's Theater script. While I was away at the Texas Library Association annual conference, I added stage directions and additional lines to a Reader's Theater script we have been using for our play. I emailed the scripts to our wonderful second grade teachers and they have been practicing with their babies in the classroom. This week we are adding costumes and blocking out our set and our actions. A quick visit to Goodwill at lunch today helped me pull together our costumes. I am still gathering props and need to work on our costumes for the wolves. Ms. Fuller's class was the first group to do a dress rehearsal and the other second grades will come later this week. I hope we can rehearse again next week before we video tape our final performances.
Welcome Back to the Library Fourth and Fifth Graders!
With much time and energy concentrated on preparing for the STAAR test this semester, I have hardly seen our fourth and fifth graders, especially our fifth graders. I have missed having them in the library regularly and look forward to working with them now that the tests are behind us. I was happy to provide the fifth graders with some graphic organizers they completed in the library and in the classroom to support their preparation for the science STAAR test. The fourth graders did research on soil using print and online resources and completed a graphic organizer that allowed them to record information in words and pictures. Hope to see more of our oldest mountain lions in the weeks before school is out for the summer.
First Grade and Flat Stanley
I was contacted by a technology teacher in Weatherford, Texas, April Leppla, about videoconferencing with some of her first and second graders. We decided to collaborate through CAPspace (Collaborations Around the Planet) for a video conference around the Flat Stanley series of books by Jeff Brown. I introduced the Flat Stanley character to our students at Moye and shared a digital version of Flat Stanley at Bat: I Can Read Level 2 using the computer and data projector. The children learned how Stanley, a once ordinary little boy, had become flat and how he longs to be treated like all of the other kids. We are going to be decorating some Flat Stanley-like paper dolls to look like ourselves and then will send our dolls to the children in Weatherford. They are decorating similar paper dolls to send to us. We will take our visiting Stanleys around Moye so they can enjoy a day in the life of a first grade mountain lion. Then we will meet for a short video conference to share our experiences. We look forward to learning a little about the world outside of El Paso through this collaborative effort.
Update: Ms. McClain's class came today and their Flat Stanleys are precious and more appropriately named "flat me's". I love it! Ms. Rowland's class came today, too, and they worked very hard to create their flat me's.
Another update: The bilingual teachers asked if they could decorate their flat me's in traditional Mexican clothing in honor of Cinco de Mayo and the rich culture so many of our mountain lions share. And I said YES, YES, YES!!! I love collaborating with our teachers!
Update: Ms. McClain's class came today and their Flat Stanleys are precious and more appropriately named "flat me's". I love it! Ms. Rowland's class came today, too, and they worked very hard to create their flat me's.
Another update: The bilingual teachers asked if they could decorate their flat me's in traditional Mexican clothing in honor of Cinco de Mayo and the rich culture so many of our mountain lions share. And I said YES, YES, YES!!! I love collaborating with our teachers!
Read to Your Bunny
Late in March the Moye Reading Committee sponsored the Read to Your Bunnies/Reading and Raspas night. I incorporated the message of that parent night into a library lesson for our PK babies and encouraged them to ask someone they love to "Read to Me!'
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Mo Willems Author Study with PK
The Dog Who Loved Tortillas
The book of the month for March was Benjamin Saenz's book The Dog Who Loved Tortillas creatively illustrated by Geronimo Garcia and published right here in El Paso at Cinco Puntos Press. In the library, PK and I read several dog-themed books including The Stray Dog by Marc Simont and The Last Puppy by Frank Asch. Then we made our own adoptable canine from toilet paper rolls and talked about taking care of pets.
We Study Warm, Wonderful Spring
We Begin "Wee"-Search with Second and Third Graders
March means research or "wee"-search for second and third grade as they begin using a combination of resources to conduct research on animals for second grade and famous women in celebration of Women's History Month for third grade. The children will use Britannica Online, EbscoHost, PebbleGo databases, several Internet websites, and print resources from the library's biography and nonfiction collections to answer questions on a library worksheet. Third graders will create a postage stamp featuring their famous woman. Second graders will learn to draw the animal they research and then will use the information they learned about their animal to draw and write a concrete poem. The links available through the buttons below give step-by-step directions for drawing a seal and a penguin. Try it out!!
Sorting out the Dewey Decimal System
Our third graders have begun learning the arrangement of books in the library and the way the nonfiction books are categorized and shelved. The children viewed a PowerPoint presentation that outlined the Dewey Decimal System after enjoying The Shelf Elf Helps Out by Texas librarian Jackie Mims Hopkins. Then they were divided into small groups and each group was given an assortment of small trinkets to sort . The children were reminded to keep in mind the classification of the nonfiction books as they sorted the small items. What a tremendous job they did! Students worked quietly together using teamwork and critical thinking skills to group the items. And then we shared how each group sorted their "books".
Dr. Seuss Birthday Celebrations
Over the two weeks that span the last of February and the first of March, we at H.R. Moye are celebrating the creative life and amazing energy of Theodor Geisel AKA Dr. Seuss. We will be learning a little about this author's life and what influenced him to become one of the best-loved children's authors ever and will be sharing some of his best known books and some less popular titles as well.
This week, first graders are listening to The Lorax read aloud and then completing a worksheet where they identify the causes and effects of the changes to the Lorax's environment by the Once-ler. I demonstrated cause and effect with a line of dominoes falling over and the children were very capable of explaining why all the dominoes fall when only one domino is touched. They were even better able to verbalize the ways in which the environment was destroyed by the Once-ler and what changes resulted from the destruction. Bravo, first grade! A special thanks to Ms. Tapia's class, 1E, for joining me for a Read Across America video conference with children in Virginia.
Our fourth graders used online resources like Britannica Online and PebbleGo to research or Wee-search Dr. Seuss. I asked them to skim the information available online and to find at least eight important facts about the author's life and to write them down. Next library visit, we will create a web with our information and print our digital web to pair with a puppet of Dr. Seuss. I found a cool website that will allow us to create our own mind maps with the information we learned about Dr. Seuss. Check it out at https://bubbl.us/.
This week, first graders are listening to The Lorax read aloud and then completing a worksheet where they identify the causes and effects of the changes to the Lorax's environment by the Once-ler. I demonstrated cause and effect with a line of dominoes falling over and the children were very capable of explaining why all the dominoes fall when only one domino is touched. They were even better able to verbalize the ways in which the environment was destroyed by the Once-ler and what changes resulted from the destruction. Bravo, first grade! A special thanks to Ms. Tapia's class, 1E, for joining me for a Read Across America video conference with children in Virginia.
Our fourth graders used online resources like Britannica Online and PebbleGo to research or Wee-search Dr. Seuss. I asked them to skim the information available online and to find at least eight important facts about the author's life and to write them down. Next library visit, we will create a web with our information and print our digital web to pair with a puppet of Dr. Seuss. I found a cool website that will allow us to create our own mind maps with the information we learned about Dr. Seuss. Check it out at https://bubbl.us/.
Beware of the Big, Bad Wolf
The end of February, second graders continued making the connection between the big, bad wolf in "Little Red Riding Hood" and the potential dangers of online strangers and cyber-bullies. I showed them a PowerPoint presentation I created about safe surfing on the Internet and we discussed some of the potential dangers in using computers online. The children were reminded about the Acceptable Use Agreement they and their family members signed at the beginning of the year indicating that the students had permission to use the Internet at school. And that a signed AUA also means the children promise to use the computers responsibly. Finally, the second graders used the online library catalog to find their library account and to see which books they have checked out. I was very proud of the mature way everyone of these children handled themselves on the computer. Good work second grade!!!
Hug Those Books, Babies!
Even the teensiest Moye Mountain Lions know how important it is to take care of our library books. During their latest visit to the library, we re-visited how important it is to hug our books with two hands, to turn a book's pages from the corners, to keep books away from pets, food and drink. We watched an Arthur video based on the Marc Brown books entitled "Arthur's Lost Library Book" and Arthur demonstrated lots of what not to do with library books. And then as if on cue, we had rain on Tuesday, which gave us a chance to practice what we preached.
Multi-tasking Mountain Lions
This week and next our third, fourth and fifth graders will be multi-tasking during their library visits. We are tallying and graphing the Bluebonnet voting results for their classes and taking a MOY (middle of the year) STAR Diagnostic test through the Accelerated Reader program to monitor our students' growth in reading. I am anxious to see how much better our students are reading now than they were in when school started in August.
Second Grade "Plays" with "Little Red Riding Hood"
In preparation for second grade's first online research experiences, we have been reading versions of the folktale "Little Red Riding Hood" and talking about stranger-danger in person and online. We completed a chart comparing our reader's theater script of LRRH with several book versions of the story. We discovered many ways the versions were the same while enjoying the different ending in each story. The second graders are becoming fabulous actors and actresses as we practice our play which we hope to share with first grade later this spring.
Have a Slice of Genre Pie
Before voting for our favorite Bluebonnet book, the third, fourth and fifth graders watched video clip summaries of the books we had read, then identified the genre of each book. We created a genre pie with paper plates and construction paper fillings, where each slice of pie was labeled with a different genre. We organized the books under the correct genre then voted for our favorite book.
Holiday Hugs to Go
Our sweet prekinder babies shared Valentine poems and a book about hugging titled Time for a Hug in the days before February 14. Then we made a portable hug decorated with lots of hearts and holiday poem to share with someone we love at home. I was blessed to be on the receiving end of some heavenly hugs myself!
Whirlidurb Video Conference with 1A and 1B
The children in Ms. McClain's and Ms. Barrera's first grade classes participated in a video conference with Roxanne Glasser from Whirlidurb using our brand-new, state of the art video conferencing equipment. The presentation was part of the ArtSmart series provided by Whirlidurb. During the children's regular library visit, I read the book Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner, illustrated by Mark Buehner and we talked about what our own snowmen would do at night after reading about the escapades of the snowmen in this adorable children's book. Each first grade class created their own version of the story with pages written and illustrated by the students. As we worked on our snowmen illustrations, we talked about shading and shadows and even made a connection to the groundhog who would soon be looking for his shadow at the week's end. During the video conference, our first graders drew snowmen with Whirlidurb instructor Miss Roxanne, and talked about the geometric shapes making up a snowman, the shading and use of light and dark to add color to their snowmen. Our Moye mountain lions were well behaved, attentive and did a great job following Miss Roxanne's directions as they created pictures of their own winter wonderland.
Hibernation, Fiction and Nonfiction
The smallest mountain lions learned about hibernation through fiction and nonfiction books and streaming video of bears sleeping through the winter in their dens. The PK babies made paper plate bears to take home to use as a prompt for sharing information about hibernation and animals that hibernate with someone they love. The kindergarten students completed the missing illustrations in the booklet "Black Bear's Winter" and then took their booklets home to share with loved ones. I used the groundhog and ladybug puppets to introduce the lesson. This sweet PK baby kissed his bear all the way back to his classroom. Precious!
Stone Soup Revisited
The second graders and I first read the folktale "Stone Soup" retold by Marcia Brown together in November. We made a comparison between the ways the characters in the story came together to make stone soup just as the Indians and Pilgrims came together to prepare the First Thanksgiving. This fourth week of the new year, my sweet second grade babies, their great teachers and I mixed together our own stone soup in the library. We combined tomato juice, diced tomatoes, pinto beans, black beans, chili beans, corn, and ground beef with a packet of taco seasoning and a packet of Ranch salad dressing and dip mix. Stirred it all together in our crock pots into which we had first put a smooth, round stone and allowed it to cook all day long! Mmmm, how delicious it smelled! Finally, right before time to go home, we dished up bowls of our hearty soup to each second grader to eat along with crackers. The reviews were great! Our soup was as delicious to eat as it was fun to make.
During the second graders library visit this week, we reviewed some of the characteristics of a folktale, read a second version of "Stone Soup" by Ann McGovern and completed a Venn diagram comparing the two versions of the story.
During the second graders library visit this week, we reviewed some of the characteristics of a folktale, read a second version of "Stone Soup" by Ann McGovern and completed a Venn diagram comparing the two versions of the story.
The third graders and I brainstormed concrete poems about hot dogs in the shape of a little piggy. We used words and ideas from Hot Diggity Dog to write our poem.
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Pre-K Builds a Snowman
Using Denise Fleming's book The First Day of Winter, the Moye PK students read the sequential steps for building a snowman and then we moved to the library tables to create a white chalk snowman on black construction paper. I modeled each step first and these sweet babies repeated each step, one at a time, on their construction paper. I am sure the recent snow storm served as artistic inspiration for both librarian and students!
Learning about Fables
First grade is learning about fables in class and in the library this week. We talked about the characteristics of a fable, shared a wordless picture book of "The Lion and the Mouse", then we worked in pairs to look at other wordless picture books. The babies did a great job using the illustrations to help them recognize and predict what was happening in these wordless books. Finally, before checking out books, we made a lion and a mouse to take home. I challenged the children to use their paper plate lions and paper mice to share the fable with someone they love. The brown yard connecting the lion with the mouse also served to represent the net that the lion gets caught up in before the mouse rescues him. Grrrrrrreat job, first grade!
OREO Model for Persuasive Writing - YUMMY
This week and last, the children in third, fourth and fifth grades have been reading Ruth and the Green Book and making a connection with the story and the lives and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. We have talked about how Dr. King and Ms. Parks fought with words, with powerful speeches, and peaceful demonstrations to promote racial equality. We used the OREO model for persuasive writing to identify ways we could support Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech in which he said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Moye students are so insightful and perceptive. They provided me with many great reasons why Ruth and Rosa Parks should have been treated more fairly but in every class the children realized that we all deserve to be treated equally, no matter our eye color, skin color, height, weight or shoe size. Well done, Moye Mountain Lions.
Whoooo's an AR Star the first nine weeks?
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Ruth and the Green Book
Our first weeks back after the Winter Holidays, finds the third, fourth and fifth graders learning about persuasive writing and reading our third Bluebonnet book of the year, Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey, with Gwen Strauss, illustrations by Floyd Cooper. Take a few minutes to enjoy the video below created by the Center for Puppetry Arts as they provide a behind-the-scenes look at their puppet show interpretation of this children's book.
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Santa's Elves Decorated the Library Tree
Ricardo, Fernando, Nayeli and Maria helped decorate the library Christmas tree.
Fandango Stew, "Stone Soup", The first Thanksgiving and Procedural Texts
October Activities in the Library
Fantastic training at El Paso Holocaust Museum
I am so thankful to Ms. Portillo for allowing me to attend a fabulous training at the El Paso Holocaust Museum. We received a wealth of information and materials for incorporating the Holocaust into classroom and/or library instruction. Many of the participants were art or history teachers. I am eager to add what I learned to the unit I do on Anne Frank with fifth graders in the spring. This year, with the district's emphasis on bullying, I hope to encourage the children to see how the Holocaust was bullying at its zenith.
This particularly training was an introduction to the multi-media exhibit The Memory Project. "In the exhibit, Holocaust survivor Anna Jacobs, tells her own story of survival and of the last time she saw Kalman, her little brother, in Poland. Her daughter, acclaimed New York artist Roz Jacobs, has captured the essence of her Uncle Kalman through a series of paintings..."
http://www.elpasoholocaustmuseum.org/article.sstg?id=80 |
Postcards Appreciated
I believe our postcard writing activity to accompany our first Bluebonnet book of the year, Postcards from Camp, was a big hit. I hung the postcards the children wrote to their present or former teachers outside of the teachers' classrooms. Several teachers came out in the hall as I was hanging the postcards and read the immediately with tears in their eyes. Other teachers discovered the postcards after I hung them, and said they were deeply touched by the sweet words written to them. I received several very, very sweet postcards myself; one in particular by Daniela Toca, really touched my heart!!!
I mailed several postcards to teachers in other schools in EPISD or schools in other districts, and received the following email from one teacher: From: "Elizabeth Banuelos" <[email protected]> To: "Leslie Roberts Clingan" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 3:41:53 PM Subject: postcard from Carla Martinez Good afternoon Ms. Clingan: I received the postcard from Carla that you forwarded. I want to thank you so much for taking the time to send it to me. It definitely made my day. I've been wondering about Carla's whereabouts, since I didn't see her returning to our campus and next thing you know I get a little note from her. She is a wonderful,hard-working student and it was a pleasure to have had her in my class. Please say hi to her from me and thank her for her beautiful card. |
2012 Dias de los Muertos Altar
My altar for Dias de los Muertos is in memory of my nephew Andrew Price, my father DeWayne Roberts, my pup Cheyenne and the two-year-old niece of some H.R. Moye Elementary students. I lost my father this past spring and my puppy Cheyenne not long afterward. It has been a tough year. I miss you, Andrew, Cheyenne and Daddy.
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Monster Exchange with Ms. McClain and 1BOn Monday, October 29, the Ms. McClain and her mighty monster-creating first graders participated in a video conference with first graders at Powell Elementary. Each class was responsible for creating a two-dimensional picture of a monster then providing the other class with a written description of their monster. Using the written description from the originating class, the second class attempted to recreate the monster described.
Ms. McClain's class drew and described a four-armed, fire-breathing dragon-tattooed, starry-eyed beast. The children at Powell drew and described Sulley, the blue monster from the Monsters, Inc. movie. Both classes of children enjoyed the activity and demonstrated excellent video conferencing etiquette. |
Starting off Library Lessons in September
Testing with STAR
Library classes began this week for students in second, third, fourth and fifth grades and the place has been hoppin'! Ms. Manso and I have been administering the STAR Diagnostic Test to the students in each class in order to determine their reading level for the Accelerated Reading Program. And I have been thrilled by the concentration and effort with which the children are taking the STAR test. In one fifth grade class, the average time needed by the students to complete the assessment was over 20 minutes...which indicates to me that they are doing their very best!
And the results of the STAR are terrific this year. For the first time since I have been at Moye, many of our students are reading close to or right on grade level to start the new school. Last year we had better participation than ever in the AR program and teachers who had not used the program much with their students in the past, had 100% of their children reach the AR goals set for them.
So I am feeling super excited about our Accelerated Reader program this year. I hope to collect a lot of Box Tops for Education and aluminum soda cans this year to help pay for the AR store incentives. Can I count on your help saving cans and box tops, too?
I like lunch duty!
This year, for the first time, I have been asked to do lunch duty in the cafeteria. Originally I worked from 11:15-11:45 and helped our first and second graders fill their trays in the lunch line. But starting today, my assignment has moved to the fourth and fifth grade lunch shifts and rather than helping the students select their food, I am enjoying visiting with our great Moye Mountain Lions, then releasing them to go out for recess. The library will be opening soon but lunch duty has allowed me an opportunity in the meantime to be blessed by hugs and high fives from the great kids at Moye. I like lunch duty.