Welcome to the FPG Library Blog

Welcome to the Frank Porter Graham Elementary Library blog. Check out all the wonderful things our students are learning and some of the best books to use with children both in school and at home.

Friday, December 21, 2012

2nd Quarter Library Happenings!

Wow! What a busy place the library has been over the past two months.  We have collaborated with various grade levels and specialists to create meaningful learning experiences for our students and it's been such fun for all the teachers too!  Many of the projects have revolved around the new North Carolina Social Studies standards while also integrating aspects of the new Common Core Standards for English Language Arts.  There is a particular emphasis on digital literacy in the Common Core and this is right up our alley down in the library media center.  Take a look below to check out all the fun we've been having!

Kindergarten Students Create Digital "All About Us" Books
What makes us the same yet different?  This was the guiding question behind the collaborative Kindergarten project.  Kindergarten students spent this quarter studying similarities and differences between themselves and others.  Using lots of stories and books to guide their thinking, students began to see how children can describe themselves with various attributes.  Mr. Sandick collaborated with teachers on a graphing lesson using the Smartboard in which students explored attributes of themselves and then shared them with pictographs.  They also spent time creating self portraits using craft materials in their classrooms and exploring things they liked and enjoyed.  You can view these self-portraits in the digital presentations below.  This unit also provided the opportunity to explore aspects of culture.  As part of this study students visited the library and listened to a story and viewed a digital resource that provided information about how students around the world get to school.  Did you know that some children ride water buffalos??!  Now, that is interesting!  We imagined what it would be like to ride up to FPG on a water buffalo in the morning instead of coming in a car or bus.  Students created print books about cultures as they examined what makes cultures similar and different.  (To view the the digital Voicethreads created by each class simply click on the picture below).
Mrs. Martin's Class

Mrs. Wise's Class

Mrs. James' Class


3rd Graders Hold Mock Election - Library Style

The national election had come to a close, but our third graders were just gearing up for their big character election.  Watching the events of the Presidential election gave our students lots to talk about and ideas to generate their thinking with this unit.  After examining concepts of government and its role in our lives, they specifically focused on the civic duty of citizens and the process of elections.  We decided it would be fun to have a book character election and our very own third graders would lead the campaign!  We began by completing a character study using the books Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio and Otto Runs for President by Rosemary Wells.  After evaluating the two main characters it was decided Grace and Otto would be our two candidates.  

As students began to craft their campaigns we led students through a lesson on the purpose of campaign slogans and how to create one to appeal to voters.  Students evaluated primary sources by looking over real campaign slogans from past elections to give them a better idea of how to create a strong slogan for their chosen book character.  The third grade hallway became campaign headquarters!  Before too long there were posters and slogans showin up all over the school.  The library was our official polling place and some students even campaigned the day of the election outside the polling place as voters arrived (of course no campaign material was allowed in the polling place).  Any class across the school who wished to participate could do so, but they were encouraged to read the books first so they were well informed voters.  Before coming in to vote, all participating classes were asked to fill out their voter registration cards and they brought these with them when they checked in to receive their ballot.  K-2 classes were given paper ballots and 3-5 classes voted electronically.  
We had real voting booths set up in our library polling place and the voters even received "I Voted" stickers when their vote was cast.  In the end Otto was a clear winner.  It was a landslide victory and he received more than seventy percent of the votes.  Take a look below for some pictures and video of our election day!






2nd Grade Market Grand Opening - A Study in Economics
Our 2nd grade classes studied basic economic principles during social studies this quarter. Using fiction and nonfiction texts along with digital resources such as BrainPop and Pebble Go students explored various concepts from "supply and demand" to "wants and needs".  Stories such as Alexander Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst, My Rows and Piles of Coins by Tololwa M. Mollel, and Nothing by Jon Agee were used as read alouds to illustrate these principles and encourage discussion and understanding.  This project based unit culminated with a market day held in the second grade hallway.  Students spent over a week planning their businesses.  They were responsible for deciding if they wanted to provide a good or a service and how much they would charge their consumers.  They spent time creating their products and advertisements and even established a bank in the hallway that had our very own Mrs. Shaw as the bank manager (is that a great math specialist or what?)  We also included a pre and post assessment to this unit by including a visual graphic.  Before the unit ever began and when the unit was over we asked students to write down words that relate to economics on a post-it.  It was really wonderful to see their growth from the beginning to the end.  I took the students responses and generated a word cloud from them using wordle.net  The larger words indicate the word was listed more often by students.  You can very clearly see students grasped many of the concepts. The final step to this unit allowed students to capture their learning in the form of a digital book.  We used www.littlebirdtales.com to capture the market concepts using real photographs from that special day.  You can peek into the fun by exploring the pictures, video, word clouds and digital books below.


Flyer that advertised the market Grand Opening!



Digital Books Capturing the Market Lessons - click on each book to hear that book read aloud by students from the class.  


One of the Market's featured businesses. 
 


Mrs. Cole gets her hair and nails serviced at the FPG Spa.  Mrs. Maldonado also visited the spa for a nail service. 


Picture of Student Post-it With Words Listed
 

Pre-assessment Wordle Example












Post-Assessment Wordle Example 










5th Graders Create Digital Book Reviews
The fifth grade dual language students have been creating digital book reviews for K-2 students using Voicethread.  They have been coming in to the library with Ms. Caicedo during their Spanish Special to work on this project each week.  After a lesson on elements of good reviews students began working on crafting a writing piece that detailed why someone would want to check-out their chosen book from the library.  They used digital cameras to take photos of parts of their book to include as part of their review.  The end result is what you see below.  Click on the photo to be taken to all the individual voicethreads - from there you can view the voicethreads of your choice.  Upon returning in January, 5th graders will share these with the younger students to generate interest in some of these Spanish picture books in our collection.  

Thursday, November 15, 2012

A Museum...A Library.....Both??

Did you know November is Native American Indian Heritage Month?  To honor this month we have created a museum display of Native American artifacts created by our very own 5th graders.  After studying nonfiction during classroom literacy they used Native American books to explore nonfiction text features.  We also explored the text features of an electronic database as we introduced them to how to navigate Kids Britannica to find Native American information (click here to see a rundown of these text features shared).  Students shared out one component of what they learned and paired the information with a hand-made native artifact.  We have set these up on display throughout our library space to create our very own FPG Native American Museum Exhibit.  Classes have been invited to take a field trip to visit our museum to learn a thing or two.  Our hallway is also dedicated to this special month.  We have created a display on our bulletin board along with posters of contemporary Native Americans.......and don't forget to check out our book display in the hallway.  Lots of great books about Native Americans to wrap your hands around and dive into to learn more about this important culture that is part of our heritage.

 



Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Wow....what a start to the year! It's hard to believe it's already October. We have been quite busy getting the year off to a SUPER start in the FPG Libary. We have a Superhero theme running wild in our library and we are excited to have our students join us as Reading Superheros this year. For the upper grades we tested their Super Hero library powers as students worked in teams to see how much they knew about library expectations and procedures. The younger students got busy dancing in the library as we rocked out to Pete the Cat:Rocking In My School Shoes by Eric Litwin.   If you haven't read any Pete the Cat stories - you must!! Check out the story set to song here.  The Kindergartners have also been welcomed to the library and learned about the "Book Hospital" and what makes books sick (damaged). Students evaluated some "sick" books and created a list of things that makes books sick (writing in books, getting wet, food/drink spills, etc.) and what makes them healthy (bookmarks, keeping them in a safe place, etc.) Some classes enjoyed an interactive pirate storytime as we listened to How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long on National Talk Like a Pirate Day. We have also been quite busy working with 3-5 grade classes on lessons around digital citizenship and the responsibilities that come with being a digital citizen. Students have worked with Mr. Sandick, Mrs. Mitchell and me on lessons around topics such as Cyber-Bullying, Staying Safe online, and Creating Powerful Passwords. As we move into October we will begin a few safety and security lessons with K-2 classes. We are working with Common Sense Media to help facilitate these lessons. This is a wonderful resource to use as a parent as well and I would encourage you to visit them online at www.commonsensemedia.org. Now that the year is in full swing. I look forward to collaborating with classroom teachers and other specialists to create some memorable and engaging learning experiences for our students at FPG. Check out the photos below to see some highlights of the start of this year.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Kindergartners Create Digital Animal Fact Books!

Kindergartners have been busy this last month of school becoming expert animal researchers. A collaborative unit between classroom teachers, our technology specialist and myself aimed to teach our youngest learners the steps of simple research process. Using the Super 3 steps of Plan, Do, Review our kindergartners slowly became animal experts. They used books and internet sources to gather their information and organized their findings on a simple graphic organizer. After creating classroom charts of their findings, each student chose one fact to share about their animal to be included in a digital nonfiction book. Check out the completed digital products below. Kudos to a job well done!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Library Comfort.....

Oh, Thursday.....what a wonderful day you have been thus far. I couldn't resist the urge to capture this moment when a group of fourth graders meandered their way down to the library. After looking endlessly for that next great book to devour, this is what I looked out upon from behind the circulation desk. It doesn't get much better than this! I hope all students in schools everywhere have the opportunity to find refuge and comfort in their libraries. Happy Thursday!

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

FPG Celebrates Poem In Your Pocket Day!

What could be better than a day filled with pockets full of poems?? At FPG, we celebrated National Poem In Your Pocket Day on Thursday, April 26 and it was such fun sharing poems with one another across campus. The hallways and walkways were adorned with posters displaying various poems. Each poster had a pocket attached overflowing with poems the students could take. By the end of the day, the poster pockets were bare and student pockets were overflowing with poetry. We also had fun with an open mic slam jam in the courtyard and classes enjoyed sharing their poetry aloud with others. We hope you enjoy this video highlight of our fun day filled with poetry at FPG!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

FPG Films Presents....Book Trailers!

What a FUN time fifth graders have been having with Ms. Shannon in the library. They recently delved into a project in which they evaluated what makes a good book trailer. What can pull a reader in and make them want to read the book? Students then explored I-Movie and Movie Maker to create digital book reviews! These are linked to our library catalog as well so when you search for a book their digital review will be linked to the book's information. Featured below are just a few - we hope you enjoy them! Kudos to a job well done and I look forward to using this program with more students and in more ways in the days ahead.