Otis and the Puppy, Part I

What an exciting day in the Dallas Center Elementary library! After much planning by email and Google Hangout, the DC Elementary 2nd graders in Mrs. FitzGerald's class joined Mrs. Zweibohmer's 2nd grade class from Harding Elementary School in Mason City, IA!

The classes met online--again using Google Hangout--to celebrate Picture Book Month. Librarians Mrs. Staudt and Mrs. Ellis are big fans of Loren Long's character Otis the tractor, so they chose Otis and the Puppy to read aloud to their classes.

Once introductions were made--and all the waving was finished :)--students visited Loren Long's website where he has links related to all of his Otis books, as well as the other books he's written and illustrated.

We began with the book trailer for the story:


Then they listened to Mrs. Staudt and Mrs. Ellis take turns reading the story.

Finally, we watched Loren Long talk about his Otis character, like the kind of person Otis is and the development of the artwork.


So what's next for these two classes? More meeting online, that's for sure! In an upcoming session together, the two classes will follow the lead of another pair of collaborating librarians to work together online. Shannon McClintock Miller and a librarian from New Hampshire met recently and used two websites to have their students share their work. (You can read about their work here.)

And what will our students do now that we've finished reading the story together? Taking our cues from these two librarians, we'll use TodaysMeet and Aww later this month to learn and work together to share our ideas about Otis and the Puppy.

Mrs. Ellis gave a preview of their work by drawing Otis herself on Aww as the students watched. The caption says it all: "Poor Mrs. Ellis can't draw so well. . . This is supposed to be Otis, our favorite tractor!"

Stay tuned for Part II! There's more excitement and more Otis coming soon!