Picture Books & Personification

During Poetry Month, 5th graders have been looking at examples of sensory detail and alliteration, and today they continued their work by looking at personification. We began with a clip from Disney's Beauty and the Beast; students watched the clip, then talked in table groups about what they believed personification might be based on what they saw.



One we established a working definition, we moved on to examining personification in children's picture books. Many great examples are out there to use, but below are some of the books 5th graders used:

Students worked in groups to browse the books at their tables for examples of personification. Their task was to find at least two examples, photograph them, and describe it as an example of personification. All of this would be done using iPads--the camera and the app PoppletLite specifically.

Some examples of the students' work appears below:

Iowa State Award Book Winners Announced

Recently Iowa librarians met at a conference, where one of the activities was announcing the winners of the Iowa Goldfinch and Iowa Children's Choice Award.

Earlier in the year, DC Elementary students browsed this year's Goldfinch titles and predicted which book would win. 

After several weeks of activities and discussions about the nominated Goldfinch books, students voted. At DC Elementary, the winner with 35% of the vote turned out to be Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine, and a Miracle by Major Brian Dennis, Kirby Larson, and Mary Nethery.

So which book was the statewide winner? We nailed it! It was also Nubs! More than 25,000 Iowa children in grades K - 2 voted this year, a new record!

Elementary students in grades 3 - 5 also participated in the state award book process by reading and participating in lessons related to Iowa Children's Choice Award books. Third graders listened to Ghost Dog Secrets by Peg Kehret, fourth graders listened to A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park or Abby Carnelia's One and Only Magical Power by David Pogue, and fifth graders listened to The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann.

With 23% of the vote, Dallas Center Elementary students chose The Unwanteds as the building winner.  So they did also choose the state-wide winner? Nope--more than 21,000 Iowa students selected Because of Mr. Terupt to be the 2013 - 2014 winner.

Stay tuned--next year's lists have been announced, and we librarians will be book talking them ahead of  the summer break to encourage some summertime reading!

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Visiting 7th Graders Share Picture Book Projects

A special treat today! Our 7th grade friends at the Middle School joined several of our classes to read and talk about original picture books they had written. For the past several weeks, 7th graders have been reading and examining children's books, planning their own stories to tell, and creating illustrations to support their stories.

Throughout the day, seven sections of 7th graders met with nearly 175 Dallas Center Elementary students to share their writing! DC Elementary students also had the opportunity to share their own writing and read favorite children's books with their older buddies.

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5th Grade WIN Time Projects

It's time again to feature 5th graders' WIN time work! The most recent work spotlights favorite books and uses PowToon, a free app associated with Google.

Students watched a PowToon tutorial on YouTube and familiarized themselves with the buttons and options when creating a project. Then, students identified a favorite book and created a book trailer.  You can see their work below--enjoy!