Dot Day Celebrations, 2016

Today is International Dot Day, and we've been celebrating all week long! Some of our South Prairie students participated in Google Hangouts with students at Dallas Center Elementary, sharing the alouds Mix It Up and The Adventures of Beekle the Unimaginary Friend.

After reading Mix It Up, Dallas Center Elementary students also read The Dot and "made their marks" with the app QuiverVision and the Dot Day coloring page.

To access the PDF, click here.

Students colored their dots, and with the app were able to see their dots become three dimensional. The app also creates images using their dots.

After reading about Beekle, our new partner classes--Mrs. Washington's 2nd graders and Mrs. Grant's 5th graders--created their own new unimaginary friends to share through the mail, and both groups are eager to read and work together again in future Google Hangouts!

Other first grade classes celebrated Dot Day by pairing Press Here with The Dot and then making their marks creating their own dot books.

Dallas Center Elementary fifth graders also celebrated Dot Day and made their marks digitally. After reading The Dot, students searched for dots all around the library, taking pictures of their finds. 

Then, using the app PicCollage, students created collages featuring all of their library dots. 

So much fun celebrating Dot Day again--be sure to look at our SnapChat and Instagram accounts (DCGLibraries) to see more pictures!

Fairy Tale STEM Work

With a generous grant from our PTO this fall, we purchased many new library center and lesson materials, including these STEM Fairy Tale sets from Lakeshore Learning. (You can find them here.)

Three familiar fairy tales are included in the set: The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Three Little Pigs, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Each kit has a story recap to read with students, planning/creating/testing task cards, building materials, and story figures. 

After retelling the fairy tales together as a group, we focused on the task cards for each tale. Students were eager to build; however, without a plan, groups were without direction. The task cards helped provide direction.

Task cards from The Three Billy Goats Gruff kit

Students worked from paper copies of the task cards, and then the building began! Check out some of their successful work!

Our Own "Magic" Chalk

Springtime here in Iowa can be more rainy days than sunny, so when the sun *finally* came out today, the kindergarteners celebrated by reading Chalk by Bill Thomson.


Since the weather cooperated with sunny skies today, we took our work outside--we had our own bag of "magic" chalk! Students drew what they hoped would come to life with their pieces of chalk. We had many long neck dinosaurs (no scary T-rex dinos for us!), some unicorns, a hamster, and many more!

What books are you reading to celebrate the springtime? 

Celebrating Earth Day

Friday was Earth Day, and Dallas Center Elementary first graders celebrated in unusual style with a Google Hangout with Miss Jordan, an animal expert and educator with Animal Kingdom Florida!

Students have recently begun animal research using articles from PebbleGO, and our conversation with Miss Jordan gave students a unique opportunity to ask about their own research topics as well as any other animal about which they were curious! We also learned about Miss Jordan's day as she educates visitors to the park about the animals there. Even though Miss Jordan had our questions in advance--and answered many of them for us!--students were very eager to ask more questions during our Hangout.

Students' projects are still in process, but Miss Jordan let us know she'd love to see their work when they finish! So stay tuned--student work will follow!

State Award Winning Books

Every year students across Iowa participate in a democratic process of our own as we read and then vote on our state award books. The Iowa Goldfinch Award is given to a book that's suitable for students in grades K - 3 while the Iowa Children's Choice Award focuses on books for students in grades 3 - 6. Students are to read--or have read to them--at least two of the nominated books to be eligible to vote. Here were this year's nominees:

Since the fall, students have been reading and listening to many of the books, and the voted in their respective buildings in March. At Dallas Center Elementary, the K - 2 students voted for Ball by Mary Sullivan to be the Goldfinch winner, and students at South Prairie voted for Memoirs of a Hamster by Devin Scillian.

The DC Elementary students in grades 3 - 5 students voted for Duke by Kirby Larson to be the Children’s Choice while North Ridge students chose Dog Diaries: Ginger by Kate Kilmo as their winner.

State winners were announced in early April at a statewide librarian conference. The Goldfinch Award winner for the state was The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt; the Iowa Children’s Choice winner was Duke by Kirby Larson.

Taking a Look at Greek Mythology

Third graders at Dallas Center Elementary have been working with their reading partners to learn more about different gods, goddesses, creatures, and other characters from Greek mythology. Reading articles from Britannica Online, students' first task was to learn about their topic and take notes, including information related to their new learning, inferences, and questions.

You can access the handout HERE.

Students also watched three stories from Greek mythology using Learn360: Daedalus & Icarus, Pandora's Box, and Jason & the Golden Fleece. Conversations related to the videos related to the way humans and gods/goddesses interact and why or how one group becomes upset or pleased with the others' actions.

Students' final project combined their learning of gods and goddesses along with their recent work with constellations. Working in groups, students brainstormed characters and items to include in an original myth that tells the story of a constellation they created.

You can access the handout HERE.

Here are some examples of students' constellation stories: