Awesome Octopuses

As an extension to our fiction/nonfiction work with kindergarten students, we turned to octopuses--an animal with which many students already had a fascination. We began with a quick review of the difference between fiction and nonfiction books, and then we were off with our octopus books.

Students quickly began sharing what they already knew about these sea creatures, and we referred to National Geographic Kids's website for additional information as well.

CLICK HERE to access the full article

With all of our octopus learning, we turned to creating our own octopuses. We used a template from Minieco.co.uk. The template reinforced scissor skills, and students were able to design their octopuses with camouflage elements as they chose. You can CLICK HERE for the template:

Check out some of the students' work:

We're Flipping Over Flipgrid!

Dallas Center Elementary K-2 students have been using Flipgrid with recent lessons, and we all love it! This website and app allow us to record students' work and hear their thinking in their own voices. Each of the grade levels focused on different lessons but ultimately recorded their work in Flipgrid. Check it out!

Kindergarten

Students have been reviewing the differences between fiction and nonfiction text. We looked at examples both from our own library collection, as well as pairs of books featured on BookFLIX. As a final assessment, students looked at various books at their tables and determined whether the book was fiction or nonfiction. As groups, then, students recorded their responses using Flipgrid.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS AT FLIPGRID.COM

1st Grade

After talking about ABC order and the importance of alphabetical order in the library earlier in the year, we circled back to those concepts to write and illustrate our own ABC books. After some read aloud examples, students looked at different kinds of ABC books in their table groups.

Students then wrote and illustrated their own ABC books, taking inspiration from the many examples they saw. It was then time to record them reading from their own books.

You can access their Flipgrid videos by clicking on the caption below:

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THEIR VIDEOS.

2nd Grade

Thanks to a fellow K-5 teacher librarian, we tried a new lesson looking at books that have had very few or zero checkouts in a year's time. Reading a book together, we talked about the story and the pictures, offering our opinions about why the book is one that we should recommend to students or one that we should maybe remove from the shelf. Students then looked through books at their tables to choose one that they then used to complete the handout below.

After making decisions about the books they'd chosen, students then recorded their responses on Flipgrid.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS VIDEOS AT FLIPGRID.COM

If you're looking for an engaging and user-friendly way to assess your students--and want your students' voices to be loud and clear!--Flipgrid is a wonderful tool to add to your toolbox!