Kindergarten and First Grade Celebrate Dot Day

I'm so excited that I finally get to post about our International Dot Day celebrations. I was waiting on some permission slips so that I could include pictures with this post.

Due to days off, not all Kindergarten and First Grade students got to participate in our Dot Day celebrations.  I have something else special planned for them in the future.

Every year on or around September 15th educators around the world are invited to take time and celebrate their students' creativity.  This event started because of the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds.  Click here for a summary of the book.

We started off by listening to The Dot on TumbleBooks, which is available through the St. Mary's County Public Library site (under the Kids tab).  We discussed how this book teaches us a great life lesson, trying your best even when you think you can't and making your mark on the world

In Kindergarten, we talked about how their name is an important part of how they make their mark on the world.  Each student got a half sheet of paper with the first letter of their first name written on it.  Then they had to make that letter their own by covering it with dots!  The kids had a great time and showed a lot of creativity.  As they got done, I broke the students into small groups and allowed them to use an iPad app, Drawing Pad, to as a group make dots.

  

In First Grade, I broke the class into two groups.  One group stayed at the tables and designed their own dots.  It was interesting to see the creativity and thoughtfulness behind their creations.  

   

   

The other First Grade group came to the other end of the Media Center with me and we worked with the iPod Touches and the iPads.  I broke this group into two smaller groups, so that they could have time working on both the iPod Touch and the iPads.  We used the same app, Drawing Pad on the iPad's.  Some of the kids were so creative!  

On the iPod Touches, we used an app called Press Here.  This app is based on the book Press Here by Herve Tullet.  The book and the app are full of dots.  The kids had a lot of fun using this app too.  After about 12 minutes we switched big groups and did it all again.

I'm looking forward to expanding our celebration to include more grade levels next year.  Thanks to the parents who allowed me to use the photos.

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda

Five Great Picture Books!

For a class last year, I had to join Twitter.  Little did I know then what a great professional resource it would be.  I have connected with so many great teachers, media specialists, authors and illustrators.  They have made me so excited to start this school year.  One activity that I found out about International Dot Day.  Most of my Kindergarten and 1st Grade students had a great time with our activities.  I will have a blog post about our celebration soon.  I'm just waiting on permission slips to use some pictures.

A teacher and media specialist that I have met on Twitter have started a monthly online book club.  The first book that we discussed was The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.  This is a great chapter book for 3rd grade and above.  If you haven't picked up a copy of this book, you are missing out on a great story.  Click here to see a summary of the book.  Then the next month was another chapter book, Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson.  This is a historical fiction book, which I have never been a real fan of historical fiction.  Well, thanks to Twitter I realize I have been reading the wrong historical fiction books!  In the past year I have read about five historical fiction books that I have LOVED!  Click here for a summary of Hattie Big Sky.  

In October the focus of the book club switched to pictures books.  Even if you have an older child, picture books still are a great type of book to have them read.  There are so many great discussions that you and your child can have using picture books.  The five that we read were Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, The Gentleman Bug by Julian Hector, Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills, Here Come the Girl Scouts by Shana Corey, and Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman.  If you click the titles, you can see a summary of each book.  I was so excited because out of the five books I had only read two of the titles and the other three were on my to-read list!  I was not disappointed in any of the three that I hadn't read.  I've posted about Boy + Bot on this blog before.  I think it is a great book and click here to see that post.  The best part about the book club chat was that four of the authors participated in our chat.  We were able to ask questions and they actually answered them.  

I highly recommend each and everyone of these books for children of all ages.  All of these you can get a the public library.  At the HES library we have Boy + Bot, but will be ordering the four titles soon.  If you do read one or all of the books, please come back and make a comment letting me know what you thought of the book or books.

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda

National Book Festival Part Two

Sorry it took a few days to get back to finishing my post about my experience at the National Book Festival.  There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day.  Trying to get myself on a schedule to be able to work on everything.

When I left off I was waiting in line for Peter Brown to sign my two copies Creepy Carrots! (Which by the way is a great book!)  I was waiting by myself, while my friends listened to other authors.  The line moved slowly, but it was such a great day I didn't mind waiting!  I also had a great view to keep me occupied while I waited.  I also am a huge people watcher, so this was a great opportunity!

It was so great to see Peter Brown in person.  He was a very gracious person who took the time to talk to each person and listen.  I wish I could have heard him speak.  It was funny when I was tweeting about seeing him at the book festival and friend of my was surprised that he was there because she had just seen him in Indianapolis the day before.  To my delight he tweeted back to the both of us!  (I just LOVE Twitter!!!) 

As soon as I got my books signed by Peter Brown, I rushed on over to stand in line to see Tom Angleberger!  I love, love, love his books.  They are always checked out of the library.  Tom really impressed me last school year when I had two students write to him.  I emailed their letters to him and both boys had a response that afternoon.  Of course, as I was waiting in line I had to talk books.  I had two parents in line behind me, that once they found out I was a Media Specialist, were asking for book suggestions.  This made the time past quickly.  Tom started his signing early and excited the line by running up and down thanking everyone for coming!  I tweeted the picture that I took, and he tweeted back that he thought it made him look like a loon, but it was great to meet me.

As I was leaving I stopped to listen to Mary Pope Osborne and her sister.  It was interesting to hear that she was only contracted to write four Magic Tree House books.

A few helpful hints that I learned:  

1.  Bring a backpack!  The bag that I carried the books in after I bought them left a bruise on my shoulder.

2. Buy the books ahead of time!

3. Have friends that will stand in other lines for you!

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda