Binary Holiday Ornaments

The students in grade 3 and 4 learned about binary, bits, and bytes in December.  In addition, each student learned to write his/her name in binary numbers as well as a holiday word!

Then the students took the holiday/winter word and strung beads to represent the O and 1s. 

The idea came from this awesome blog - Little Bins for Little Hands.

I created a SWAY (version of power point with 2 videos, the project, and over 45 holiday words)
BINARY SWAY.

Half the students did the learning and writing name/holiday word in binary in one lesson and the second lesson was the beads.

The other half due to snow delays had to do the lesson in one class period.  This was rushed and less effective (and less fun).

Here are some pictures of the students at work and some final projects!

Pros - learn new computer terms, learn how to write binary, put together technology and art
Cons - beads, beads, beads - keeping color separated during clean up was a challenge

Take aways and changes for next year:
Tables for students to work on with beads in the center to choose from
More time to do the project (stretch to 3 weeks?)
Plan for students who missed part 1 to catch them up easier
Pre-buy beads in bulk - 200 students used about 6000 beads - colors on the last day were limited!

Gingerbread Men

In STEAM, most of the students in kindergarten and first grades had a chance to read "The Library Gingerbreadman" and make a gingerbread man decorated with  RECYCLED materials.  The students could use scraps of paper from our bookmark basket as well as left overs from the bone bridges (straws, pipe cleaners, and q-tips).  Ms. Sally was able to use the die cut machine in our building which was a huge time saver.  We wanted them to resemble ornaments for the holidays so each gingerbread man got a tiny hole in the head with a loop of string.  In addition to the recycled materials, students also go to use crayons, glue sticks, and scissors.  Again, the two challenges were using glue sticks for some objects DOES NOT WORK.  However, the students in STEAM work on carpet with out tables, so white school glue is not a good idea for clean up.  This was a fun, messy project that ties to literacy and science standards!

 Dottie Enderle AUTHOR

In library, the Kindergarten and First grade students read "Christmas Tree Memories" and then created a holiday tree as a book extension activity. 

In Library, students in second grade finished up learning to use dictionaries!  These students defined the words avalanche and blizzard.  The students in third grade defined four words in the dictionary the first week and in the second week learned to use a paper encyclopedia.  The additional two words were from the science curriculum which were earthquake and tsunami.  After the holidays, the same papers will be used in STEAM to show how to use the online version of these books.  In addition, students had fun reading two winter books.  After Snowflake Bentley, many of the students got to make a cool black paper/chalk snow picture!

It has been a busy fun time in STEAM and Library! 

STEAM and LIBRARY UPDATES

So what have the students been doing in STEAM in November?

K and 1 finished up "PICTURE STEM" which is put together as a graduate project by Purdue University.  The project is six weeks of test paper, learning about rocks, science experiments on paper strength and finally a basket project.  The students enjoyed the six picture books for the activity.  I loved that it was all laid out for us.  Ms. Sally had a blast with the science experiment and basket project. Pictures are limited.

Here is a link to learn more about it:
PICTURE STEM

Another fun activity was using the LakeShore kit to read "The Three Little Pigs" then build a structure for the pigs!

Here is a link to the STEM kits at LakeShore Learning - Fairy Tales Kits

What are students doing in Library?

In Library, grade 2, 3, and 4 worked a variety of Genre Webs.  The template was found on a blog. 
Genre Web

Students in those grades also read one of the PA YOUNG READERS CHOICE books for this year called "Blizzard" by John Rocco.

Students also learned the valuable skill of how to read a dictionary.  Then I just found this awesome idea called the Dictionary Project.  I have a goal to start this either this school or next school year with my students.

Check it out - Dictionary Project

Here is a link to a local school district who is already offering this opportunity
Penncrest School District

What do you think of this idea? 

Holiday books

It is that time of year to bring out snowmen stories, Christmas stories, Gingerbread man stories, Hanukkah stories, etc...

So I am trying some new ways to inspire the readers in my library and my home.

At school, Ms. Sally is busy finding all of the "winter" books and putting a bright blue WINTER sticker on the spine. 

Secondly, the fourth graders are searching the shelves for tons of books that fit this theme.  Then Ms. Sally covered an extra book cart with red snowflake paper (and I picking up some fun oversize snowflakes) to create a display for all of these books!  Look for pictures when completed on Monday!

Third, at home, I created a small bin of our WINTER and CHRISTMAS books.  Every night for homework, my third grader has to read for homework.  So this gives him new and different choices to pick from.  One classic that was a favorite was The Witch's Christmas by Norman Bridwell.  I am hoping to find more books from the basement storage to keep adding to our bin.

 

Finally, at home, we read a book every night at dinner to go with our "chocolate calendars".  It is a fun way to focus on our faith and slip a little reading into our hectic evenings of parties, cookies, trees, etc... The one that we are reading this year is called Advent Storybook.  The other one that we have read in other years is called  A Child in Winter.  

How do keep the children reading at school and home during this busy holiday season?