What is going on in STEAM and library?
First. we had book fair from April 8 - 13th. Over $5000 in books were sold resulting in nearly $1000 for new library books and STEAM materials. The spring book fair was with a local bookstore called "Werner Books". The selections were nice and prices were reasonable!
During book fair, first and second grade are trying to create and design board games. The creativity and ideas are fun to watch. This has been a three week lesson. First we created rules, a sample board, and tried to play our created games. Then second week was all about creating the final board and trying them out. The last week is different for 1st grade and 2nd grade. 1st grade verbally presented their games to peers in a "show and tell" format. 2nd grade is learning how to sign into Office 365, typing up the rules, and sharing the document with me.
I think that we need to play more folder games if we would do this activity again. Students were not consistently aware of how to make a game.
Here are some pictures of the book fair set up:
3rd and 4th graders are busy working on Genius Hour projects. The students had to pick a topic, create three questions to research, sign a contract, then conduct the research. This is a huge project, but it is working better with access to Kid Info Bits through Power Library as well as using TEAMS in Office 365. TEAMS allows students to save links for quick reference and citations plus working on the skills of copying and pasting using key strokes (CTRL C to copy and CTRL V to paste).
I feel that this year is going better than last year. More groups are finding information, creating citations, and answering questions. A few groups are struggling with staying focused and self-discipline. In addition, many groups need one on one support to work through their topics.
I will be adding additional pictures of some of the recent STEAM activities.
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