Read Across America

Theodore Seuss Geisel
Dr. Seuss
Theo LeSeig

No matter what you call him...he is a great author who penned over 50 books!  Our school as many other schools across the United States participated in "READ ACROSS AMERICA" which is by the National Education Association.  Read Across America

In our school, there were three main activities!  Each day had a clothing inspiration based on one of his books. 

Fox in Socks
Monday February 26—Wear your silly socks

Cat in the Hat
Tuesday February 27—Wear a fun hat

Wacky Wednesday

Wednesday February 28—Wear mismatched/backwards clothes

Theodore Thursday
Thursday March 1— Dress up as your favorite Dr. Seuss Character

Sleep Book
Friday March 2—Wear your pajamas or comfortable clothes (no slippers)

The title teacher and librarian created Dr. Seuss trivia on the library windows.  I designed a timeline of 50 Dr. Seuss and Theo LeSeig books.  This was so much fun finding new to me Dr. Seuss and Theo LeSeig books to read with the students and share with the staff!

In STEAM, each grade level did a variety of Dr. Seuss inspired activities. 

I created two centers - truffula trees and LEGO patterns based on ideas found on Pinterest.

Other classes explored Seussville and Lorax on the computer!

Kindergarten watched "Ten Apples Up on Top" on YouTube and built towers out of KEVA planks, colored 1-100 pages, and made LEGO patterns


Inspiration links from Pinterest - LEGO PATTERNS, 1-100 color sheets, and PINTEREST

Plus I have listed two products on Teachers Pay Teachers - STEMbrarian

Check out some of the fun pictures below!

Truffula Trees

Truffula Tree

Seuss inspired creature and poem

Trivia display and giant Cat in the Hat 

Lego pattern house

Lego pattern structures

LEGO pattern face

LEGO patter

                                                                                                                      

Dr. Seuss "Cat in the Hat" Patterns

3 dimensional Cat in the Hat pattern

KEVA planks - 10 Apples Up On Top

Structural Engineers at work

Trying for a TALL tower

Maple Time

Many years ago, my Aunt Rita sent me an article from the Washington Post about a PA Maple Taste and Tour.  I was clueless about this yearly event before this article.  Here is a link to that article from 2009 Washington Post article

This has started a journey of learning for our entire family.  What have we learned?

• We learned about and read "Miracles on Maple Hill"
• We held the actual newbery medal for the book
• We learned about the history of maple syrup
• We learned that mud and snow are great weather for maple sap to run
• We learned that it runs until you hear the peepers
• Most of all, my husband and I wanted to try this ourselves

So...we were thrilled to find a few maple trees on our new property. 

This summer, my husband and I moved from the city to the country.  On our 1 acre lot, we have 2-3 maple trees!  We have contacted our local maple syrup expert Jan Woods, picked up spiels and tubing, and purchased food grade buckets.

Today (in the rain), we tapped the maple trees.  We shared the fun with Tim's cousin and some of her children.  Here's hoping for the sap runs well.

You can check out Hurry Hill Farm online or at the PA Maple tour

Hurry Hill Museum

Look for more pictures and updates about our maple sugaring adventure!

SNOW

Most children rejoice at this word...adults have mixed reactions.

I decided to show the third and fourth graders how SNOW can bring together science, art, and math!

I was inspired by Free Technology for Educators blog this week.  It had several great links about man-made snow, "snowflake Bentley", and more!

I took his videos and the idea of a tinker tray such as this one created by "What Can You do with Paper and Glue" and created my own snowflake creation activity.

Students had access to q-tips, pipe cleaners, two sizes of popsicle sticks, beads, pom pom puffs, construction paper, and glue.  The idea was to create a dendrite or iconic six sided snowflake.

Below are a variety of the creations created by the students this week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday!

If you have not the book entitled "Snowflake Bentley", then you need to add it to your winter must-read list.

Inventors and Patents

3rd and 4th grade learned and tried PAIRED PROGRAMMING with Code.org two weeks ago!  Plus they have been reading about Chester Greenwood.  I bet that you are wondering who Chester Greenwood is!  He is credited as the creator of earmuffs.  You can learn all about his improvements in the book "Earmuffs for Everyone" by Meghan McCarthy.  There is now even a Chester Greenwood day in Maine (the first Saturday in December).  Chester Greenwood Day article

Here is a link to Meghan McCarthy's website - Meghan McCarthy

As we were reading students started asking questions about PATENTS!  After some web searching, I found the US Patent website for students.   US PTO

The students loved the "collector cards" as well as the "Spot the Invention" activity.

In addition, the students learned about patents used at the X Games!

Next week it is onto the topic of TRADEMARKS!

PICTURE STEM

Students in grades K, 1, and 2 are working hard to complete a variety of PICTURE STEM activities.
PICTURE STEM is put together by Purdue University and it a completely FREE curriculum

Last week, Kindergarten read "I Get Wet" and talked about water!  Then students had an opportunity for free choice engineering.










First grade read "I See a Kookabura" and talked about animal habitats.

Second grade are did two separate activities with PICTURE STEM.  Students learned about our engineering challenge, read "Nibbles Guide to Hamsters", and did an animal sorting activity!







Here are the books that were used and a link to PICTURE STEM:

CLICK ON THIS LINK for more information - PICTURE STEM

Olympics Cross Curricular

Today at Wattsburg Elementary, the special area teachers (physical education, library, art, and music) collaborated to create 3 stations focused on the OLYMPICS!  Students rotated through each station.  The students spent about 15 minutes at each station.

At the literarcy/music station, students read the book "Olympics" by BG Hennessey.  Then students learned about the national anthem and the open ceremony music.  Finally, students "marched" or "paraded" around the auditorium to the opening ceremony music!

The second station that students went to was physical education.  Students learned about speed skating, the color/metal of each medal, and the podium stand.  Students got to take turns in heats doing "speed skating".  Each student took two rectangular "carpet" square pieces, turned them carpet side down, and stood on the back of the carpet pieces.   Students then attempted to skate around the gym in a large "circle".  The top two times in each heat were recorded.  Then the top 3 students in each home room were awarded "medals" made out of paper and string.  Finally, these award winning students stood on the podium for a picture!

The third station was art station.  The students learned about the 5 rings, the colors, and the history behind them.  Then students got time to color the following olympics graphic as well as the rings!

WQLN Reading Competition 2017

For the past several years, Wattsburg Elementary Center has participated in the WQLN school wide reading competition.  Last year, the school won in 2 out of 3 categories.  Check this information out at my previous post -  WQLN 2016

This year, the students tracked books read in library, STEAM, and at home!

The school won in the same two categories - school wide points and highest student reader.  Thursday afternoon (1/11/2018) was the celebration and official awards from WQLN.  

WQLN offers two additional competitions for the rest of the school year...individual student competitions as well as the NEW classroom incentives. 
You can check them out at WQLN Reading Incentives

SO HERE ARE THE DETAILS FROM THE COMPETION and WINNERS:

SCHOOL WIDE TOTAL:

5417 books were read at home and in library during September, October, November

Top student:
Cheyenne Brown – K Burdick – 980 books

Top class:
Mrs. Burdick's class read 1095 books

3 other students read over 200 books! 
Ezra D – K McAvoy

Jackson W – K McAvoy

Sophie W – 4 Bucerri

Top 3 classes:
Burdick
McAvoy

Bucceri

Here are a few pictures of the winner and some of the rewards - Cheyanne got a trophy, books, and Kindle Fire.  The library got $250 for new books!

Plus Erie Times News featured our school in the newspaper - check it out
Newspaper Link

2018 - One Word - PATIENCE

Last year, I posted about the "One Word" challenge by Jon Gordon and his book.  You can find that post at this link - 2017 One Word

So last year my word was TRUST.  WOW - it was a year full of needing to trust so many things that were "out of my control"

Here are just a few times when I needed TRUST in the past year:

• My mom had minor brain surgery (and came through it) - we had to trust those surgeons!
• I was nominated to spend a week at Keystone Technology Integrators training in July.  Little did I know that I would be in the middle of moving and pregnant.  I had to trust others to work on projects based on a few pinterest pictures to get this process started.
• Moving - lots of trust in this situation
• Work - changing personel in the library meant that I had to trust my administration
• Learning that my now 5 year old has moderate to severe hearing loss.  I had to trust the medical team to get him the right equipment to make him a successful Kindergartener
• Teens ;)  I had to trust my daughter as she navigated driving, graduating, select a college, and more.  
• New babies - the whole pregnancy and birth involved lots of trust.  Thank goodness for knowledgable birth team!

So onto a new year, new start, new word - PATIENCE!

Definitions:

• the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset (as per Google)
• the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation,annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper,irritation, or the like. (dictionary.com)

So I have created a pinterest board to keep my motivation going and to get more inspirational quotes!

Patience board

What is your word for 2018?
Share below in this padlet - click on the little + below and it will give you a "sticky note" to post below!

Technology and librarians

Makerspaces and STEAM classes in a library are considered "trends" or new hot topics.

However, yesterday while researching lesson plans for next week, the librarian and I found this awesome reproducible worksheet from a 1988 library lesson plan book.

1988 Center for Applied Research in Education
(I will take a picture of the book on Monday)

YES - this is all about hardware and software in a library setting.  I feel that this is a pre-cursor to my technology activities today in STEAM and library. 

Look for other inspiring lesson plans later this weekend :)