One of our favorite weeks of the year is the week we celebrate Read Across America. It'sa week that's all about reading, fun, silliness, community and of course, Dr. Seuss.
Here is what our week looked like
Day 1 (Kick-Off):
The week started with Kick-Off Assemblies
Students shared facts about Dr. Seuss
We sang the Read Across America song students learned in music class
*video credit:Marie Pendergast
Everyone recited The Reader's Oath written by Debra Angstead
Day 2 (Community Readers):
Our super Superintendent, Dr. Jeffrey Marsden
Awesome reader, Nat Vaughn, Blake Middle School Principal
An annual favorite, Robert Parga, Medfield High School Principal
Jim James, owner of Medfield's fabulous Park Street Books
We are so fortunate that Police Chief Meany comes in the morning and in the afternoon each year!
There were many, many more readers from our wonderful community. Thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy day to read to our students.
Day 3 Crazy (Fox in Socks) Sock Day:
We sure had some CRAZY socks! *Photo credit:Sally DeGeorge
Some kids even decorated their own socks!
Day 4 (Cat in the Hat Day and wear RED & WHITE):
Students were greeted by The Cat in the Hat as they entered school
Many, many thanks to our CSA Literacy Committee (not all are pictured here) for working so tirelessly to ensure the success of our 2015 RAA
Happy Birthday portrait of Dr. Seuss by one of our kindergarteners and future artist
Some students took wearing red and white to a whole new level!!!
As a final note, huge thanks to our wonderful staff for embracing our RAA celebration with such enthusiasm. A special thank you to our principal, Dr. Bilsborough, for her participation and support throughout the week.
Mock Caldecott, Memorial School style is a BIG deal! We read several books that are deemed "Caldecott Worthy" over the course of several weeks. We read these stories very closely. We examine the illustrations very closely to determine how they help to tell the story. We talk about these books, we reread these books, we get excited about these books and then we vote. We vote, once a year, just like the real Caldecott judges. The Caldecott Medal is awarded each year to the artist of the best and most special American picture book for children. Yes, this award is given to the illustrator! Here are some of the criteria our young (K-1) students consider for the Mock Caldecott:
Did the illustrator create excellent pictures?
Do the pictures help tell a story?
Do the illustrations help us to understand what the story is about?
Are the illustrations so "special" that they deserve to win?
Students voted during their scheduled library classes
Then they made an "I Voted!" sticker
We even designed our own Mock Caldecott Medals!
Ta Dah! Our winning titles were:
Cheers could be heard throughout the building when our principal, Dr. Missy Bilsborough, announced the results. What a fun way to promote #ReadforFun, #literacy #booklove, three of my favorite literacy hashtags. Can't wait to see what our Mock Caldecott choices will be for 2016!
Memorial School joined millions of students around the world to participate in the Hour of Code this December. The organizers of the event, Code.org, describe it this way: "The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics." To read more, here's a previous blog post with resources for young coders.
We used the fabulous free iPad app, ScratchJr. I can tell you I have never seen every single child in a class so engaged and excited! We began by having the students follow a code I had written. I created signs using the coordinating symbols or blocks from ScratchJr. I explained what each block meant and then everyone followed the code as I showed each sign.
Here are our Blake Middle School friends using the signs and following the code!
(Thank you Diane Horvath for sharing your Vine ;-)
Then we showed ScratchJr on the big screen. It took a couple of viewings, but many of our young students made the connection that the alien walking across the moon on the screen was doing exactly the same things they had done following my code (walking forward, making a pop sound, jumping up, walking forward again and then stopping). When we minimized the moon scene, they were all able to see the code behind the full-screen scene:
There's also a grid that can be added over the "scene" so students can determine how many "steps" their character needs to move forward, backward, up, down, around, etc. to accomplish their coding plan. This is where the math component comes in.
We then passed out an iPad to each student. I modeled how to use ScratchJr and everyone followed along on their own iPads.
And now for some serious STEM and STEAM . . . Students were more than ready to get started and boy oh boy, did they have a great time!
A student showing our principal, Dr. Bilsborough, how to code!
Wheelock School Librarian, Bethany Robertson, helped out on two afternoons
Tania Manuel, our school's Tech Assistant, was a HUGE help for our HOC
Medfield High School Tech Integration Specialist, Neal Sonnenberg, did four Hours of Code with us!
Blake Middle School Principal, Nat Vaughn, was instrumental in the HOC collaboration between our two schools.
Memorial School Library Assistant, Dorothy Redding, and Blake Principal Nat Vaughn were so helpful!
Blake Middle School Tech Integration Specialist spent two afternoons with us and introduced this app to the Math Department at her school!
Blake Middle School teacher and Community Service Club Coordinator, Michael Gow, spent two afternoons with us. He is now a ScratchJr expert!
We just loved having Blake Middle Schoolers helping us out!
There are so many thanks to go around. First to Memorial School Principal, Dr. Missy Bilsborough, for her support in allowing me to bring HOC to our school. Next to my amazing colleagues: all the Grade 1 teachers for their trust, their time and their willingness to try something new; Dorothy Redding, Tania Manuel, Kathleen Flaherty, Bethany Robertson and Neal Sonnenberg for their necessary help; and finally our Blake Middle School friends, Nat Vaughn, Diane Horvath, Michael Gow and the Community Service Club members. Our Hour of Code would definitely not have been the same without all of your help.
I spent this weekend in my very favorite get away spot -in a house on a lake in Maine. We are in the middle of such amazing nature. The view outside the windows is always changing. The colors of the sky, the lake and the mountains can change by the minute. The various living creatures we are fortunate to watch continue to astound. The weather (I especially love seeing a storm come right to us from across the lake) constantly changes. And of course the brilliant sunsets - no two are ever the same. We have witnessed awesomeness over the years.
In addition to walking the dogs, reading and watching a bad movie, I tried to get some work done. I'm fine tuning my lesson for The Hour of Code. This week and next we will be joining millions of students all around the world to learn about programming. I will be introducing all of our grade 1 classes to ScratchJr (more of this in a future post). I'm planning a Twitter session for our elementary professional development afternoon this Wednesday and I'm making the final choices for our Mock Caldecott unit. This is the kind of work I love!
But, there were distractions! I so enjoyed watching the Hooded Mergansers playing and fishing in the water. This is the only time of year I have seen them here.
In an effort to teach our very young students how technology works, we will be joining in on the largest learning event in history: The Hour of Code. Memorial School's 1st graders will participate over the course of two weeks in December. Last year, 15 million students tried computer science during this event. This year, we're joining students worldwide to try to reach 100 million students! How exciting!! Dorothy Redding, our fabulous new library assistant, and I piloted teaching coding last week with a small group of students. I can honestly say, this was one of the very best and most fun teaching experiences I have ever had. The kids were completely engaged and super excited to learn how to code. They were planning, sequencing, being creative and much more. Watch the very short video below to see brand new coders helping each other :-)
