Midweek edition

I wanted to send a midweek update to cover the rest of the time before Halloween Break. 

What's been happening?

• 
  Fourth grade is continuing their Mystery Zooms. Maybe you've seen our progress on the board outside the library. This week, Mr. Akkerman's class connected with a class in Ottawa, Ms. Kunkel's class connected with a class in Minnesota, and Ms. Tierney has one scheduled for Friday.
• Ms. McIntyre continued her work with Mystery Words. This afternoon, her class connected with a Locust kindergarten class to share and guess mystery words. She saw what fourth grade was doing and we put together this cool activity!
• I worked with Ms. Tierney's and Ms. Kunkel's classes on using the Clips app. Students are using Clips to share the information they've gathered about Native Americans. After a quick tutorial and about 30 minutes work time, the students had some pretty cool videos made.
• 
  Ms. Hickcox's class is working on book recommendations. I visited for a quick minilesson about recommendations and the Clips app. Now her students are creating recommendations using Clips and they will be posted to a Flipgrid to share via QR codes with other students. Look for their display to continue "growing" in the hallway.
• Ms. Kunkel's class used the Fishbowl for an egg drop activity. They have been studying how to keep their brains safe. We set out materials for student groups to build a protective vessel for an egg from the Cardinal flock. After getting rained out on Friday, I ventured to the roof on Monday (nah, that probably wouldn't be allowed) and dropped the contraptions. The results were fun to discuss!
• I've continued with my five Mark Twain nominee groups. It's been fun discussing the stories with the kids. Today, one group was served tea to go along with the book and you might see us learning how to play cricket outside very soon...

Fall STEM activities
Being gone the first week of October really through things off for me. So my October STEM challenge will become the Fall challenge. This time I'm giving you a choice of activities centered around apples:

1. Apple Letters/Names - students will create letters/words/their name using apple chunks and toothpicks. Creations will be shared via Seesaw
2. Apple Shapes - we'll use apple cubes and toothpicks to create 3D shapes such as cubes, cylinders, or spheres. Creations will be shared via Seesaw
3. Apple Boats - students will create apple boats using apple chunks and other materials available to them. We will test the boats' strength by adding coins until they sink. Creations will be shared via Seesaw

When you decide what you'd like to do, email me in the form of a fast food order. I can start taking orders for days in November.

Bookroom Accommodation
Thanks to a recommendation from Ms. Jeffries, I have added a couple of desks to the center of the book. If you are lacking the height to see the bins on the top shelf, you can now bring the tub to the desk to sort through.

Halloween/Thanksgiving Buttons
If you'd like to schedule a time for students to make buttons for Halloween or Thanksgiving, contact me. My schedule is pretty stacked up before Halloween, so that might be tricky at this point. 

Email on iPads
Students in grades 3-5 have access to email. Mandy can teach them how to set up their email, create a signature, and discuss digital citizenship guidelines for usage. In the past, we have left it up to teachers to make the call about whether or not they learn how to set it up. Let me know if you are interested.

Book Fair
There will be an in person book fair this November. It should arrive on November 5th and be set up for conferences the week after. We will have students preview the fair and create wishlists during their library time that week. Sales for the fair will only take place after school. I'll send out the times to you and families when I get it figured out. 

That's it.

See you in a week!

I'm heading out to Tennessee on Sunday with the fifth graders. If you need anything at all, including lunch pickup anywhere in town, just contact Kendra Collard at extension 0. 

Thank you to Susan, Taryn, Lori, Jen, and me for volunteering to enter the "Kiss the Pig" contest. There's still time to sign up. Let me know if you want to be added to the list. It's fun, and your kids will never let you live it down if you don't sign up. Just saying. 

Classroom Happenings

• 
  Mystery Zooms are in full effect in fourth grade. We completed three this week
  and visited with classrooms in Illinois, Kansas, and Pennsylvania. We have four more on the calendar already for October. Look for a display in front of the library that will show our progress.
• We wrapped up the LEGO storytelling activity this week with four more classes. We had 18 classrooms come through this month. Next month will be much shorter, but look for the October activity in next week's blog.
• I visited Ms. Hickcox's class to show them the Clips app. I'm looking forward to seeing what they create. I'd be happy to visit your class to do the same.

Bookroom update
I spent some time over the last few weeks getting all the Geodes barcoded. All sets are now ready for use! I also rearranged the entire space. You'll now find all the "old" leveled sets on the left side of the room. All the Geodes are on the right now. I also have our lit sets cleaned up for you. In case you didn't know, we have the best set of chapter books of any elementary school in the world. Use this link of available books to see what we have. I have added the lexile and reading level as well. 

Current Events with "The Week Junior"
I would like to start working with classroom in grades 3-5 on current event literacy and discussion. We purchased "The Week Junior" for our Flipster catalog to support that work. It's an excellent resource with short articles and activities about a wide variety of topics. I have reached out to Joy Bess for integration ideas. It includes teacher editions located here. If your class or whole team would like support with current events, please let me know. In the meantime, access the "The Week Junior" and other periodicals through the Flipster app. 

Computer Imaging
Carl needs to image your machines if he hasn't already. If you don't have the "Can't Hide Awesome" on your desktop, then you are out of compliance (looking at you Jen). Just kidding, it's not that big a deal. You just might not be able to print or anything. Let me know so I can get it scheduled with Carl. It does erase everything, so save your stuff. 

Library Checkouts on the 28th and 29th
Stephanie and Lori have me scheduling really far out now. I think Lori is a little Type A. So if you have a library checkout on the 28th or 29th, we are going to reschedule you for either the 25th or 27th in the morning. Let me know what time works for you.

Have a great weekend!