The Edge of Glory!

I got a little grief from my fans about not posting last week. I hate to disappoint. Things are really busy around here leading into Spring Break! Please let me know if you have questions about anything.

March Reading Madness
We are moving on to the Elite Eight! We will plan to do two rounds of voting this week. Please complete this round's voting by the end of Tuesday! Use this form to submit your class's picks. We will then narrow down to the final two by Friday of next week and then pick a winner by Thursday before Spring Break. Remember that you don't necessarily have to reread the books but you might want to revisit them before they vote. I've started to recirculate the current matchups. As soon as you are done, pass along to your teammates and then on to the next grade level. 

Chickens
It's been so fun seeing the students interact with the chickens. You can really tell that the chickens are comfortable around people. Please continue to add your names to the chicken sign up sheet. When you host the flock, please make sure the water and food containers are clean and full before you leave. It's a great job for students! You can also swap out the bedding by throwing everything away, placing new paper in the bottom, and adding more chips. If you are hesitant to host the chickens because of personal concerns, I'm happy to help. We're planning on moving them outside after Spring Break. Speaking of which, we are going to need some volunteers to care for the chickens over break. You can take them home with you so it's easier...

Flock Names
We will be assigning names to Fluffy, Fuzzy, Tweety, Nugget, Teryaki, Tender, Chick Berry, and Dr. Nelus next week. I will do some research on chicken collars. Or sweaters. I hear Leanna likes to knit. 

The Masked Reader
Hopefully you've heard about The Masked Reader event set for March 23 at 6:30. We are using a Zoom Webinar, so there's nothing you need to do for your students except talk it up. We are hoping to get a video promo ready for you to share with students. FYI, I messed up the link that Taryn used in her beautiful flyer. Here's the real link if you'd like to include it in your classroom correspondence: https://cpsk12.zoom.us/j/92186130870 

Nearpod
Please let me know if you need assistance with Nearpod. It would be great if everyone could try out a lesson for yourself. I'd be happy to help you get set up or be in your class while you are trying it with students. I think you'll find that Nearpod combines a lot of features that many of you use in many different tools. 

Benchmark Engagement
Just curious if you've ever seen this level of engagement in your Benchmark lesson?

Outdoor Seating
Please continue to use the buckets and chairs when you take your classes outside. If you give me a heads-up, I can get the chairs in place for you. I love seeing so many of you getting outdoors to enjoy the weather!

Geodes
No, not the fun kind. I'm working on getting the geode reading materials ready for K-2. I've started with 1st because Rebecca's using them for intervention. There's a lot of books. 256 total sets. So it's going to take some time. If you would like to get started, see me and I'll prepare the materials you want on demand. First request is free. 

Book Fair
Open now through March 22. Click any part of this sentence for the link.

Finally...
We are moving closer to beginning many major projects that are going to really enhance our grounds. By the end of the school year, we plan on having the new outdoor classroom with stage and seating installed, kindergarten picnic benches, and a Lady Gaga pit for the playground. Stay tuned!

Have a Great Weekend!

March Madness!

Lots of stuff packed into this update.

March Reading Madness!
Next week is the start of March Reading Madness!. Maybe you saw the giant bracket on the wall by the library (thanks Rebecca and Justin!). Today I put the first pair of books in your lead teacher's mailbox. That pair of books rubber banded together is a matchup. Read both books to your class and then vote on which they think is better and record the result. Once your entire grade has finished a pair, pass that pair to the next grade level. 5th grade, you send yours to kindergarten. Next week will be full because you have to get through 16 books. Here is a Google Form with the matchups. Submit which book was the more popular one in your class. Only submit the form one time after you have read and voted on the books. Please have it finished by Friday. The winners will move on to the second round. I'll pull the losers out of rotation next week so you can revisit the winners for the second round matchup. I know, it's hard to explain in writing, so find me if you are confused. 

We'll also be working on setting up our first all school read aloud. Stay tuned for more details!

Minh Le Author Visit
On March 9th at 9:00, all CPS classrooms will have the opportunity to visit with author Minh Le. The talk is targeted to grades K-3, but I know our 4th and 5th graders would enjoying hearing what he has to say. Le wrote the book "Drawn Together" which we read last year to students during library time. Visit Minh Le's website for more information about his books. Visit the webinar registration form to sign up your class to participate. We are so lucky to have these opportunities so don't miss out! 

Library Checkout Update
This week went well in the library. It was fun to have kids back. Now that most of you have gone through once, the subsequent weeks should be smoother. Remember that you can have your students bring their iPads if you want so they can look up books or read if they can't check out that week. Remind them that because we are moving all students through the space, they must have their mask covering nose and mouth. Books can still be turned in at any time to the crate outside your classroom. We are still processing holds throughout the week as well.

MASL Award Voting
Next week is voting for the Show Me Awards (K-3) and for the Mark Twain Awards (4-5). During library time, we'll have students vote on their favorite books from this year. I'll have a chart set up for students to place a sticker by their favorite. We have read the Show Me nominees in library. Fourth and Fifth grade student have to read at least 4 of the Mark Twain nominees in order to vote. 

Children's Literature Festival is virtual
Each year, the University of Central Missouri puts on a literature festival for kids. I was scheduled to go last year with 4th and 5th graders who read the Mark Twain nominees. This year the festival is online and free to anyone! The target audience are grades 3-5. Here are some of the authors and their books books:

• Roland Smith - "Above", "Storm Runners" trilogy, "Cryptid Hunters" series
• Gordon Korman - "Unplugged", "Schooled" and 95 other books
• Beth Vrabel - "Pack of Dorks"
• Antony John - "Mascot", "Five Flavors of Dumb"
• Torrey Maldonado - "What Lane?"
• Mary Downing Hahn - "Old Willis Place"
• Jewell Parker Rhodes - "Black, Brother, Black, Brother"
• Kelly Yang - "Front Desk"
• Veera Hiranandani - "Night Diary"

Talks start on March 3 and run through March 31. Visit the schedule here. Or visit the full Children's Literature Festival website. 

Chicken Names
It's been a lot of fun hearing the students' chatter about the chicks. You can sign up for a chick visit with this spreadsheet. It's important that they have continual positive interactions with humans, so the more they spend time with students, the more friendly they'll be. Next week, your grades will be responsible for coming up with a name for a chicken! How you decide is up to you. There are 8 chicks. So six will be named by grade levels, one by the office staff, and the last by the specialist team. Email me the name you choose by Friday so we can include it in the announcements the following Monday. Here are the breeds of chickens that we currently have:

• Buff Orrington
• Turken Naked Neck (easy to identify)
• Dominique
• Barred Rock
• Black Astaulorp
• Easter Egger
• Dark Brahma
• Cinnamon Queen

Media Lessons
So I've been tasked with writing a rotation of media classes in March. The only guideline was "enrichment". I'd like to tie in to what you are teaching. Please visit the grade level content document to add in big ideas of what you are teaching in class. 

Have a Great Weekend!

We're back!

Three days down. It was impressive watching all of you jump right back in without missing a beat. You all deserve a ton of rest and free time this weekend. We were told that students should not return to the library until at least February. No, I don't know why that timeframe was chosen or why we can't use the ginormous cafeteria for lunch. I'm just another messenger. See below for updates on book distribution plans.

Overdue Notices
Thank you for sending home those notices today. We are still actively trying to track down as many books as possible from last year. I think if we stay on them and we stay in seat for awhile, we can recover quite a few. Looks like we are now under 200 overdue books. 

Destiny Checkout
Grades 2-5 will continue to check out books via holds through Destiny. I'm including my video again if you would like to play it for your classes or send out to parents. Students can place up to three holds. I will be bringing a cart down to First Grade and Kindergarten. If you teach either of those grades, contact me to set up a time next week. 

Chickens!
We are expecting our newest Cardinals to arrive at school on February 16. They will only be a few days old. They live indoors for around six weeks but we're told it's good practice to take them outside for "recess". We will use an empty classroom to house them but they will be available to hang out in your classroom as well. We will make a class rotation to care for them, probably a week at a time. Mike will provide us with activities to do with the students. Should be exciting!

STEAM Activities
Now that we are back, I want to share with you a couple of activities you might consider for your students. The Maker activity for this month is "Downhill Skier" challenge. Students would construct a skier to complete a downhill run. I get it. It will look a lot different than last year. But if you have the time and space in your classroom and want to give it a shot, let me know. I also have a couple of digital breakouts that run on student iPads. We could do the breakout as a whole class or individually. 

Grade Level $$
Please let me know if you need any support with the projects your grade level chooses. If you are hurting for ideas, you could consider something to add to our outdoor learning spaces. Building benches, raised beds, picnic tables, etc would make for a fun project for students to work on this spring. 

Have a great weekend!

Happy Holidays!

I hope everything makes sense in this post. I walked full on into my bathroom doorway at 2am and I think I have a mild concussion. But the fog is slowly lifting. Share time: I've been working with one of Lori's kids over the the last month. If you have happened to walk in the library when I'm on with her, it's probably no surprise that those 15 minutes are a highlight of my day. It's made me remember how fun it is to see students grow. You all work so hard and do such great things for students! I hope you all have a relaxing winter holiday. Now keep reading!

PebbleGo Next
PebbleGo has been available for our school for some time. If you aren't familiar with PebbleGo, it's a database of information geared towards the lower grades. CPS now has access to PebbleGo Next which is designed for grades 3-5. It's available through Classlink. Just open the PebbleGo icon in Classlink and choose the tab for PebbleGo Next. 

STEAM Kits
We have now distributed 50 STEAM kits to families over the last two months. Students have submitted 43 activities via SeeSaw demonstrating what they created. I have nothing to compare it to, but I think that's pretty good. I understand we're only serving a small number of students, mainly the ones whose families can bring them in. But it's given me a chance to see how the program can run and I'm looking forward to being able to hand them out to all students when they return in 2026. 

Grade Level Maker Activities
I have been working with kindergarten the last few months to distribute maker activities to students. Last month we passed out "Balloons Over Broadway" float making kits and next week we are passing out "Snowman Circuit" cards. The turnout has been good because it's an initiative from the classroom teachers. I'd be happy to collaborate with other grades and put together kits for you as well. We'd just need to determine an activity, promote, and then pick an evening to pass them out to families. 

Book Groups
I have had the pleasure to work with fourth and fifth grade classes this last month on the Mark Twain Award nominees for this year. There are five active groups with the challenge to read all 12 this year. I'd love to start some with students in second or third grade next month. I would have to pick books I've already read because reading 3 new ones right now is killing me! We can set it up with students from different classes or grade levels. So think of students who'd like a challenge or a change of scenery and let's get it going. 

Charging
A fellow media specialist posted a tip I hadn't heard. She said that in order to refresh the iPad battery, you should shut down the iPad (holding the power button and then sliding across the screen) before charging overnight. I can't confirm if it truly works, but what we got nothing to lose. 

Have an excellent break!

Zoom/STEAM/Overdue/Bookfair

Great job transitioning back to the world of the virtual! I've enjoyed connecting with your classes. I had 19 Zoom sessions with classes this week. I think Stephanie enjoys hearing the kids but could use less of me talking! If you're looking for a way to relax tonight, check out "Christmas with the Darlings" premiering on Hallmark at 7:00. And have those bingo cards at the ready. 

Zoom feature spotlight
In case you didn't know, you have the option to show only part of your screen while sharing. When you get the popup to choose what screen you'd like to share, choose the advanced options at the top. Then you can choose "portion of screen". You'll get a window that you can enlarge/shrink and move around the screen. A good way to limit what they see at one time, such as when showing a Youtube video. Try it out!

Cedar Ridge STEAM activities
We launched our first round of activity kits this week. We had 39 students submit a request and was able to fill 30 orders. I should have told them to only submit the form one time. I think Aven wins the award for submitting the same request the most times (4)! I enrolled those students in the CRE STEAM course where they can submit videos of their work. We've received several thank you's from parents already and I got live Zoom shoutouts by many students today. So that's good. 

Overdue Books Update
Stephanie has been working diligently this week to directly message every family through Seesaw about overdue books. Currently we have a shade over $4,100 in books out. I know. Not pretty. Families have been told to drop them off during the school day and have been given replacement costs. I'll run a "book buy back" event in December during the evening and try to throw some incentive at them. We'd appreciate any reminders you can give your class.

Book Fair
The book fair is all wrapped up. We sold about $1500 worth of books which isn't too shabby. That will bring the school about $400 to purchase books for the library. I don't have an ETA on delivery right now, but will pass along that information when I get the shipment notification.

Have a great weekend and Thanksgiving Break!

It's not quite that time of year, but it's something you might need

In Jake's class today, a student said I was like the Santa Claus of the library. So in the spirit of giving, I'm putting out my world famous Christmas movie list and bingo games today. I'd say "early" but movies started weeks ago. And it's been a welcome break from news coverage. I hope it can bring you a little joy this season.

But first, Cedar Ridge STEAM kits

I've now introduced the new Cedar Ridge STEAM kits to all classes. Checkouts will officially begin tomorrow afternoon. I'll send out a school announcement via Seesaw with a short summary and links to reserve kits. Judging from reactions in class, I think they'll be a hit. But we'll see.

And now library books...

We will continue placing holds for books in Destiny. As of now, pickup days for library books will be Thursday and Friday from 8:30 to 3:00. Families will be notified that books are ready for their child and they can ring the doorbell to get the books (or STEAM kit). At this point, we will not be browsing like we did earlier in the year when the weather was nice.

And what you really came here for:

Matt's Definitive List and Rankings of Christmas Movies

Yes, the rankings are accurate. If you have a problem with a ranking, don't @ me, make your own list! 2020 movies are highlighted in green and new Netflix movies are highlighted in red. 

Matt's Christmas Bingo Game (that Hallmark later ripped off. I'm not bitter)

Tweet a picture of you playing bingo to enter for a chance to win absolutely nothing. 

Have a great weekend!

It's good to be back! (I swear I wrote that title before the news)

I enjoyed my third "first day" of the school year this week! Looks like I'll get my
fourth on Thursday. Lots of good stuff this week. And next week's blog will feature my world famous Christmas movie spreadsheet and bingo game. Just a teaser of what's to come!

Library Checkouts
It was so fun to get back into classes this week. Thank you for giving me some slack as I spend 14 minutes in your room. I will plan to Zoom into your classes next week. If you are a Friday checkout class, please contact me to reschedule. I really want to make sure everyone hears about the....

Cedar Ridge STEAM program
Next week I'll be talking to your classes during checkout time about a new program that we'll launch on the 16th. It's called "Cedar Ridge STEAM" and it's a way for students to check out materials to use at home. Here's how it works:

• Visit the Cedar Ridge STEAM website
• Look around to see what kits interest you
• Use the order for to reserve a kit
• I'll bring them to the student or if virtual, parents will have to come pick up
• Students will have a week with the kit
• Once reserved, I'll place the students in a SeeSaw course where they will upload pictures or videos of their work
• Once the kit is returned and the work is uploaded, students will get a commemorative pin

Check out the site so you can see what's available. I'll be looking to add more kits as the year progresses.

Story Walk
I've started working on adding a Story Walk to the Cedar Ridge grounds. We would be able to add different picture books and activities to a series of stations that students can visit while walking the path. Another fun way to get kids reading and outside! I'd love to get it going in the next month. Yes, it'll be cold, but kids can go outside in the cold! 

Chicken Coop revisited
For those of you who are new to our school, last year 2/3 of 5th grade was challenged to research and design a chicken coop. Mr. Higgins' class, the first to start the project, started building the coop which is located in the courtyard outside of Ms. Roetemeyer's classroom. Of course we weren't able to finish it before the year was cut short. The plan is to have chickens onsite this spring. Look for updates over the winter as to how your class can help with the care and learning involved with taking care of chickens! We also hope to have students build planter boxes and benches this spring for that courtyard, COVID willing. Should be fun! 

Have a great weekend!