I think that I shall never see/A poem as lovely as our poetree

We've been busier the past several weeks simply getting ready for this month than we have in a while, I think. There have been lots of fun and unique things we've been able to do. Let me start with our poetry month planning!

Back before spring break, Carrie and I started planning Poetry Month and what exactly we were wanting to do. One thing was for sure--we needed to be as punny as possible and create a poetree. A poetree is basically a paper tree, either three dimensional or not, where kiddos can hang up poems they made or teachers can hang up famous poems.

Thankfully we have some very creative and flexible parent volunteers who were able to take our crazy idea and make it so. Here they are building the tree:

We never thought we would run out of wall space after our redesign so quickly. I'm happy we have pictures and color on every single wall, including our new "wall of fame" as I've been starting to call it. Anyway, here's the finished tree + some really cute kid poetry from our fabulous students.

I made the cloud banner up top to let people know why on Earth we have a tree in the library, and was going to make a kite with the most famous tree poem ever on it. There has been very little free time for me to do this so the wall is as kite-less as it ever was. Still looks pretty darn good to me, though. If the font on the clouds looks familiar, its a dupe of Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham font, which can be downloaded at my favorite website dafont.com. A lot of times I will try to copy the font by hand, which does not always turn out so well. I need to take a hand lettering class this summer!

Since its Poetry Month, the kids have been working on different types of poems. Shape poetry has been fun for 1st and 2nd grade and Kinder and Pre-K have had fun with sensory poems. The best part is they're really being good about not eating the candy or taking the smencils.

Black out poems are challenging and force kids to think outside of the box. Our 3rd and 4th graders are currently working on those, with passages from Harry Potter and Whatever After. We tried to pick things they might already know about but that has good vocabulary. They also can use the newspaper if they prefer, though it is far more time consuming.

It's been a lot of fun. I was reading somewhere that you shouldn't necessarily save all your poetry for April. Exposing kids to a variety of literature, including a variety of poetry, early on is important to their development of being a reader and a creative thinker. Maybe we can incorporate more poetry into regular lessons next year, but for our schedule, Poetry Month it is.

Makerspace Monday: Day 1

Our first Makerspace Monday was a success! 6 students came to make stop motion animation films, though it kind of just turned into a Play-Doh tossing fest. Everything turned out fine. The kids didn't have really enough time to finish their projects, but I think in the future we may just have the Makerspace area open daily after school or at least weekly. We've been talking about what we want to do with it but this is our grand experiment!

Aardman studios, here we come!

There was a great variety of ages and interests even within this small of a group. The students were able to pair up without fuss. If they didn't want to make a movie, psh, they could paint! Play with Play-doh! Whatever!

And this is where the beauty starts. I'm so happy we pulled this month's Makerspace together. Hopefully next month we will have a full group of 10 but I'm happy with what we did in our small group.

Makerspace Monday has arrived!

ITS HERE.

The day I've been waiting for, scared of, and nervous about.

Makerspace Monday!!

We're simplifying the program a little to simply feature two different types of movie making, stop motion animation and no budget filmmaking (ha). They'll be using our spiffy iPads with some neat apps, such as the appropriately named Stop Motion and iMovie. LOVE.

This is going to be a blast! Pictures will be on their way soon.

Cleopatra in Space, Book One: Target Practice

The title Cleopatra in Space directs my mind to campy science fiction movies of years gone by, where aliens are guys in rubber costumes and women are just there to be pretty. Cleopatra in Space, written and drawn by Mike Maihack, has nothing to do with that kind of sci-fi and is unlike any kids gn you've read before.

For fans of the Amulet by Kibuishi, Cleopatra in Space is the quintessential space adventure for graphic novel lovers of all ages. Cleopatra, known as Cleo for short, is a bored and trouble-making Egyptian teenager on the cusp of her sixteenth birthday--and taking over the kingdom. She escapes her boring palace to find her friend Gozi in order to find adventure. Well, they do alright, and Cleo wounds up being sent into the future....WAY into the future.

This future is set in space, with Cleo falling into the hands of P.Y.R.A.M.I.D., Pharoah Yasiro's Research and Military Initiative of Defense.  Yes, everything looks like floating pyramids in space. Think 80s colors mixed with the modern Star Trek reboot and you have the setting and tone for the world that Cleo finds herself in, except with cats instead of tribbles.

This fun frolic in the world of Planet Mayet, learning about Cleo as well as this charming futuristic landscape, and seeing what robot mummies are capable of leaves me wanting more Cleopatra in Space. I know there are more books to come in the future, but the future cannot come soon enough! She is funny, quirky, and an independent female adventure lead, of which there are normally very few.

Please order this for your library! It's perfect for not only fans of Amulet, but for Zita the Spacegirl and any other Westerns/Space Westerns as well. Its funny, witty, and full of surprises. From interviews with the author, it seems like there will be more installments to come. I literally laughed out loud, which rarely happens when reading graphic novels for little ones. This one's a keeper.

Catching Up is Hard to Do

It has been a wet and wild winter here (sorry for the alliteration) so February was not as productive as it should have been. Makerspace Mondays was postponed to this next Monday (eek!) and it has made overdue books a pain to track down. Kids have a hard time remembering where they left stuff because I'm sure its all mixed in with their swimsuits, souvenirs, or ski gear! Spring Break has also thrown a curve ball. We have not had as much time to get certain things done but I think we are finally catching up.

The things I've finally managed to catch up on are:
--Winter 2015 Newsletter
--Greenhill Goes Global displays
--BOOK COVERING (side note: yes, this deserves to be in all caps.  I rarely have time enough between classes, from all grades, to get stuff covered. Its very taxing.)
--Spring cleaning of my desk
--More!

I cannot remember the more stuff, which is why I need to blog more frequently. I think of great and innovative articles or reviews to jot down but then -poof- they disappear quicker than you can say homework. School is cluttering my brain, and while I'm not blaming it for my distraction  or forgetfulness, it is an inhibitor for my creative thought.

March is Women's History Month, where students have been hearing some fabulous biographies and stories about strong, brave women that have changed history. This morning, while filling in to teach 3rd grade, I read them the book Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors? by Tanya Lee Stone. Its the story of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America. This is a great read for having in depth discussions about women's rights and abilities. Some of the quotes from men of the time regarding Ms. Blackwell were upsetting to the students and it encouraged them to think about why it was wrong. I love when the kids get passionate about something, especially in history!

This month is also Greenhill Goes Global, where different global cultures are celebrated through live performances, food, dress, and stories. We did our part in the library by putting up some snazzy flags I had printed up last year for the same thing:

My desk is partaking in the festivities this year, too.

April is National Poetry month and we're already starting to plan all the fun activities. This has been a bit of a challenge, since children are so developmentally different depending on their age and grade. Luckily, there is such a thing as Pinterest and other teachers have been able to do creative things that we are taking inspiration from. There will be a Poetree (is that the correct spelling? I'm not really all that familiar with literary horticulture), riddles, and all kinds of fun activities. We really want the students to be able to take away an appreciation of poetry.

BER: What's New in Children's Literature 2015, Ft. Worth, TX

To say I love Bureau of Education & Research Seminars is an understatement. Of course, it is always refreshing to take a day away from work and analyze what you're doing and how you're doing it. When I first came to my job, I was told that Carrie and I needed to see Peggy Sharp. She was outstanding! Amazing! One of a kind!

All those things are certainly true. More often than not, though, the consensus about Ms. Sharp is that everyone leaves her seminar overwhelmed. After we saw her, we definitely were! She gave us so many great ideas for books, activities, and decor, but we were at a loss of where to start or even if we could start. Now Ms. Sharp is retired and Judy Freeman has taken over the reigns of presenting the material to north Texas. I left anything but overwhelmed...more like super encouraged.

Being overwhelmed by information is not a good thing, in my opinion. Yes, you can cover 100 books in 6-7 hours. Will everyone retain everything? I certainly couldn't. I remember being warned to bring my highlighters in an assortment of colors, as well as sticky notes and pens and bookmarks. PHEW. Did I feel proud once I survived and we gleaned information from her? Yes. There's a HUGE but here. Even though I was presented with a million books, a million ways to use them, and even more ways to get kids interested in them, I reached the saturation point pretty quickly.

That being said, I greatly appreciate and respect what Ms. Sharp taught me and showed us. I think she did amazing things and helped a lot of people! There are some things we do now and still want to implement because of her. However, Ms. Freedman's approach was much more fun and way less stressful!

She is such a gift musician that I felt silly even singing along to some of the songs she performed. They were great! It was an inspiring day for sure. We covered all the major subject areas (math, science, social studies, and language) and even how to connect various texts within the session. The handbook she gave to us is particularly useful, as we are able to use some of the reader's theatre stories (and make our own with her super helpful directions), craft activities, and all kinds of ideas on how to use these texts!

I appreciated her talking about graphic novels, especially El Deafo and the importance of a graphic novel winning the Newbery award.  Its important for the genre to prove that what little text it may or may not have is powerful enough to matter.

It was a wonderful experience and I recommend anyone with an interested in children and what they read to attend--especially administration and reading specialists. It would be great for them to see how various genres and books truly can help the kids and teachers with important skills. I know Carrie and I have talked already and found some great things we are going to do.

Makerspace Mayhem Pt 2: The Update

Having been sick and also dealing with a rigorous course load has kept me from feeling very productive lately. I'm trying to give myself credit, as my husband often encourages me to do, but it is a little tricky at times. Why shouldn't I be able to do 8 million things at once?

There's a graphic novel order in the works, as our book orders are due sometime soon. I keep nitpicking at it, removing and adding things as I see fit (or as I see them on others' orders). There are a few I'm SUPER excited about mainly because I am trying to expand our manga collection. A pocket of fourth-grade girls LOVE manga (and shoujo but they don't know what that is yet!) and I'm trying to appeal to them. I'll post more about that on my other blog, but for now...on to the beast I am trying slay.

MAKERSPACE.

I've made a general document with rules and all that and am making little tweaks on it. Just adding things about when to pick kids up, what adults will be there, etc. Then its on to planning what we will actually be doing--eek!

I thought it would be fun to have a movie themed Makerspace Monday. Mainly because, duh, I absolutely love film and everything to do with it. Also, this lends itself quite well to a bunch of creative projects that kids can do. We do not have a green screen, but that is something I'm going to look for in the future. I think we will start with stop motion animation, just using the iPads. I will bring an old camera that I have but I'm not sure if it'll be good to record video on.


Goals for this first makerspace:
1. Let the kids have (lightly supervised) fun
2. Let them figure out if they enjoy filmmaking
3. Test and see the need/want for this kind of program

With all good intentions, I meant to do it last month but decided that was too much. Since I've pushed it back, I think I am in a much less frantic frame of mind about it. Of course I want it to be a success, but I also cannot beat myself up if it isn't.

Here's to our first Makerspace Monday! Be on the lookout for the next update on February 24.