Santa and reindeer and our funny little elf

It's the last week of school before Christmas break and the kids are bouncing off the walls.  Well, the little ones anyway. Most if my 5th graders still retain their sanity.  We've spent the week playing with QR codes again. Ingave them Santa and a cool reindeer set so they can pick (or do both).  

I love the little one's drawings they make with the how to draw codes:

We had a lockdown drill Monday and we only knew it would be "in the morning," so I ended up with some free time. I had kinder classes scheduled, but they didn't want their kids to be in a scary situation outside their classroom the first time. As a result, I was finally able to change out my bulletin board in the hall.  

How's that for a quick throw together?

We've been having fun with out elf, Charlie, this week too.  

He hung from a map with a candy cane in the nonfiction section, and today he's waaaay up high over my office riding on "Stuffy the guard-duck."

Guess the fun and games will be over (wink, wink) and we'll have to get down to business when we come back in January.  I've gotta get cracking with my EBOB team, teach CyberSafety, and research skills.  

For now...  I'm just ready for a break!

'Tis the Season

So, with Christmas coming, the kids have been pretty wound up. We have some "required" CyberSafety lessons we have to do each year and I had planned to start on those, but then I realized I have no idea which are required for 5th grade. I was at a K-4 school prior to this year, so it hadn't mattered to me. They used to be listed online for us, but it's not there anymore. I asked other media coordinators, but no one knows (really???). Then I emailed the head of our instructional technology for the county, but she didn't respond. So, at any rate, I put it off and did some more QR code activities. I cheated this time and just bought them on TpT.  It's a K-2 set, but even the 5th graders are loving them!

Speaking of which...  I was using them with some kinder sand this one adorable little boy is usually very rambunctious. He's the wiggliest, most interrupting friend in the class...  Usually.  I sat him down with an iPad and he turned into a dream. Just sat there on the couch with his buddy and did exactly what he was supposed to do. I told him he was doing such a great job and I loved that he was sitting so quietly. He said, "Yeah, we're just sitting here relaxing...  You know, it's man things."    Love him!

Here are a couple pics I snapped of some kids working with their iPads:

The kids are so excited to use the iPads and I figure this shows the teachers how easy it is to implement them in fun ways, and how well the kids do when they're given the opportunity.  It's so quiet when they use them.  

We're going to do another QR project this week with reindeer -- then it's Christmas break!

QR Codes!!

I was looking for something cool and exciting to keep the kids entertained in the library as they're wound up about the upcoming holidays. We've got all these iPads sitting around not being used, so I thought of trying QR codes. I figured it would thrill the kids and would let me introduce them to the teachers, as well.  Guess what...   It worked!  Teachers who never use the iPads are coming to get them.  A couple asked for my centers so they could do them too.  The kids don't have time to do them all in the library, so it's great!

To see what I did, just grab your smart phone, touch, or tablet and scan this!

That should take you to my Google Drive file. It was mostly just an intro to using the iPads and the app to the K-1 kiddoes.  Second graders liked scanning the codes, but it was like pulling teeth to get them to actually do the accompanying tasks. The 3rd through 5th graders were awesome though!!!

Time to sit down with my mug of mulled wine and browse Pinterest for some holiday ideas.  

Centers!!!

With the way my library is currently arranged, the way traffic flows, it's been an issue for me this year to figure out how to keep the kids busy while they wait for their turn to get books, as well as what to do with the kids who've already gotten theirs.  So today I took some inspiration from "The Centered School Librarian" whose blog I follow and whose book (The Centered School Library) I read last year, and whose pins I've been following lately on Pinterest.  Does that make me sound like a stalker??

I started simple today.  Just a last-minute decision to give it a try.  So, I googled "Halloween bookmarks" and printed some off.  I was reading The Haunted Hamburger just for fun this week, so I found an accompanying activity. And then I visited the Centered School Library blog and found a cute "how to draw bats" sheet. I ran some copies, set out some crayons, and put my plan in place.

When the students came in, I sat them on the carpet and read our story:

This is such a fun story!!   The kids (k-5) are all loving this book.  It's a ghost story with 3 other ghost stories within it.  But they're funny, not scary.

To go with the story, the kids could do a Haunted Hamburger activity:

All they had to do was make a haunted face of some sort on it and color it in.  I thought it was gonna be a "lame" center, but it was by far the favorite!!

Another option was for my kids who like to draw or don't like to color.  I had this cute, easy "how to draw a bat" paper.  Holy cow, some of these kids are really good at this!!

The next 3 tables were just bookmarks they could color -- no biggie.

So, after he story I explained the centers and the rules.  I let 6 kids start getting books and sent everyone else a few at a time to pick a table.  The kids who were getting books went and got books instead of just wasting time on the computers searching so they could get to the centers.  The kids who were in them were happy to wait.  There was even a class where the kids didn't want to get their books cu they liked he centers so much.  So...  We'll keep this up this week and I'll get some more centers ready for next week!

Cleveland, the Disco King

My school just purchased a subscription to Accelerated Reader Enterprise, and as a result, I have been pulling the books shelf by shelf to look them all up at www.arbookfind.com  to record their info inside the back cover, and put the dreaded dot on the spine. I'm coming across some interesting titles...  Like this:

So funny!   And no, there isn't an AR test. 

Family Night

 It's family night at the book fair and I have one of the coolest teachers in the universe here who dressed up for me.

 

She and her tiger are posing for pics with the kids, who also get to dress up in pharaoh attire.

Book Fair

I set up my book fair Wednesday. It's 12 cases!!  I only had 6 at NDE.  It took all day Wednesday with a parent (I loooove her!!) and was still finishing up today as classes were previewing. Sales start tomorrow. Here's what it looked like: