No One Told the Aardvark

First graders listened to the book No One Told the Aardvark by Deborah Eaton and Susan Halter. In it, a boy imagines what it would be like to be able to do everyday things like brushing his teeth and eating his food the way a variety of animals do similar things.

Using a worksheet developed by my colleague Beth Grabbert, Room 2 students shared what animal they wished they could be and why:

5 Card Flickr!

To introduce our discussion of copyright beyond the written word, the fifth graders played 5 card Flickr. This game pulls images from the photo storage system Flickr and challenges users to create a story from the random images. You can try it yourself.

In the meantime, here are some of the stories:
 
The Kids' Wishes

4th Birthday

Weird Faces

The Myth

Llama Ball

And the Winner Is ... Caldecott Results!

So voting was all over the place ... each one of my four second-grade classes had a different class winner. Room 3 liked Z is for Moose best, and Room 4 chose had a tie between Boot & Shoe and This is Not My Hat.

However, when ALL the votes were tallied, the book with the most votes (by 1) across the 89 students present for voting was ... This is Not My Hat by Jon Klasssen ... which won the award in real life!

Here are some of the kids' reasons for their votes, along with pictures of their favorite parts of the books they chose:

And some photos of the voting process:

Snowman Tally Chart - PM K

After reading Snowballs by Lois Ehlert, the kindergartners decorated their own snowmen. Then we made a class tally chart of some of our snowmen's characteristics. 

You can look for tutus, bows, and jackets on the snowmen below ... keep an eye out for the one with glasses too! 
 

 

 

Find it in the Almanac

Quick ... what is the one (one-volume) book that can tell you the answer to every question below?

• Which animal lives longer – a lion or an alligator? 
• What book won the Newbery Medal in 2005? 
• What was the location of a major earthquake in 2001? 
• What is the Roman name for the Greek God Poseidon? 
• How much of the earth’s atmosphere is made of oxygen? 
• Where is the worlds' SECOND tallest roller coaster? 
• Who was the 19th president of the United States? 

That would be the World Almanac for Kids. Fourth-graders are learning to navigate the information it contains. Here is Room 9 finding out the answers to the questions above:

 

 

Most Borrowed Books - January

source: katedicamillo.com

• The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo
• The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
• Draw 50 Cats by Lee Ames
• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney
• Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star by Rachel Renee Russell
• The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss
• The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee by Tom Angelberger
• Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid by Megan McDonald
• The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

In So Many Words

The sixth graders are learning about how to avoid plagiarism. After we discussed the skill of paraphrasing (and the need for a good vocabulary ... or at least a thesaurus!), the students wrote original sentences and then paraphrased each other. Here is some of their work:

Original: Yogi Bear was eating picnic baskets. Then Booboo ate some picnic baskets too.
Paraphrase: Booboo saw Yogi Bear crunching on picnic baskets, so he decided to join in too.

Original: You should drink diet soda.
Paraphrase: I suggest you consume fat-free sugar drinks.

Original: Arthur pulled the sword from the stone. It gleamed with magic.
Paraphrase: Arthur yanked the blade from the rock. It shined with magic.

Original: My iPod is my second favorite thing.
Paraphrase: My second favorite electronic is my iPod.

Original: The monitor caught the student running in the hall.
Paraphrase: The camera spotted the pupil sprinting down the corridor.

Original: The panda bear plummeted down the ledge and landed on his noggin.
Paraphrase: Panda Bear fell, and his head got crushed.