2013-2014 Cool Tools for School Blog

I'm using this long neglected blog to document a wonderful program called Cool Tools for School. This class will allow us to explore all kinds of sites and see how we can use them with out library students. Join with me this year as I learn and interact with classmates.

Caldecott Medal

On January 14 at 10 a.m. the 2008 Caldecott Medal will be announced. Children at MHP wait eagerly to learn who will win the book award. They know that the award goes to the illustrator and that many art styles have won the award.
First grade children are reading Caldecott winning folk tales. We loved Rapunzel and Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears. Next we will hear The Funny Little Woman.
Second grade children are hearing Caldecott biographies. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers is an amazing story- and true!!! Philippe Petit shows a great deal of courage.
We also read Snowflake Bentley and looked at a short video clip on his life. Mr. Bentley spent his whole life photographing snowflakes and other things in nature. He was very dedicated and showed perseverence.
http://www.snowflakebentley.com has lots of good information. Bentley's Snow Crystals book is awesome. There are more than 2000 photographs of snowflakes in the book.

Rosemary Wells

Rosemary Wells is our author of the month for January. Her books go along very well with our school's character education focus. We looked at www.rosmarywells.com to get some biographical information about Rosemary Wells. We also looked at the Max and Ruby games on the Nick Jr. page- and played some in the library. Bowling and the toy train were our favorites.
Check out http://www.nickjr.com/shows/max_ruby/online_games/index.jhtml for some fun!
Kindergarten children have been enjoying the Yoko books. We read about teasing in Yoko and thought about ways we could have been nicer to Yoko than her class was. We have also read Mama, Don't Go and Doris' Dinosaur.

Jan Brett

Jan Brett was our author of the month for December. We had lots of fun reading her holiday stories. Because many of Jan Brett's Christmas stories are set in Scandinavia, we spent time learning about Scandinavia and Lapland. Reindeer are really used to pull sleds. People wear blue and red clothes like those worn by Teeka in Wild Christmas Reindeer and the boy from FinnMark in Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve.
We also enjoyed reading Jan Brett's website. She has the very best author website we have found. Check out www.janbrett.com to see the amazing site for yourself. We colored some of the pictures from the site and relly enjoyed learning more about The Three Snow Bears in Jan Brett's video.

Library Conference

Ms. Nugent and I had the opportunity to spend last friday with David Loertscher. He's a former librarian and college professor. He teaches on ways to make the library program more useful and more in tune with current technology. We learned about blogging in the library, how to use wikis to share information, and other places where students can share documents. It was a useful day and I'm looking forward to incorporating some more technology into this library program.

Author of the Month- Jan Brett

We've been enjoying reading books by Jan Brett and looking at her website www.janbrett.com .
The website has all kinds of information about Jan and her books. We listened to Hedgie read a story, checked out several online activities and listened to Jan discuss how she wrote The Three Snow Bears.
Second grade students are now learning about Christmas customs in other lands. Today we read Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve after we learned about Norwegian Christmas customs. Some traditions were evident in the pictures.
First grade children are learning about folktales. The Three Snow Bears and Town Mouse, Country Mouse are wonderful examples of the folk process. Jan Brett's drawings are so detailed that the stories really come alive. We are amazed at the way she can make rocks, needlework and wood look real!

Pilgrims and Wampanoags

Second grade students have been reading several of Kate Waters' books about Plimoth Plantation and the first Thanksgiving celebration. This week we will be comparing Pilgrim life to Wampanoag life in the 1600s. We are learning the terms for houses, tools, and foods. I will post examples of student writing after we are done.
Children have been very surprised to learn that Native Americans today dress and speak like the rest of us. They were especially surprised to discover that members of our school community are Native Americans. Feathers and beads are dress-up clothes, just like fancy gowns and suits. Nobody wears feathers to school!!