Summer Reading Kickoff - June 1 Event

Ready for some REAL family fun? Reading Aloud in Rhode Island (REAL) will kick off the 2012 Statewide Summer Reading Program at the Providence Children’s Museum on Friday, June 1 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm.

Ten local picture book authors and illustrators will read from their work, answer questions, and sign and sell their books as local children's librarians offer engaging book-related activities.

Learn more about this FREE event, which is recommended for families with children from ages 4-10.

Interesting Animal Facts - 3T

After using the index and table of contents of animal books to find information and take notes, 3T students created posters. This week they started making their presentations and are sharing some pretty interesting facts.

Mamba snakes like to hang out in trees.

Boa constrictors have jaws like rubber bands.

Black widow spiders like to hide in dark corners.

Crocodiles literally weigh a ton: 2,000 pounds.

Penguins are birds, but they can't fly.

Zebras: 30 years ago, there were 100,000 zebras; now there are only 2,000.

Koalas live in their mothers' pouches for six months after they are born.

Polar bears can drift for miles on Arctic ice.

African buffalo babies weigh 90 pounds.

Raccoons like to go in humans' trash cans (as this researcher can attest).

Wordling Dewey - 4G

Have you ever used Wordle? It's a neat Web program that takes words and creates a colorful collage with them; words that you enter more frequently have more prominence.

We're using it with Grade 4 as we try and figure out how Melvil Dewey divided up all of the world's knowledge into 10 main categories.

This week, 4G explored the shelves, selecting a variety of books on different topics from their assigned 100s ... and then tried to figure out just what their category was. We entered some of the topics into Wordle. As you can see below, some Dewey categories are a lot easier to figure out than others.

11 Card Flickr - 5O

Credit: MiserlouBehind The Aperture

Once there was this cat watching a Patriots game. He was tiny and his name was Tiny.

Credit: JefferyBeall

Tom Brady threw an interception, and the cat meowed. After that, he (Tom Brady) crashed his car into a zoo.

Credit: law_kevin

Then all the tigers in the zoo went loose.

Credit: wizan

The tigers ate Tom Brady, but afterwards, they felt sorry. They attacked a bowl of fruit.

Source: 23am.com

There was still some left when they were done, so the dog ate it. Then the dog went to play with his owner.

Credit: 32fefab169

Meanwhile, the cat was staring at the TV and became hypnotized.

Credit: Marysol

Then the cat eats the angry birds. Then he wondered, "Where is the BBQ sauce?" So he went on a giant journey around the world to find the best BBQ sauces.

Credit: Carrie Stephens

The cat found a gingerbread house in China and attacked it. While continuing his journey, he stopped by Gilette Stadium and watched the Broncos defeat the Patriots.

Credit: Jelene

Then the android dude in a jelly bean car was going off to buy an Android phone.

Credit: Sean MacEntee

So the guy stopped in Guatemala, where Katy Perry was performing an exclusive concert. But then he got kicked out because he was stealing the little breath mints at the bar. The cat brought him back in and then barfed up the Angry Birds, which reminded him of his iPhone, and they got in a fight over which phone was better. Then Steve Jobs came back alive and kicked the Android right in his tushy. Then the cat went to the bar and he had a bunch of martinis, and then he got in the car and drove to Arizona and crashed into a cactus and caught on fire.

Credit: Roshan Album

When the jaguar saw the car catch on fire, he called all his friends and told him he was going to perform a circus trip and jumped over the car.

NOTE: All photos are Creative-Commons-licensed; students found them by using a specialized search.

14 Card Flickr - 5LM

Credit: Taya Bailey

There was once a lady sitting in a chair smiling at everyone.

Credit: NewBirth35

She saw a blue fuzzy man eating a cookie and asked, "Can I have a cookie?"

Credit: Treehouse 1977

Then a pony walked by, said "Hi," and ran away.

Credit: Crazy Gabbate

When the pony walked by, he dropped a pear, and the woman took it and ate it.

Credit: Sarah Ackerman

Meanwhile, Dora threw Backpack on the ground and stepped on it. Then she asked Hope Solo to find a soccer ball.

Credit: Pố Trường Vĩ Đại

But instead, Hope brought back a troll.

Credit: mags20_eb

The troll was carrying a soccer-ball-shaped cake.

Credit: Lost in the Sound

Lauren Alaina took the cake, shoved it in her face, and started singing.

Credit: ogwen

A squirrel was so mad because she ate the cake that he had to make another cake and then shoved it in HIS face.

Credit: Eva Rinaldi

Then Taylor Swift stole the squirrel, and he was very upset and started throwing a fit.

Credit: Luiz Fernando/Sonia Maria

Taylor Swift gave the squirrel to the Beatles to be their backup singer.

Credit: coming soon! (on school computer)

Cereal Guy was at the concert eating cereal from the concession stand.

Credit: coming soon! (on school computer)

Elmo went on stage and sang "Elmo's World." Then he fell off the stage and died.

Credit: lmmortel

The Green Man was actually the Hulk, and he ate Elmo. The Hulk had a stomachache and married Taylor Swift. Then he jumped and blew up, and the world ended.

NOTE: All photos are Creative-Commons-licensed; students found them by using a specialized search.

National Spelling Bee is Coming!

Mark your calendars for May 31, when the finals of the National Spelling Bee will air on ESPN2. Rhode Island's contestant is from Cumberland!

Anyone who leaves a note in Ms. Moore's mailbox by the last day of school with the name of the 2009 winner gets to pick a free book from the donation box! (Hint: Fourth graders just found the answer last week when comparing whether the table of contents or the index works faster when searching for specific information in the Kids' World Almanac. You can also find it on the Spelling Bee site.)

Fun fact from their web site: XANTHOPHYLL is the word Laura Ingalls Wilder misspelled in an 1880s community spelling match. Read more about it in Little House on the Prairie.

5Card Flickr

Fifth graders have been learning about the importance of giving credit to all content creators; while most students understand that you have to list text sources, they weren't aware that you also have to acknowledge where you get images.

We went over Creative Commons licensing, which web content creators use to specify how others can share their stuff. One site that uses Creative Commons is Flickr, an alternative to Google Images. Photographers can tag their images with all kinds of labels, including "5cardflickr," a game that involves choosing randomly generated pictures and then creating a story to go with them.

Here are our stories ... try playing at home!

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Five Card Story: The Fortuneteller Game

a Five Card Flickr story created by 5LM

flickr photo by krutscjo

flickr photo by bionicteaching

flickr photo by bionicteaching

flickr photo by bionicteaching

flickr photo by bionicteaching

Once there was a fortuneteller, and he had a friend that was a man. He discovered a butterfly, and then he ate it. The fortunteller told the man that the frog was in his destiny. Soon enough, the frog appeared and carried the man to the lion. The lion said to go to the store of knives, where he would meet a hippie that has a knife collection. But they were all very dull, because hippies are peaceful.

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Five Card Story: The Apple that Fell Down the Mountain

a Five Card Flickr story created by 5O

flickr photo by Serenae

flickr photo by katerha

flickr photo by bionicteaching

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by kairós


Once upon a time, there was this guy who watched Annoyed Orange, and he said, "Hey! If I create an Annoyed Apple, will he be too strong to break if he falls down a mountain?" Then the guy that threw the apple down gave an inspirational speech in the living room with his workers. And the dog was thinking of eating the monkey.

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Can You Follow Directions?

Several classes this week took a break from library skills to practice LISTENING ... something that seems to have been disappearing from students' abilities lately. We played Simon(e) Says, got tricked by the attached worksheet, and discussed situations where ignoring directions can have dire consequences, such as:

Ignored Thing	Consequence
Test instructions	Bad NECAP score
Contract language	Less money than you deserve
Blender instructions	Chop off your finger, get food all over the kitchen
Recipe	Disgusting food
Parking lot signs	Crash into another car
How to pay bills	Fees and charges

Try printing out the worksheet and seeing how you do ... post your results in the comment section. Here is a Google Docs version in case you can't open the PDF above.

Dewey Decimal Order

5LM and 5O students have adopted shelves to take care of through the end of the year. Before they signed the adoption certificates for their new charges - whose names include Bella, Blob, Bubbles, and Sheldon - we had a "shelf parenting" class: Dewey Decimal review!

Test yourself ... do you know how to read call numbers? Try these quizzes created by other librarians at Quia:

Ordering Dewey Call Numbers

Ordering Decimals 

Dewey Decimal System 3

After we discussed the elements of a call number, students then put themselves in order, first in small groups, which you can see in the pictures. Then the entire class had to reorganize into one long line of call numbers.

Reading the numbers after the decimal point tripped up some students, but once they grasped the concept of going by tenths place, then hundredths, etc., (i.e., 529.235 comes before 529.4, even though 235 is a higher number than 4, because .4 can be read as .400) everyone was ready to hit the shelves.