Brimhall Bonanza

Families learning together

November hosted our school's grades three and four Family Learning Night. This year, the "BRIMHALL BONANZA" was complete with our own theme song which we played over the announcements leading up to the event. (Hear our song here.) We worked hard to advertise, and it worked! Over 100 families (300+ people) attended the event. I planned the Bonanza with my coworker Melanie Groth (our reading/math coach).

It was a western wear optional evening--so notice how we are all dressed up!

Ms. McCormick with Blaze.

Our goals for the night were: to have students show their parents some of the things we do at school, for parents and children to have a fun learning based night, and for families to connect with one another. It was also a great way for me the librarian to showcase our library/collection and meet families. I think our goals were met.

We created and asked teachers to help create stations around math and reading. At the event-- families were welcomed with a free deck of cards and dice to keep to use for math games at home. A delicious dinner of tacos (sponsored by the PTA) was served to all. After dinner--siblings were taken to free childcare. We then had choice stations for kids to attend with their families:

1. Database Scavenger Hunt in the computer lab
2. Everyday Math Games--3rd grade room/4th grade room
3. Math Games on the iPad
4. Bonus library book check-out
5. Reading around the campfire with your parent (I pulled a lot of great picture books--and had a campfire up on the SMART board).
6. Make your own trail mix (measuring practice) (reading directions)
7. Estimation Jars
8. Symmetry art project

After our station time-- our kids all went to practice singing our school song. The parents all played a getting to know you BINGO game. We gave away gift cards to Target as prizes (this motivated the adults to leave their usual parent groups and meet new people).

Our kiddos then performed a quick song, and we did a raffle for gift certificates for the spring book fair. It was a busy and FUN filled night.

Book Fair

Come visit our Scholastic Book Fair October 7-11. Students will be able to purchase Wednesday though Friday. The fair will be open the evenings of conferences. There are more book options available at the online fair.

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR SCHOOL LIBRARY!

http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bookfairs/cptoolkit/homepage.do?method=homepage&url=brimhall

First Weeks

It has been a busy first couple of weeks of school. A lot of routines to be taught--to a lot of classes. This week, classes started checking out books. It has been fun to see how excited out students are to get books in their hands.

In fourth grade. Teachers asked me to collaborate with them to use our iPads to create a presentation for students to share with their classes.

We used Haiku Deck a free presentation app. It was great to get technology in the hands of kids right away this year.

We were able to learn about using the iPads, how to take photos, and how to insert them into a presentation. We also discussed what we had learned in third grade about using images that were appropriate for the message we were trying to send.

We had fun--It was a great intro to the other tools we are going to experience this year.

Brimhall Caught Reading!

Click here to see our SUMMER READERS

Summer Reading

While I am out on maternity leave--my wonderful substitute Mrs. Bachhuber collected lists of books at each grade level that students thought others would like to read. Check out your current grade level, or the one above/below yours. There are a lot of great books suggested by other students listed!

1st Grade
2nd Grade
3rd Grade
4th Grade
5th Grade/6th Grade

READ!

And don't forget to email me a photo of yourself reading this summer!

Encyclopedias With Fourth Grade

In fourth grade this past week we learned about Reference Materials. I found this great slideshare about print and digital encyclopedias on Pinterest that I shared with my students. I love when people share their resources!

I then taught my students how to use our online database encyclopedias using keywords. Students tried to answer some basic questions as a quick scavenger hunt to practice the skills. It was fun and informative.

Kindergarten Research

Kindergarteners Rock at Research! Check out our completed projects. They are awesome!

Mohamed
Showalter
Tyrer AM
Tyrer PM
Vang

In Kindergarten students have been learning about Minnesota in their Social Studies Unit. I collaborated with our Kindergarten teachers to have students research an animal from Minnesota.

Recording Facts

First, I worked with each class to practice using pictures and words in a non-fiction book to find out "What does my animal look like?," "What does my animal eat?," and "Where does my animal live?" We practiced this skill with me modeling using an eBook, and then having the students practice with a hard copy text.

Taking Notes About Minnesota Animals

The next time I met with students, I modeled note taking skills using a book about a Minnesota animal. In two separate class periods students were able to record all that they had learned about their animals on their note taking sheet and draw a sketch of them.

Using the iPads to create images of our animals!

When classes came back to the library, we used the iPads to draw images of our animals to create a multimedia report that can be shared at their kindergarten program. While students were working, their teacher and I took photos of their written work (with the iPad) to create a page in their report with all the facts that they learned. I then used the iPad version of Little Bird Tales--and then teachers uploaded the tales to their class home pages after we recorded their voices reading their reports.