After The Snow (and ice)
February & March 2018 Happenings in Rowland's Media Center
Read Across America Week
February 26 through March 2 (Dr. Seuss's Birthday). In coordination with the English Language Arts Committee, we celebrated reading at Rowland, and the Media Center sponsored two events: Green Eggs & Ham and Slightly Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. For Green Eggs & Ham, Pre-K through 2nd grade teachers generously contributed the ham and eggs, and Ms. O'Connor prepared enough for each class to have a taste. Discussions ranged from what food coloring colors we combine to get a lovely shade of green eggs to whether the food coloring change the taste of the eggs. For Slightly Scary Stories, we initially invited 3rd through 5th to attend, pretend they were in the woods around a campfire (Pinterest craft) under starry skies (constellation projectors) with night sounds (8 hours of YouTube owl recordings), and read and listen to slightly scary stories. The response was so great that we added a day so that 2nd and 1st grade classes could also attend. Stories shared under the "stars" included Scooby Doo series, Teacher from the Black Lagoon series, Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series, along with a variety of everybody and chapter books.
Reading by Flashlight
Media Center Forest
Who Knew Green Eggs Could Be Artistically Plated?
Biography Stew
Third graders learned about important components of a good biography by making biography stew. The notable person's birth was represented by gummy candies (babies are kind of soft and squishy); relatives by Chex mix (relatives come in all shapes and sizes); education by animal crackers (we all eat animal crackers in Kindergarten); life's twists and turns by pretzels; what made the person notable by Cheerios (cheering someone on); and old age by raisins (we all get kind of wrinkly as time goes by).
I Spy Second Grade
Second graders used I Spy books to match text to illustrations. (ELAGSE2RI7: Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text.) They also learned about Walter Wick's (illustrator of I Spy) creation process.
Fifth Grade Reference Sources
Fifth grade participated in a reference source scavenger hunt using encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, atlases, and almanacs. Did you know that mongooses kill snakes, including cobras (encyclopedia) or that California is the hottest state (almanac)? (Not sure why the student in the left hand corner is covering his eyes...maybe the awesomeness of the atlas!)
Rowland Media Center
Email: oconnor621@gmail.com
Website: rowlandmediacenter.weebly.com
Phone: 678-676-6222
Reading & Why We Aren't Doing Enough of It
I recently ran across a note written to me by a book club member a couple of years ago. Evidently, I had saved it as part of my research for my Ed.S. in Instructional Technology. He cited not having enough time as a reason for not being able to read for book club. (It was pretty crumpled when he gave it to me, and I notice now that the "that's really my day" part has some emphasis.) The note was cute, and the no reading time concerned me, but did not surprise me. When I browsed the research for reasons people of all ages are not reading as frequently, I found all kinds of reasons, the lure of technology & lack of time being at the top. I want to turn this trend around! Though the article below targets teen readers, the statistics and reasons are for all age groups: