SPARK Media Center News
November 2021
Learning is Fun in the Media Center
Learning Tasks and the Books that Inspired Them
Grades K-2 Students created the most magnificent robots to help solve a problem at school. This task introduced students to creative problem solving and engineering skills. | Grade 3 Students learned about the 10 SS Themes and applied two themes (Production, Distribution, and Consumption AND Technological Innovations) to the events within the story. | Grade 4 Using their earth science standards (solar system), students conducted research to learn more about the rovers on Mars. Students listened to an astronaut on the ISS read the story Curiosity aloud. They are in the process of going through the engineering design process to design and build a new rover that will live on Mars by 2029. |
Grades K-2
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5 Using their earth science standards (destructive processes), students conducted research on a historical natural disaster (collaboration). Then, students used that information to begin brainstorming an I Survived inspired story based on their natural disaster. Students are in the process of finishing their organizers and rough drafts. Lastly, students will use Book Creator to publish their stories and share with the community. | Kindegarten Students learned about dialogue and speech bubbles using this book. Students then worked through a retelling activity. Lastly, students chose their favorite color, discussed the problem for that color, and created a crayon with its problem inside of a speech bubble. | Grades K and 1st In the spirit of the season, students used this book to learn about and to discuss character traits. Students worked on an activity where they drew pictures of Gustavo's character traits and then verbally provided evidence from the story to support each trait. |
Grade 5
Kindegarten
Grades K and 1st **New Book Alert**Students are learning about the importance of charts (math integration). Students will chart their own houses and then create 2-3 additional charts to represent themselves and the class as a whole. | Grade 2 **New Book Alert** Students will listen to the author reach this book aloud. Students will learn more about the engineering design process and begin an inventor's notebook to design and create their own inventions to help children. | Grades 3-5 FALL INTO READING...Students will choose one of their favorite books. Each grade has a different task to display the books they love. A meaningful technology tool is integrated into each of the tasks as well. |
Grades K and 1st
Grade 2
APS Race 2 Read Information
Here are the resources to for Beanstack-Race2Read:
- Beanstack101 Student Guide -- This 2-pager will help your students sign-in and complete the 3 main actions in Beanstack on both the web and mobile apps.
- Quickstart Guides -- Teachers, these guides will give you at-a-glance information about how you and your students sign-in, and the actions you can take in Beanstack.
- Quick Experience Videos: The video links below will help you introduce Beanstack to your students, and are a good resource!
Video Links:
Beanstack Login Information:
Access the APS Race2Read Beanstack app through MyBackpack:
Students Beanstack app log in:
Username: networkID Example: mslack1234
Password: race2read
Teachers Beanstack app log in:
Username: APS email
Password: beanstackreads
Please help us reach our goal of 716,000 minutes.
TOP 5 Race2Read Students
- Jospeh Nduom (3rd grade): 3,816 minutes
- Olivia Brady (5th grade): 2,508 minutes
- Elsie Hoelker (3rd grade): 2,413 minutes
- Sophia Steward (3rd grade): 2,314 minutes
- Everett Bane (3rd grade): 1,578 minutes
It is not too late to start logging reading minutes! Whenever students read at school or whenever their teacher reads to them, they can log into the Beanstack app and log their minutes. If students have minutes that they have forgotten to log, those can be logged, too. We have been logging minutes in the media center during book check out rotations. However, if students need further assistance with logging into Beanstack, please reach out to Ms. Slack, Ms. Nadine, or homeroom teachers.
November SEL Book of the Month
Sincerely, Emerson By Emerson Weber and Jaclyn Sinquett
One tiny act of kindness can have a huge impact. And in this heartwarming, hopeful story, a simple letter does just that. A true story that quickly went viral, this is now a timely, extraordinary picture book. Sincerely, Emerson follows eleven-year-old Emerson Weber as she writes a letter of thanks to her postal carrier, Doug, and creates a nationwide outpouring of love. This is a story of gratitude, hope, and recognition: for all the essential helpers we see everyday, and all of those who go unseen.
SEL COMPETENCY:
Social awareness allows individuals to take others’ perspectives into account and to empathize with others. Socially aware students are more likely to recognize and
appreciate the similarities and differences of others. Social awareness is particularly important for students as they participate in new instructional shifts. Students
need to take the perspectives of their classmates during classroom discussions and attempt to empathize and relate with characters during analysis of texts.
THEME:
Empathy:
We appreciate the value of kindness in building and maintaining a positive learning community.
Kid's GALILEO
Kid’s GALILEO is an excellent resource for students to do research. GALILEO is a gateway to credible and authoritative resources -- a universe of full‑text articles, ebooks, journals, educational videos and more.
You can access GALILEO through my Backpack or https://www.galileo.usg.edu/satl/elementary
The password for Atlanta Public Schools is: traffic
CLASS PASS via MyBackpack

My BackPack eBook Shelf
APS District eBook Shelf:
To access the APS eBook shelf, students should log into MyBackpack. Select the eBooks tile. From here, all apps are accessible for student use.
To access apps requiring username/password, use the following credentials:
TumbleBook Library/Cloud
Username: atlantaps
Password: books
Big Timber Books
Username: atlantaps
Password: readmore