Scholastic has two live webcasts coming up in the next few weeks that you might want to consider sharing with your students. The first one is a live webcast with R. L. Stine, the author of the Goosebumps series. Even though it is not my personal favorite series, the kids love it. So, if you have a bunch of ghost-story-loving kids, check out the live webcast on October 28 at noon. It’s always fun to hear an author talk about his books. (Second grade – I would probably skip this one.)

Live Webcast with R. L. Stine

The other webcast is with all five of the authors of the 39 clues series! I’m pretty excited about this one. The authors of these books are top-notch, and the kids are crazy about these books (especially the fourth graders). The 39 Clues webcast will be on November 2 at 12:30 p.m.

39 Clues Webcast

Enjoy!

On October 21st, five new sets of books will be added to Book Flix! Here are the new pairs:

• Chrysanthemum and We Help Out at School (this pair is also available with a Spanish translation)
• Giraffes Can’t Dance and Kids Can Dance!
• Harold and the Purple Crayon and Where Can Art Take You?
• Leo the Late Bloomer and We are Alike, We are Different
• Trashy Town and Our Earth: Making Less Trash

Also, you might want to show your kids Where the Wild Things Are (find it under the Earth and Sky category) before the movie comes out on October 16th. (Do be aware that the movie is PG before you recommend it to younger students.)

Happy Reading!

This is a pretty snazzy online tool. Using a scanner, printer, computer, and this website – http://www.fontcapture.com/ – you can create a font from your own handwriting!  You could have students create their own font from their handwriting to use when writing papers on the computer. They could even be artistic and create their own “wingding” font. There are lots of creative possibilities with this tool. It was easy to use and only took me about five minutes to fill out the form, scan my document, and upload it to the site (it would probably take your students a bit longer to fill out the form).

Here’s a sample of the “matzat” font:

I recently stumbled on this great site for writing that I thought I would share with you in case you haven’t seen it yet. It is Scholastic’s Story Starters, and I think it would be a great site to use in your classrooms as a writing center or it could be a good computer lab activity. The tool generates funny story starters for students based on their grade level, and then takes them to a place where they decide on the format for their stories and create them right there on the computer. It looks like a lot of fun, and I think it would attract even the reluctant writers in your classrooms. Let me know what you think of it!

Your library lady,

Cindy

Here is a VoiceThread project I did in the LMC with Mrs. Sheets’ and Mrs. Vejraska’s classes during flexible time. The students made their own Field Guide based on the Spiderwick series. Check it out! If you would like to try a VoiceThread project, just let me know. I will also be teaching a workhsop on VoiceThread on April 24th.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=80612" width="480" height="360" wmode="transparent" /]

Okay, I realize I’m sharing yet another online tool that really isn’t school related, but it’s too cool not to share. My son has gotten me addicted to an online radio site called Pandora. The neat thing about this site is that you select an artist that you like (for example – Sting – I know, I’m dating myself), and Pandora will play songs by Sting and create the “Sting” channel for you. In addition to songs by that particular artist, it will also play songs that are similar in style to songs by Sting. It gives you the option to give those songs the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” as to whether you think they belong on your Sting channel.  It is so awesome! You get to listen to the songs and artists you like, and you don’t have to listen to commercials. All types of music are included, which has been great for my son who loves contemporary Christian artists like Skillet and Reliant K. Anyway, give it a try and create your own custom radio stations!

Last week, one of my eMINTS sessions was on the topic of visual literacy (the ability to understand and use images to communicate). As an opening activity, I used a great online tool called VoiceThread to have my eMINTS teachers interact with images. You can see this example at http://voicethread.com/share/44327/ or click below.

 [kml_flashembed movie="http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=44327" width="480" height="360" wmode="transparent" /]

I think there are so many possibilities for using this tool in the classroom. You could have your students create online digital stories, have them respond to a photograph, share research information, and so much more. For example, DeAnna, one of my 3rd grade eMINTS teachers, created a VoiceThread to have her students respond to some images about Martin Luther King, Jr. Here are some examples of what you can do with VoiceThread:

Flat Stanley Project – http://voicethread.com/share/43401/
James and the Giant Peach – http://voicethread.com/share/45060/
Venn Diagram Response – http://voicethread.com/share/6979/
Jack’s Monster Cards – http://voicethread.com/share/236/
Baseball Multiplication – http://voicethread.com/share/45540/
Voices from the Past – http://voicethread.com/share/25448/
Third Grade Book Reports – http://voicethread.com/share/41795/
I Like Winter – http://voicethread.com/share/37747/
Triangle Scavenger Hunt – http://voicethread.com/share/44033/

If you would like to do a project using VoiceThread, just let me know and I will be glad to collaborate with you and help you get it set up.

Here are some fun holiday activities you can use with your SMART Board. I’m not sure how educational they are, but they’re fun.

Build your own gingerbread house
Build a snowman
Reindeer Orchestra (play Christmas songs by squeezing the deer’s nose) – this is my favorite
Make a snowflake
Santa Sliding Puzzle
Snow Line Game (draw a line to help Santa get the presents) – this one was hard for me, but I’m sure kids will figure it out

I signed our building up for a free trial of Scholastic’s Book Flix. Here is the description of the site:

Scholastic BookFlix is a new online literacy resource that pairs classic video storybooks from Weston Woods with related nonfiction eBooks from Scholastic to build a love of reading and learning. The engaging way to link fact and fiction, BookFlix reinforces early reading skills and introduces children to a world of knowledge and exploration.

You can access the free trial at http://bookflix.scholastic.com/freetrial. I will send you the username and password in an email message. I hope you enjoy this service. I think it is pretty great. We have the trial through December, so take advantage of it! Once you have used it with your students, please give me some feedback on what you think of it by commenting on this blog post. I want to know what you think about it before I would invest money in the service.

Enjoy!

Cindy

There is a great project called One Laptop Per Child that tries to provide technology to children in developing countries. They have created an amazingly inexpensive, highly durable laptop that gives these children access to Internet resources and great computer tools to use for learning. For a brief time, starting November 12th, you can purchase two laptops – one that will be donated to one of these developing countries, and one that will be sent to you. Here is the info from their website:

Starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child will be offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time in North America. For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home.

If you would like to participate in their program, sign up for the reminder email now at http://www.xogiving.org/.