Coding with Cups - Room 12

The first week of December is Computer Science Education Week. In library, we doing many of the unplugged activities at code.org to learn some programming basics, including writing algorithms and debugging problems. Here is Room 12 at work doing the My Robotic Friends activity.

Smiley Face Coding

The first week of December is Computer Science Education Week. In library, we do many of the unplugged activities at code.org to learn some programming basics, including writing algorithms and debugging problems. 

The younger grades attempted to "program" me to draw a smiley face on the whiteboard. As you can see, some of the directions were more specific (and successful) than others ... 

What Ms. Moore Read in October and November

Here are some of the most recent books I've read and recommend for my students. They're all available from the public library, but any donations towards getting them into our collection are most welcome! Cover images and descriptions are from Goodreads. 

Picture Books

Edward the giraffe can't understand why his neck is as long and bendy and, well, ridiculous as it is. No other animal has a neck this absurd. He's tried disguising it, dressing it up, strategically hiding it behind bushes--honestly, anything you can think of, he's tried.

Just when he has exhausted his neck-hiding options and is about to throw in the towel, a turtle swoops in (well, ambles in, very slowly) and helps him understand that his neck has a purpose, and looks excellent in a bow tie.

A humorous picture book about a bad guy who makes an important and life-changing realization.

At the moment, all Lola can talk about is dogs. She says she would like one more than anything you could think of. "More than a squirrel or an actual fox," she says. Sometimes she pretends to be a dog. And sometimes she pretends that her brother, Charlie, is a dog. The two of them love to talk about what sort of dog they would choose if Mom and Dad didn't always say, "ABSOLUTELY NO DOGS!" 

There are many reasons to feel different. Maybe it's how you look or talk, or where you're from; maybe it's what you eat, or something just as random. It's not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it.

Jacqueline Woodson's lyrical text and Rafael Lopez's dazzling art reminds us that we all feel like outsiders sometimes-and how brave it is that we go forth anyway. And that sometimes, when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway.

Poor Allie! She’s in a rage, throwing a tantrum, and having a fit! Her emotions have built and built and now they just burst. Is there a sweet little girl hiding somewhere under all the angry layers? And can her big brother find a way to make things all right again?

In 1994, Yuyi Morales left her home in  Mexico and came to the US with her infant son. She left behind nearly everything she owned, but she didn't come empty-handed. She brought her strength, her work, her passion, her hopes and dreams...and her stories. Yuyi and her son Kelly's passage was not easy, and Yuyi spoke no English whatsoever at the time. But together, they found an unexpected, unbelievable place: the public library. There, book by book, they untangled the language of this strange new land, and learned to make their home within it.

Early Readers

In I Lost My Tooth!, Zoom Squirrel has lost his front tooth. The Squirrels leap to the rescue to find the lost tooth. When they discover it is a baby tooth that is lost, the stakes are even higher. What will become of the poor, lost, sad, hungry, baby tooth!?

Buzz is making a movie about aliens from outer space. When the action begins, superheroes Fly Guy and Buzz Boy are protecting a secret fort in the sky when an alien ship captures them! The duo must outsmart the aliens and the space pirates with the help of Dragon Dude and Fly Girl.

Middle Grade Novels

Liam has always felt a bit like he's stuck between two worlds. This is primarily because he's a 12-year-old kid who looks like he's about 30. Sometimes it's not so bad, like when his new principal mistakes him for a teacher on the first day of school or when he convinces a car dealer to let him take a Porsche out on a test drive. 

Liam cons his way onto the first spaceship to take civilians into space, a special flight for a group of kids, and he is going as the adult chaperone. It's not long before Liam, along with his friends, is stuck between two worlds again--only this time he's 239,000 miles from home.

Grade 2 Covers Inspired by The Z Was Zapped

Second graders are reviewing how call numbers help us find books in the library.

We read The Z Was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg, which features the letters of the alphabet meeting sad fates. The students had to guess the action happening to them, which started with the same letter; for example, the F was flattened by a foot and the Q was quartered.

Then the kids created their own version of the book, as well as their personal call number. I've added their work to a binder that can be checked out and brought home as a library book. Here is a preview:

 

Book Care with the Pigeon

In kindergarten, we discussed book care in preparation for the students' first checkout; they taught THE PIGEON some rules after watching this video, where he clearly has no idea how to take care of books.

Here are some of their book care expectations:

Three of These Things with Grade 1

A big part of information literacy is being able to recognize patterns and to categorize facts, sources, etc. We're starting to work on these skills in first grade. 

Our latest lesson is one of my favorites; it involves the original Three of These Things from Sesame Street. Original as in from the 1970s. I showed several sample videos to the kids, and they raised their hands as soon as they figured out what didn't belong. Here's one of them:

Then it was the students' turn to pretend they were segment producers and come up with their own "Three of These Things" example. Can you tell what doesn't belong?