Trees all year round

Again this year third graders were introduced to their Google Apps accounts via the Trees science unit. Students answered questions about trees using the Trees are Terrific website. Then they logged on to their Google accounts and used the draw tool to share their information and learn the basics of their new online account. Take a look and learn something about trees. Ms. Reardon's trees project Ms. Matrisciano's trees project

I would like to give a big shout out and Thank you to all of the Williams families who made our December 2013 gift book drive another big success for our library. Thanks to your generosity we were able to purchase 49 new books for the libraries. Among the notable additions to our collection are The Pet War, Princesses are not quitters, Journey, and King Jack and the dragon. It's always exciting to get new books so come on in.

What is an avatar? How, when, where, and why do people use avatars? These are questions 1st graders asked and answered as part of their Internet Safety curriculum. Then they created their own avatars using the website www.buildyourwildself.com Take a look at them here. Build Your wild self

This morning I am feeling extremely gratified with the responses from my kindergarten students to the question "What do you like most about coming to the library at Williams School? With the help of fifth graders this past June they used the app Scribble Press to illustrate and write their responses. We explored Mo Willems website and his Knuffle Bunny books and modeled our responses based on his style of writing and illustrating those books. I was just taking a second look at them and decided they were too good not to share with everybody. There's lots to do in the library! So here they are: What do you like most about coming to the library at Williams School?

This is the third year that I have used Common Sense Media's Digital Passport interactive program to teach 5th graders how to stay safe in the online world. Each year I get better at using it and this year I am hopeful to get through all five modules. We have completed Search Shark to help students improve their online search skills when they do research, and Evolve, which is the module that helps students understand cyberbullying and fight against it. This week we completed our third module, Mix and Mash. This module addresses creative credit in a really fun way. All the students were able to simulate creating a music video using online materials and citing their sources properly. They loved it! here are a couple of examples of what they came up with in this session. From Mr. Garlick's class From Mr. Lavigne's class

Overcoming Obstacles

Want to learn about some people who overcame obstacles and went on to make a difference for lots of other folks? Our fifth graders read picture books about these people and then used Thinkfinity's Character Trading Cards app to synthesize their information and create a trading card featuring the main character in their true life story. Then they imported their cards into the Educreations app where you can hear them tell about these amazing true life characters. Kudos to the fifth graders for collaborating to learn about the people, learn how to use the apps, and create these fabulous cards. Check them out!