BreakoutEDU

If you don't know what BreakoutEDU is then you and your kids are missing out.  I encourage you to go to their website and check them out.  It is based on the concept of an Escape room where you solve clues to escape.  Breakout is a box with a series of locks and to find the  answers they must solve puzzles that have been created to align with their curriculum.  You might be asking, "What is the benefit of doing this?"  See the graphic below from the BreakoutEDU website.

 It is so much fun but really makes the kids think.

I did my first BreakoutEDU last year with 1st and 2nd grade and they did a great job and figured out the clues.  Inside the box you can leave a treat or a prize or some kind.  I have been putting in a coupon for free Cozy Corner time in the library and teachers have offered homework passes and class rewards.

On their website you register to learn more and they will send you a password that will get you into all of their games.  The games are written by teachers and are all done in Google Drive you so you can save them easily.  They cost $0.00, and we thank them for that.  If you buy the kit from them you will get it a few weeks or you can buy locks yourself and try to find a box.  I did buy myself at first but then I wrote and was awarded a grant by my education foundation and was able to purchase 15 kits from BreakoutEDU.

I started looking at lessons on the site and I joined the online community on Facebook.  There are so many lessons and helpful people out there and it is catching on like crazy.

I have written a few of my own too.  I wrote one for my staff to do for inservice and it was a 100% failure.  It was so hard and what I thought was easy to follow wasn't.  As my friend said, "Yeah it was easy if we were in your head!"  I guess they weren't in my head.

I did a breakout with 5th grade this week and the one clue that hung all the kids up was a word that rhymed with chill.  The answer was drill but to my horror they didn't get it.  I don't know if it is a word they don't use or if they were just tired.  Like any good teacher I think if 85% missed it then I need to re-teach rhyming words.  Or maybe they don't do woodwork with their daddy like I did:-)

5th Grade almost ran out of time

5th Grade - they did it

Plenty of time to spare

2nd Grade - they worked hard 

2nd grade - they did it and still had 5 minutes

I also have to say that James and Patti at BreakoutEDU were a pleasure to work with and so nice. They watch the Facebook page and answer any questions you may have.

I hope everybody checks this out.

Kathy

Welcome to Flex Scheduling........

Well not totally flex but almost.  I was thrilled to learn that because of the numbers at school I am only in rotation for 3rd and 5th grade.  It has open a world of possibilities for my school.  Before I came to Donald I had been in a flex schedule for 13 years. So I was ready for the challenge.

Stress always comes with something new.  I think teachers were sad to think their kids wouldn't be coming to library every week.  So it was my job to dispel that myth.  Let me tell you my circulation numbers are on the rise..

My Kindergarten and First grade teachers were all for sending a small group of students to the library during their Daily 5/Literacy station time but we realized we needed a little direction for them.  If you recall from a post last year we read Marley Goes to School by John Grogan to Kinder at the start of every year.  We talk about Marley causing mischief in the school.  We then use little brown dogs and tape them to all the Cozy Corners (this is our name for centers) that they can use.  This is their visual where they don't have to ask us if they can play or use something.  We had to come up with the way for the kids to know what they should be doing.  The teachers send them down in groups of 3-5 with a timer, usually an ipad and they have 30 minutes.  Well you know it doesn't take but about 2 minutes for the little ones to check out a book.  So after checking out they have some choices.  Our Kindergarteners can check out, read, do a skill tub and then a cozy corner and 30 minutes is plenty of time for them.

We made these little passes for them.  We have one hanging so we can remember what they are suppose to do as well. 

Each of our Kindergarten classes has a name like the bunnies or the puppies so their pass uses that picture so we can tell where they came from quickly. 

The First Grade teachers had a few different ideas.  They actually have two times during the day where the teacher pulls small groups and the other students have station time.  So what they want their kids in the library to do looks like this.  Even though they have "check out a new book" only on Monday the kids can check out any day they need to return their books.

Next weeks post will be about our Challenge Lab and Skill Tubs

Can't wait to share all the cool things that go on there.

Cozy Corners (Centers Part 2)

As promised this is part 2 of Cozy Corners, last week I said to start small and grow from there.  Some other centers we are using that cost very little.  While digging through old "stuff" in closets and workrooms we came across several of the clear overhead manipulatives that nobody uses anymore. Now if you still use an Overhead projector your kids might not find this very exciting but our younger kids have never seen an Overhead Projector.  We called our warehouse and asked if they had any sitting around, they did and sent us one the next day.  As I said last week we used the book drop cart and turned it into a puzzle table, so that leaves an open space where the cart was.  We put the overhead on a little scooter (it was in bad shape and the PE teacher gave it to us) and slid it in that space.  So the overhead cozy corner is now out of sight unless somebody is using it.  We put all the little manipulatives in a container and they kids project it on the wall and use it.  For fun sometimes we even put paper for them to trace the shapes on.  We have tangrams, counters, money and clocks for them to use.

Introducing the Overhead to Kindergarten

Playing with the Overhead

It projects perfectly onto the wall in front of it.

When not in use we just push it back and out of the way.  Pieces are stored in little drawers.

Felt Board Fun has been a huge hit.  Remember the days when we used it all the time to tell a story, well guess what the kids still love and they don't know much about it.  We found a set of felt characters from The Three Little Pigs and and thought we would use it during a read aloud.  The kids loved it so much off to Michaels and Hobby Lobby we went.  We bough cheap scraps of felt and cut out turkey feathers and turkey parts for our first Felt Board Fun.  Remember that easel we used last week for the big books, well we used the back side and put felt on it and bam we had a new Cozy Corner.

We used a plastic show box and bull clips to hold it on.  The clip on the lip of the box holds it there and they
can put the pieces of felt in the box.

Found these little kits at Michaels for under $5.00

Our Turkey - it was Grandparent luncheon and book fair so Grandpa was helping

I had a corner that wasn't really being used so I bought 6 yards of black felt - I don't sew so even trying to figure out felt was funny.  Stapled it up on the wall and we have a wall to do bigger things.  I even cut and painted all the tiles for Scrabble and the older kids like to play Scrabble.

Winter snowman and our year round tree that shows the seasons

In October we used the Skeleton with the book Bones by Steve Jenkins as a connection

"Do you wanna build a Snowman"  Of course they do.

Scrabble Wall.  

Doodle and Draw was also easy to get started and maintain.  We found a small white board in a closet and pulled it out with some dry erase markers and the kids love to write and draw on it.  If a color sheet can be found that goes with a read aloud story we will copy it and put it out for the younger kids.  I also found some Doodle and Draw books and plain white scratch paper, included some buckets or markers and crayons and there you go.  We put clip boards there so they can move around with their papers.  

White board

Doodle and Draw Cozy Corner

Some kids drawing, you can see the Big Book and Felt easel in the back

Color pages from Teddy Bear Picnic

The last Cozy Corner I want to share with you today is a Bigger than Life Shelving game.  We asked the kids to bring in cracker boxes and cereal boxes and we covered them with paper and made them look like a book.  We have them sort them into the Dewey Classification and then self them in the proper order.  I ended up some empty shelves after weeding so they actually do it on a real shelf.  We are going to have the older kids put them on the real shelf where they go mixed in with the real library books.   No cost at all for this Cozy Corner.

Shelf Me

Now I should tell you that we are a full iPad campus so all of my students have an iPad that they have at home and school everyday.  You will notice none of these Centers have anything to do with technology and we did that on purpose.  We use plenty of technology in projects and lessons.  

Alan November

So I don't like to toot my own horn or say "Hey Hey look at me, look what I'm doing."
I also worry........
-Are the kids learning
-Am I doing enough
-Do the teachers think  the kids are just playing
-Do people think I'm just a babysitter for 50 minutes
-I saw another librarian doing that, I'm not doing that

The list can go on and on.  I was comfortable with the job I was doing when I was at the same school for 15 years and I knew the teachers respected and appreciated me.  Then I made the move to another school and had to start all over.  It was scary and it was a bad time for me in my personal life.  My father's health went down and I spent a lot of time in Mississippi taking care of him and then had to move him to an Assisted living place here.  So to say the least I don't think I was at the top of my game my first year at my new school.  I turned the library program upside down and things seemed to be going well.  The kids liked me, they liked coming to the library so I guess things are ok.

Fast Forward to October 2014 and Alan November came to our district to do some presentation for parents.  Parent U was a big hit and we heard lots of positive things.  He had 2 hours before his presentation and he chose to come to Donald.  Wow what a big deal.  As soon as he got in the building you see the library.  Well it just happened to be the start of our Story book Pumpkins on Parade.  That got his attention right away and he got out his phone and started taking pictures.  Before you know it he is in the library talking to me, taking pictures, and talking to the kids.  Now you would think he would be impressed with the fact that we were talking about Digital Citizenship and maybe he was but he was more impressed with the library, all the stuff we have, the creative play the kids can do and the fact that they were so engaged.

On top of that one of our Associate Superintendent was with Mr. November that day.  After stopping in the library with him she got so involved with what was going on in the library that she didn't even go visit any of the classrooms, she stayed with us.  She then told me that our library might be her new happy place and how impressed with what we were doing, how the library looked, and our Cozy Corners.  

After this day I felt very proud of what I have created at Donald, so for this month I'm not second guessing everything I am doing.  I'm still not going to toot my horn but I'm going to take the compliments and be proud of myself!!