After learning or reviewing the text features of non-fiction books, this week students in 4th and 5th grade examined and practiced finding the features of a website that help you navigate to, find, and understand information. We related some of the features, such as a navigation bar, to the table of contents in a print text. Other features we examined are unique to online, such as interactive diagrams and linked headings. Students also learned about different browser features, such as the "reader" feature or "edit-find", that help the reader to locate and read the information provided. Students are practicing with appropriate websites that have many different features and styles.
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The author of the Cheesie Mack series, Steve Cotler visited Patton on September 18 and talked to the third, fourth and fifth grade classes about his writing process and his inspiration for Cheesie. He read a passage from Cheesie Mack is Not a Genius or Anything and asked students to be "character detectives" and determine what character traits they think describe the main characters when they listen and read thoughtfully. The students brainstormed an amazing list. Many students are looking forward to the next installment of Cheesie adventures! After reading Mo Willem's Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, and learning the Patton School rules for gym, art, music, lunch, LMC, and the playground, first grade classes wrote a new pigeon book, Don't Let the Pigeon Break the School Rules! First the class made a list of the school rules. Then each student took a photograph of one area of the school using an iPad. We uploaded their photos to a folder on the computer and each student found their photo and put it into a slide in Pixie. They added the appropriate rule for their photo and drew the pigeon. Below is Mrs. Cowen/Hasemeyer's class slideshow and the other classes slideshows are on the Student Projects page. 3rd and 4th grade classes have been learning or reviewing the many features of non fiction or informational text which help the reader to find and understand information. In 3rd grade, students learned a few new features, such as Authors Note, and Verso Page, in addition to the old standbys like Table of Context, Index and bolded words. After discussing the features and how the reader can use them, and looking for the features in books, 3rd grade classes, working together, created a chart of the features inside a Google Doc. 4th grade students identified many features in non fiction books and then each student was responsible for creating a poster of one feature using Pic Collage on the iPads. Each poster has a photo of the feature, a definition of the feature, and how the reader would use it. Here are the posters from Mrs. Goumas' class. Check the Student Projects page for more. The first two Monarch nominated books shared with students this school year are Biblioburro by Jeanette Winter and Same, Same but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw. Both books help students to understand how different their lives may be from others in the World, and also how they might be similar. In Biblioburro, based on a true story, a young man who loves to read decides to share his books with children in the small remote villages of his country, Columbia, where books are scarce and their are few libraries. He creates a "burro library", riding one burro and pulling one full of books to children who wait eagerly for his gifts. In Same, Same but Different, Elliot, an American boy, corresponds by letters with a boy in India. They compare their different environments, but find many similarities as well. This week as each class worked in the computer lab, we first read over and discussed our Patton Tech Contract. The contract describes the responsibilities and actions that each student agrees to follow when using technology in any room in the school, from kindergarten through fifth grade. After receiving everyone's promise, students were ready to get to work. In kindergarten, students created a picture of a backpack filled with things they would take to school with them, modeled after a book we read in library, called My Backpack by Eve Bunting. The activity allows students to practice their basic mousing skills and typing their name. First, Second and Third grades began learning or reviewing the various resources offered by District 25, including Pebble Go, World Book, Facts 4 Me, and Brain Pop, Jr. They practiced finding the resource on the LMC site and how to use each one to search and find information. |
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December 2021
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AuthorI am the Library Media Center director at Patton School in Arlington Heights where I help students from kindergarten through 5th grade find terrific independent reading for enjoyment and information, and teach students the skills to use information and technology safely and productively and to connect, communicate and share with others. I have four grown children, a large black dog, (flat coat retriever) and a small striped cat. I am an obessive Chicago Cubs fan and I love to run. Patton LMC Summer Reading Blog |