In the Media Center (Quarter 2, Weeks 3 & 4)

Elementary Media Center

In the Media Center is going to be a new regularly appearing post from me. I plan to talk about what my students and I did the past week during their media classes. I am a K-12 media specialist who spends half days at the Elementary building and half days at the Middle School/High School building in our district of approximately 1300 students.

This semester I am starting my days at the Elementary building and seeing fifth graders and third graders on a four day rotation (50 minute classes) and traditional first and second graders on an alternate day rotation (25 minute classes). Our elementary school has a fixed schedule where all students in a grade level attend "specials" (art, media, music, and phy. ed.) at the same time so that their teachers have a common preparation time.

Fifth Grade

Fifth graders are doing research on ancient scientists using our school databases - World Book Online, Britannica Online, and Galenet Discovery Collection. Here are the project directions I shared with the students.

Students are taking notes on a Google Doc and sharing their notes with me. Some students finished taking notes already and are preparing to make a trading card (Thanks, Big Huge Lab!) telling us the most important things about their scientist.

Third Grade

We are working on the Scavenger Hunter portion of the USA-SOS Internet Safety Challenge. We watched this video to learn more about cyber bullying. It also gave the students the chance to use the SmartBoard in our computer lab.

Second Grade

We are beginning to explore the nonfiction section of our media center. The first week I talked about biographies and read one by David Adler. On Wednesday we did a worksheet separating biographies and autobiographies. In the lab, we began to learn keyboarding by visiting Dance Mat Typing.

In our two days before Thanksgiving Break, I shared some poetry books with the students. Everyone really liked The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven by Jack Prelutsky.

First Grade

I read My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohman for our story and the first group did a Find the Illustrator worksheet. Since the second group was on a field trip on Tuesday, their class was moved to Wednesday which is the day we all start late so PLTs can meet. I read the story and the class checked out book but we didn't have time for the worksheet.

In the lab, students could choose any webpage at PBS Kids and play the games they liked. It is always interesting to see which sites the children like best. Many of them - especially the boys - really enjoy Wild Kratts. What is it, I wonder, about racing games that make them so appealing?

In our two days before Thanksgiving Break, I read The Three Pigs by David Wiesner and Wait! No Paint! by Bruce Whatley. Next week, we'll be looking at more variations on the story of the three little pigs.