Thinkers and Tinkers Keep Their Brains Active at Home!

Hello Hornung Family!

It's been a while since I posted something to this blog, so what better way to get it back up and running than to help our families out while you are at home?!  As "Thinkers and Tinkers" in the Library STEAM Center, we are always working on ways to expand our reading, critical thinking, problem solving, research, analytical and innovative minds.

Did you know that through our Library website you have resources available to you all year long?  Some of these are free resources, and some of them are paid resources that our school provides to our students.  So, let's start by looking at our Hornung Media Center website!  Here are some highlights that the students are used to accessing in the Library...

• Tumblebook - our premium subscription to their online Library.  There are many great books for the students to enjoy on this site!
• PebbleGo & PebbleGo Next - JK-6th grade database for reading and research.  Your PebbleGo database includes built-in reading and research tools for emerging readers. Leveled text, educational games, and multimedia help teach concepts to your youngest researchers.
• Computer Science Week & Hour of Code - through this link on our website, students can practice their coding skills through fun interactive games.
• Digital Citizenship & Interland - through this link on our website, students can practice their digital citizenship skills (being safe online) through Google's fun and interactive game, Interland.
• Grade Level Links - this page has many resources to keep them busy learning about Health, Science & Social Studies, Language Arts, and Math!

     

In addition to our Library Media Center website, there have been many other free resources that have been popping up all over the place!  I am going to try to keep up by posting new links to this blog.  Here are some of these fabulous resources:

• Amazing Educational Resources - so far there are 126 companies who are offering free resources during this time.  If there are any that request a Teacher or Administrative permissions, I will request that and update the link.  Feel free to email me if there is a specific one you want access to!  richardst@brightonk12.com.
• Art Activities from McHarper Manor - beginning Monday, 3/16, our studio will be going live daily Monday through Friday at 1pm Eastern Time, with free art & craft tutorials to create at home with your kids! We'll have shopping lists (with links to the supplies you can order from Amazon) so you can have supplies on-hand to complete the projects with us!

     

• Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems! - the students are going to love watching Mo Willems doodle at 1 pm EST each day!
• Finish the Comic with Jarrett Lerner, author of Enginerds - students who love comics and graphic novels will love these activities where they can finish the comics that Mr. Lerner has started.

This is so cool!!  Your students are going to love listening to their favorite authors reading their own books!  Many authors and illustrators are getting on board to read to students.  Here is the link to Author Read-alouds and other Kit Lit resources and activities...

• LivBits - So many amazing Author Links on this Google Doc!
• Picture Books Read Aloud Video links on Pernille Ripp's blog
• Growing list of 1st Chapter and Picture Book Read Alouds on Kate Messner's website

Children need structure, so I'm sure you've seen some of the sample schedules that you could follow at home during this time.  If not, here are a few examples.  

 

Hornung Families - I will keep adding to this as resources come across my desk.  Make the most of your time at home with your families, and we hope that you stay healthy and enjoy this activities!

February Updates - Spring Book Fair & Seussville Week

After so many snow/cold days interrupting our STEAM curriculum and schedule, we got back on track to get ready for March is Reading Month!  Last week we kicked off the excitement with our Spring Book Fair.  It is such a wonderful event to promote reading for all of our students, and all of the proceeds go back into our students for free books for our classroom libraries, student raffles, and new books for our Library/STEAM Center.  It was a huge success!

     

Then, we ended the month with our favorite STEAM Week...Seussville.  All of our stations celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday (March 2nd).  Our students had so much fun learning!

          

          

     

     

Book Awards and Computer Programming

The month of January is very exciting to the Library world.  It's book award month!  This month we are concentrating on several picture books that are up for the oldest and most distinguished book award, the Caldecott Award.  This award is for the best illustrations in a picture book.  There are several factors that go into the nomination for this award.  Here are just a few:

• The illustrations should tell the story (with or without words present).
• The book has to appeal to children of all ages up through the age of 14.
• The book needs to be written and published in the United States the previous year.  So, for our awards this month, the book needs to be written and published in 2018.

The students and I love this month, and get really excited to explore these books.  We end the month with our own mock election to vote on our favorite book.  Last year there were 4 books that won the Caldecott Honor Award (basically 2nd place) and we picked the Caldecott Medal Award winning book..."Wolf In the Snow" by Matthew Cordell.  Very exciting!!  The Caldecott Award is announced on January 28th, 2019, and we can't wait to see if we vote for the winner!

In addition to book award month, all of our Hornung students are continuing to learn about computer programming.  Our JK-1st grade students are working with Code & Go Robot Mouse.  This game helps them understand programming sequences, and challenges them with different pathways to program.  Our 2nd-4th grade students are working with ScratchJr.  This application teaches them how to program their own interactive stories.  It's an exciting time in the Library STEAM Center!

Expanding Coding Lessons with Osmo

This week in the Library STEAM Center, students were able to gather ideas from what they learned last week and apply it to the Osmo gaming system through Coding with Awbie.  "Osmo Coding Awbie uses hands-on physical blocks to control Awbie, a playful character who loves delicious strawberries. Each block is a coding command that directs Awbie on a wondrous tree-shaking, strawberry-munching adventure. Coding Awbie teaches problem-solving and logic skills."

To see the game in action, click on this video link...
Osmo Coding with Awbie

Students were also given the opportunity to get back onto http://www.code.org to further explore and expand their knowledge using Hour of Code activities.  Many students completed coding games and were able to print and take home completion certificates.  I encourage students to continue to enjoy these activities at home through our Library STEAM Center website.  

Computer Science Activities

What a fun month in the Library STEAM Center!  Code-On!!

Computer Science Education Week

Each year we celebrate Computer Science Education Week in the Library STEAM Center at Hornung.  This year the celebration takes place December 3rd-9th.  What is this week all about?

"Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) is an annual program dedicated to inspiring K-12 students to take interest in computer science.  Originally conceived by the Computing in the Core coalition, Code.org® organizes CSEdWeek as a grassroots campaign supported by 350 partners and 100,000 educators worldwide.  CSEdWeek is held in recognition of the birthday of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906).  Code.org is a non-profit dedicated to expanding computer science education. The Code.org vision is that computer science should be part of the core curriculum in every school, alongside other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses." ~https://csedweek.org/about

All JK-4th grade students took part in computer science education week at Hornung.  Our youngest students were introduced with the very basics of computer science with a visual representation of what coding is, and a new game to work on these basic concepts, Kodable.  Our 1st-4th grade students went to the Hour of Code website, linked through our Media Center webpage, and explored coding games such as Star Wars, Minecraft, and Dance Party.

The fun doesn't stop here!  Students can continue to access these resources throughout the year by going to our Media Center webpage dedicated to Computer Science Week.  

https://hornungmediacenter.weebly.com/computer-science-week.html

November Makerspace Week

Our students came back from our long Thanksgiving break to a week of Makerspace activities in the Library STEAM Center!  This is a "choice" learning environment, where students are given several options to explore.  Our Makerspace stations hit every aspect of STEAM each week.  This week, the students had the following options:

1.  Creation Station - we explore our innovative minds, problem solving and art when we create with recycled materials.  Such items this week were tubes, yarn, stickers, scrap box items, cards, etc.  Students created ornaments, games, cards for family and friends, Thanksgiving turkeys, snowmen, and other innovative creations.

2.  Osmo Monster (Technology & Art) - students were able to draw and play with their favorite monster, Mo.

3.  Osmo Detective Agency (Technology and Problem Solving) - *NEW - students play detective by helping to solve mysteries of missing items.  

4.  Osmo Super Studio (Technology, Art, and Storybook Creations) - *NEW - students were able to spend time creating storybooks with Disney Princesses and Mickey characters.

     

5.  Osmo Pizza Co & Tangrams (Technology & Math) - students in 2nd-4th grade worked on their math skills by following pizza recipes and making change for customers.  They build their Pizza Co business.  Students in JK-1st grade worked on their math skills with Tangram shapes, creating animals and puzzles out of shapes.

6.  K'Nex for Education (Engineering) - these are designed to maximize student engagement.  Students were invited to create their own structures, or follow challenge cards to create organisms or transportation creations.

7.  Playdough & Marble STEM Challenge (Engineering) - students were invited to create a marble maze out of playdough on cookie sheets.  They used critical thinking and problem solving skills to create a maze to see if they could get their marble to go through successfully.

8.  Lego Challenge Cards (Engineering) - students were invited to the Lego Wall and Lego Table to work on challenge cards.  They worked on an assortment of lego creations.

As with all of our Makerspace/STEAM weeks, students explore the stations through free choice activities.

BAS Pack of Dogs & Keyboarding Skills

As a continuation of our Nonfiction November studies, we spent time training our students on our new Social Emotional Therapy Dog, Shadow!  Beginning this week and continuing into our short week next week, our students are learning all about our BAS Pack of Dogs.  They are learning about what their job is, and how to learn with Shadow in our building.  They are very excited!  Here are some highlights of what they have learned, so that you are educated as well...

We are Social Emotional Therapy Dogs, and we have very important jobs at our schools!

• We help without saying any words.

• We help kids feel safe at school.

• We help students read by listening to their stories.

• We help students concentrate on their work when they feel anxious.
• We help students feel special by being their friend.

We wear a special vest to school, so that you know we are on duty!

• Ask the Teacher or Caretaker if you can pet him.
• Only 3 students at a time may approach one of our dogs.
• Do not put your hand in front of his mouth.  We do not want them to lick.
• Pet him on the back of his head.
• Please keep your personal pet away from a service dog.  They have a job to do.
• Do not offer him any food or treats.

You may see one of our BAS Pack of Dogs in the hallway.  When this happens, we ask that you do a “Drive-By”. What does that mean?  Just waive quietly and pass by. As you can imagine, they have a job to do and we don’t have time to stop for students to pet them everytime they are walking in the hallways.  

Thank you for respecting our “Drive-By”!

YOU are the most special friend that our Therapy Dogs have, and they can't wait to work with you!

     

In addition to the student training, our 2nd-4th graders go on Typing Club to work on their keyboarding skills.  This typing program is free and can be accessed from any computer with internet access.  The link can be found on our Library STEAM Center website, so they can practice at home as well!

https://hornungmediacenter.weebly.com/typingkeyboarding.html

After their student training, our JK-1st graders spent more time exploring Pebble Go to research their favorite subjects.  This link can also be found on our Library STEAM Center website, and can be accessed at home from any device with an internet connection.

https://hornungmediacenter.weebly.com/pebble-go.html

All of our students have done a great job exploring our nonfiction section of the library, and checking out at least 1 nonfiction book this month!