February in the Library

 Lots has been happening in the library this month and we've got the pictures (and videos) to prove it!

Ruby Bridges

JK began the project by reading the book The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles with Ms. Coleman. As they read the book, they discussed what was happening in the story, including segregation and why it was unfair that people were treated differently because of the color of their skin. Ms. Coleman shared details about Ruby Bridges’s life and highlighted the fact this is all a true story. They read the first half of the book and stopped on the page when Ruby was entering school for the first time, with white people lined up, yelling mean and ugly things. They talked about how US Marshals had to walk Ruby into school to protect her and shared photographs from the National Archives taken on Ruby’s first day of school.

Next, students broke up into small groups with a teacher. They were asked to share what they thought Ruby was feeling at the moment. Then they were asked to put themselves in Ruby’s shoes and think about how they would feel if they were Ruby. Students shared that they would feel sad, lonely, scared, or angry. Some shared that maybe Ruby was hoping that people would change their minds and hearts.

The following week, they finished the story and shared some of the historic details about Ruby’s life and what it was like after that first year of desegregation. They once again worked in small groups with teachers, thinking about what they would have done to stand up with Ruby Bridges. Students shared ideas such as walking into school with her, holding her hand, telling the people that were being mean and they were wrong, telling people that everyone should be treated nicely, and being Ruby’s friend.

In the final step of the project, the library’s green screen was used with a green screen App called "Do Ink" to take a picture of each student standing in the historic picture with Ruby. Students then attached their picture to a poster and shared how they would stand up with Ruby Bridges.

The Junior Kindergarten students are happy to share their thoughts and ideas on how they would have stood up for Ruby Bridges with the Francis W Parker Community. A gallery of all the JK students' pictures is currently on display in the hallway outside the library.

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Why Am I Me?

Our SK classes spent January and February on their "Why Am I Me?" project. They spent time studying the various systems in the human body and, working with small groups, identified which systems helped them to do the things they most loved doing. They then focused on these things that made them who they are—the things they love to do, the particular things about the way they look, etc.—and recorded a short audio track about these special attributes. A picture was taken to accompany the track. Ms. Coleman and Mr. Bacon worked together to combine these audio tracks and pictures with some of our favorite tech tools, Scratch (a kids' coding program) and Makey-Makey (an alternated computer keyboard that allows for interesting interactivity) to create a "Why Am I Me?" board for each class. You can check out video of one of the boards in action below or stop by the library to play with the real thing.