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PARKER READING CIRCLE  Listen as Mrs. Blasko reads Oliver Jeffers's The Incredible Book Eating Boy, a gripping story of Henry, who loves to eat books. That is until Henry begins to feel quite ill and decides that maybe he could do something else with the books he has been devouring. Listen to Mrs. Blasko to find out what Henry decides to do instead of eating books!
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PARKER READING CIRCLE  Slow down during this chaotic time by listening to Mrs. Przygoda read I Am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness by Susan Verde. This book is about a child who starts to get carried away with worry and rushing thoughts before taking a breath, steadying, observing thoughts, feeling kindness, feeling thankful, and experiencing the world.
 Call it "quarantine." Call it "social distancing." Call it "isolation." No matter what you call it, there's one thing on which we can all agree:
BEING STUCK AT HOME IS BORING! The library staff is tired of being bored, so we've been searching for all sorts of cool stuff to keep us ALL occupied. Check out our new ILISolation webpage full of fun educational resources to help the Parker community stay creative and engaged from home!  Breakout EDU, an immersive learning games platform that brings the escape room to the classroom, has put together a collection of digital games that students can play at home. Since we're all stuck at home right now, these games are perfect for students from SK-12th grade to "escape" while learning and having fun. The games are broken down by grade a cover an array of topics including math, science, English and language arts, social studies, and more. Visit Breakout EDU's website for a full list of escape room games!     Chill time resources:
Note: you'll need some passwords to log into theses resources
Get some fresh air, vitamin D, exercise, and learning all at the same time by taking short walk outside and doing one of these scavenger hunts. The staff of the Kovler Family Library has been busy as bunnies so far this Spring. SK students spent some time designing and building treehouses that would allow their friend Moose (from Corey Rosen Schwartz & Rebecca Gomez's What About Moose?) enter and exit easily even with his sizable antlers. And as the story of the book suggests, they worked hard to be good teammates: listening, discussing, collaborating, and compromising as they brought Moose-sized treehouse ideas to life.
Meanwhile, our first graders engaged in a little design project of their own. Each of the three classes read several versions of a different classic fairytale: Little Red Riding Hood (1J), The Three Little Pigs(1B), and Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1G). Each class then went through the design thinking process (Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Share), pinpointing problems and designing solutions in the TIDES garage using soft maker skills (cardboard, paper, yarn, pipe cleaners, etc.) and 3D modeling (via TinkerCad). The final products were shared out among the entire grade level.  Problem: Everyone said “No” to the wolf if he asked to have a job. The wolf couldn’t get a job. | Solution: We made hypno-glasses that actually hypnotized a person to tell the wolf where to get a job. The person might give the wolf a job or money. We started out with cardboard and cut out to eyes for the wolf. Blue wrapping for the eyes.  Problem: Grandma coldn't get out of the closet and she bumped her head in the closet in the Little Red Riding Hood story we read. | Solution: We made shoes to help grandma. The shows have sensors that help her go to where she needs to go.  Problem: Baby Bear's broken chair. It broke because it was made out of wood. Goldlilocks was rocking a lot and too heavy for it. The chair was not sturdy enough because it was a rocking chair. | Solution: Goldilocks can't climb trees. The solution was to put the chair and table up in a tree. Then Goldilocks can't get to the chair. And there's lots of vines so she might get her toe stuck in it. As part of their year-long focus on the question "What does it mean to be a community?" the third graders spent their library time studying Jane Addams and Hull House. First they read the book The House that Jane Built by Tanya Lee Stone and talked about why Hull House would be important to the community. Students were given folders with pictures and drawings from Hull House that were shared from the Hull House museum archives and other sources. They were also given packets with facts and information about Hull House. Students took notes about the services provided and why they were important for the neighborhood. After the research and exploration part of the project, students were given a design challenge: create a virtual Hull House museum in Minecraft. Students worked in small groups to design and build replicas of Hull House focusing on highlighting what they learned about the organization and the services that Hull House provided to the community.    The library also played host to Parker's first HACKATHON where 5th-12th graders worked in teams to create AR and VR worlds. The fun extended into the evening as students collaborated, coded, dragged, and dropped their worlds into existence.
 Ms. Lesak held a Jewelry Making Workshop for Upper School students using our new favorite piece of technology, the Glowforge Lasercutter. Many earrings and necklaces were dreamt up and brought to acrylic life that afternoon!
Ms. Barr's 11th Grade US History got in on the maker-action, creating stop-motion animations that illustrate and explore their conclusions about the implications of industrial capitalism.
It was a busy month in The Kolver Family Library. The 7th grade used the TIDES Garage (and all the goodies it contains) to work on their joint History- and Science-based Identity Unit projects. Interactive displays, sculptures, videos—you name the idea and there was a 7th grader creating it.
Ms. Gibba's 6th graders were also buzzing around this month, working on green screen or whiteboard animation videos inspired and informed by creation myths from around the world. Finally, our JKers spent their library time in February studying the concept of "peace." They read the book What Does Peace Feel Like?, a collection of poems from around the world sharing what peace feels smells, and tatstes like to different people. JK students then thought about what peace feels, smells, or tastes like to them, created pictures of their answer, and then used Chatterpix to bring that picture to life.
The entire JK class then traced their hand holding up a peace sign and decorated their tracing with their favorite colors. The words "Peace is a Human Right" were added to this banner and it now hangs in the hallway outside the library.  |
