Guest Blogger - Loran Latters

Invention Literacy with Makey Makey

Loran Lattes, Teacher Librarian | Whittier International Elementary 

I was lucky to attend a full day Makey Makey educational seminar run by CU Science Discovery this past August. We were given a 30ish minute overview and Scratch introduction and then were set free to explore, collaborate ,and create. They have a website full of useful links and advice at Invention Literacy with Makey Makey and Scratch and offer a class set of Makey Makey devices twelve (12) available for a two (2) week check out. No charge even when we broke a couple of the alligator clips.

I sent out an email plea to our families asking for specific supplies. I then purchased play dough and foil and we were ready to go.

In the Library & Classrooms

I see each class for about an hour each week on a set schedule with two 2 hour blocks each week for pushing into classrooms. The projects were going to be a one class exploration for 2nd and 3rd graders and a two class design thinking project for 4th and 5th grades. The projects were such a hit with students and teachers that we created time for a third session in their classrooms.

The excitement. The engagement. The learning... 

The class leadership opportunities. The perseverance. Our exploration of Makey Makey was such a success on many levels. We were holding an after school parent/child coding program for our ELD families at the time and they had been using Makey Makey. Our ELD students, therefore, became the class experts and really embraced leadership roles. It was very insightful to see students strengths and weaknesses in this different learning environment. We were able to follow a simple design cycle process and brainstorm ideas for using this model for other projects in and out of school. 

Smitten 

We were so smitten with Makey Makey that our 5th grade team is pooling money to buy a class set. Students are helping to design a project for their health unit this Spring using Makey Makey and other information sharing tools. I, for one, can’t wait to see what they create.

Choose Your Own Adventure Storytelling

Mad Libs

Game creation in Scratch

Guest Blogger - Kim Butler

Making the Most of an Author Visit

Kim Butler, Teacher Librarian | Birch Elementary

...a rich and meaningful visit

I had never worked personally with Todd Mitchell before, but I was aware that he had visited my school in past years. He wrote the Traitor King and it was a popular text with my 5th grade teachers. Since then he ventured into some YA stories, Backwards and The Secret to Lying (I read both and they are excellent). Now he’s written another book for older elementary kids and we invited him back to visit with our students. He actually contacted us for this visit, and along with the visit he had arranged for donors to help him donate a copy of the book to all of the 5th graders. We got the books about a month before he came to visit and it allowed the 5th graders to read through the whole book before they met with him. The result was a rich and meaningful visit for both Todd and the students. The book is called The Last Panther and it has a lot of curriculum connections we were able to use with the students. He has a lot of information available at his website.

He met with third through fifth grades to discuss endangered animals and writing, an extremely engaging session. After that he did a writing workshop with the fifth graders and signed books that were ordered. The students had all written thank you notes to him, and he later responded to the class after reading each one. Finally, we had every fifth grader write a review of the book using this template and are going to ask parents to post the reviews on Amazon or Goodreads over Winter Break.

Mr. Mitchell was incredibly easy to work with. He’s based in Fort Collins, and he was generous with this time and thrilled to work with the students. In the past, he conducted a writing workshop with teachers. He has a system for ordering his the paperback all ready so it was just a matter of filling in some dates and sending the copies out.

Authentic Writing and Reflecting on A Text

The teachers were thrilled with his visit and they felt the students got a lot out of it. In addition, the fifth graders had several opportunities to do some authentic writing and reflecting on a text.

Checkout these excerpts from the review assignment:

“I love the book The Last Panther it is so thrilling and I just want to keep reading whenever I need to stop. I believe that  perseverance is the main idea of this book because Kiri didn't give up no matter what.”

“I like this book because I like suspense,adventure and mystery, this book falls into all those categories. I think this book could teach other people about being courageous because Kiri has to go to many different places and face many challenges along the way there. Kiri is very courageous. I love this book it is my favorite right now. I give this book a 5 star rating!”

“The book The Last Panther by Todd Mitchell is a really good book and has a good story and ending and my favorite part is, well, if you haven’t read the book I can’t tell you. Kiri and the panther will keep you up the whole night reading along with the stories rest of its wonderful cast of relatable characters, they did it to me! I like this book because it is so unique, you won’t find anything like it! I would encourage anyone who likes fast paced adventure to read it.”

Overall this was an incredible author visit, made all the better because the kids were familiar with the book. I highly recommend contacting Mr. Mitchell for a visit, or at least including his work in your collections.