Our 2nd and 3rd graders are participating in a connected Google Classroom project with other 2nd graders in Iowa. I made a connection on Twitter via Stony Evans (the LMS at Lakeside High School) with Lynn Kleinmeyer. She asked me if I would like to join them this year in a Mock Caldecott project that they had done the previous year via Google Classroom. I told her I would love to and so would our students. I had never heard of a connected Google classroom before so it was a learning experience. I found out that it was not hard to do once the districts had white listed the other schools. Okay, Lynn is a Rockstar. She makes it look easy. She was actually the one to create the classrooms and add us all in. She, Alyssa Calhoun, and Miranda Kral are the main brains behind this project. There are 3 of us as the teachers and students from two classes in each classroom. I had also not had the opportunity to participate in any mock Caldecott projects before since I came from the high school world. We began the project the week of November 14th with Be a Friend by Salina Yoon. Salina Yoon was so excited we were using her book that she wanted to Skype with all of our students! I honestly felt slightly like a kid in a candy store that had just been told I could get whatever candy I wanted. It was so neat! Before I get too much into the Skype with Salina Yoon, I am going to post the books we are using in our project.
Be a Friend by Salina Yoon Twenty Yawns by Jane Smiley and illustrated by Lauren Castillo It's Not Time for Sleeping by Lisa Graff and illustrated by Lauren Castillo The Airport Book by Lisa Brown Are We There Yet? by Dan Santat They All Saw a Cat by Brenden Wenzel Horrible Bear by Ame Dyckman Samson in the Snow by Philip C. Stead Henry and Leo by Pamela Zagarenski Maybe Something Beautiful by F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell The Night Gardener by The Fan Brothers Shy by Deborah Freedman This Is Not a Picture Book by Sergio Ruzzier We Found a Hat by Jon Klassen Ideas All Around! by Philip C. Stead School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles by Michelle Cueva Each week, we read two books and have something for the kids to do in Google Classroom. It may be answering a question, doing a Google Drawing, completing a form to name a few things. At the end of our project, the students will vote on which book they feel deserves the Caldecott. We also discuss the illustrations in each book each week. As I said, through this project, we were connected with Salina Yoon. She is such a sweet person. She took so much time talking to the kids, showing them some of her books, telling them how she gets her ideas for writing, how many books she has written versus how many she has published, as well as told the kids some of her personal background. She read her book Be a Friend to them and was dressed like the character Joy. She was great and all of the kids loved her! We are now setting up dates and times to Skype with Lisa Brown and Ame Dyckman. One of the ways that the four librarians involved in the project collaborate and communicate is through Voxer. We are constantly bouncing ideas off each other during the day, evenings, and weekends. This is a project that I am thrilled we have been able to participate in, and our kids think it is neat to be connecting with students in another state.
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Great post! Thanks for sharing. Skype, Google Hangouts, FaceTime, etc. are such a great way to connect to others around the world. I helped set up a Skype between a 4th grade class and Lauren Tarshis, author of the "I Survived" series. They were so excited to be able to talk with their favorite author.
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Kimee ReedI am a Teacher Librarian that believes in out of the box experiences to make learning fun, inspire, encourage, excite, and empower students. Archives
June 2018
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