First Week Flashback: The ABCs of the DCGMS Library

It's the final First Week Flashback, as next month we'll be back in school and blogging about new school year happenings--yay! Before we say goodbye to the First Week Flashback, let's take a quick look at last summer's blog posts, the ABCs of the DCGMS Library.

As you'd expect, the ABCs of the DCGMS Library was a 26-week project that highlighted a variety of activities, learning, and materials from our work in Literacy Studies classes, along with the library space and collection itself. Here's the breakdown:

Want to see all of the posts or read about something more in-depth? You can access the ABCs of DCGMS Library HERE. Enjoy!

First Week Flashback: STEAM in the Library

In this month's First Week Flashback, we take a look at some of our STEAM activities from Literacy Studies classes.

Citation

Over the last several years, students have had access to a variety of materials and activities to explore and make. In 2014, students could choose to participate in Library Lab, a before-school activity that included electronic choices and hands-on manipulatives for students to enjoy and explore. (You can read about it HERE.) Two or three days a week students could choose from things like origami, LEGOs, Marble Run, coding, and gaming.

Over the years, Library Lab became something students might choose to do during their study hall time, but most recently, these sorts of opportunities have become part of the Literacy Studies class that nearly all students take. Using book fair profits and receiving a State of Iowa Scale-Up STEM grant have allowed for additional opportunities for students. Several times a semester students can choose from materials such as:

                • Spheros            • Cubelets

                • littleBits            • Felting

                • 3D pens            •  3Dux Designs

You can see some of their making and exploring below:

With the sudden end to in-person learning at school, students weren't able to enjoy all of the second semester STEAM days planned, but hopefully this fall they can continue to explore and make with these and additional items, like Root Robot, Makedo Construction materials, and Makey Makeys. Stay tuned!

First Week Flashback

As hinted at last week in the Final Week Feature post, we'll also have a First Week Flashback post over the summertime. So...without further ado...we'll start things with flashback to Harry Potter Hump Day posts from this blog and Hunger Games posts since both series/franchises have new material!

In the summertime of 2014, the blog posts featured different Harry Potter-related content. Looking for information about the Pottermore website? Or Harry Potter World? Online Harry Potter quizzes? All of those and more were part of the summertime blog reading. You can even see how J.K. Rowling planned some of the storytelling on notebook paper with notes and tables.

Over the course of the Hunger Games series in both written and cinematic form, we celebrated read-alikes and the release of the movies themselves. 

Looking back on posts is all fine and good, but let's talk about the new material related to both series/authors! First, J.K. Rowling announced in late May that she was publishing online a new short story called The Ickabog.

“J.K. Rowling Introduces The Ickabog.” J.K. Rowling, 29 May 2020, www.jkrowling.com/j-k-rowling-introduces-the-ickabog/.

On her website, Rowling explains that the story was one she wrote between Harry Potter novels and would read to her two children. She intends to publish online at least one chapter every weekday between May 26 and July 10 on the Ickabog website. Rowling also announced that there is an illustration competition for the publication of the story in November 2020. You can find out more about the competition HERE. Finally, Rowling has said that all royalties from the sale of the book later this year will be donated to those who have been affected by the coronavirus.

The other big news is that a prequel to the Hunger Games series called The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was released in mid-May.

“Suzanne Collins.” Suzanne Collins -, www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/.

This book is from President Snow's perspective as a young man who serves as a student mentor in the tenth Hunger Games. Click on the link below the image to watch the official trailer from Scholastic:

LINK FOR TRAILER

Sounds intriguing? Stop by the library when school resumes to check out The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes from Suzanne Collins.