STEAM-y in the Library

As we neared the end of the quarter, students in Literacy Studies had the opportunity to choose from a variety of STEAM-related activities to explore, play, create, and just be curious! Some of the items appear below:

Included in the picture are 3D Magic Pens, Sphero SPRKs, IO Blocks, K'NEX, Stik Bot green screen, Snap Circuits, and Cubelets. Students could also choose to use the Do Ink app for other green screen opportunities.

After a quick "tutorial day" to hear about what each items was, students filled out a Google Form with their top 4 choices, and over 2 days' time, students were able to use the items they'd selected. Such great times ensued! So much planning & trying, building & creating, failing & redesigning! 

Students using the Cubelets first accessed information from Google Classroom to learn about how to use them before creating their own robots.

Students using the K'NEX and IO Mini Blocks could also access Google Classroom for creation card ideas, or they could design and build what they liked.

Students could also refer to included circuitry projects or create their own pathways.

With so many activities from which to choose, students will have the opportunity to explore all eight options throughout the year. More creating, imagining, and designing to come!

It's Book Fair Time!

Conferences are next week, so that means it's time for our book fair! This year we're using a different vendor--Follett Book Fairs. We already purchase many of our books from Follett, so it's a great fit to bring them on board for our book fairs. Take a look!

Students voted early in the school year to choose different bundles of books that would be available at the fair, and they chose things like sports fiction, graphic novels, young adult literature, and popular series books to include. All of that--and a lot more!--are available, and you can even order online at www.follettgift.com if you'd like an even broader selection.

The fair is open daily for students to make purchases, and families are invited to stop in during conferences on Tuesday and Thursday. Teacher wish lists will be available if you'd like to make a purchase for a teacher's classroom, and if an item is out of stock, we can drop-ship titles within a day or two of your visit. We're excited to show off our new fair and hope to see you there!

#MGBookTober, Part II

We're half way through October, so it's time to update our #MGBookTober progress. Students again worked on a Google Slide that showcased their answers to today's prompt, What MG character would you want to be?



Also, students have responded using Flipgrid:

Want to see all of Mrs. Ellis's tweets for #MGBookTober? You can see them below, and if a book looks like one you'd like to try, GREAT! Please stop by to check it out! Hope to see you soon! Happy reading!

It's #MGBookTober!

It's now fall and officially October, so that means it's also MGBookTober, a time when we celebrate middle grade fiction. Here's the list of daily book questions/ideas to support #MGBookTober:

We're off to a strong, two-day start with my advisory group! We all brought our "currently reading" books for a book selfie on Oct. 1.

And we're ready to share our "want to read next" ideas with a Google Slides presentation. You can CLICK HERE to see what my advisory is excited to read next.

Stay tuned! There are lots and lots of days in October, and we've only just begun! Want to follow us as we work? You can follow Mrs. Ellis on Twitter: @ccls531, or you can follow the MS library on Snapchat and Instagram: @dcglibraries. Happy reading & sharing!

Banned Books Week 2018

The last week of September means it's Banned Books Week! Going strong for more than three decades, Banned Books Week came about as a response to an increase in challenges and organized protests after a US Supreme Court case ruling stated that school officials cannot ban books in libraries just because of questionable content. Since that time, Banned Book Week has become a celebration of the fact that in a majority of cases, challenged books remain available to all who seek them.

The American Library Association tracks the number of challenged and banned books each year, and again this year, the ALA has put together the Top 10 Challenged Book of 2017.

Want to see Top 10 lists dating back to the year 2000 and even earlier? CLICK HERE to access the ALA's website listing books and the reasons behind the challenges. Keep in mind that these lists only represent a small portion of book challenges. The ALA reports that "Surveys indicate that 82-97% of book challenges--documented requests to remove materials from schools or libraries--remain unreported and receive no media."

So why are books challenged? The infographic below shows a variety of reasons. Often books are challenged because of explicit language (profanity, sexuality) or because of topics deemed "inappropriate" by the challenger, such as political bias or religion, LGBTQ issues, or violence.

Want to know more? Take a look at the video below, and visit the ALA's website devoted to Banned Books Week. Feeling adventurous? Maybe even stop by the library to take a look at some of these challenged or banned books!

State Award Book Trailers

It's that time of year again! Time to take a look at preview book trailers for our Iowa Children's Choice Award nominees and Iowa Teen Award nominees. Click on the caption below the picture to access the live document; that's where you'll be able to click on trailer links. Enjoy!

CLICK HERE to access the trailers.

There's plenty of time to read two of the books in the categories; remember, to be eligible to vote in March, you need to have read at least two of the books on the lists. Happy reading!

Library Breakout!

Students in Literacy Studies recently participated in a library-themed breakout activity inspired by a breakout from BreakoutEDU.

In August, World Languages & Cultures teacher Kristine Jimenez shared the BreakoutEDU materials she'd received in a DCG Foundation Grant, and after trying to revise an existing Breakout to fit our DCG Middle School library, she graciously offered to help write a breakout for *our* school. A BIG "thank you" to Mrs. Jimenez--she was instrumental in getting our breakout ready!

First step? Choosing what kinds of locks to use and creating clues with embedded combinations. In the end, we used five locks and provided corresponding clues. 

Receipt link, Letter link, To Do List link (not pictured), Comic available on ToonDo0 (search "Online Catalog ToonDoo")

Based on the information students received in their packets or found around the library, they would have what they needed to open two different number combination locks, a padlock with key, a color-code combination lock, and a directional lock.

A brief introduction day gave students a quick overview of the activity & its many purposes:

•  to share and work as a team

•  to work together & think critically about possible lock combinations

•  to test their ideas

•  to problem solve should initial combinations not open locks

•  and ultimately, to open the box.

During the introduction, students also could see the box itself and the locks to be used with the activity.

Finally, the big day arrived and once in teams, students began their work. Without a doubt, this activity is one of the most engaging things students have done in the library!

Several groups were able to break out (or specifically, break *in* to the boxes after determining all combinations for locks. Always group members were excited, and we often heard exclamations of "We did it!"

More Breakout activities to follow! With the success of our first time out, it's likely we'll be trying another physical Breakout like this one! At least one digital Breakout is in the works, too, so stay tuned!