A Special Visit From Our Friend, Author and Illustrator Alan Silberberg....What FUN We Had!

We had a VERY special and FUNNY guest Skype into the library this last week.

Our amazing friend Alan Silberberg visited the 5th graders at Van Meter! He is an author and illustrator.

He started the Skype like we have never done before....with giant googlie eyes and a very funny face!  It was so much fun and what a way to connect with all of them...they loved it.

Alan has a new book available...The Awesome Almost 100% True Adventures of Matt & Craz.  

He sent it to me a few weeks ago and I loved it!  I couldn't wait to have Alan visit and share this wonderful new book with all of them too.  

This little book trailer is fun to watch....

and the book cover for The Awesome Almost 100% True Adventures of Matt & Craz is so great too.  

Alan also wrote Milo, Sticky Notes & Brain Freeze and Pond Scum.  

Alan had the BEST presentation for us. 

He told us about how he got involved with illustrating and writing.  He shared how he got his ideas and stories of his childhood.  He drew the kids right into his books as you can see.  

The 5th graders had a lot of questions for Alan and we all learned so much through these great questions too.  Alan has had lots of interesting jobs and they have talked about those ever since the Skype. 

We also had our own little personal film crew for this visit.  The kids just love being able to go grab the iPad to film all kinds of things in the library.  Today they used the Camtasia Relay again to capture this Skype. 

Next, Alan spent time drawing for us, giving tips and looking at art work the students created.  

For these characters he asked for volunteers to give him their name.  He then created a character with the letters.  Look at the one above....Can you see the V's, F's, U and other letters?  

While he was drawing, several of the students went to grab paper and a pencil.  They were drawing now too and even trying out their very own "letter people".

 Alan loved having the kids show him their art work.

Alan also has this website called drawbetternow.com...Draw Better Now.  There are cartoon tips and a few downloads focusing around his books.  

What a special day....Thank you Alan for bringing so much to our students, teachers and families.

You are making such a difference.

Our Little Kindergarten Researchers Show "Wonder and Investigation" In Their Iowa Animal Research Project...and with a special little visitor too!

Our kindergarteners did something totally new this year.  They did their first big research project!  

In the blog posts Our Kindergarteners Are Starting Their Iowa Animal Research Projects......The First Steps That We Are Taking This Week and Look Mrs. Miller....We Our Researching Our Iowa Animals In The Library Today! I tell all about the research project and the collaboration that took place between the classroom, library and their homes.  

The big essential question that we wanted the children to wonder about and investigate was...

Why does your Iowa animal live where it lives in Iowa?  

By developing questions, making predictions, finding resources, reading, thinking and learning about their animal they were empowered to follow their own sense of wonder and investigate new things.  

I have loved seeing the kindergarteners and their teachers so excited about this project....And the best part was seeing what they created and learned from all the wonder and investigation that took place.  

When the Iowa Animal Research Reports came back the three kindergarten teachers and I got together in the library to take a look at them.  They did such a wonderful job.  

And just by taking a look one could tell that they have enjoyed being engaged and empowered by this project.  

Nathan, from Miss McClintock's room, researched the blue spotted salamander.  I just LOVE his report!  It is so full of wonderful information and images....we could really tell that he loved learning about this Iowa animal.  

And to make Nathan's learning even more engaging he was able to meet a real live blue spotted salamander from Van Meter.

One morning my daughter called me and told me she saw a salamander by the garage door when she was leaving.  I went outside and sure enough it was a blue spotted salamander.  So I took a big container, put holes in the lid, filled it with grass and a little water, and put the salamander in to take him to school to meet everyone.

 The kids were SOOOOO excited (and the teachers were too).....especially Nathan!

When I left Miss McClintock's room I ran into Mrs. Gadberry and her kindergarteners too.  They just lit up too when I told them what Brianna had found. The best part was hearing them all call out things they have learned about salamanders or things that they were very curious about.

The first question, "Did you find him by water?  I bet you did because they live by water or where it is wet." 

We had him come visit the library too for the afternoon so all the students could see how cool he was.

Along with their reports, the kindergarteners made a model of the animal in their Iowa habitat too.

They put them out it he hallway for everyone to see and learn from them too.

They could create their animal and its habitat any way they wanted.  Some made models, others made posters or displays.  We even had a few make little paper books.

Next it was time for each student to present their Iowa animal research project to the class.  They would be sharing the information in the packet with all of their classmates.

They were super excited and learned so much from one another.  These got the conversations going even more between them and I watched it continue as they visited the library after the presentations wanting to find out more information about someone else's Iowa animal.  I loved that wonder taking place during these times.

Miss McClintock (who you all know is also my cousin) and the other two teachers videotaped their students presenting.  This Thursday we are going to put together a little project using iMovie with the videos and images.

Also, they created an illustration of their animal and why it lives where it lives using TuxPaint.  We will then put them all together and using Camtasia Relay to record their voice when they answer that essential question.

I can't wait to be able to share that so we can all watch the love that went into each of these projects too.

Connect To Our Library Books, eBooks and Resources All The Time With The Destiny Quest App!

When our students come to the library to search for the books we have in the library and within MackinVIA we either go straight to our shelves, to MackinVIA, or to Destiny on the circulation desk desktop. 

And there is one more way to search....There is the Destiny Quest app that we have downloaded onto the iTouches, iPads and my iPhone (which is the #1 choice for all of the little people to use). 

The Destiny Quest app is such an awesome way to log into our library automation system, Destiny from Follett Software.  

At the beginning of the year we "Put The Library In Our Pocket" by having workshops and visiting classrooms to help students, teachers, parents and our school community in putting the apps and resources needed onto their devices.  We made sure the Destiny Quest app was one of them.  

With summer only 10 days away I am going to make sure everyone has the library in their pocket before they take off for the summer too.  

To get the Destiny Quest app onto your device and connected to our library is really easy.  Just download "Destiny Quest" from the app store. 

First you enter the Library URL or IP address.  You will enter 209.56.200.4 for Van Meter.  This is the IP address.

Next you will select the library collection that you would like to visit.  It is easy to switch between these as well.

Next you can log in with your User ID and password if you know what yours is...I would have set that up for you.  If you would like a personal login and don't have one yet, please just stop by and we will get you all set up.  Once you are set up within your personal account, there are a lot of great features that you will have access to such as creating resource lists, holding books, reviewing books, and much more. 

If you just want to "Explore as Guest" you click on "Try Destiny Quest".  

                                 

Once into the Van Meter Library on the Destiny Quest app there are a lot of great things you can do. 

You can see the "New Arrivals"....one of my favorite places to go on the app.  I love seeing what new books Diana cataloged each day.

It is also fun to see the "Top Ten" books that are being checked out within our library.  This week there were 4 of Mo Willems books that made it on the list.  Our little people just love his books.

You can also search specific books and authors, just like on the Destiny desktop.  I searched for The One And Only Ivan and this is what came up.  You can see a description, find where that book is located on the shelf, hold it, rate it, and add it to "My List".

This is a book that is located within our library as you can see from the call number.

And this is an eBook that we have within MackinVIA from Seymour Simon in StarWalk Kids Media.

The other feature that is just amazing is "WebPath" at the top by "Library".  When you click on this it will bring up a wonderful list of digital resources for students.  This is very similar to the WebPath Express we use on our desktops and laptops too.  They can even add them to their "Resource Lists" too.

If you have Destiny within your school I would LOVE to hear how you use the Destiny Quest app too.

There are so many fun ways we are planning to use it for our summer reading program too.