Celebrate World Elephant Day With The Elephant Sanctuary In This Flipgrid Live Event

 

World Elephant Day is on August 12 and our friends at Flipgrid have a very special event planned for all of us to be part of through the Flipgrid Live Events. 

On Thursday, August 12, 2021 at 12:00pm CST, we can join The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.  

As shared on the site, 

How do you care for and communicate with the world's largest land animal? On this World Elephant Day, join The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee to discover what it takes to be an elephant Caregiver, from prepping specialized diets to building trust with these giants. The Elephant Sanctuary is home to 10 elephants retired from zoos and circuses who depend on their Caregivers to daily individualized care so they can live their life to the fullest in 2,700 acres of natural habitat in Hohenwald, Tennessee. During this live event we’ll take you through the daily routine of an elephant Caregiver and share with you some of our favorite elephant facts. We’ll also virtually peek into The Sanctuary habitats via our live-streaming EleCams and hopefully spot some of our resident elephants enjoying their retirement. Join us and learn if you have what it takes to be an elephant Caregiver on Thursday August 12th.

Recommended Age Range: 7-12, but are all welcome.   

Through Flipgrid Live Events, you can connect your students with experts, and they can ask their questions via a fully moderated chat.  

I shared this with our students and families, and signed up myself.  I hope you join us too, friends. 

You can register for this free Flipgrid Live Event here.

Here Is The "August Choice Board Poster"....Making Choice Boards Easy & Organized For All Students To Access & Use

Hi friends, 

I want to share a little tip that I have been using for all of the different choice boards we use each month.  This will help when organizing and sharing choice boards with students at school and those learning remotely.  

Each month after I have my choice boards done, I pull them together in another Google Slide choice board.  

I add each choice board as an image and link the choice board to that image.  Under the image, I add a QR code for each choice board too.  

Our teachers can share the monthly choice board posters in Seesaw and Google Classroom.  This works great for our students at school and those learning at home.  

We also print the posters so our students with iPads can scan the QR codes.  This can also be projected on the screen in the classrooms for students to walk up to and scan.  

For this month, I have created the August Choice Boards poster that can be found here to share with your students.  If you would like to make edits or additions, you can make a copy here.

I hope you find these choice board posters helpful too. 

You've Been Virtually Book'd! Our Monthly eBook Program Using Capstone Connect For All Readers!

 

One of our favorite reading celebrations at Van Meter School are the...

...You've Been Book'd bags and lists that we have shared throughout the year. 

Our students and teachers love hanging the You've Been Book'd posters in their windows, reading the books, checking the boxes and trading them with other classrooms.  

It is so much fun.  You can read all about our You've Been Book'd program here and you will find the first one for this year and back-to-school here in this post.

Last year, as we were learning together virtually, I thought it would be fun and special to take our You've Been Book'd program online and use all of the wonderful eBooks in our Capstone Interactive to make this happen. 

And now, I am getting ready to kick off another year of our You've Been Virtually Book'd program using Capstone Connect, an amazing new platform from our friends at Capstone that connects PebbleGo, PebbleGo Next, Capstone Interactive eBooks and teachers resources in one place with links to use that connect to each resource.

Let me show you how I put the You've Been Virtually Book'd For August choice board together today.

First, I logged into our Capstone Connect. 

I searched for school eBooks using the Title Search in Capstone Connect. 

When I searched school, it gave me the results eBooks, PebbleGo articles and teacher resources.

For the choice board I created, I needed the book cover and link to the eBook.  

To view the eBook, I clicked on Our School and the eBook...

...opened up in Capstone Interactive.  This let me view the eBook and also grab the cover image. 

I then clicked on Copy Link and took it to the choice board. 

I then went back to the You've Been Virtually Book'd For August choice board I created in Google Slides.  I added the screen shot of the book cover, clicked on the image, and added the link I copied to the image. 

When our students and teachers click on the book covers, it will take them straight to the ebooks within Capstone Interactive.  

We don't even have to login because by using Capstone Connect it takes us directly to the eBooks and PebbleGo resources every time.  

We love our You've Been Book'd program and can't wait to celebrate reading in one more way with our students as we share our You've Been Virtually Book'd program every month! 

I made a template for you to create your own You've Been Virtually Book'd For August and Back-to-School.  You will find it here to make a copy, friends.