I Am Excited To Head To NYSCATE As A Spotlight Speaker On November 23....Join Us, Friends.

 

I am excited to head to NYSCATE as a Spotlight Speaker in Verona, New York on November 23.

I will be presenting two sessions in the ELA/Reading/Library Sciences Strand: 

November 23, 11:30-12:30pm Empowering Digital Citizens: Media Literacy and Critical Thinking in the Age of Edtech 

November 23, 2:00-3:50pm Future Ready Librarians 3.0: Leading with Vision, Impact and Innovation

These two sessions are for all librarians and educators.  I can't wait to connect, collaborate, and share with everyone at this amazing conference. 

There are so many special events including inspiring keynotes, over 200 sessions in the various strands, and so much more learning and fun. 

You can find out more about NYSCATE 2026 and register here.  

Kicking Off Book Creator With Our Kindergarteners and The Bold Pumpkin Plan!

 

It's always so much fun kicking off Book Creator with our kindergarteners every year.  This year we did it with a project using one of our favorite fall books, The Bold Pumpkin Plan. 

This is from our friends at Capstone and the amazing Katy Hudson. We love all of her books. 

Every time I read A Bold Pumpkin Plan, so many ideas pop into my head on how we can use this book.  

I love all of the research and STEM opportunities and projects we can create.  

In the A Bold Pumpkin Plan Activities Guide, there are several activities and one is...

...Design Your Perfect Pumpkin House. 

This year I thought it would be super fun to take this idea and turn it into the first project our kindergarteners do in Book Creator. 

First, Shelby, my kindergarten teacher friend and colleague, read The Bold Pumpkin Plan to her class.  

Next, we had the students create their own perfect pumpkin house on the sheet from Capstone.

They had lots of fun being creative and every one of them had an unique plan. 

Next, I showed them all around Book Creator and how they can create special digital books of their own using drawings, text, stickers, images, and more. 

I created a Library for the project and a template called My Perfect Pumpkin Plan. We had the students scan a QR code to get to this library.  

Once in the Library, 

they all had their own copy of the book template I created. 

It was time for them to try out the tools and create their perfect pumpkin plan book. 

After two sessions, 

...our kindergarteners created their first books in Book Creator.

And as you can see, they were all super proud and excited about becoming authors and illustrators using Book Creator. 

We published the Perfect Pumpkin Plan Library of their books so they can read each others, and we can share it with our families too. 

You can remix My Perfect Pumpkin Plan here for your students too. 

This was a great way to introduce Book Creator while being creative through one of our favorite fall books.  They are now ready to use Book Creator for so many different projects, learning experiences, and free choice throughout the year. 

Sign up for your Book Creator account today. 

You can use the code SHANNON at the checkout when upgrading and get 1 month of premium FREE.

Book Creator brings so much joy to our classrooms, libraries and communities. I can't wait to see what your students create too. 

The STEMfinity Holiday Gift Guide Is Here, Friends! Check It Out Today.

 

I am so excited to see that the STEMfinity Holiday Gift Guide is here! 

I love this collection of so many of our favorite STEM tools and resources.  It's giving me lots of ideas on things we also need to add to our STEM program and library. 

There is definitely something for every learner and STEM focus. 

You will find the STEMFinity Holiday Gift Guide here.