Just Look How Our Kids "Raise Their Voices" In Unique & Special Ways For WRAD's Blogging Challenge Week 1!

 

One of my most favorite days of the year is World Read Aloud Day.

I love how it brings all of us together to celebrate reading, writing, books, illustrators and all things that make us lift up literacy around the world.

I love how fills our young people will happy, excitement, and fun as we celebrate, create, and connect with libraries, classrooms, communities, authors, illustrators, and friends all throughout the week of World Read Aloud Day on March 5th.

Four years ago when I met LitWorld and Pam Allyn online I was instantly inspired by the passion they all embraced to help bring literacy to children globally.  Pam and the wonderful people who represent LitWorld continue this each year and bring even more change to our world.

In a few weeks, people all over the world will be reading aloud with the special people in their lives.  I can't wait to hear and read about these experiences.

One more thing we can all do throughout this month is participate in the WRAD Blogging Challenge. I wrote about this in this post, It's Time To Raise Our Voices Again For The World Read Aloud Day Reading Challenge. 

For Week 1, we all answered this question....What is your earliest or fondest memory in which someone read aloud to you?  

Last year I wrote a post myself for each week but this year I wanted to include all the voices from the library too.  We did several activities with the elementary students throughout the week.....here are a few of those.  

                           

With the kindergarteners, we did a Wordle together as a class.  We focused the question a little bit more by asking, What Books Do We Remember Being Read Aloud To Us?  

                           

They all took turns telling us a book that we added to the Wordle.  

We even talked about how to change the layout, font, and color of the Wordle too. Miss McClintock's class picked purple since that is her favorite color. 

                         

Mrs. Caltrider's class created a Wordle with their read aloud books too.  

                           

The first graders contributed to a collaborative FlipGrid that we did with Andy Plemmons students and others.

I added the link to the WRAD Blogging Challenge Week 1 FlipGrid onto the First Grade Symbaloo and taught them how to use it.

They had a great time figuring out how to take their own photograph to line up their head for the video.

 They helped each other too since this was their first time using Flipgrid by themselves.

 They were proud of their video reflection.  JoJo loved sharing her memories of being read aloud to.

When they were finished recording their video, the first graders spent time listening to videos from Andy's students and others.  They really loved watching their classmates too.

The second graders did their WRAD Week 1 blog reflection using Padlet that both classes shared.

You can get to the Padlet here.

Created with Pa

The second graders have used Padlet and really enjoy being able to work as a class together in one space.  I loved hearing the conversation going on as they remembered which books they remembered.

One of the fourth graders used ThingLink, which was a new tool for them. I took the WRAD Week 1 Question and created a little poster using ReciteThis (it is at the top of this post too).  

I uploaded that as an image into ThingLink.  

I then taught the students how they can click on the image and add different things to be embedded such as video, text, and websites.  They can even change the button icons that they click on, which let them personalize their contribution to the collaborative ThingLink even more.
                     

You can go to their ThingLink here. 

                           

The other fourth grade class did their blogging responses for Week 1 with the 4th graders at Merton School in Wisconsin.  My friend Heidi Jones, who is a 4th grade teacher at Merton, set up this wonderful Google Survey for the students to use as they reflected on their life as a reader.

I added the link to their Symbaloo webmix and all they had to do was click on that tile to go into the survey. 

They enjoyed talking about the questions and responding.....They look forward to reading the responses from their classmates and the fourth graders at Merton. 

I am excited to connect with this Heidi's 4th graders for WRAD in March.  We are going to meet in Google Hangout with Andy Plemmon's, Heidi's and our students for a little "Picture Book Smackdown" where our students can share their favorite read aloud books.  

                         
Our students LOVE celebrating World Read Aloud Day with LitWorlds and friends around the world.This group of second graders wanted to make a sign to put up in the library as we celebrate such a wonderful event.

Thank you LitWorlds, Pam, and all our friends around the world you lift up literacy and the voice of our young people.