Sign Up Today For The Special International Dot Day Celebration With Peter H. Reynolds LIVE From The MET On September 15, 2022!

 

Our friends at Flip have such exciting virtual events coming up this fall. 

I am so excited about the one for International Dot Day with Peter H. Reynolds and Paul Reynolds LIVE from The MET in New York City.  It will be on September 15, 2022 at 10:00am PST. 

As shared on the invite, 

Join Flip, the Reynolds Center, and Candlewick Press in a global celebration of creativity, courage, and collaboration: International Dot Day! In this event, students will meet New York Times best-selling author and illustrator of The Dot Peter H. Reynolds and his twin brother Paul A. Reynolds who will challenge everyone to believe in themselves and find the courage to “make their mark.” 

 

This year’s Dot Day celebration will be streamed live from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where art comes alive in the Museum's galleries, revealing new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures. Participating classrooms will also get a sneak peek preview of songs from the Creatrilogy Musical performed live at the event. This musical brings Peter’s beloved picture books about creativity - The Dot, Ish, and Sky Color - to life and is in development by TheaterWorks USA for release in 2023.

Before the event, engage your students and young learners with activities presented by your host in this special group too. 

You can register here at this link, friends. 

I can't wait to join everyone and our friends Peter and Paul on this very special day. 

Bringing Reading To Life With Novel Effect and Their Amazing Book Activities! There Is Something For EVERY Reader!

One of my favorite digital tools to use in our library and classrooms is Novel Effect. 

As shared on their site, 

Novel Effect brings stories to life!  The Novel Effect app follows along with interactive music and sound effects, creating magical moments when you read aloud with a child. 

At the 2022 ISTE Conference earlier this summer, I had the honor of joining my friends from Novel Effect in their booth to read one of my favorite Far Out Fairy Tales...

...Ninja-rella..A Graphic Novel from Capstone. 

My friend, and fellow teacher librarian, Gina McKnight, and I had so much fun reading Ninja-rella in the booth that day. You can catch our read aloud with Novel Effect here in this tweet. 

As I was preparing for this special read aloud, I also found one of the BIGGEST treasures! 

Under Resources on the Novel Effect site, you will find Book Activities. 

This link takes you to dozens and dozens of amazing book activities and learning resources.  Novel Effect shares, 

With Novel Effect's learning resources parents, teachers and librarians build connections with little learners before during and after read alouds. These educator-developed lessons and activities help guide discussions and pair with our soundscapes for popular children's picture books. 

I started by looking up Ninja-rella! I was so excited to find this plan that included 12 Activities, a Tech Tip, Learning Targets and even the QR code that will open the soundscape! 

You will find the Novel Effect Activity Plan for Ninja-rella from Capstone here. 

And take a look at a few of the others....

Each is packed with wonderful experiences, activities and resources for our students, teachers and librarians. 

And guess what?  

Novel Effect has a special ending tonight at 11:59pm PST for Friendship Day. You will find the tweet and details here. 

I can't wait to use Novel Effect with all of our teachers and students this year! 

A KEY For Our Teachers & Students To Our NEW Library Google Classrooms!

 

This week, my sister Heather (who is also a teacher librarian) and I worked on the back-to-school goodies for our teachers and others within the building. Later, we will share our little TAKE-OUT boxes, but to start I wanted to share what we created to announce our new Library Google Classrooms. 

Heather and I have used Google Classroom in the past for our students within the library and their classrooms, but this year we are kicking off a whole school Library Google Classroom that will contain all of the things that our library websites contain, plus a way to share daily and weekly announcements, lessons and projects, new materials, exciting events and so much more. 

Earlier this summer, I shared a series of blog posts I wrote about Creating A Google Classroom For Our Library. You can find them all here in this post. This will help you start one too if you haven't and will perhaps give you a few new tips if you already have a Google Classroom. 

So, with school starting in a few weeks, we wanted to think of a creative and fun way to get all of our teachers and students to join our NEW Library Google Classrooms. 

We started in Canva. We created a little business sized card and decided to tie it into the theme of a KEY. 

The card says Key To Our VM School Library Google Classroom. You will find it here in Canva where you can make a copy to use this template for yours too. 

We added a QR code created in QR Code Monkey using a little image from Google Classroom and the class invite link found...

...in Google Classroom under Class code on the left hand sidebar. Just click Copy class invite link and make the QR code from that link. 

We also used bit.ly to create a short URL from the class invite link. We added that to the bottom of the card. 

After we got our cards complete, we thought it would super cute to attach the card to a key. We asked my husband, Eric, if he had any keys laying around...just kind of joking with him. He went out to the garage and brought back a bunch of keys telling us we could have them for our project. Yay!  We were set. 

We printed the cards on heavy card stock and laminated them before we punched a hole in the top. We attached a little scrapbooking rivet around the whole and then tied each onto a key with a short piece of jute. 

In our TAKE-OUT boxes, one of the things inside will be the KEY to our Library Google Classroom. We will have the teachers use this to join and share it with their students to join too. 

They can put their KEY somewhere handy in case they need it throughout the year. 

Heather and I can't wait to share our TAKE-OUT boxes next!  

What are you doing for your teachers, friends? We would love to hear your ideas too. 

BIG NEWS! 172 New Articles Coming To PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next On August 5, 2022!

 

Our friends at Capstone shared some very exciting news today!  

On August 5, 2022, there will be 172 NEW articles added to PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next! 

We always love these announcements and what these important and special additions mean to our teachers, librarians and students. 

As Capstone shared, 

100 of these articles will be going to PebbleGo in both English and Spanish. Look for these articles in the Animals (Animales), Science (Ciencia), and Social Studies (Estudios Sociales) modules! All 50 U.S. States (plus Puerto Rico and Washington D.C.), Landforms, Landmarks, and Map Skills are among the new articles coming to PebbleGo. 72 of the 172 new articles will be going to PebbleGo next. These articles will be found in the Biographies and Social Studies module. Articles about Athletes, Business Leaders, History Makers, and Musicians, such as Aretha Franklin, Oscar De La Renta, and Ursula Burns will be available soon in PebbleGo Next! 

If you subscribe to these modules, you don't need to do anything. The articles will be there next time you log in following the update in August! View the complete list of upcoming articles on PebbleGo News. We hope these articles inspire your students of all reading levels to continue exploring PebbleGo!
​​​​​​

When a category or article has been disabled, students will not be able to search for or find that article or category within the module structure. The individual at your school and/or district responsible for your PebbleGo subscription has admin access and the ability to manage these controls through the PebbleGo Admin Tool. With this feature, you can customize your PebbleGo subscription to meet the needs of your school or district!

Don't Miss The Special Announcement From Our Friends At StickTogether Coming Next Week On August 4!

Today, our friends at StickTogether announced something awesome!   

Can you guess what the announcement is based on this word cloud? 

Next Thursday, they will announcing something very special to support our community this school year. 

You can read about this announcement and other StickTogether fun here, friends. 

You've Been Virtually Book'd With Books For Back To School....A Special Program and List I Use Within Our Destiny Discover & Library!

 

One of my favorite ways to kick off the new school year, is to gather together the perfect back-to-school books to share with our students and teachers. 

This month, I brought together 14 back to school themed eBooks from our Destiny Discover in a choice board to share with everyone. This makes it very easy for my readers to find and read them easily within the library, classroom and at home. 

Let me show you how I set up this choice board for my school community. 

First, I created the choice board in a Google Slide.  I added the covers of the 14 eBooks I included in this choice board. 

Second, I went to our Destiny Discover and...

...grabbed the links to each eBook.  

This is easy to do.  You just search for the eBook, click on the three little dots next to Open, and this drop down menu will appear. 

Click on Share and the link to the book will pop up. That is the url to share in the choice boards. 

Take the copied link and add it to the book cover.  

When every book cover is linked, you are ready to share the choice board. 

Go to File and down to Publish to the web.  

This will give you a link to share with the students and teachers.  

When they click on that published link, the You've Been Virtually Book'd With These Picture Books will pop up and all of the eBooks can be read from there. 

I am excited about this list of 14 special new eBooks I put together in Titlewave.  In this choice board, you can click on any book cover to view and find the full book list from Titlewave there too. 

If you would like to edit this and use for your own library, you can make a copy here. 

Our students will love these books that celebrate reading and that are part of our You've Been Virtually Book'd program.  And I love how we can keep this program going all year long!  It brings so much joy to our readers each and every month.

Picture Books for Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy Conversations and Learning

 

I am always on the look out for new books that tie into our digital citizenship and media literacy conversations and learning. 

When this new one, Killer Underwear Invasion! How To Spot Fake News, Disinformation and Conspiracy Theories, from Elise Gravel came in the mail from my friends at Chronicle Kids, I knew I had to add it to my Padlet of books and resources. 

You will find the Picture Books for Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy Conversations and Learning Padlet here to use within your library, classroom and community too. 

Bringing Reading To Life...My NEW Webinar Series For The Fall! You Can Register For Part One On September 7, 2022 Here, Friends.

 

We are excited to announce a new Follett Community Webinar Series coming this fall! 

As shared online, 

In this first of a series of three short presentations, Shannon McClintock Miller will share engaging ways you can bring reading to life for your students. You’ll learn how to create amazing spaces and experiences within your library and throughout your school community to bring reading excitement and motivation to all students. 

For librarians and teachers, there are so many engaging and wonderful ways to bring reading to life for students, teachers, and families within the library and school community. 

This fall, join Van Meter, Iowa, district teacher librarian and Future Ready Librarians® spokesperson Shannon McClintock Miller as she breaks down the special ways you can bring reading to life in a series of three short webinars.

In this first webinar in the series, “Bringing Reading to Life, Part One: In Your Library and in Your School,” Miller will share engaging ways you can create amazing spaces and experiences within your library and throughout the school community to bring excitement and motivation to reading for all students.

In this webinar, you will learn: 

• How to make your library a special place for all readers
• Ideas to celebrate your readers and reading within the library and throughout the school
• Ways to spice up the shelves and displays within your library
• How to spread the love of reading throughout the school in interesting and meaningful ways

You can register for Bringing Reading To Life Part One: In Your Library and In Your School here.

Also, mark your calendars for: 

Bringing Reading To Life Part Two: Making and Technology on October 5, 2022 at 4:00pm CST

Bringing Reading To Life Part Three: Digital Resources on November 2, 2022 at 4:00pm CST

I hope you can join us, friends. 

And remember, all of these will be recorded and shared, along with the resources I share, after the webinars too. 

DOT! DOT! A Special NEW StickTogether Poster, Virtual Sticker Boards & Pixel Art For Our Dot Day Celebrations!

I love planning for our Dot Day celebration on September 15'ish every year.  This is the day that everyone can celebrate our uniqueness, creativity and voice by making a mark on the world. 

This summer, I am putting together resources, ideas, projects and plans for our library and classrooms for Dot Day, and connecting to authors, illustrators and other classrooms and libraries around the world. 

I also created the Let's Celebrate "The Dot" Choice Board filled with places to read, draw, sing, learn and create with Peter H. Reynolds, KidLitTV, Emily Arrow and more. 

You will find the Let's Celebrate "The Dot" Choice Board here.  You can also make a copy and edit at this link too. 

On the choice board, I added the StickTogether Pixel Art site and asked the students to Create your own DOT with StickTogether Pixel Art.  I added in a little example too.  After they create a DOT, it can be downloaded and printed as pixel art or as a sticker poster to fill in with StickTogether square stickers. 

You can read more about using the Pixel Art site here in this post. 

One of the projects I am super excited about came in the mail last week. 

It is a NEW sticker poster from our friends at StickTogether called DOT. DOT. 2022. 

This special sticker poster was created by students. It will be such a neat way to come together for Dot Day.  I will put this up in our library so they can collaborate and create for our celebrations. 

There will also be new StickTogether virtual sticker boards in the gallery that are based on Dot Dot drawings submitted this spring. 

You will find this beautiful art work in the gallery here. 

And guess what?  

Our friends at StickTogether have a special code for everyone to use for $6.00 off of the DOT DOT! StickTogether sticker poster.  You can use SHANNON at checkout for this discount.

Let's get ready to celebrate Dot Day in special and wonderful new ways, friends. 

You Can Find The Future Ready Librarians Summer 2022 Book Club Discussion with Jimmy Casas Here, Friends

On July 14, we wrapped up the Future Ready Librarians Summer Book Club with Jimmy Casas, the author of Culturize. 

It was such an amazing conversation and wonderful way to end a summer of reading, learning and connecting with others. You can watch the conversation above and here at this YouTube link. 

A special thank you to Jimmy for joining us this summer and...

...to our friends at Follett for all the support you give us as Future Ready Librarians. 

It's Week 10 of the Capstone Virtual Camp Adventure...Let's GO On A Trip!

                

It's Week 10 of Capstone's Virtual Summer Camp Adventure!  For Week 10, the theme is Let's GO on a TRIP!

ALL students and families can visit capstonepub.com/summerchoiceboards to access this 12-week long fun summer learning and reading adventure with our friends at Capstone.  

On the capstonepub.com/summerchoiceboards site, there are six bi-weekly Where Will You Go This Summer? themes that include a choice board and set of 20 FREE Capstone Interactive eBooks for each. 

The choice boards can be accessed by clicking on Open Choice Board under each tile.  

When they click on Open Choice Board, it will take users straight to the choice board that is filled with reading, making, moving, coding, stem, technology and fun virtual field trips around the world.  

In the left hand corner, they will find a place to click to GO to eBooks around the six different themes. 

All they have to do to read and listen to the Capstone Interactive eBooks is click on the eBook covers.  They are directly linked so a username and password is not required. 

If you want to make any changes or edits, you will can make a copy of the entire 12-weeks of choice boards here.  This post will be helpful in doing this too. 

I am excited about a special new addition in this summers Virtual Camp Adventure with our friends at StickTogether. 

Under the STEAM column, you will see a StickTogether box. 

Every week, starting May 23, 2022, we will be adding two special virtual stickerboards that StickTogether created around each weekly theme. 

All students will be able to collaborate together to complete these weekly virtual stickerboards.  The images they reveal are amazing and our kids will love this wonderful global activity. 

As the students and families use the choice boards and need help, there is a Family Help button on each choice board slide and...

...on the bottom of the capstonepub.com/summerchoiceboards site.  You can find it here too. 

This document includes How To Use The Virtual Camp Adventure With Your Children This Summer and...

...Directions For Using The Virtual Camp Adventure Choice Boards. 

At the very bottom of the page, there are two FREE downloads that will help when promoting Capstone's Virtual Summer Camp Adventure. 

You can find the flyer here where you can copy or edit, and....

...and the special bookmarks I created in Buncee by Capstone here.  You can print as is or make a copy to edit this too. 

The post, Here's The Family Letter, Bookmark & Posters To Kick Off Capstone's Virtual Camp Adventure With Your Students and Families Too!, found here will be helpful too. 

I just had mine printed using Overnight Prints and they do an amazing job. You will find the link here. 

I hope all of the students and families have a special summer visiting Our Virtual Camp Adventure.  I can't wait to see and hear all of the different ways it is used and what is learned, read, and created from this amazing summer experience. 

Please let me know if you have any questions...I am happy to help you, friends.