Here Is The "November 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 that I make in QR Code Monkey 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 Our November Choice Boards poster that can be found here to make edits and additions.

I hope you find these choice board posters helpful too. 

It's Here, Friends...Our November Choice Board Filled With Reading, Learning, Making, Coding, Technology and Fun!

It's here, friends!  Our November Choice Board where reading, learning, making, coding, technology and music can take you on adventures all month long. 

This month, the choice board is filled with so many new and exciting things!  I can't wait to share it with our students, teachers and families, and all of you. 

You will find the Our November Choice Board here to share with students.  And if you would like to make changes or additions, you can make a copy to edit here.

Within the monthly choice board, I do include other choice boards and links to special events and celebrations. 

I also include the Elementary Coding Choice Boards found here, 

Our Virtual Makerspace found here, 

...and the Let's Take A Trip Around The World Buncee found here. 

I create most of my choice boards in Google Slides and Canva. With each choice board in Google Slides, I share this with our students and teachers by publishing it to the web. 

In the image above, you can see how to do this by clicking on Share and Publish to the Web. 

The Publish to the Web window pops up that will direct you to publish to the web. It will give you a link that you will copy to share with students and teachers through Google Classroom, Seesaw and any other place you want to share this like social media and through QR codes. 

This is the link to the 2022 October Choice Board that you can share with your students. 

I also explain how I create and share choice board posters each month in this post. 

With each choice board, I also share the link to make edits and changes.  This is the copyable link to the 2022 November Choice Board.  Please feel free to use the choice board with your community and make changes to fit the needs of your learners and teachers. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or need help sharing and creating choice boards.  

Also, last year around this time I had a Follett webinar on choice boards that you will find helpful when learning more about and how to use choice boards and Collections by Destiny. You will find the link to the recording and resources from the webinar here in this post. 

I hope the monthly and special choice boards will give you and your students special opportunities for reading, learning, creating, collaborating and having fun all year long. 

It's Time For Kids To Pick! Let Your Kids Select The Next Article On PebbleGo!

 

Our friends at Capstone have an exciting event kicking off on November 1! 

It's the PebbleGo Kids Pick event where kids can select the next article on PebbleGo. 

From November 1st - 30, 2022, students will have free access to a selection of articles, including civics related articles, in addition to a variety of educational and customizable resources.

As shared online, 

Encourage your students to share their voice and take charge of their learning! 

From November 1st - 30th, kids will have the chance to cast their vote and choose which new article they want to be added to PebbleGo. The article with the most votes wins and will be added to PebbleGo! Not only is this a great chance to foster student choice and increase engagement, but it is also an opportunity to introduce civics concepts and skills to your students, and to demonstrate the impact voting can have!

Kids can pick one of the following articles: "Amazon River," "Hiccups," "Gems and Minerals," "Blobfish," and "Black Holes."

Plus, during this time, teachers, librarians and students will have free access to a selection of articles, including civics related articles, in addition to a variety of educational and customizable resources.

There are stickers for each Kids Pick article; 

posters, 

coloring sheets, 

lesson plans and more. 

It will be fun to share what our students are learning and to get the whole school community excited with downloadable posters and social media images. 

Tag Capstone on Twitter @capstonepub and use #pebblegokidspick friends. 

The October 31-November 5 Capstone Holiday Calendar Is Here! You Can Turn It Into An Interactive Calendar For Your Students and Teachers Too, Friends.

   

The October 31-November 5 Capstone Holiday Calendar is here, friends.

Earlier this fall, I shared the 2022-23 Capstone Holiday Calendar. 

This is one of my favorite resources to share in our library and with our teachers and students for their classroom, and even with our families to use at home. 

On each monthly calendar, all kinds of special holidays and events are shared. 

Capstone then paired up their Capstone Interactive eBooks and PebbleGo/PebbleGo Next articles with these special holidays and events. 

I use them to look ahead each week and pull books and Capstone Interactive eBooks for our students and teachers to use to explore, learn and celebrate. 

This week there are several special events. I went into our Capstone Interactive to search to see what books we had as eBooks and articles from PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next. 

I can share the links to the eBooks and articles in Seesaw or Google Classroom. 

I also thought of an idea!  

I could take the calendar apart and make a Google Presentation, one slide per week, for the whole year! 

On the slide above, I just took a screen shot of next week and then added screen shots of the PebbleGo articles and eBooks below. Then I went back into Capstone Interactive to grab all of the links attaching them to the images. 

This will be so much fun to create and share with the teachers and students all throughout the year. 

You will find a copy of the 2022-23 Capstone Holiday Choice Board here if you'd like to follow along and use it for your school too. You will have to add your own links to PebbleGo, PebbleGo Next and the eBooks that you have within your own collection. 

And just remember, to share it with your students as a choice board, you will go to Edit and then down to Publish to the Web. It will give you a link and that is what you share with your students. 

I am leaving the past weeks in the Google Slides presentation....just scroll through them to find the past weeks. 

I also share this as a poster for our littles with iPads too. 

You can download the 2022-2023 Capstone Holiday Calendar here. 

And as this tweet from Capstone shares, if you want a physical calendar, please reach out to your Capstone rep. 

I have include a link to the list of the books included in the Capstone Holiday Calendar and...

...this handy postcard with the steps to use the choice boards with your students and teachers like me. 

Join Us For A Capstone Live Event On November 2nd To Celebrate The NEW Book...Penny, The Engineering Tail of the Fourth Little Pig!

 

Picture Book Week is November 7-13, and STEM Day is November 8th, so it's the perfect time to celebrate a fun picture book all about STEM! 

Join me on November 2 at 12:00pm CST in a LIVE Zoom event, as I welcome authors, Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes, for a read aloud and book chat highlighting their newest title, Penny, The Engineering Tail of the Fourth Little Pig. 

You can register for this FREE author event here, friends. 

And look at these adorable and fun free materials to go along with the book!  You can find them here on the Capstone site. 

Join Me Next Week For My Follett Webinar, Bringing Reading To Life Part Three: Your Online Library And Digital Resources

 

This fall, I have hosted Follett webinar series called Bringing Reading To Life. 

Next week, on November 2, 2022 at 4:00pm CST, is Part Three: Your Online Library and Digital Resources. 

As shared online, 

For librarians and teachers, there are 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 in a series of three short webinars.

In this third webinar, “Bringing Reading to Life Part Three: Your Online Library and Digital Resources,” Miller will share ideas, strategies, and tips on how to bring literacy to life with digital tools and apps in a fun, creative and exciting session. This fast-paced presentation will be filled with project ideas, wonderful online resources, and fun apps that encourage critical thinking and so much more. She will leave you inspired to bring reading to life every day with new ideas and tools. 

 

In this webinar, you will learn:

• Tips and resources to build a virtual library and space for all readers, filled with digital resources
• 
  
• Creative ideas and engaging ways to promote these digital resources and connect your readers, teachers, and families to them too
• 
  
• Ways to use digital resources to promote literacy, not just in the library but within the classrooms and by tying into curriculum
• 
  
• How to tie digital resources to other technologies, such as Pear Deck, Kahoot, and Capstone Create, to bring reading to life in new and meaningful ways

You can register here at this link.  The recording and resources will be send after the webinar.  

Our Friends At Follett Need Our Help With A Short User Study....You Will Find The Link Here.

 

Our friends at Follett need our help. 

They are conducting a Follett User Study. Our participation will help Follett understand who they make products for and how best to design solutions that meet our needs. 

I just took the survey and it took me about 10 minutes to complete. 

You will find the survey here, friends. 

You Can Find The Recording Of Kwame Alexander and Carrie Friday's Facebook Live Event Here, Friends!

 

Did you miss last week’s Facebook Live video with Kwame Alexander and my friend Carrie Friday, Media Specialist at Southwest Middle School in Florida? 

I have the recording right here for you!
 
Kwame and Carrie explain why book clubs are essential in fostering a love of reading in students. You will walk away with strategies to make a book club work and thrive in your classroom or library. 

Check it out here. 

We Opened The Destiny Self-Checkout Station In Our Library Today! What A Difference This Will Make.

 

We have been dreaming of having a Follett Destiny self-checkout station in our library for a long time. This fall, we made it happen!  

This will allow our students to check out their books when they come for their weekly library time. It will also give my library assistant, Natasha, more time to talk to the kids about books while they are looking for new books to check out. 

And most of all, it will give the students the opportunity to engage in our library in new and meaningful ways. They will love it! 

Let me show you what we did. 

First, I ordered the Destiny EasyScan Corded Scanner Kit from Follett. You will find this scanner and others here. 

When we received the scanner, it was easy to set up. We followed the Quick Start Guide, plugged it into our library laptop and it worked with Destiny. 

After we got the scanner all set up, we logged into our Destiny to get it all set up for self-chekout.  

We found the instructions for Setting Up a Self-Checkout Station here on the Follett site. The instructions walked us step-by-step through the set up process within Destiny.

One of the most helpful parts is this image that shows how to Edit Patron Access and set up the Self Circulation Access. We love how easy Follett has made this within Destiny. 

Once everything was working, it was time to set up the self-checkout station on our circulation desk. 

I went to Canva and made a sign for the top of our laptop.  I took photos to use to make it super easy for all readers to understand the steps to check out books. 

You will find the template here to copy and edit for your use too. 

I copied it in color, laminated it and...

....taped it to the top of the laptop. 

The steps to our self-checkout are easy too! 

Every student has a library card that includes their barcode at the top. These were printed on sticky labels and Natasha placed them on each card. 

They scan their library card bar code and....

...check to make sure their name pops up on Check Out screen. 

Next, they find the barcode on the library book and hold it under the scanner.  They don't have to touch the scanner.

It will automatically light up and scan the barcode, checking the book out to that student. 

They will see the title of the book on the screen. 

That is all there is to self-checkout. 

I can't wait to hear what our students and teachers think when they come to the library this week. 

Let's Celebrate Native American Heritage Month With This Amazing New Site Filled With Reading, Learning, Resources & More From Our Friends At Capstone!

 

We are all so excited to celebrate Native American Heritage Month in November. This is a time to celebrate the rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of Native people.

I will be sharing several different ways to celebrate this special month, but the first resource I am going to share is Capstone's special Native American Heritage Month website. In fact, I will be using the Capstone site and resources as we plan celebrations, learning and activities around this content, and as we smash it up with other digital tools such as Kahoot, Pear Deck, PebbleGo Create, StickTogether, The Achievery and so much more. 

As shared on the Capstone site, 

November is Native American Heritage Month, also known as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month, and is a time to honor the traditions, historical legacy, and culture of Native Americans and Alaska Native people. It is a time to become more educated about the full, complex history of colonization and oppression, as well as celebrate the contributions and achievements of Indigenous peoples from the past and of today. One resource we highly recommend exploring is the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and its Native Knowledge 360° project.

How can you celebrate Native American Heritage Month? Capstone authors Katrina M. Phillips (citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe) and Andrea L. Rogers (citizen of the Cherokee Nation) have some great ideas to get you started. We also are shining a spotlight on our children’s books by Native American and Indigenous authors—including a sneak peek at our forthcoming series Liam Kingbird’s Kingdom—and have some fun downloadable bookmarks for your classroom or library. Join us in honoring Native American Heritage Month this month and throughout the year.

This year Capstone is excited to share several additions including....

....an introduction to Liam Kingbird, a new upcoming series from Capstone, 

and a little preview; 

two amazing articles from Capstone authors; 

fun Educator Resources and Downloadables including Liam Kingbird's Kingdom Bookmarks and Wilderness Ridge Bookmarks

...and a place to look at Capstone Books by Native American and Indigenous Authors. 

I am so excited about all of these amazing resources as I create a choice board to share on November 1 with our students and teachers, and as we plan activities and learning too. 

I will be sharing the Native American Heritage Month this week, and all of the other resources and ideas throughout the month too. 

You will find Capstone's Native American Heritage Month website here, friends.