The Results For The Top PebbleGo & PebbleGo Next Articles For April Are In, Friends! You Will Find The Posters and Templates Here.

The results for the TOP PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next Articles for April are in, friends! 

How fun to see the Top PebbleGo articles read by kids around the U.S. each month!  When I saw this report for the first time, I circled, highlighted and jumped into PebbleGo to look up several of the articles I hadn't seen before. I also celebrated ones that were my favorites too, like Axolotls and Taylor Swift. 

My friends at Capstone and I, were talking one day and thought it would be really awesome to take the information from the reports and turn it into something that students and teachers would find interesting, fun and could use in lots of different ways.  

So, I went into a Google Slide and created this poster template for PebbleGo articles. I also made one for PebbleGo Next and Capstone Interactive eBooks.

Every month, we will be sharing the Top PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next articles read by kids around the United States, and the top Capstone Interactive eBooks using this Google Slide template.  

You can make a copy of this template here for PebbleGo and here for PebbleGo Next. 

For April, you will find the Top PebbleGo Articles Read By Kids Around the U.S. April 2024 choice board here to make a copy and add link from your PebbleGo. 

You will find the Top PebbleGo Next Articles Read By Kids Around the U.S. April 2024 choice board here to make a copy and add links from your PebbleGo Next. 

And if you want to turn this one into an interactive choice board, let me show you how to do that. 

First, you will find the choice board here to copy. 

Next, you will find the links to each PebbleGo article.  

In the article, you will see the link up at the top that you can copy. 

You will take that copied link and add a hyperlink to that name within the Top PebbleGo Articles poster. 

When students click on Axolotls, it will take them right to that article.  After all of the article links are added, go to File and Publish to web. That is the link you will share. 

We are really excited to share these with everyone each month.  I can't wait to share them with my students and teachers too.  

Join Me Today For The NEW Webinar, 3 Great Ways To Inspire A Love Of Reading!

                

I would like to invite you to join me and Literati Book Fairs for a NEW webinar, 3 Great Ways To Inspire A Love Of Reading Within Children.  

The webinar is today, Monday, May 6 at 4pm CST.  

You will leave with specific ideas for the library, classroom, and even to share with families at home....and it will be perfect for summer reading. 

There will be a live Q & A following the presentation, so have your questions ready. 

You can register for the webinar here.

We hope you can join us, friends.  If you can't attend live, sign up today and we'll send you a link to the recording to watch at your convenience. 

The Results Of The TOP 10 Capstone Interactive eBooks In April 2024 Are Here! Find This Fun Choice Board To Fill Out Here, Friends.

 

The results of the TOP 10 Capstone Interactive eBooks in April 2024 are here!  I am so excited to share them with our readers, and with all of you to share with your readers too. 

Our students LOVE reading eBooks in Capstone Interactive!  

They go to Capstone Interactive to read eBooks that are connected to content from the curriculum; eBooks for book clubs; eBooks that are interesting to them; eBooks that are new to Capstone Interactive; and much more.

Capstone Interactive eBooks is definitely our go-to for all students and teachers within our school. 

With Capstone Interactive eBooks, we love: 

• Read aloud audio voice over from real actors

• Multi-user simultaneous access to all eBooks by every student in our school

• Post one-click access with the easy copy-link feature...great for our Google Classroom, Seesaw, etc.

• Over 5,500 Capstone Interactive eBooks to support all of our needs

• eBook platform and reader are Section 508 compliant and W.C.A.G. rated

• And most of all, our kids love the Capstone Interactive eBooks, just like the Capstone books we have in our library, classrooms and pop-up libraries around the school. 

I love finding ways to get our readers even more excited about reading within Capstone Interactive, so my friends at Capstone and I have come up with this fun new idea!  

We will be sharing the Top 10 Capstone Interactive eBooks read each month using the data collected from readers across the country.  

The Top 10 Capstone Interactive eBooks read in April 2024 can be found here in this choice board. 

If you want to make a copy of this choice board, you can here. 

For my students, I am going to make this into a choice board by...

... linking the book covers to the link from each Capstone Interactive eBook.  I will then Publish the choice board and share that link with our students in their Google Classroom. 

I hope your students love the Top 10 Capstone Interactive eBooks lists and choice boards too, friends. 

You will find all of these eBooks, and print books, here on the NEW CapstonePub.com site.

Six Amazing Author and Illustrator Events In May From Our Friends At Storyvoice!

 

We love the LIVE Read-Aloud Show from our friends at Storyvoice.  

They have an amazing line-up of authors and illustrators in May for our readers. 

You can find these events here. 

The First Steps In Weeding Your Library! Follow Along As We Weed Our Library and Share Your Tips, Tricks & Resources For Weeding Too!

 

As we get close to the end of the school year, we start to think about processes that keep our library collection current, fresh and ready for new books and resources.  

Weeding is where I like to start!  

Weeding is the process of removing items from our collection.  We have weeding policies that are tailored to fit the needs of our library collection, and are aligned with best practices. Being diligent and confident in weeding is key to a healthy collection. 

As we come to an end to circulating books for the year, we need to think about weeding as we remove books to make room for new titles that are being published this spring, summer, and into the next school year. For example, we just places three big orders in Titlewave and these books will be coming soon. As we get ready for these orders, I think about making room for them on our shelves and being able to highlight them in the best possible ways for our readers and teachers. 

This week, we started the weeding process by going through our collection and removing books that are damaged and wore like the ones shown above.  

We are also removing multiple copies of books. 

When we take these books of the shelves, I then go through them all of them to see what the circulation reports show on the multiple copies, and to make note of the damaged books to determine if we will order new copies or weed these books from our collection.  

It's a process, but one that I enjoy because it means that we are making room for the new materials.  It is a great way to kick off the new school year in the fall.  Our students always love seeing the fresh shelves and what is new to read. 

Over the next few weeks, I will be blogging about the steps we take in the weeding process within our school library.  We take several steps and use various resources including the Follett Titlewise® Online Collection Analysis, which is a tool designed to help assess your library collection and identify strengths and areas of needs, and make decisions about purchases and weeding. It's one of the best tools we have as we advocate for our libraries and make our collections the best they can be. 

Let's use this Padlet to share our weeding tips, tricks and procedures we have for our libraries.  We can share advice, resources, tools, etc.. This is the perfect time of year to share, friends. 

I hope you find these posts and tips helpful, friends.  I can't wait to hear the weeding processes and procedures you have for your library collections too.  

Let's Celebrate May the 4th...Star Wars Day With This Choice Board For Creating, Exploring, Learning, Coding, & Fun!

                 

It's almost time for one of our favorite days coming up on May the 4th....Star Wars Day! 

On this day, there are lots of exciting, educational, creative and fun ways to celebrate.  We tie in lots of STEAM, art, coding, reading and learning online to this day and throughout the week. 

To kick off our celebration, I created this choice board, Let's Celebrate Star Wars Day With This Choice Board. You will find the link to share with students here.   

If you would like to make a copy to edit, you can get a copy here. 

I also made a version that includes space and planets articles from... 

...PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next so our students can research and learn about these topics for Star Wars Day. 

With the information they learn from PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next, students can then go to PebbleGo Create/Buncee to create their very own May the 4th Be With You PebbleGo Create/Buncee story or poster.  

There are tons of space related stickers, animations and backgrounds to choose from in PebbleGo Create/ Buncee by Capstone. I uploaded a few I found online to use and they can even turn themselves into an astronaut like Buncee Man. 

You will find this version with PebbleGo and Pebble Go Create/Buncee to share with students here.  You can make edits to this choice board here.  If you have PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next, you will want to add links to those articles. 

In addition to the choice boards, we are going to set up different stations and activities for our students.  Here are some of the resources we are going to use.  

The Anthony Herrera Designs site has amazing Star Wars Snowflakes. 

You can download the snowflake patterns so students can create their own.  You will find the site here.

The Star Wars Day May The 4th Be With You site has lots of special resources and information too. You can visit it here. 

I love the cooking and...

...craft activities.  

And this Star Wars Day Activity Kit is packed full of games, recipes and more!  You will find it here.

I hope you have fun planning a Star Wars Day Celebration for your community.  I can't wait to see what you and your students have planned. 

Honoring AANHPI Month With Hanna Kim's Wonderful Capstone Series, Ben Lee! Read How Identity Shaped Her Writing Too.

 

May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month.  I am bringing together a display in our library from authors and illustrators to celebrate and honor AANHPI month. 

One of the series that I have highlighted is Ben Lee from Capstone. 

Hanna Kim is the author of the Ben Lee series. She is also a middle school English language arts teacher. 
Hanna wrote this wonderful post, How Identify Shaped My Writing.  You will love reading her story and learning more about the Ben Lee series too. 

You can find the four Ben Lee books here on Capstone's site. 

You've Been Virtually Book'd With These 18 Books For Children's Book Week! Check Out This List & Choice Board From Titlewave Here, Friends.

Children's Book Week is coming up next week on May 6-May 12, 2024.  

As shared on the Every Child A Reader site, 

As part of the longest-running national celebration of books for young people and the joy of reading, over 2,300 schools, libraries, and bookstores will celebrate Children’s Book Week from May 6 to May 12 from coast to coast in all 50 states.

This year marks the 105th anniversary of Children’s Book Week; the theme for this year’s celebration is No Rules. Just Read. The 2024 Children’s Book Week poster was created by Sophie Blackall. Sophie invites readers young and old to join the fun as the year’s official spokesperson.

As we prepare for this special week, I brought together 18 books that celebrate Children's Book Week in so many meaningful and special ways. 

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 18 Children's Book Week books I included in this choice board. 

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

...grabbed the links to each book.   

This is easy to do.  You just search for the book, 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 Books For Children's Book Week choice board will pop up where they can read more about each book, and even read the eBooks where they are attached. 

I am excited about this list of 18 special new books 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.

Have a wonderful Children's Book Week, friends. 

Join The LIVE Flip Event With Matt Miller, A Vision for An Artificial Intelligence Future!

 

Join our friends at Flip for a special Q&A with author, educator, and visionary Matt Miller as we explore how AI is changing education. This special event will take place on June 12, 2024 at 10:00 AM PT.

Matt will share practical ideas from his book, AI For Educators, Learning Strategies, Teacher Efficiencies, and a Vision for an Artificial Intelligence Future and answer questions to help us all explore new possibilities for using AI in class to transform teaching and learning. 

Whether you are new to AI or already using it in your classroom, this Q&A session will inspire you to think creatively and critically about the role of AI in education and how you can prepare your students for an AI-driven future.

You can register for this FREE event here. I can't wait to learn from Matt. 

Join Our Video Campaign, "A Day in the Life of a Future Ready Librarian", Friends. Submit Your Video By May 30, 2024.

 

Friends, we would love for you to join our video campaign, "A Day in the Life of a Future Ready Librarian," and spotlight the transformative work happening in your library. 

Share how collaboration, diverse collections, and Future Ready Librarians principles guide your practice.

Submit your 90-second video by May 30, 2024, and inspire others with your story. 

Selected videos will be featured on our website and social media. 

Join us today and let's illuminate the essential role of school libraries together. 

You can submit your videos here https://futureready.link/video

We can't wait to see what you share! 

Let's Celebrate and Learn About Cinco de Mayo Choice Board!

                    

On May 5, we celebrate Cinco de Mayo.  Here is a choice board that that our students and teachers can use to learn about Cinco de Mayo through articles, songs, art and more. 

You can share this link with your students.  You can also make edits by making a copy of the choice board here.

I included the Cinco de Mayo PebbleGo article and...

...Share What You Know activity.  This doesn't have to be done on this paper.  It could just be completed on a plain sheet of paper using this as a guide.  Students could also use it as a conversation starter and talk to a friend about what they learned about Cinco de Mayo.  

Have fun celebrating this special holiday with your students and school community too. 

It's Here, Friends....Our May Choice Board!

                   

It's here, friends!  Our May 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 May 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.

There are also several choice boards embedded.  

Under the Learn about celebrate special events in May column, there are two including...

...the Cinco de Mayo Choice Board that you will find here in this post and...

...Star Wars Day...May the 4th Be With You Choice Board that you will find here in this post. 

Under the Read column, I have created a choice board for Children's Book Week on May 6-12, 2024.  You will find it here in this post. 

I hope you and your students have a wonderful May and lots of fun exploring all of the choice boards this month.