December 31, 2010 - Happy New Year already???

Good morning! It's 7 o'clock on Friday, December 31, the last day of this year, 2010.  I just had breakfast and, while I was finishing my orange juice, I hopped on the computer to wish a Happy New Year to my brother Mark who is working in Antarctica. Because right this minute, while I'm still in slippers having my Friday breakfast, Mark has already started his new day - Saturday, January 1, 2011. It's already tomorrow and it's already the new year where he is! Isn't that odd? It's because my brother Mark is in a different time zone.

Time zones are man-made technology. Back in the old (old!) days, people measured time by noticing where the sun was: it appeared in the morning, it was overhead at noon, and it set in the evening. But then clocks were invented to tell time and that created a real problem. How could the sun be overhead at 12 o'clock noon in places like New Hampton, California, Africa, Japan - all at the same time? It can't, because the our Big Blue Ball turns in space and the sun is overhead in different parts of the world at different times. So someone invented time zones so that it's 12 o'clock noon in whatever places on Earth the sun is overhead. And, because there are 24 hours in the day, there are 24 time zones on Earth - and 24 noontimes! That also means there are 24 midnights - which is why my brother Mark has already had his midnight and it's already tomorrow, January 1st!

This is pretty good technology but it can also be confusing. Here's a short video that tells about time zones. And click here for a world clock that will show you what time it is where you live and in other parts of the world.

So Happy New Year to all you kids in New Hampton - in about 17 hours!

My brother in Antarctica-

that's a sleeping seal on the ice behind him!

Vacation!

Finally we have some snow to play in - and for vacation, too! I hope everyone gets outside and has some winter fun!

This is from a comic strip I read. I thought this one was funny so I emailed the creator and he said I could share this with you! I hope you're all having as much fun as this kid!

Holiday Fun

There are lots of places online where you can play games with a Christmas theme. Here are a few activities you might like to try:

Make a gingerbread friend at Jan Brett's website:
http://www.janbrett.com/trim_a_jan_brett_gingerbread_friend.html

Decorate a Christmas cookie here!
http://sprintsweets.com/

Even though there's not much snow this December, you can still make a virtual snowman at this site:
http://cyke.com/snowman.swf

Check out the Christmas fun on Kidopop. Looks like lots of other fun there, too! http://www.kidopo.com/

See where Santa is in his travels using this NORAD site. Track Santa using Google Maps or Google Earth. Just be sure you're sleeping when he passes over New Hampton! Merry Christmas!

A Gift for You!

In school, we use many free programs but our favorite one is TuxPaint! It's introduced at the kindergarten level, then used quite a bit by the primary grade children for projects and work and also for "play". Even the older kids love TuxPaint - though they don't use it for class at that age!

TuxPaint is a free download for Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems. You can find more about this program at the TuxPaint website - and you can download your own copy to use at home!

Lunar Eclipse

Fifth graders, here's the time-lapse video of the lunar eclipse that we were unable to watch in ICT class. When the photographer put these pictures in sequence, he added some music to his show to make it even more interesting.

Be sure to watch how the shadow of the sun slowly covers the face of the moon. And why do you suppose the moon appears so red at total eclipse stage?

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse from William Castleman on Vimeo.

The next total eclipse of the moon will be in June 2011! But you won't be able to see it from anywhere in North America. Too bad!

The Winner!

The winner of the 2010 Ladybug Award is Princess Hyacinth, the surprising story of a girl who floated. It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Princess Hyacinth!

Princess Hyacinth is a girl with a strange problem. She floats. So she doesn't float in the air, she has a heavy crown. She has heavy clothes. These weight her down so she doesn't float away. One day, she takes off all the heavy clothes and off she floats in her Royal Underwear.

This book has wonderful pictures by Lane Smith. Author Florence Parry Heide tells a very funny and unique story. When she writes, she uses a writing technique called voice. It sounds like the author is talking directly to you, the reader. Here's an example: "Well, you're saying, everyone has a problem. But this was an unusual problem."

Even disappointed kids who voted for other books believe that Princess Hyacinth was a good choice for this year's Ladybug Award. If you want to see the voting results for the rest of the nominated books, just click here.

FoodPlay

That FoodPlay show you all went to sounds like it was fun! It also sounds like you all learned some new facts about food and how the choices you make can affect your body. Good to know!


If you want to see more FoodPlay, visit their website at www.foodplay.com/. There's lots of food related information there and so much to see and do - there's even a video you can watch if you want to learn to juggle! Keep making those good food choices!

Countdown to Christmas

Some of you might like the website below. For each day in December, there's a link to information about how Christmas is observed in different countries. For instance, in the Netherlands, children put carrots in their shoes! Why? Click around this website to find the answer!

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/calendar/index.html 

Time to Vote!

The votes for the Ladybug Award are in - at least for New Hampton Community School!! And it's Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep by a nose! After listening to the third graders' Ladybug Award Podcast, here's how K-3 NHCS students voted. These results will be sent to the Center for the Book in Concord and will be combined with the votes of primary grade children from all over New Hampshire. The winner will be announced sometime in December - we'll post those results here as well!

NHCS Ladybug Podcast 2010

Click below to listen to the NHCS Ladybug Podcast 2010, written and recorded by the third graders. Which book will you vote for?

Powered by Podbean.com

Thanksgiving!

Think you know a lot about this holiday and the people who inspired it? The folks at NHPTV and Granite State Challenge have a two holiday quizzes for elementary students - test your knowledge about Pilgrims, then try the one about Thanksgiving. If you get a wrong answer, the quiz will tell you the correct one - and that will help you learn! Get a family member and give them both a try!

Ladybug Book #9: Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep

Second grade listened to Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep. It's about a bear who can't hear very well and is really tired because it's time to hibernate. Every time Old Man Winter said to go to sleep, the bear thought he said something that rhymed with it. Instead of going to sleep, he was driving a jeep, sweeping the house, and leaping with a frog!

The illustrations in pencil and pixels are beautiful. It's a silly story but some of us will still vote for it. It's a pretty good book!

Animoto Slideshows

For several weeks, fourth graders have been busy making slideshows with photos taken during Riverday this fall. The slideshows were built on a web 2.0 site called Animoto, where any user can upload pictures to create a free slide show. The accompanying music was chosen from freeplaymusic.com. When slide shows were complete, each fourth grader downloaded a copy of his or her slide show to include in digital portfolios.

Below is a sample of the work done. This slideshow is described by its creator as "a walk through nature at the edge of Profile Falls and the woods and plants on the shore." This student did a wonderful job of capturing the beauty of the environment and the day!

Ladybug Book #8: Princess Hyacinth

Here's another Ladybug book with a subtitle: the surprising tale of a girl who floated!
Princess Hyacinth always floated on the air. She had to be buckled and strapped in and she had to wear a big heavy crown and socks that had diamonds and weights in her dress. Princess Hyacinth wanted to have fun outside and she was bored because she couldn't. She really wanted to float outside the palace.
This story was so funny because it talked about Royal Underwear! The author is Florence Parry Heide and she's 91 years old!

Ladybug Book #7: Otis

Otis is a tractor.
He loves living at the farm.
He makes friends with a little calf.
The problem in the book is that the little calf gets stuck in the mud.
The resolution is that Otis goes round and round and the calf comes out.

Otis the tractor reminds us of Thomas the Tank Engine because they both have steam and they are both have fuel.

Ladybug Book #6: The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes To School

This week we have begun to read The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School by Laurie Halse Anderson. It's the story of a little girl with long, wild red hair. Sometimes in the story, Zoe's hair seems to have a mind of its own!

Second grade made several text-to-text connections to this funny book. One student compared it to Moosetache by Margi Palatini because, in that story, Moose's wild mustache gets in the way of what Moose wants to do. Another comparison was to the fairy tale Rapunzel. Just as Zoe Fleefenbacher used her hair to be handy and helpful, Rapunzel used her hair as a rope ladder for visitors to enter her tower room.

The solar system plays an important part in this book. We looked at an animation of the solar system (it's a drawing that moves!) to help us understand what was going to happen in the story. What Zoe's hair did at the end of the story was really funny!

Ladybug Book #5: The Circus Ship

The Circus Ship is by Chris Van Dusen, an author/illustrator who lives in Maine. Mark has been busy preparing a book talk for a podcast later this fall and, when he emailed the author a question, Mr. Van Dusen wrote back! We love getting information directly from the source!

Here's what Mark has to say about the book:

The Circus Ship is about the mean circus boss, Mr. Paine, and all his circus animals. The story begins on the circus ship, then moves to an island when the animals swim there. The best part of the story is when the animals all hide from Mr. Paine! This book is so funny and I hope it wins the Ladybug Award!

Happy Halloween!

For online Halloween fun, a few websites just for you!

Trick or Treat: Find the shortest routes that will visit all houses and still get you back home before the pumpkin!
Pumpkin carving: Click and drag the mouse to carve the pumpkin.
Make a pumpkin: Click and drag to add features to the pumpkin.
Skeleton Dance: Complete the puzzle to make the skeletons dance!
Halloween with Boowa and Kwala: Puzzles, games, crafts, and singing ghosts!
Online Halloween Games from Ben & Jerry, the ice cream guys!
The Typing of the Ghosts: Ghosts disappear when you type the words on them. Keep your fingers on the home row keys!
Fourth and fifth graders, the link to the page with the Skulduggery Pleasant book trailer is here, at the bottom of the "Book Trailers" list.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Ladybug Book #4: Creaky Old House

Kindergarten and first grade listened to the story Creaky Old House, by Linda Ashman. It's an amusing story about a family who tries to fix up the old house that they love living in.

Jacob thought the story started funny when Pa opened the door and the knob fell right off. Max liked when the light landed on Grandpa when he found a new doorknob that he thought was perfect. Caroline's favorite part was when they finally realized that doorknob was too long!

Zoe laughed because the new door the family bought was too wide. Bailey thought their plans for fixing up their house were amazing! Brady liked that the baby in the house fixed the big problem and Keith thought it was pretty funny that the family did all that work for nothing!

The subtitle of this book is A Topsy-Turvy Tale of a Real Fixer-Upper! Just as a subway goes under the ground and a submarine goes under the water, a subtitle goes under the regular title of the book. It really is a topsy-turvy tale and we all agree that this is a very interesting and exciting book! And Michael Chesworth's illustrations are so full of detail they're just fantastic!

NHCS Weather Station

Mrs. Sawicki has set up a weather station for our school!! She got the funding for the weather equipment from the New Hampton Conservation Commission with the help of local resident Pat Schlesinger. Mr. Sawicki from Winnepesauke Electric helped with the wiring and installation. Plymouth State University donated an old computer and the Sawickis supplied the peripherals. Steve Gunn, a weather enthusiast from Bristol, helped with the free software and the link to the Weather Underground, where our collected data will be reported out to the whole world. What an amazing community effort!!

If you're interested in seeing our data, here's the link for our weather station. If it's just the current conditions or the forecast you want, look in the sidebar over here ---> or on the home page of the NHCS website.

Fourth graders will continue to report the morning weather conditions and the daily forecast to all our classrooms - but when they do, they'll be using up-to-the-minute information collected right here at our school. How's that for a real-world application of technology? Thanks to all the people who made that happen!

Ladybug Book #3: Birds

Birds is written by Kevin Henkes and illustrated by Laura Dronzek. Here's what some second graders said about the story:

The pictures really look like birds because of the shape and the vivid colors.

I liked the tree that looked like it said "Surprise!"because it was fun.

The snow picture looked a little like space - the snowflakes looked like stars!

The pictures in this book actually tell the story!

The NHCS Library Media Center purchased this book last year. It's wonderful to have a book in our collection be nominated for the Ladybug Award!

Type at Home

Fourth and fifth graders are gearing up for another year with Type to Learn 4. You love this program! Some are disappointed to find that they cannot access Type to Learn at home, so I promised a few web-based alternatives to practice keyboarding:

TypingWeb:  at www.typingweb.com.
There are ads on this site, shown mostly while pages load. Don't bother with them, don't click on them. Just wait for the free program, which has lots of levels and starts right off with the home row keys, where your fingers need to rest. It will ask you to create an account before you start - but to practice, you really don't need to.

PowerTyping: at www.powertyping.com/. 
Not the prettiest typing program but it has the lessons you'll need! It's good practice!

BBC DanceMat Typing at www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ 
This keyboarding website from England and it's fun! Start at Level One and work your way up!

Bubbles: at www.typingmaster.com/individuals/bubbles.asp. 
A fun game to help you practice your typing skills. In the game your goal is to burst the bubbles by pressing the correct key. Have fun!

Kids Learn 2 Type: http://kids.learn2type.com/
To use this one, you do need to create a free account, so ask a trusted adult to do that for you. 

Free Online Typing Course: http://www.goodtyping.com/

Keyboarding and Typing Skills: http://www.dillon2.k12.sc.us/students/keyboardingskills.asp

Ladybug Book #2: Bad Boys Get Henpecked

Alliteration is when words that go together have the same beginning sound, like this: brownish-blue beach ball. The second Ladybug Award nominated book we read was full of alliteration!

Bad Boy Get Henpecked is about two "bad, bad, really bad" wolves who try to fool a chicken into being their dinner! But in the end, the chicken is champ and the bad boys have PB & J. This book is very funny and we all loved it. We heard examples of alliteration on almost every page!

The author's name is Margie Palatini. Click here for her wonderful welcoming website!

2010 NH Ladybug Award

Each year, a panel of NH librarians choose ten new picture books as nominees for The Ladybug Award, an state award given annually based on the votes of young New Hampshire students. Voting takes place in November so most NHCS K-3 ICT classes in the fall feature the reading of one of the nominated picture books. After all, voters need to well-informed! Ask your student about them and we'll try to include some information about each of them on this blog as well. As Voting Day draws closer, our discussions about which book deserves to win inevitably become livelier!

Connections

This week, as classes listened to stories or chapters of books, we learned about the mental connections good readers make as they read. Sometimes a book reminds the reader of a personal experience - this is called a text-to-self connection. Often a story reminds the reader of another book. This type of connection is called text-to-text. Finally, the reader may be reminded of something that has gone on in the town, the country, or the world. This is a text-to-world connection.
Younger children listened to a story called The Messiest Desk by New Hampshire author Marty Kelley. It's the story of a student whose desk was so messy and gross that he got lost inside it! There were many text-to-self connections as children shared about messy bedrooms or closets or desks at school. There were text-to-text connections between this book and Too Many Toys by David Shannon, the story of a boy with so many toys that his whole house is messy! Finally, there was a text-to-world connection between The Messiest Desk and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - both were huge messes!
As you read a book or listen to a story, think of and talk about all the connections you can make! It's challenging and it's fun - and it's what good readers do!

Technology Defined

a yoyo - a car - a vacuum cleaner - a clock

Technology is something that's made or invented by a person to make work easier or to make play more fun. 
First grade listened to If You Take A Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff and found all sorts of technology in the illustrations. Then they drew pictures to show other types of technology they have at home.
What sorts of technology do you have at your house? How does it make your work easier or your play more fun? Leave a comment and let us know!

The Book Fair is Coming!

The Scholastic Book Fair is on its way to NHCS and is due to arrive this Tuesday! Since I'm not in New Hampton on Tuesdays, Mrs. McDonald has volunteered to help set it up so we are ready for Preview Day on Wednesday! Sales will commence Thursday morning and continue during the day and after school until 3pm. The Book Fair will reopen around 5:30pm, just in time for the Potluck Supper and Open House! Friday morning will be the  last opportunity to buy books, with volunteers coming around to classrooms to help last minute shoppers.
See you at the Book Fair!

Back to School

The LMC is decorated with
Eric Carle colors!

Welcome to another school year at New Hampton Community School! It was a busy and productive summer here in the Library Media Center, but it sure is wonderful to see children again! Lots of new things are going on here with details to come in subsequent posts. In the meantime, everyone has had their introductory ICT (Information and Communication Technology) class and, in the next few weeks, we'll be settling back into our routine.
Open House is earlier this year - it's on September 9th. The Book Fair will be here as well! Welcome back to school!

Summer Learning

Maybe some of you kids will click on the LMC blog find this posting. Perhaps you'll wonder what it is. This summer I've been working hard to learn more about technology from the teachers at the Plymouth Writing Project. For an assignment, I made this online poster with links to some of the things we do in ICT class. It's not finished yet, but you can try it out if you want. Click around to see where the poster links can take you. Just leave me a comment below and let me know what you think of it!



One more thing: be sure to scroll down to the next post and read about summer reading. There's still plenty of time to read, you know! Is anyone is going to the summer reading program at the library? Leave a comment and tell us all about it!

Summertime - and the reading is easy...

Summer's here and it's a great time to read! The Gordon-Nash Library has its summer reading program starting soon so head on down there and check it out. Here's a list of great summer reads from the folks at Reading Rockets. Check out the videos of summer reading books at YahooKids! Borders has a program for kids' summer reading: read 10 books (any ones you like!), download and complete the form, and bring it into the store to get a free book! They're Double-Dog-Dare-ing you to do this!
Reading a good book? Tell us about it in the comment space, below. What's it about? Why do you like it? Which parts are the best and why? Do you recommend it to other summer readers?
Look over on the right in the sidebar, under the crazy analog clock. There's a poll about places to read in the summertime. What's your favorite reading spot? Vote, then see the results so far!
Have a wonderful summer of fun - and reading!

Cyberbullying

In the last weeks of school in ICT class, fourth and fifth grade students were involved in activities and discussions about online behaviors and cyberbullying. Here's the link to the information sent home with students.

Spend some time this summer with your child learning about the ways he or she uses (or wants to use!) technology. Ask questions and encourage demonstrations of knowledge and skills. Kids love to show what they know!

Social Networking and More

Thanks to the parents and students who attended last night's meeting on Facebook privacy, online safety, and cyberbullying. We had brief presentation and then lots of good discussion about the importance of (and the frustrations with) keeping our students safe online. If you missed the meeting, two of the handouts are available, here and here.

We all agreed that the internet is much different now for our children than it was even five short years ago. It takes all of us to be sure online experiences for your student are safe - and fun!

Special thank-yous to Mrs. Cook, our Guidance Councilor and to NHCS's DARE Officer Jeff Cagle for contributing their expertise to this evening. Stay tuned! More to come next year!!

Famous NH Fourth Graders

Mr. McCann's fourth graders made an iMovie of their recorded presentations about famous NH personalities. They took artwork they scanned previously and, through the magic of technology (actually, chroma editing software ), they inserted their digital drawings behind their digital selves.
Students made titles slides, then compressed their movies and saved them to their digital portfolios.
Way to go, 4Mc!

Kindergarten Paints!

In ICT class, kindergartners have been painting! Using a free paint program, they've learned about brush sizes and color selection and how to use "Magic" to fill color inside the lines.

This student made a scuba diver swimming under water. In the coming weeks, children will be drawing and painting a picture that will become the first artifact in their digital portfolios!

The program we use is called TuxPaint and it's free! You can download your own copy right here!

Finding a "Just Right" Book

What do you look for in a good book? How do you choose what to read? First graders have been working on answering that question and have come up with the Goldilocks Rules for Finding a Just-Right Book!

Each child typed his or her book-finding tip on a Powerpoint slide, then posed while a friend photographed them demonstrating it. Pictures and slides were combined, a background color was chosen, and some even inserted a decorative line around their photo. All slides were combined into a show that will be copyrighted to the first graders. It will be saved and played from year to year to show other students some of the steps to take to find that "just right" book!

Scanning

Fourth graders have been scanning artwork done with Mrs. Plante-Renault for use in an ICT project. Wait til you see where it ends up!

Facebook

Most adults will admit that Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with the lives of friends and relatives. Some in my generation think it's downright amazing! But as adults, we understand well the permanence of placing pictures, words, even private thoughts on Facebook. We know that we need to word our status updates and comments carefully since the message will not have the support of vocal inflections, facial expressions, and body language. We understand privacy issues and the likelihood that we may be targeted by ads or have our information searched out or shared by others. We are aware of what we can and can't, what we should and shouldn't, post online.

Facebook's Terms of Service, aka Statement of Rights & Responsibilities state that "You will not use Facebook if you are under 13." Did the folks at Facebook arbitrarily choose this number? Or did they know something about preteens? Although children this age are fearlessly able and adept to make almost any technology work, they do not always know or understand the subtle details and ramifications of what they've done.

As an ICT Specialist, I would like to be able to use authentic tools like Facebook to teach children about the ethical and moral aspects of social networking. Unfortunately, due to school policies (and the above mentioned age restriction, of course), that's not possible. If your son or daughter has a Facebook page, I trust you as parents are instilling that important piece of online responsibility.

If you're not sure if your child has a Facebook page, just ask. If s/he does, ask to see it. From time to time, do a Google search with the term Facebook and your child's name to find out what's publicly available about your child online. Monitor your child's computer use and have family guidelines related to technology. And above all, always know what all your children are doing online.

Many Ways to Concord

Using GoogleMaps, third graders tracked many different routes to get from New Hampton to Concord - straight down Route 93, south on 132 to Route 4, out through Bristol and Franklin...

We discussed how the internet is a lot like the roads to Concord. There are so many different ways to get from the student to the information the student seeks! We learned about effective searching and choosing keywords that will lead to the correct information. We learned about directories and saw how they're set up in categories and subcategories.

We tried out the search engine and directory features for YahooKids, KidsClick, AskKids, and Quintara for Kids. We looked at the number of hits for a keyword using KidsClick and compared it to the same search using Google. Kids' search engines usually only show results that are readable and useful for students, making finding what we want a LOT easier!

Slide Shows

In ICT class, fourth graders chose from a selection of pictures and free music to build an online slide show at the free multimedia site Animoto. Here's an example of one showing the Inuksuks the children made in Mr. McCann's class last fall.

2010 Caldecott

Here's the winner of this year's Caldecott Award - The Lion & The Mouse, a wordless picture book illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. NHCS students looked at the book this week in ICT classes. Through it, children saw that pictures really can tell a story!

If you're interested in reading the story, which is an Aesop's Fable, there are a few online versions here and here!

States & Capitals

Concord, New Hampshire...Boston, Massachusetts...Montpelier, Vermont...

In The World According to Humphrey, students in Room 26 are learning the capitals of the 50 United States. Here are a few games to play if you'd like to practice and learn them yourself! How many can you remember?

Awards Month

January is a big month in the world of children's literature. Two of the most well-known book awards are given out this month - the Caldecott Award for the best picture book of the year and the Newbery Award for the best children's book. This year, the winners will be announced at 7:45 next Monday morning. I will try to order the winning books from Borders as soon as I know them - but I am reading that the winning books sell out of stores within minutes of the announcement!

In ICT class this week, some of us looked at a movie of a book that had won the Caldecott Award in years past. To see more, click right here!

One Book/One School

This weekend, NHCS families begin reading The World According to Humphrey by Betty Birney. This book was chosen because staff thought it would appeal to all ages - doesn't everyone think hamsters are cute and funny? You'll think Humphrey is!

Your family's copy of the book was sent home Friday along with reading calendars and trivia question and answer forms. You can also download the paperwork by clicking on each of the links in this post.

We hope you and your family will have fun reading this book together. And I'd love to hear your comments. Post them below!