Author/Illustrators Lori Cook and Trahern Cook Visit WHES

Author/illustrators Trahern& Lori Cook are visiting @Woodland_Hgts! Gertie the Christmas Ostrich! pic.twitter.com/yKFyBa745h

— Elizabeth Graham (@Libscigal) December 17, 2015

Hour of Code 2015

#HourOfCode 2015 2nd Grade loves @codeorg tutorials, learning in the library #edtec https://t.co/SwnzTtVqrF pic.twitter.com/l04uylvNGa

— Elizabeth Graham (@Libscigal) December 9, 2015

Fun times with 4th grade girls @Woodland_Hgts #girlscodetoo #HourOfCode pic.twitter.com/nIUhTJACzz

— Elizabeth Graham (@Libscigal) December 11, 2015

Student Book Review: Tiny Titans: Penguins in the Batcave

Tiny Titans: Penguins in the Batcave by Art Baltazar & Franco 

Book Review by Richard L.

This book is about Robin, Beast Boy and Aqua Lad in the Bat Cave. 

Three things I like about this book:

1. It is funny.
2. It is fun to read Tiny Titans.
3. You do not know what will happen next.

Ready for a Whole Week of the Hour of Code

@codeorg @Woodland_Hgts Started our Hour of Code a little early! pic.twitter.com/kvEgTkXGZG

— Elizabeth Graham (@Libscigal) November 24, 2015

UNICEF 2015

This year Woodland Heights participated in the Trick or Treat for UNICEF program. Students collected change and dollars to send to UNICEF, the United Nation's Children's Fund. All together our students raised $235.59!

Second Grade Animal Tagxedos

During this week's library classes, 2nd graders created group Tagxedo word clouds to share what they have learned in class about owls, bats and spiders. Great work second graders!

Mrs. Dickerson's Class

Mrs. Schachner's Class

Ms. Tiller's Class

Ms. Josey's Class

 

Guest Reader: Welcome Back Mr. Dearybury!

We had a special guest in the library this week: Jed Dearybury (Mr. D.) stopped by to share a favorite book and lesson with Ms. Tiller's second graders. Students heard Tony DiTerlizzi's Caldecott Honor Book, The Spider and the Fly, and created spider web doodles. Written in 1829, The Spider and the Fly is a famous poem by Mary Howitt. DiTerlizzi's illustrations cast the poem in a film noir, black and white style, with a villain and a damsel in distress. Mr. D. invited the students to identify the tone and feel of the story and, no doubt, turned our 2015 students into fans of this classic poem. Link to Tony DiTerlizzi's website.

As an A.B.C. (Arts in Basic Curriculum) school, Woodland Heights is all about infusing the arts into all elements of our school. Mr. D. guided the 2nd graders through a spider web doodle activity. Check out the results below!

The Spider and the Fly image: http://www.amazon.com/The-Spider-Caldecott-Honor-Book/dp/B0012F29OM

Tagxedo Time

One of our favorite go-to tech tools in the library is Tagxedo.
Tagxedo has many applications and uses for technology integration.
Ideas to inspire: 101 Ways to Use Tagxedo. 

This week our 5th graders are creating Tagxedos as the final product in their Animal Research unit. Students conducted research in class with Mrs. Felton and compiled a list of terms to describe their chosen animal. These terms are used to create an animal Tagxedo. Here are some examples of students' Animal Tagxedos:

Areya's Sea Turtle

Alia's African Elephant

Cooper's Hippo

Monster Book Fair!

WHES Children's Book Week

Dot Week is Here!

Celebrate courage and creativity this week (September 15) with International #DotDay! http://t.co/BXWOJ6mIAk pic.twitter.com/ZAdEFzlsbh

— Educator Innovator (@innovates_ed) September 13, 2015

Reading Goals Padlet

Padlet is a web tool that allows students to share their thoughts and ideas on a virtual bulletin board. This week 4th and 5th grade students added books they want to read this year to the following Padlet. Tiny Titans, Captain Awesome and The One and Only Ivan received multiple mentions. I can't wait to see our students achieve their reading goals this year!

Created with Padlet

WHES Library 2015-16

Fall Book Order is here! https://t.co/bSjatOJba8

— Elizabeth Graham (@Libscigal) July 24, 2015

Week One: Back to School!

K5-2nd library students will get @itspeterbrown Spotlight: My Teacher is a Monster & Mr. Tiger Goes Wild. Week #1! pic.twitter.com/92081u4xAo

— Elizabeth Graham (@Libscigal) August 17, 2015

Summer Learning: Use WHES Super Websites Symbaloo!

Keep the learning going all summer! Students and parents are encouraged to use the WHES Super Websites Symbaloo as a source for SUPER learning sites.

Thank You Peer Helpers!

As school came to an end, we said good-bye to our AWESOME 5th grade library peer helpers. These students gave up one day of recess a week to come help in the library. These students were such a big help and we will miss them!

We didn't get pictures with everyone, but here are two of the best: Nya and Charity. Best of luck next year!

"Bring Them Back" Library Book Parody Video

A gentle reminder from the Media Center...we had fun playing these to our classes these past few weeks.

Twitter Talk - Spreading the Word about DonorsChoose

Help my awesome librarian friend get her @DonorsChoose project funded!!! Click, Give, Feel Proud! https://t.co/3PGqbb9x0Q

— Jed (@mrdearybury1) May 21, 2015

As always, thanks for your support Mr. Dearybury! DonorsChoose has done so much for our library and school.

Smore Extreme Weather Flyers: Thursday's 4th Grade Class

Here are links to Smore digital flyers created by the Thursday 4th grade library class. Students chose either thunderstorms, tornadoes, or hurricanes and then designed a safety informational flyer.

Amaria and Jacob
Demareous and Damarcus
Kori and Ayden
Starla and Abbie
Chase
Taylor and Victoria
Paris and Jada







Dasia and Alia's flyer:

Smore Extreme Weather Flyers: Wednesday's 4th Grade Class

Here are links to Smore digital flyers created by the Wednesday 4th grade library class. Students chose either thunderstorms, tornadoes, or hurricanes and then designed a safety informational flyer.

Jerany
Riley
Taniya
Pre'Asha
Makayla and Amiah
ZZ and Alexia
Alex and Charlie
Makyah and Alicia
Malaysia

Smore Extreme Weather Flyers by Monday's 4th Grade Class

Here are links to Smore digital flyers created by the Monday 4th grade library class. Students chose either thunderstorms, tornadoes, or hurricanes and then designed a safety informational flyer.

Jayson and Jordan
Destiny and Caden
Mirka and Jade
Kaziah and Will 
Ta'Mar and Amya
Cooper and Trinity
Jayda and Isaiah
Anthony and Tamiah
Kaleb and Are'ya
Brendan and Davin

Summer Reading Program 2015: Every Hero Has a Story!

This is a great week in the library as we host visitors from two branches of the Spartanburg County Public Library. Both the Headquarters and the Westside branches have sent librarians to Woodland Heights to promote the SCPL Summer Reading program. This year's theme is "Every Hero Has a Story" and there are lots of cool promotions, prizes and events that go along with the theme. All library classes are learning about the program and why Summer Reading is so important (and fun)!

Catie Cornwell and Isabel Smith of the Westside Branch in the Storywell

Thank you Ms. Catie and Ms. Isabel!!

Ms. Fran hanging with 3rd grade

School Library and Public Library Meet-Up

Parents, please make sure your children participate in this FREE program. Click here for much more information. This year you can even sign up on-line and the SCPL will forgive up to $10 in fines when you sign up for Summer Reading!

Avoid the Summer Slide - the usual drop in reading scores from May to August! Keep reading students!

Digital Tool of Choice: Voki

@libscigal Welcome Elizabeth Graham as our newest Voki Ambassador! Then go read her blog post! http://t.co/nL1XcjUF2s pic.twitter.com/jZEDLXqkZM

— Voki (@officialvoki) May 1, 2015

Wimpy Kid Cover Reveal - Big News!

This week we learned some exciting news - and it was a complete surprise! Like kids all over the world, Woodland Heights students love Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. A new book in the series comes out almost every fall and we are already looking forward to the release of Book 10 in November. April is Diary of a Wimpy Kid month and culminated with a worldwide event, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cover Reveal webcast. A few weeks ago our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade designed their own book 10 covers and submitted them for possible inclusion in the live webcast.

The cover reveal was held April 27th in New York City and streamed live to over 500,000 viewers. Due to scheduling, we did not view the webcast live, but were able to watch the recorded version on Tuesday morning. The excitement was high as we watched and hoped (fingers crossed)  that at least one of our cover designs would be shown in the video. Well, imagine our surprise, when not one, but 11 WHES students' covers were shown. (And one librarian's cover as well.) The students, Mrs. Graham and Mrs. Coats jumped up and down when we saw our covers!

Congratulations to:

Alicia, Alexia, Ben, Corin, Deylon, Jamir, Kairi, Michael, Olivia, Sam C. and Taquasia!!

It has been a fun week watching the webcast with different classes and seeing the students' faces when they see the cover for Book 10 and then see their artwork come on the screen. Check out some of the cover designs below.

5th Grade Word Mover Poetry

During National Poetry Month, various grades have created "found poetry" using ReadWriteThink.org's WordMover web tool. This week 5th grade students got to try and their efforts were impressive. Below are two especially noteworthy examples. 

"Misunderstood" by Tatum

Storybird Poetry by Noah

@Storybird 3rd grade students using Storybird to create visual poetry. #NationalPoetryMonth pic.twitter.com/s71oEneRhB

— Elizabeth Graham (@Libscigal) April 23, 2015

"Be" by Kada

RT @Libscigal: @RWTnow 2nd grade student poetry created with WordMover. #NationalPoetryMonth pic.twitter.com/Lffy1d8PDi
— ReadWriteThink.org (@RWTnow) April 21, 2015

National Poetry Month Activity: Storybird

April is National Poetry Month and we will have poetry centered lessons, centers and activities all month long in the Woodland Heights Library. Today I tested out Storybird's poem creator. Choose artwork from a wide variety of options and then select words that fit the picture to form a poem. Hope the third graders have fun with this!

School Library Month

Student Voki Gallery

Click below to check out our students' awesome Roaring 20s' Vokis:

Presentation Day

5th grade students present their Roaring 20s Vokis, Tagxedos, and trading cards.

Tweet from Author Kelly DiPucchio

@Libscigal Thank you for sharing Chloe and Gilbert with your awesome readers!!

— Kelly DiPucchio (@kellydipucchio) March 25, 2015

Crafty Chloe & Gilbert the Goldfish Wants a Pet

Now, that the South Carolina Book Awards season is over, we are having some fun read alouds of new picture books. Earlier this year I shared Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio with our students. Great dog story - always a favorite!



When I ordered new books I made sure to order more DiPucchio picture books, including: Crafty Chloe, Crafty Chloe: Dress-Up Mess-Up, and Gilbert Goldfish Wants a Pet. This week K4-2nd grade students have enjoyed these new books and crafty library centers. Bob Shea is the illustrator of Gilbert the Goldfish (check out the book trailer below) and we realized hat he is also the author/illustrator of another favorite new book, Unicorn Thinks He's So Great.

South Carolina Book Award Winners

Here's a graphic announcing the #SCBA winners. Feel free to use! #scasl15 @SCASLNet pic.twitter.com/uMgtv48Fnc

— Kelly Knight (@KnightReaderSC) March 13, 2015

Dr. Seuss Week

Big Plans...Coming Soon to the WHES Library!

Special Library Guest: Miss SMC 2015

On Friday, we were pleased to welcome a special guest reader to the Woodland Heights Library - Ashley Rogers, the newly crowned Miss Spartanburg Methodist College (SMC) 2015. Ashley was joined by her entourage and court AKA two of her golf teammates.

Mrs. Parris' first grade class was treated to a reading of Diane DeGroat's Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink. Afterwards, students asked Ashley questions such as, "How did you become interested in beauty pageants?" and "Do you always dress up and wear a crown?"

Thank you Ashley!

A Dog's Way Home Book Trailer

Three of our fifth grade students took their own time to create a book trailer about A Dog's Way Home by Bobbie Pyron. Great work Nya, Charity and Kendall!

Kindergarten Colors Tagxedo

This week our Kindergarten classes are reading The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers. They love the idea of each crayon having its own personality! Mrs. Summers' students each told their favorite crayon color to help make this Tagxedo:

Graphic Novels - Oh My!

Graphic novels are popular with all grades and ages of students. Fifth graders are trying their hand at making their own comic strips. Students learned about talk balloons, thought balloons, panels and sequencing. They have a choice of creating their own hand-written paper version or trying out the Comix Creator on MakeBeliefsComix.com.

Destiny Quest

 

5th grade students learned a new way to use our Follett library catalog: Destiny Quest! Destiny Quest is like Facebook or Goodreads for students. They can recommend books to each other and add books to their virtual bookshelf. Students were very excited about this new feature!

Fired up for New Books

New Books

Dork Diaries Contest

The Long Haul Contest

Donors Choose Match Opportunity - Project is 1/2 Off!

Thank you for the match offer! Donors Choose Project is now 1/2 off thanks to @ToonBooks!! http://t.co/tlN9Uqvg0E @donorschoose @akjbooks

— Elizabeth Graham (@Libscigal) January 7, 2015

New Year, New Books!

What could be better than a big shipment of new library books? That is what we received on Monday, the first day back from Christmas break.  Mrs. Graham, Mrs. Coats and our wonderful library volunteers are busy processing and preparing these books to get them out to the students as soon as possible! Excitement is building. Be on the lookout for sneak peeks of some of the awesome new books.