TWIMA Project

Last semester our 2nd graders wrote research poems to include in the The World is my Audience ebook project (#TWIMA). This little project started on Twitter and quickly grew into a global ebook of poems about countries and states. Students from the United States along with countries like Australia, Canada, and Slovenia participated. Our 2nd graders were thrilled to see their work being displayed around the world!

To read The World is My Audience, click here. 

(Our section starts on page 11)

Career Talk: Let's Talk Tech!

This week Mr. Rex Bomhold visited our 3rd graders to talk about his job as a Systems Analyst. He shared with us his love of math and science and how that led him to his career. He started as a computer programmer and eventually started helping others solve problems. He enjoys his career because he gets to see patterns, solve problems, but most importantly help others. As he closed his talk, he also shared with us a neat toy that used the first microchip called, Simon! Thanks for the talk, Mr. Rex!

Our rocketeers give Simon a shot! 

Career Talk: Chatting with CybraryMan!

This week our 3rd graders talked to Mr. Jerry "Cybraryman" about writing books. Our teacher, Mrs Deyamport knows Mr. Jerry from Twitter and was very excited to have him speak to our budding authors. Mr. Jerry shared the process he goes through to publish books. First he starts with an idea or inspiration and then continues to do research to narrow his topic. Once he finishes his first draft and makes edit, he receives a dummy copy of his book before it is published. He also showed us an author's role in choosin the artwork or illustrations for a book. Can you believe it took him about a year to publish a book?! This shows us that writing a book takes time, but is so worth it in the end! Thank you for the advice Mr. Jerry! We can't wait to start writing our own own books.

Below are some Thank You letters from our class:

Dear Mr. Jerry, 

Thank you for telling us how to write books and telling us your opinion. I really liked it because I have a lot of trouble writing stories. I want to write speeches to use when I get old enough to do debate. My favorite pictures were the ones that were edited, but keeping some of the things from the non-edited pictures. 

Sincerely, 

Miyuru

Dear  Mr. Jerry, 

Thank you so much! I think that it must have been hard and fun to come up with the words! I'd liked it because you taught us about how hard illustrating can be. 

From, 

Zoe 

Dear Mr. Jerry, 

Thank you so much for all the information about writing a book and what you need to do to write a book. I really liked it because we got to ask you a lot of questions about writing a book! 

Sincerely, 

Trevor 

Dear Mr. Jerry, 

Thank you so much for telling us the steps a write does and how long it took to write a book on the safety of the world wide web. I really liked it because I got to talk to someone who has been into it. 

Sincerely, 

Anthony 

Dear Mr. Jerry, 

Thank you for telling us about yourself. I really liked it because I love books! You're a great author! 

Sincerely, 

Aubri 

Dear Mr. Jerry, 

I love how you let us look at your comic books and at your superheroes, and letting us ask you questions. I really enjoyed it. 

Sincerely, 

Alexis 

The "Code" Never Bothered Us Anyway!

This week our students have participated in the Hour of Code. This is a campaign hosted by code.org to get students interested and started with the basics of code or coding. Coding is basically the language that we use with computers. Different codes tell computers what to do and we see this everyday in our lives, especially with games.

While the idea of coding may seem a bit intimidating and complicated at first, we tried the tutorials on Angry Birds and Frozen to get us started. These tutorials helped us practice some basic lines of code. All throughout, we practiced working in groups (Group Dynamics) and problem solving. After completing the tutorials we also received a certificate for our participation in the Hour of Code. This goes to show that "the code never bothered us anyway!"

Play some of the Flappy Games we made below.
(Click on each student's name to play their game.)

Rachel 

Addam 

Jakyri 

Centirea

Destiney 

Eugene

Books Galore!

Today, Dr. Bomhold visited our 3rd graders to discuss her career as a librarian specialist. She is a "super" librarian, who trains future librarians at our local university. Dr. Bomhold discussed how libraries are important for not only finding books to read for pleasure, but for research as well. As information professionals, librarians are also responsible for organizing and purchasing books. As an activity, Dr. Bomhold shared some books from her personal collection and had students organize them into categories such as animals and adventure. Students had to scan the books as well as determine and justify how to categorize them. Finally, students picked 3 books to not "purchase" for the library and pick a favorite to share with the class. We also received a book and a notebook to continue our journey with literacy. Thanks so much, Dr. Bomhold!