The JC Scholar: Fall 2018

We opened the Makerspace, with an introductory lesson about perseverance, or continuing in the face of difficulty. Ashley Spires' book, The Most Magnificent Thing, was utilized to capture the idea of trying and trying again. Students tally marked the number of times the main character tried, failed, and moved forward. Perseverance is the habit of mind we are trying to instill in all students, this year at Julian Curtiss School, within the framework of the Makerspace, regardless of subject matter or grade level.

Kindergarten kicked off their introduction to Makerspace with engineering challenges.

When we think about creativity as a precursor to engineering we help grow problem solvers.

Using the book "Not a Stick" by Antionette Portis, Keva Planks as a material, and their imaginations, kinders created their own "Not a Stick" projects. Then students were challenged to utilize ten planks to build the tallest structure they could, with the caveat that only one plank could be the foundation (touch the table). Students quickly realized they would need to try, try again to make this happen. In subsequent lessons, students also explored using packing boxes and template shapes, to make "Not a Box" and "Not a Shape" projects, respectively.

To coincide with the 1st grade unit on force and motion students explored concepts such as:

"What affects an object’s movement?" and "If you push an object, does it pushes back?" Students built balloon rockets with partners. They soon discovered that as their rocket pushed out air, the air pushed back, moving the rocket forward. Students observed how far the balloon traveled and how fast the object moved. Then students compared the difference small adjustments could make, for example; adding more air to the balloon, lengthening the string or arranging the string to be at an incline/decline instead of level. Try, try again was the motto.

Did you know that Julian Curtiss School has 1,500 individual ebooks plus loads of ebook databases so that students can accessing reading materials anytime? We do! The goal of this "virtual" part of our library is to afford students the opportunity to access high quality information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Breaking down the walls of the library to incorporate the virtual realm makes our students feel like they have superpowers. Reading is our superpower! What's yours?

Since the second graders have been learning how to access ebooks on their iPads through the Greenwich Public Schools Research Tools Page and the Online Library Catalog, a great book is never far away!

This is the year when third grade students begin to become more independent users of the library. Instead of asking for help first, they try to find the book they are looking for first, and ask for help if they cannot find what they are looking for. In order to prepare students for this leap, many lessons are given on how to utilize the GPS Research Tools, which include databases such as Follett Destiny Online Library Catalog. Long gone are the days of the card catalog!

Did you know that currently JCS has approximately 17,000 volumes in it's collection? We abundantly love reading and want your kiddo to feel the same way, so we ensure the latest and greatest books in our collection through research, professional journals, book award websites, social networking dedicated to multimedia best practices, and recommendations from your child. We also host a variety of reading events...scroll down to see more info about Pumpkin Book Characters and the Greenwich Reads Together author visit.

Students can look for the books we have in our collection on their iPads, and have been taught how to run and filter searches to find what they are looking for. They have also been given a tour of the library so they know it is organized similarly to all libraries, by category: Fiction, NonFiction, Paper Backs, Easy Readers and more. Ideally these skills will carry over when they are visiting any library outside of JCS too. If your child knows how to access high quality information about any subject matter, there is no stopping what they may become.

Interesting Fact: JC Students don't need to wait for their library class to exchange books. They are invited to return or check out books any day of the week during "Help Desk" hours, that's Monday-Friday 8:00-8:30am, 12:30-1:00pm, and 2:30-3:00pm. Students can also come for iPad help during "Help Desk" hours.

4th grade has begun to explore force and motion by building Rube Goldberg Machines. Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist who liked to draw really complicated solutions to very simple problems. Instead of simply turning the page of a book, one might roll a ball down a ramp, causing the ball to hit a box. Then the box falls over and scares a hamster. The hamster starts running on its wheel, the wheel winds up a string, and finally turns the page.

Fourth graders were challenged to design a Rube Goldberg machine of their own, one that “Pops a Balloon”. They are in the process of designing these multi-step machine. Recently, small team of students, have brainstormed and sketched ideas, while keeping in mind two important rules:

1) In the end, the machine, needs to be able to run without any help from students, once the initial motion is put into play each step must be triggered automatically by the step before it.

2) The machine should be between two and five steps total, popping the balloon by the fifth step.

Students continue to persevere as they build and improve upon their machines. This project will unfold over a 6 week period of time. See the video of our students in the throws of the planning stage below. However, more time is needed to finish the machines, so check back in our next newsletter for more! Perseverance in it's truest form.

Listening helps, but if you really want to learn, you have to write it down! Fifth grade students learned about the different components of the Greenwich Public School Research Cycle. They also learned note-taking skills such as identifying the main ideas, paraphrasing instead of copying every word, and using graphic organizers to make notes clearer and more useful. Up next citations! Giving credit where credit it due may seem confusing initially, but it's a necessary step. By giving credit to the authors, illustrators, and photographers students acknowledge the creators respectfully while demonstrating to other students where to go to learn more.

As part of the Greenwich Reads Together Initiative all students in grades K-5 across Greenwich Public Schools heard a special book, "Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Code," read-aloud. After hearing this book during an interactive read-aloud, students in grades 3-5 were able to utilize Google Forms to formulate questions for the author.

On Thursday, November 8th, Laurie Wallmark, author of this book, visited Julian Curtiss School! Ms. Wallmark met with students in grades 3-5 at an assembly in the gym about the topic "Women in Coding". We learned much about the contributions of women in the field of computer science. A question and answer session allowed students to inquire more about computer science as a field and notable figures who have left their mark. All students raised their hand when asked; "Who is excited to start our computer coding unit in December?" More info on this in the next newsletter.

After the presentation, students, K-5, who chose to purchase her book, had the opportunity to have their books autographed by Ms. Wallmark.

Superintendent of Greenwich Public Schools, Ralph Mayo, had this to say about the Greenwich Reads Together event; “I am proud to say that our school district has partnered with Greenwich Library since its inception to promote this wonderful event. As the former Principal of Eastern Middle School, I have witnessed over the years how the reading of a common book is able to bring our students together to discuss some very powerful topics. We, in Greenwich, benefit from forums like this to keep us engaged in big ideas and to learn how individuals have been able to overcome discrimination, fascism and natural disasters through courage and perseverance. The Greenwich Library should be proud of their work and our principals should be congratulated for hosting events throughout the district to emphasize the importance of this program.”

Other fun events, hosted by the Julian Curtiss School Library Learning Commons included activities to help grow our readers through Halloween. Teachers painted pumpkins to look like their favorite book characters and students had the opportunity to guess which characters the book character pumpkins were painted like. Classes submitted their guesses via a Google Form and all who participated were entered into a raffle. Congratulations to Ms. Fabion's 4th grade class! They won a $25 gift card to purchase more books for their classroom.

In addition, students had the opportunity to get spooky on Halloween week with a game of musical reading chairs. We turned off the lights and students were able to read books by flashlight! Don't worry, non-Halloween books were offered too. Spooky fun!

Your children will visit the library learning commons for the JCS book fair during the first week of December 2018. Stay tuned for emails from the PTA for how you can volunteer.

Take a peek at the tentative book fair schedule, pictured below. Please keep in mind that this schedule is subject to change!

Email: heather_mcguinness@greenwich.k12.ct.us
Website: www.greenwichschools.org/julian-curtiss-school/learning-commons
Location: 180 East Elm Street, Greenwich, CT, USA
Phone: 2038691896
Twitter: @JC_LLC