#NESReads

Happy New Year, NES Hawks!

Welcome to 2022! I like to choose #oneword each year to help drive my focus and keep me moving forward. This year, I have chosen the word joy. I hope to continue bringing joy to our kiddos by sharing the love of reading with them in lots of fun ways, and I hope to find joy in my own reading life this year, attempting to read 40 books before my 40th birthday. What is your #oneword? (Click the link to share your word on this Padlet!)

This edition of the newsletter has some tech tips, as well as library resources for you.

I also would love for you to share with me about upcoming units of study, themes, or topics of interest so I can integrate those into my library lessons where possible, as well as create book lists in Destiny as a resource for your and your students. Click the link below for a survey to sign up for research, collaborative projects, or if you'd like me to create a particular resource list or pull books on a topic for you. You can also let me know what sorts of training/PD/support I can provide in regards to better serving you and your students on information literacy. This feedback will help me provide the best possible experience for you and your readers, so thank you for taking a moment to do this!

REMINDER: The library schedule is at the bottom of this newsletter for your reference. Mondays are a GREAT day to sign up for research projects and other collaborations, so fill out the form or come talk to me so we can get something awesome going to enhance your units of study!

Thanks for all you do. I look forward to collaborating with you in 2022!

Emily

Books:

K:

• When It Starts to Snow by Phillis Gershator
• Snowballs by Lois Ehlert

1st:

• Sugar White Snow and Evergreens: A Winter Wonderland of Color by Felicia Sanzari Chernesky
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (Caldecott Winner)

2nd:

• Snow by Cynthia Rylant
• Snow Day! by Lester L. Laminack

3rd:

• Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin (Caldecott Winner)
• The Hat by Jan Brett

4th:

• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

5th:

• Peak by Roland Smith

Stations/Centers/Activities:

• "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?" STEAM bin
• "Poppa Penguin" STEAM bin
• Puzzle station
• Lego Station: build an igloo, penguin, polar bear, snowman, or snowflake, or you can build a wintery animal habitat! (ex--bear's den)
• Game Station--Quadrillion
• Magazine station (winter issues of Highlights, High Five, and Animal Tales magazines)
• "I Spy" station
• Coloring station
• Snowflake creation station

New year, new opportunities to try an app or website or tool that you may not have used before! Here are a few you might enjoy:

Lucid:

This app/site offers lots of free templates and some free premium features for educators. They have lots of graphic organizer templates, and their resources are organized by grade level, subject, content area, and skill, making it easy to customize, use, and share these with your students. I like this as an alternative to Google Jamboard sometimes because it is much more customizable.

Here is their YouTube page with lots of tutorials for getting started.

Flipgrid:

I know, I know...this one is not new, but they have added SO many fun, new features that I am sharing this to make sure you're aware of the cool things you can do with it! Here is a video tutorial highlighting some of the new features that I know kiddos are absolutely going to go crazy for (lenses, frames, and backdrops, as well as "camera first" format, where your camera is immediately available when you open Flipgrid, rather than having to click into a particular topic--great if you like to record lesson intros or videos to build background for your students and want to add a fun filter!). I love Flipgrid as a means of getting students talking about their learning...it is a great way to give students speaking practice, because ALL students need to develop their speaking skills, not just our English learners, and this provides a safe space to do that and allow kiddos to be content creators, rather than just consumers.

Soundtrap:

Have you ever considered starting a class podcast or sharing your own thoughts in the podcasting world? Soundtrap is a great tool to help you get started! This is also a fantastic tool for music teachers to use, with lots of great applications. Here is a step-by-step tutorial video from educator Sam Kary on how you can use Soundtrap with students to create their own podcasts. This could be a wonderful way to demonstrate mastery of a topic at the end of a unit, or a way to incorporate speaking and writing skills in a fun, creative, and relevant way that gives students a real audience. Please let me know if I can support you in getting this project started! (Click here to visit their YouTube channel for a playlist of helpful videos to get you started.)

And finally...if you are not familiar with Alice Keeler, she is a fountain of techie knowledge, so I am sharing a recent post of hers all about digital tools to support struggling readers. (Click here for some great tips!)

1/3-1/7/22: B Week

1/10-1/14/22: A Week

1/17-1/21/22: B Week

1/24-1/28/22: A Week

Email: emily.golightly@carteretk12.org
Website: bit.ly/golightlyreads
Location: 219 Chatham Street, Newport, NC, USA
Phone: 2522234201
Facebook: facebook.com/nesmediacenter
Twitter: @EmilyGolightly3