Electoral College

 Ever try to make sense of the Electoral College? I was working with some 4th graders on that very topic trying to explain that popular vote doesn't always cut it in a presidential election. This site from Scholastic got them interested! We talked about considering the amount of people that live in a state, not just the size of the state as well as Representatives vs. Senators and how they are allotted. They were still confused until we played the game on the smartboard. There is not a direct link to the game, but look for the Electoral Challenge here. It could work on a computer for single students or pairs, but was also great as a group in two teams on the smartboard so we could talk about it as we went. The directions for the game explain how the electoral votes are assigned to each state and that the goal is 270 votes. They really loved this and wanted to play again but we were out of time. I think I will definitely use it with other groups. (One of the best parts might just have been that one of the teams named themselves Awesomeness -  you gotta love that!) Here is a screen shot so you can see what the game looks like.

 What are you doing for the election coverage? I think next we might try this site from Disney to let students see who they would really be a supporter of from ideas alone. It could be interesting to see if they are most in line with who they think they are or not.

Read It Maybe

I saw this on a post on The Book Bug blog and thought it was really cute and might be fun for the kids to see too, especially with all the videos popping up (such as the Olympic swim team) doing the same thing to the song Call Me Maybe. It is a parody of the song, called Read It Maybe. Check it out!

Election Comparisons

This year I am working with a small group (15) of 4th grade kids each week expanding on their weekly Scholastic News integrating some of the Information Skills Essential Standards. This was our first session, and we focused on an article in this edition comparing Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. We started by talking about who was presenting the information and did it seem like fair information for both parties. Then, we talked about and looked at websites such as an online encyclopedia entry about President Obama, wikipedia entries on both candidates, and each candidate's own election websites. While doing so, we talked about considering the source of information for each type of site and the purpose of each site to look for bias in the information it presented. Finally, we used this ReadWriteThink site to create a Venn diagram comparing the two candidates. Here are some of the kids in action.

Using Videos to Teach Procedures

I decided that it might be both more entertaining and more consistent to use some pre-made videos of how to do some of our library procedures. Our mascot is Caleb the Croc, and I asked him to help me make the videos so they would be more timeless for the students. He was very kind in willing to help! I am planning to not only show these to students, but also post them on the media center website so that new students can see how to do different things in our media center. I can also use them to review procedures later in the year if needed.

I made a short video of things like returning books, using a browsing stick, how to get books that are on hold, using Destiny, and checking out books and magazines. Here is the one about using Destiny so you can see an example. Thanks Caleb!

How do you help your students learn and review procedures?

We Give Books

Do you use e-books in your school? I was reminded recently by a colleague about the We Give Books site. This is a great site for e-books and is FREE! They are good titles too, including books like Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, Llama Llama Misses Mama, DK Explorer, DK Vikings, Human Body Q&A, and more. There are not really any chapter books I have seen, but lots of picture books and non-fiction books for elementary ages mostly. With over 200 e-books and all free it is a fantastic resource in itself, but there is an added bonus. The site says "Simply choose the charity you want to read for and then select the books you want to read. For each book you read online, we donate a book to a leading literacy group on your behalf." It doesn't get much better than free books that give free books when you read them! Check out We Give Books soon and use it with a whole class, on your own, with a small group, or as a center.

Any other great resources for e-books out there?

Edited to add: Here is a link to my ongoing livebinder collection for e-books. 

Games for School

I posted about this site last year, but I thought it deserved a new mention for any new readers out there that may not be reading previous blog posts. Dr. Ertzberger at UNC-W has created a site with FREE downloadable game templates used in PowerPoint, Excel, and Word. All the games, according to him at a workshop I attended a few years back, have been checked by lawyers to make sure there are no copyright infringements with things like his Jeopardy-like games while some of the other templates on the web do have copyright issues that teachers are often not aware of. There are games that you can prepare ahead of time with questions, but also things like timers, printable games, and games where you just move pieces ahead so you could use those with on the spot oral questions as a quick review. I used the Big Board game, which is like Jeopardy, as a review of procedures to make it a little more interesting. The kids seem to really like it. They are easy to use and he includes directions of how to use them. Check it out if you are looking for something new to add to your lessons!

Welcome Back!

We are back! Teachers are returning to school today, students start back on Monday. We are looking forward to another fun year and lots of great projects! I will post resources as I come across them and projects we try out here at Caleb's Creek, so please check back. Let me know ideas you have as well or cool resources you would like to share with others.

Here is are some quick pictures from my last post's ideas with the finished setting signs. I made the pictures extra large so you could hopefully read the places on the signs. (I hope it doesn't take too long to load!)

Do you know the books all these settings are from???