We literally can't keep up with all of the action.  Here's a link to today's newsletter. 
Due to nature studies, culture creation, podcast planning, set building, action-shot shooting, and bean husking there wasn't much time for recaps.  Hoping that will come together tomorrow! 
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K's creating Animal ABC pages.
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Coral for the coral reef in Ms. Williamson's room.
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3rd graders creating sets for their frog plays.
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Cocoa beans! We have some skilled huskers now!
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Art in nature, nature in art. 4th grade takes over Cold Spring.
 
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2nd graders Skyping with students in Accra, Ghana
Here is the first edition of the PBLI Pioneer
Monday's PBLI Pioneer

Monday's PBLI kickoff was a flurry of activity at each grade level.  There were student reporters and photographers eager to share what they had started. Click on the link above to see the final product!

Tuesday's PBLI Pioneer: Online Edition

Tuesday proved harder to wrap up with a newspaper edition due to the half day and all of the exciting events going on this morning.  First, all second graders came into the library to connect with a 2nd grade class in Ghana.  We were able to answer each others questions and determined that we had a lot of similarities to the students at the Lincoln Community School (LCS) in Accra, Ghana.  Their students were from 13 different countries!

In other news around Zervas, first graders continued to work on their respective habitat groups for their "Habitat Week", adding animals and plants to their habitat murals; 2nd graders husked cocoa beans in their chocolate-making process; 3rd graders worked on the sets for their lifecycle plays; Mr. O's class practiced the script for their movie, K's worked on their animal ABC books in library and 5th graders continued their bird research, sparked by Mr. Griffin's intro yesterday for their podcast.  Stay tuned for the next edition of the PBLI Pioneer and keep updated with the learning happening at Zervas!



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Hard at work in the Ocean Habitat room
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5th graders (and Mrs. Deeks) researching and writing about birds
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2nd graders husking cocoa beans!
 
 
Today Zervas 3rd graders learned how to become successful student library bloggers. As a class, we came up with rules for our new Zervas Library Blog that will help make sure that we stay safe online and are respectful to one another when blogging. We also went over the steps for commenting on blog posts so that students can begin contributing to our Zervas Library Blog.

3rd Graders: What did you learn about blogging during today's lesson that you didn't know before? What will you keep in mind when you add comments to this blog? Reply to this post and let us know!
 
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Title: The One and Only Ivan
Author: Katherine Applegate
Call Number: FIC APP

Reviewer #1: Sarah
I think The One and Only Ivan keeps the reader hanging and the book has a lot of emotion with it. I can't even describe the book in words it was so good!
Rating:  Excellent

Reviewer #2: Erin
A sad book about a gorilla held hostage in a mall with 4 friends, a piece of paper and some crayons.  An exciting, can't put it down, wonderful, amazing, book with a group of friends that work together and save their lives.  I liked it because it is sad and happy at the same time.
Rating: Excellent





 
The 5th grade book club is reading The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.  We are going to Skype with her on Friday May 25th!
 

From a 4th grader in Mr. West's class:

"I think that a good addition to Zervas would be a newspaper for the school. The students would be able to write articles. Please comment if you agree!"


Also, feel free to add your own ideas as to what we could include in a Zervas Newspaper in the comments, and maybe what we could call it!
 
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Fourth grade students were introduced to Mitali Perkins today, as she came to tell her stories, introduce her books and talk about writing (and living!) between two cultures.  The students were excited about her visit, and made several signs to welcome her into our library.

After an hour of story telling, question-answering and hands-on activities (Tre and Iris modeled the traditional clothing VERY well!), 4th graders were eager to get their hands on her books.  I hope they will be inspired by her stories and characters!

 
Over the next few weeks, students will be learning about blogging, what the purpose of blogging is, and how to responsibly use this technology to share what is happening in the library and their classrooms!  From May 21-25, the entire school will be taking part in a project-based learning week we are calling PiBLi - each class or grade level is exploring a project in-depth, with the theme of natural environment.  Using library time, and volunteers from classrooms, I hope to have students capturing, summarizing and reporting on what is happening around the school!  Here goes this experiment in social learning and sharing!