OJCS Storytime – Books About Pigs!
Today we read a few books about some very adorable little piggies!
A Piglet Named Mercy by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Chris Van Dusen
If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff
Story Sequencing Activity You Can Print
Teachers can print the ‘If You Give a Pig a Pancake’ story sequencing activity pages from the following document for your class. You can choose the specific pages to print (the activity in colour is page 4 and 5, in black and white it is 25 and 26.) Students cut out the circles and try to put them in the correct order. You may need to re-play the story for them before they begin and having them pay close attention!
How to Browse the OJCS Library Catalogue
Ontario Cities Research Workshop With Grade 3
You are going to be starting a project on cities in Ontario.
Let’s start by looking at a non-fiction book and learning how to use them for our research.
What is non-fiction?
Table of Contents?
Index?
Now how can we search for information about our city on Google. Let’s open up our internet browsers and find out. We can get very specific with our keywords to find key information for our research project. For example, if we want to answer the question what is the population of Ottawa Ontario, what could my keywords be? What about if my questions is; what are Ottawa’s famous landmarks?
It is really important to remember that we never need to type a long question into Google. All you need are keywords! Keywords help us to find the best possible sites on our topic.
What search engines can we use if we want really kid-friendly information?
https://www.kiddle.co/ – Is by far the best one in my humble opinion.
Now your project involves making a short newscast about your city. Let’s take a minute to look at some great examples of kid-friendly news videos.
Elements of a news report…
- Welcome everyone and introduce yourself.
- Make sure your story contains The 5 Ws!
- Fill your newscast with important and interesting information. Example, lots of key facts, interesting facts.
- You can use video clips and photos as props to help your newscast be more visually interesting.
- Present your ‘story’ with lots of energy and enthusiasm.
- You can include commentary and interviews with others in your presentation. For example, if someone has visited your city, you could include an interview with them where you find out what their favourite tourist destination in that city was, their restaurant recommendations, etc…
- Kid-friendly news sites;
OJCS Storytime – Crazy Cars!
Let’s Get Unplugged
Lower Grades Digital Citizenship
First, let’s read Unplugged by Steve Antony
So how do you use your time?
Everyone is going to get a sheet of paper and on one side you are going to write down all of the things you do plugged in (online) and on the other side, all of the things you do unplugged (offline.) It will look a little something like this…
Once you have finished, I want you to fold this piece of paper in half.
What would your lives look like if you only got to do the things on one side of the paper?
Living our lives mainly online…
- Let’s start with the plugged side. If we spent our entire day online and did little else, how would we feel? Discuss with your class NOW!
- After the discussion… 7 hours of Roblox or YouTube might sound great, but in reality, making media choices like this can lead us to feel tired, frustrated, headachy, and sick!
Living our lives completely offline…
- Now what if we only had the unplugged side? Would we be completely happy? Is there anything we would miss? Discuss with your class NOW!
- After the discussion… It is okay to enjoy being online! We get to chat on Facetime, play awesome games, and watch fun videos.
Let’s Aim for Media Balance
Media Balance is making sure that the time we spend online allows lots of room for the other awesome things in life. This makes us all feel healthier and happier.
Being Unplugged means more time for colouring! Here is a cute colouring page!
The Scholastic Book Fair Returns Virtually This Year
OJCS Storytime – Learning About Migration
Today we are going to learn about migration by reading three books;
- Migration by Melvin and Gilda Berger
- Home at Last – A Song of Migration by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Alix Berenzy
- South by Patrick McDonnell
Migration Game – Flocking Together
Visit the PBS Kids site to get instructions on playing this physically distanced fun game. Click on the “activity” tab to see ‘Flocking Together’. This game will get your students outdoors! The handout required is available here.
The Sad Little Fact – Being a Fact-Finder in the Age of Misinformation
A fake fact is otherwise known as MISINFORMATION…
Misinformation is ‘false or inaccurate information, especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive.’
Where do we hear this misinformation? Unfortunately, the online world is absolutely full of it. From youtube videos, to tiktok, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media, people are bombarded with fake facts and fake news. Here is an example of misinformation that I found on youtube.
If you saw this video online you’d be terrified. You might tell your friends about it and spread this information further. So how do we verify if it is true or not?
Now it’s your turn to give this a try. I need you to be a fact-checker and find out if this information is true or not using the techniques we just learned.
- Check the source – run a Google Search on the publisher or author of the information and try to find out more
- The Rule of Three – check three other sources of information
- Check a good fact-checking website like Snopes.
So here is the information I want you to check. It was posted thousands of times on Facebook and Twitter by regular people so there is no author to check. You will need to rely on method 2 and 3 here.
OJCS Storytime – What is An Orchestra?
Let’s start our storytime by watching this great video. It will serve as an introduction to our topic.
Now on to the books! Today we read:
Because by Mo Willems and Amber Ren
Meet the Orchestra by Ann Hayes, illustrated by Karmen Thompson
If you have extra time and want the full orchestra experience, you can watch and listen to the classic Peter and The Wolf! The music was composed by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936.
NOTE TO TEACHERS: Preview the video first to decide if it is appropriate for your class. This is an old cartoon and there are a few elements that may frighten very young children.