October 29

Becoming a Critical Thinker on TikTok

A middle school media literacy lesson

With TikTok becoming the social media platform of choice for so many students, it is important that they learn to recognize the misinformation, hate, and propaganda on the platform.  It is also critical that they become aware of some of the TikTok controversies, like the privacy issues with the platform, as well as some of their unethical censorship rules.  This lesson is availabe as both a slides and Nearpod lesson.

Slides

Nearpod

Category: Digital Citizenship, misinformation, social media | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 22

Spooky Storytime

Today we read two books that are a little bit spooky, a little bit creepy, and a little bit scary… or UNscary!

Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds, pictures by Peter Brown

and

The UNscary Book by Nick Bland

Category: read aloud | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 22

Dusky Storytime

The sun is setting much earlier now and a special time of day called DUSK is coming earlier too.  It’s that beautiful time between day and night!  Both of our picture books today take place at dusk… one in Fall and one in Summer.

They are;

Windows by Julia Denos and illustrated by E. B. Goodale 

and 

Dusk Explorers by Lindsay Leslie, illustrated by Ellen Rooney

Category: read aloud | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 8

Taking Great Notes For Research

A Grade 4 Workshop

To have a great research project, students need to know where to find quality, credible information, and they need to learn how to take great notes during the research portion of their work.  This was the subject of our two grade 4 workshops today.

After learning about the importance of finding credible and reliable sources to work from, they learned how to put their notes in their own words.  They also learned about the importance of never, ever copy and pasting information.

Their assignment was to take some great notes on the bug of their choice.  They had a lot of fun with it and were very focused on the task!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the slides presentation from the workshop.

I had a lot of fun running this workshop and hope our students take away some very valuable skills.

Category: research skills | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 1

Aubrey Davis Storytime Series – Bagels from Benny

The OJCS was very lucky to get a visit my first year here from the incredible storyteller and picture book author Aubrey Davis.  His books capture the magic of Jewish folktales and traditions in the most incredible ways.  I will be recording a series of storytime videos in which I read one of his picture books each week.

Bagels from Benny by Aubrey Davis, Illustrated by Dusan Petricic

 

Category: read aloud | LEAVE A COMMENT