And The Winner Is....Green...at Least at OHE!

Every year, the nation's childrens' librarians wait for the announcement of the year's Caldecott award winning books. These books are considered by some to be the year's best children's picture books.  This year, when the nominees where announced, I quickly ordered each of them on Amazon.  While I awaited their arrival, I created a YouTube playlist of the book trailers for each book. Once the1st graders viewed the trailers, they joined my enthusiasm!

We decided to take our own class vote to determine who we wanted to win.  I created a simple survey in Google Forms to gather our votes.  First graders gave the first place award to the book Green. On January 28, the Caldecott winner was announced and the winner was This Is Not My Hat.  Oh well...we like that one too!

Google Blogger

When I began asking students to respond to questions on a blog I created using Blogger - a Google free application, I was excited to try something new with students. Along the way, I found that it was an excellent way to publish students writing.  The students immediately "bought in" to the thought of having their words online.  I found that they didn't want to stop writing!!  They were keenly aware that their audience just grew.  It just doesn't get better than that!  Next I would like to have each student have their own blog with posts reflecting their learning from a variety of subjects.