Curious about the 57th Inauguration? Ever wonder what happens when it falls on a Sunday? Get answers to your Inauguration questions on the senate website http://www.inaugural.senate.gov/. There is also video footage of the actual events.
Starting in December, 4th grade students were asked to engage with Colonial NJ living. They will ultimately create a project to represent their learning. While the following video from Mount Vernon is not a NJ colonial experience, it does represent what early living was like.
Teaching Thanksgiving lessons can be so predictable… the Pilgrims and the Native Americans ate a feast together and that is why we have turkey, cranberries etc. This year I shared 2 stories with students and teachers. The first is the virtual tour of the Mayflower. Scholastic and the Plimoth Plantation do a nice job bringing history to life.
http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/voyage/
Another great story is the one of Sarah Hale. I shared Thank you Sarah by Laurie Halsie Anderson with 2nd graders and all of them had never heard of the school teacher who requested that Thanksgiving be made a national holiday. She also was a writer and penned Mary Had a Little Lamb. To see her national holiday request letter to President Lincoln, visit the following link to the Library of Congress.
Perfect Common Craft video on the electoral college this election season.
As our 4th grade students read The Diary of Anne Frank, I am compelled to share the Anne Frank timeline and website. http://www.annefrank.org/en/
There is an interactive timeline with plenty of primary sources and connections between Anne’s letters and what was happening in the world. Additionally, you can take a 3D tour of Anne’s house that is recreated from actual photos.
This week the 4th Grade students completed their introduction to Google Maps in the computer lab and also analyzed a variety of atlases and paper maps. The key to the discussion was asking the 5 W’s and an H.
Who developed the map/atlas?
What is the purpose?
When was it created?
Where would you find one? (classroom, car, library)
Why was it made?
How would you use it?
We asked the same questions of Google Maps. This will build towards our analysis of resources for research projects when students will have to combine paper and online resources.
Here is a tutorial for www.ipl.org, a great resource for questions by reference librarian volunteers and library students.
This week I will be re-introducing the students to some of the online resources that they can use at school and at home.
First I demonstrated how students can access the Clinton Catalog using their student ID and password. In addition to having access to our library collection at home, students and their families can verify checked out library materials and due dates.
There are also links available on the home tab for research resources, typing tools and author web sites.
Students can now access their social studies book online at http://www.eharcourtschool.com. They will each receive the login information in library this week.
This past weekend I came across the following article concerning digitized newspapers and the impact on research, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/opinion/sunday/the-biographers-new-best-friend.html. The gist of the article is that biographers can now have access to historical newspapers with digitized content.
Researchers today can search newspaper articles for people’s names, pseudonyms, key expressions used and more. In education, we can now teach lessons on a historic time period with actual newspaper articles. This look into our history is one more piece of the puzzle and choice for young researchers.
One example of a free database is Chronicling America through the Library of Congress. Take a moment to check it out and be a witness to history.