Read Across America Celebration

Yesterday, the library included bridge-crossing trolls and clever goats to celebrate Read Across America 2026. The read aloud became an engaging experience that brought the magic of literature to life for students.

We dove into the hilarious and suspenseful retelling of The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Mac Barnett. To make the "trip-trap" of the hooves and the grumbles of the troll even more real, we used Novel Effect. (Shout out to Lacey Librarian!) This app uses voice-recognition technology to play synchronized music and sound effects during the read aloud, turning the shared reading into a cinematic event.

The fun didn't stop when the book closed! Each student accessed a digital 1-pager to help them continue their reading journey. This resource includes direct links to some of our absolute favorite interactive read-aloud sites:

• BookFlix: Where stories and non-fiction pair up for double the fun.

• Storyline Online: Famous actors reading beloved picture books.

• PebbleGo: Perfect for our curious researchers looking for animal facts.

• Mackin’s Storyteller Spotlight: Engaging videos from the creators behind the books.

It's always fun when former elementary library students join me in the library for read alouds like these! After doing several throughout the school year, many are "repeat customers" during AO and bring their friends! 

Wrapping up Women's History Month

As the end of March nears, students could choose to participate in an advisory activity related to Women's History Month. Like other activities students have chosen in the past, this was also a Google Slides 1-pager with hyperlinks that students could access.

While many of the women included were familiar to students, some were not, so after a brief discussion highlighting some main points about the women, students had time to click, watch, and read.

Interested in using the 1-pager? It's available online through my TPT store. If you have questions, please reach out!

All About Sloths!

Because of a variety of scheduling needs, our advisory time hasn't allowed for students to visit the library until this week. Today, students could choose a read-aloud and 1-pager activity based on sloths!

As these activities often begin with a children's book, today was no different! First, we read the book Sparky! by Jenny Offill & Chris Appelhans. (There's even a shout-out to school librarians in it!) :)

After the read aloud, students accessed a 1-pager about sloths. In addition to a link to the sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica, students could also click on a virtual room from My Ed Tech World that featured several activities, videos, and articles about sloths.

CLICK HERE to access the 1-pager

Students had several minutes to explore the different links, and many chose to work their way through a digital breakout from the virtual room. Another successful 1-pager in advisory!

National Rubber Ducky Day

January 13 is National Rubber Ducky Day!

Photo by Jason Richard on Unsplash

To recognize the day and have a little fun on the last day of our semester, students could sign up for a 1-pager activity in advisory. To kick off our work, we began with a read aloud of the Eric Carle book 10 Little Rubber Ducks.

After the read aloud, students could access the 1-pager, which included a link to an article explaining some of the history behind National Rubber Ducky Day, a video compilation featuring songs about the Sesame Street rubber ducky, and a design-your-own rubber ducky pixel art activity from Eric Curts at Control Alt Achieve. 

CLICK HERE to access the 1-pager

Much smiling and reminiscing and singing along to the rubber ducky song as students watched and designed their own duckies today!

And look at this raft of ducks!

🌎 Holiday Traditions Around the World

With holiday break approaching and with a building focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, students could choose to attend a library advisory session featuring holiday traditions from around the world. In our time together, students accessed a one-pager that included galleries, a quiz, and an activity.

CLICK HERE to access the one-pager

Students could choose to access different galleries from the Travel Channel or Newsweek, both of them showcasing holiday traditions from a variety of locations around the globe. Students could also work individually or in groups to take a Google Earth holiday quiz that included geographic and cultural information. Finally, students could design or decorate their own holiday tree with an activity from Eric Curts and Control Alt Achieve.

More advisory activities to share next week!

Recognizing Native American Heritage Month

One of the ways we celebrate in November is with National Native American Heritage Month. Like with other monthly celebrations, students could choose to visit the library to access an interactive one-pager featuring related websites, videos, and activities. Students can visit Google Arts & Culture or Mesa Verde National Park, as well as learn about the Navajo Code Talkers or create a beaded design.

CLICK HERE to access the one-pager.

One of the items included on the one-pager comes from Sarah Wood and My Ed Tech World. The virtual exploration room related to Native American Heritage Month comes from her Symbaloo of virtual exploration rooms. A close-up of her room is below:

CLICK HERE to access

A shout-out to our Heartland AEA technology consultant Cathy Hines who shared this exploration room and a directory of the items linked in it. How great to be able to give students a bit of a preview before they began exploring the room and the rest of the one-pager!

Wrapping up National Hispanic Heritage Month

September 15 - October 15 is traditionally celebrated as National Hispanic Heritage Month. In the past, library displays and advisory activities have helped introduce students to the people, culture, history, places, and more related to this month of recognition. (You can read an earlier blog post HERE.) 

CLICK HERE to access the 1-pager.

Several books in the library feature Hispanic characters or are written by Hispanic authors--you can see a few of them below:

Want to know more about the books or find others that relate to National Hispanic Heritage Month? Check out this playlist of book trailers:

Hope to see you soon in the library--maybe even to check out one of the featured books here! :)

📚 Using Nonfiction Children's Books

Often during our advisory offerings, students can select a library activity that includes a combination of print or electronic books, videos, and articles or websites related to a timely topic. Recently, students could sign up for AO's related to the children's books Snowflake Bentley and A Tower of Giraffes.

In each session, students listened to read-alouds of the books to start the sessions, paying attention to the sidebars in Snowflake Bentley and to the illustration style in A Tower of Giraffes. Students then accessed the Google Draw one-pager related to each book.

Access the one-pager HERE

Access the one-pager HERE

Taking inspiration from choice boards, one-pagers usually include video links, articles, or links to official sites when applicable. Students then have time to read about and watch related content as they choose. Other timely one-pagers that included children's picture books included topics such as these:

• National Reptile Awareness Day (blog post) that incorporated several different fiction children's books featuring a variety of reptiles
• Roller coasters (blog post) that included Marla Frazee's book Roller Coaster
• Chocolate (one-pager) that included the Who Was? biography of Milton Hershey
• Mo Willems's Pigeon (one-pager) featuring several Pigeon books

With many more weeks of school to come, children's book one-pagers are sure to continue as AO offerings. Stay tuned!

🏅 Celebrating the Winter Olympics

With the Winter Olympics moving into their second week, it's time to celebrate the history, events, and athletes with a Google Draw one-pager offered to students during advisory and AO time.

Librarian Shannon Miller offered a recent Winter Olympics activity on The Library Voice, and part of the blog post included access to her Winter Olympics choice board. This board served as inspiration to create something similar for DCG HS students.

CLICK HERE to access the one-pager

Students could sign up to visit the library to access the one-pager to read, watch, or listen to a variety of resources related to the Winter Olympics, including:

• a broad historical overview of the Winter Olympics
• Top 5's take on the strangest sports included in the games
• a daily schedule, along with viewing guide
• a video montage of the best comebacks in the games
• a podcast specifically addressing events, news, and athletes from the games

Most popular of the options seemed to be the video montage and Top 5 strangest events. Many of the students have been watching the Olympics, and conversation was lively, with students sharing favorite moments and events. And everyone seemed to agree that the skeleton event seems like a dangerous event!

Roller Coaster Fun

 Students in AO today had the opportunity to navigate through a Google Draw one-pager related to roller coasters.

CLICK HERE to access the page.

What began as a browse through the Library of Congress website turned into a decent amount of time looking at their Everyday Mysteries. The site includes Featured Mysteries as well as mysteries from a variety of categories. One that caught my eye was from the Physics category:

“Why Don't I Fall out When a Roller Coaster Goes Upside down?” The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/physics/item/why-dont-i-fall-out-when-a-roller-coaster-goes-upside-down/.

This led to a one-pager devoted entirely to all things roller coaster. Students could learn about roller coaster design or look over a database with the longest, fastest, or tallest roller coasters, or they could watch videos of the top 5 fastest roller coasters from 2020--which one of the students had even ridden! To add to the atmosphere, students also listened to songs from a Spotify playlist that included roller coaster songs!

To wrap up our time together, students had a ticket out: Tell me your roller coaster name. Examples included Unstoppable Falcon, Ultimate Avenger, Unstoppable Dragon, and Twisting Freak. 

More one-pagers to follow, DCG students, if you've missed these first few. (You can read about them HERE.) Be looking for one before the holiday break!

Who Knew?! 🐸🐢🦎

Today we celebrate National Reptile Awareness Day--who knew? :) To have a little fun with this "holiday," students could choose to visit the library during advisory today for a variety of activities related to the day.

Thanks to friend and colleague Lacey_Librarian, several children's books featuring reptiles were available for students to look at and read.

We picture walked our way through all of them, and we looked specifically at Art & Max by David Wiesner. Students could later look through any of the books should they choose to do so.

Also, students had access to a Google Draw one-pager with links and videos related to reptiles. 

You can access the one-pager HERE.

If you're looking for a book with reptiles, our MackinVIA catalog offers some nonfiction titles, and here in the library we have a few fiction titles with reptiles, including dragons! Why not stop by to see what's available? Happy Reptile Awareness Day!

Recognizing National Hispanic Heritage Month

 Every year from September 15 - October 15, we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month. According to the official website, "we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month to recognize the achievements and contributions of Hispanic American champions who have inspired others to achieve success" (Library of Congress, 2021). 

Photo credit: Detail of Hispanic Heritage Select Photos, by David Valdez

The National Park Service shares that National Hispanic Heritage Month "... traditionally honors the cultures and contributions of both Hispanic and Latino Americans as we celebrate heritage rooted in all Latin American countries" (Library of Congress, 2021).

As part of our recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month, DCGHS students can visit the library during advisory to access a Google Draw one-pager and take a closer look at a library display featuring titles by Latino and Latina authors or characters.

Much of the information on the one-pager originated at the National Hispanic Heritage Month official website. Students could explore various audio and video resources, browse Pinterest boards, or learn about the changes Latinas and Latinos brought to baseball. A special "thank you" to the The Book Wrangler for sharing his Google Slides, "Portraits of Hispanic Americans" and to Jeff Glade from Heartland AEA for the curated podcast list from Comprehension Amplified.

CLICK HERE to access