🌎 It's Culture Week!

Because Culture Week was such a hit among students and staff a year ago, it's now a 2-week event with a week showcasing student, staff, and community presentations both in the fall and again the in spring. (You can read about earlier Culture Week sessions here.) Two sessions were offered in the library this week: Diversity in Books and Creation Stories from Around the World. 

Like previous Culture Week sessions, students could again sign up to watch book trailers and talk about diverse books. This time, students accessed a Google Drawing featuring 15 diverse titles that included book trailers or author interviews. While some of the titles have been part of the collection, new books to the collection were also included to encourage browsing and checkout during our time together.

CLICK HERE to access the resource.

Another sessions students could choose to attend featured creation myths from a variety of cultures. We chatted about several of the beginning Slides and identified the Adam and Eve/Garden of Eden story as a creation story they were already familiar with, and we also applied several elements from the Slides to the the Garden of Eden story. 

LINK to presentation

After our discussion, students had time to access the Slides presentation to move through an interactive world map featuring creation stories from several different cultures.

Clicking on a box took students to a Slide with a brief description and video about the creation story. Finally, then, students had the opportunity to add to a Padlet to reflect on what they'd seen or read.

Students had the option to watch and work independently or with others, and throughout their work, we continued to chat with each other about what they were seeing and what they already knew about creation stories, the cultures featured, or their Culture Week experience so far.

Culture Week continues through Friday, so students will have the opportunity to attend more sessions lead by students and staff.

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!

🌎 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!

👀 #TakeALookTuesday--Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month Edition

During the month of May we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. According to the Asia Society:

"Since 1979, May has been a dedicated time to celebrate Asian Pacific American heritage, but it wasn't until 1992 that May was officially designated Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Selected to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the U.S. in May 1843 and the completion of the transcontinental railroad in May 1859 that was made possible by thousands of Chinese laborers, APAH Month elevates the stories, contributions, and experiences of Asian and Asian American communities."

Click image to access site

On display in the library this month are several fiction and nonfiction titles that feature authors and characters and stories that reflect Asian Pacific American heritage:

Students could also learn more about Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by coming to an AO offering that highlighted events, people, and culture of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. During advisory time, students could access different elements on the 1-pager below:

CLICK HERE to access the 1-pager

Didn't get a chance to sign up for the 1-pager or are interested in taking a closer look at the books on display? Come on in!

👀 #TakeALookTuesday--Digital Magnetic Poetry Edition

We continue to celebrate National Poetry Month in the library--this time it was with an activity from Eric Curts and Control Alt Achieve. The magnetic tile poetry craze from the 1990's meets Google Draw in Curts' template that he graciously shares from his website. 

CLICK HERE for link

In this drag-and-drop activity, students could use any of the provided tiles to write their poems, or they could include their own word choices with the blank tiles as well. The springtime image served as their backgrounds as they wrote before sharing out some of their work. (On Curts's site, you can also choose templates that feature wintertime or Valentine's Day images.) Students had time to write their poems, then nearly all chose to read aloud what they'd created. We snapped our fingers and supported our poets-in-residence appropriately!

Curts's site has several poetry-inspired activities for Poetry Month--why not visit to find another way to celebrate the month?

📚 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!

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