Fair Haven Pre K 8 School celebrated its 2nd annual World Read Aloud Day in the Library Media Center today to highlight the power of words and to remind our students that the right to literacy belongs to all people. Students in grades kindergarten through third grade visited the LMC and rotated through 5 stations.  Students listened to and discussed New Day, New Friends about a rabbit, a monkey, friendship, fun and a kite! Students then moved on to another station where they created a colorful kite to take home. STEM skills were integrated into fairytales when students heard The 3 Little Pigs or Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and had to physically construct a house to withstand the wolf's huffing and puffing or build chairs that belonged to the bears that Goldilocks sampled. Students had the opportunity to listen to a an interactive digital story on an iPad and they ended their time with illustrating something that they hope for. In the upper grades, guest readers visited classroom teachers received a book to share with their students.

Students in Mrs. Bonz's Bilingual class class worked on "All About" books on various topics that they studied. To practice  their keyboarding, blogging and English writing skills, they came to the LMC and blogged!

This year, in an attempt to get our youngest students on board with technology in a meaningful way, all Kindergarten classes came to the library and did research using Pebblego.com on a subject they were studying in their classrooms - apples/seeds.

Students were given a demonstration on how to properly use the mouse and navigate the Pebblego.com database as well as given basic technology vocabulary to build on (monitor, keyboard, mouse, tower, click, database, tabs, etc...). A graphic organizer was provided for students to draw a picture of what they learned 
and/or to write down (with assistance) some facts from the text they read and listened to (audio support is available on Pebblego). Back in their classrooms, students used their graphic organizers to create "fact cards" of what they learned for their performance task. For our bilingual class, students listened to the information in English and then brainstormed in Spanish as a whole group as well as using the graphic organizers.

Describe one of the characters in the book, Knuffle Bunny A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems

Collaboration in action.  Nurse practitioner, Tammy Edelkind and myself worked together to teach the first graders about proper care of their teeth. It was a great day!  The kids watched a Brainpop movie and then rotated through stations where they practiced proper brushing and flossing techniques, sorting healthy and unhealthy foods and exploring the difference (with a hammer!) between enamel and soft teeth. They all received a healthy snack of fruit.  Bags of toothpaste, dental floss and a toothbrush was distributed to each student to take home. 

Mrs. Canalori mixing potions with the students from the student created Harry Potter Book Club.

Hands on activities stemming from great novels inspires students to be engaged in their learning.

As part of the Parent Leadership workshops, parents created beautiful masks with teaching artist, Judith A. Mortensen, from Arts for Learning Connecticut and Raquel Berrios and Melisa Alvarado from Easter Seals and Luz Betancur, Family Program Coordinator at Fair Haven Pre K - 8 School.