Thematic Unit for Grades 3-5: ANIMAL ADVENTURES

CREATE stations have been a great way to integrate library stations with the curriculum. Each letter in the acronym stands for a different activity. Students rotate through their activities once a week when they visit the library. 

Here is what CREATE stands for: 

C - Computer Choice Board 
R - Robots 
E - Engineering
A - Art
T - Thinking Lab
E - Explore and Research 

You can check out the structure and explanation HERE from one of my previous blog posts. In fact, take a minute to look at my previous blog articles where I focused on each CREATE letter and broke the station down by grade level. Currently, I am compiling my lessons with a focus on the grade level and the theme. This thematic unit can be completed in the library with grades 3-8! I use it for my THIRD grade! 

READ-ALOUD OPTIONS:

A Boy Named Bat by Elana K. Arnold: This is a beautiful story of a boy who helps to rehabilitate a baby skunk. 

Miss Child Has Gone Wild by Dan Gutman: A fabulous chapter book where a third-grade class visits a zoo and craziness ensues. 

Who Would Win Series by Jerry Pallotta: Very high-interest books that our elementary school students love, and they would be perfect for an animal adventure thematic unit. 

Corresponding Stations and Choice Board:

COMPUTER

Our computer choice board has something for everybody focusing on the animal adventures concept.  The activities include videos, art tutorials, and coding. They can be done independently. 

Click HERE to view. 

Click HERE to make a copy and revise it as needed. 

ROBOTS

We love Ozobots, Sphero, and Edison robots. (I have blog posts dedicated to each of these if you want to click on the robot to read more). 

For our animal adventures theme, I think it would be fun to use the Edison robots because they are compatible with Lego and students can build on to them and then code them to move around the mat. These are perfect for developing fine motor skills. Students can easily partner up and code these robots for a very engaging station. 

You can find the mats and the file to print HERE: MEET EDISON EDMAT. My print shop charged the library $15 per board, and they are very sturdy. These will last for a few years. Once you have the mats, the directions are super easy to follow:

Step 1: Place Edison on the arrow to the right of the barcode

Step 2: Push the ROUND record button three times, wait for Edison to move forward, and read the barcode. 

Step 3: Play the code by pressing the TRIANGLE button. 

Check out my ROBOT freebies for this station HERE! These are the signs I use with the standards, procedures, and I CAN statements. You can edit them to fit your needs! 

ENGINEERING

Kid K'nex Education is a great engineering tool to have in your library. The pieces are bigger, so they don't hurt smaller fingers, and the students can create all kinds of fun creatures using this set. Our students LOVE them. These go well beyond the preschool age group. The set we purchased from Amazon (click on the red link above) comes with 131 pieces, so having 2-3 sets in your classroom or library is ideal. 

How do they fit in with our thematic unit? In addition to reading the chapter books,  we also read about different animals, insects, and critters using short picture books. A couple of great books to consider reading aloud are the following ideas and suggestions: (Click on the book title for the read-aloud).

Fur, Feather, Fin: All of Us Are Kin 

Some Bugs

Du Iz Tak? 

ART

Quivervision has numerous animal augmented reality sheets that students can color and animate. There are butterflies, frogs, dragonflies, and even sharks! 

After students color in the worksheet(s), I give them an iPad and click on the Quivervision app. Once it has loaded, they enter our classroom code, and find their name and avatar. Then they use the app's camera mode to scan the QR code to launch their color sheet. Once it is launched, the app continues to scan the entire page in camera mode. Focus the iPad over the coloring page. Wait for the page to turn red and then blue. After it turns blue, wait for it …VOILA...you have an AR picture. 

THINKING LAB 

After students enjoy learning about the life cycle of a frog, HOPPERS is the perfect Think Fun game for them to play. 

EXPLORE

Finally, this station provides time for our students to complete a small research activity and use the library materials. These short research assignments are impactful because the students are engaged, and the research relates to the content they are learning in the classroom. Students access print and digital materials. The nonfiction books allow students to focus on nonfiction text features, and the digital materials allow students to access and listen to online databases. 

 

To access my TPT store and view the research assignment, click HERE. 

I hope these lessons can help you in your elementary school classroom and/or library! 

Back to School CREATE Stations for K- 2: Overview

Hard to believe that August is almost here, and some of us are heading back to school! The first week of school is a blur with library rules and expectations, but by week two or three, I am ready to implement my CREATE station system. In my elementary school, I used to see 6 classes a day, kindergarten through 5th grade for 45 minutes a day. Once you get through all the introductory library information, it is comforting to get into a routine, and I love nothing more than our CREATE stations to keep our students engaged. Believe it or not, I get these started by the second week of school.

CREATE stations are 6 stations that our learners rotate through, and they may change depending on the topic or theme. Not only is each station given a name, but it is also color coordinated. The acronym CREATE gives us a framework for our stations. Each week, students will listen to a story, visit ONE station, and check out books. If you need stations to take less than 6 weeks, I also like the acronym SOAR. Why use an acronym? It helps keep everything themed and organized. In fact, by the end of the first month of doing stations, students will walk into the library anticipating which station they will be assigned to that week. 

I know every school is different, but my schedule normally followed this pattern: 
Fifth/Second/Third/ (LUNCH/PLANNING)/Kindergarten/First/Fourth...REPEAT Monday through Friday. Here we go...

These two charts are a big-picture overview of the stations I complete throughout the year. These are all very straightforward and students can usually get started with minimal guidance. Click the chart below to access links, explanations, and products. 

SEMESTER ONE:  (almost every box has a link for you to click!) 

Click on the image above to access a Google slide with links to the products as well as links to my blog posts that explain how I implement the activities. 

SEMESTER TWO: 

Semester two doesn't look too much different from semester one, but I introduce robots to second grade (and sometimes first grade) and start using Quivervision in the art stations. 

Step ONE: What does each station mean? It can actually change throughout the year because I like to keep things fluid, but for K-2, our stations normally follow this layout: 

C - Construction (or Computer)
R - Robots (or Research)
E - Engineering
A - Art (and Design) 
T - Thinking Lab (or Tablets) 
E - Explore 

Having the letter E twice in the acronym can be tricky, but we make it work.  Often times the engineering and explore stations are interchangeable, so I don't overthink it.  It is also important to note that I have learned not to change up the activities with the frequency that I used to. Students will rotate through each station a maximum of 6 times. By the time you factor in assemblies, testing, snow, hurricanes, and any other disruptions (natural or otherwise) that we experience in the specials rotation, our learners don't actually make it through 6 times. As a result, the stations don't feel repetitive, and our classes look forward to cycling through them a couple of times.  In fact, I have upset students when I changed them around!

Step TWO: Once the schedules are set and more or less confirmed (students are no longer changing classes), I create charts using GOOGLE slides; I put them in groups and assign them to their first station. This blog post provides a template you can use: The mechanics of CREATE stations. If you make a copy of the Google slides, you will see a template for my Monday classes. I duplicate the entire presentation 5 times (one for each day of the week.) Once the students' names are inserted, I group the column, so moving them from station to station is even easier. To clarify, students stay with their groups, so if they are absent that week, they will just miss that station. If I have to rearrange groups to accommodate behaviors, a student may repeat a station they just did OR skip a station. We have to be flexible, and I see too many students to try and track if and when a student misses a station! 

Step THREE: Create grade-level buckets. Most of the stations are self-explanatory except for the robot station and sometimes the art station. Each bucket is clear, and I attached a label that indicates the station and the grade level.  We printed our signs on cardstock and taped them to the inside of the bucket, so they were clearly labeled:  

The labels are very simplistic and straightforward. Click HERE if you would like the Canva template link, so you can modify them for your needs. 

Step FOUR: Break down the 45-minute time frame. My previous blog post, Counting Down the Minutes, explains how I allocate time and has links to my favorite timers. Back in the day when I first started teaching, I was an 8th-grade English teacher, and we had 7 periods a day that lasted 45 minutes. It taught me the art of squeezing it all in! 

Hope this is helpful! I will post my grades 3-5 overview next! 

Middle Grade Thematic Unit: The Final Frontiers - Ocean and Space

 

CREATE stations have been a great way to integrate library stations with the curriculum. Each letter in the acronym stands for a different activity. Students rotate through their activities once a week when they visit the library. 

Here is what CREATE stands for: 

C - Computer Choice Board 
R - Robots 
E - Engineering
A - Art
T - Thinking Lab
E - Explore and Research 

You can check out the structure and explanation HERE from one of my previous blog posts. 

In fact, in previous blog articles, I have focused on each CREATE letter and broke the station down by grade level. Currently, I am compiling my lessons with a focus on the grade level and the theme. 

This thematic unit can be completed in the library with grades 3-8! 

READ-ALOUD OPTIONS:

Space: 

Zathura (picture book)

Hidden Figures (Biography)

Race to the Moon (Fiction, choose your own adventure)

Gravity by Jason Chin (picture book)

Ocean:

Shipwreck by Gordon Korman (fiction) is found on the EPIC app and students can listen to the audiobook. This is an action-packed ocean survival novel that will appeal to fifth graders. 

Lifeboat 12 is an amazing verse poetry book that takes place during WW2. Another great survival story where the characters are stuck out to sea trying to escape Hitler's invasion. 

Corresponding Stations and Choice Board:

COMPUTER

Our computer choice board combines the ocean and space theme with these digital CREATE activities. The activities include videos, art tutorials, and coding. They can be done independently. 

You can view the choice board HERE.

If you would like to edit the choice board, click HERE. 

ROBOTS

Ozobots are perfect robots for students to code while learning about space. We code our robots to follow the path around the sun for a fun and educational space-themed activity. You can find the link to the article HERE.

ENGINEERING

Space connectagons are an excellent way for students to create and engineer while studying space. If these are no longer available, the geometric connectagons or brainflakes can also be used to create solar systems. 

Legos are also the perfect tool for engineering and creating both ocean and space challenges. 

ART

For our art station, we have our Quivervision station where we can go in-depth with both themes.  To focus on the ocean, there are several coloring sheets: 

Orca
Shark
Sea turtle 

For the space theme, we have the moon coloring sheet and the space comparison coloring sheet. These are outlined in this blog post HERE. 

Looking to use Quivervision as an art library station? Here is a tutorial on how you can get started: watch the video. There is also a great slideshow to get you started that you can access here.

THINKING LAB:

There are a couple of really fun activities and thinking games that help students understand the concept of gravity that can relate back to our space theme. 

EXPLORE:

Explore station allows students to research the topics in small bites with a meaningful impact.  Here is a worksheet we used to locate an article about the planets in the print encyclopedia: 

We also used a Britannica Resource Pack to look up the keyword, planets. This allowed us to get an overview and general information to support the classroom teachers. 

You can access these worksheets through TPT (free download): 

PLANETS FREEBIE

April is POETRY MONTH! Create POETRY stations and a digital CHOICE BOARD for the WIN!

Let's celebrate all things poetry! Library stations allow students to learn all about the sound, language, and form of poetry.  

What do poetry stations look like? Well, those of you who know me by now, know that I love my CREATE acronym. It allows students to cycle through all 6 stations that are color-coded and spell a word, so there is no confusion about where students need to go as they rotate through all of the activities! 

Here were go...CREATE your way through poetry stations. 

C - Construct
R - Reflect
E - Engineer
A - Art 
T - Think
E - Express 

**The link to all of these station materials is at the end of the blog article! (FREEBIE!) 

C is for CONSTRUCT 

How do you construct poetry? Through our favorite SPINE POETRY.  Learners will go through the library and find 4-6 books to stack on top of each other to construct a poem that has meaning and a theme. If you really want to challenge students, you can tell them to create a HAIKU out of book spines. Spine poetry is a win-win because learners are creating poems, AND they browse the shelves. I can't tell you how many students found books they wanted to check out during this spine poetry construction process. It was WONDERFUL! Here is a sample of a great spine poem: 

R is for Reflect

We want the poetry to be a lot of fun with some (okay... a LOT of) learning sprinkled in. For our REFLECT station, this is our opportunity to expose our students to some classic poets. I love Britannica, and our district has a subscription to the database. In the event your school can't access Britannica, there are some free Britannica sites. In this station, we have 6 poets and a QR code to access their biographical information. Students will choose a poet, scan the QR code and then create a BIO POEM using the same template we used for our Dear Martin stations.

E is for ENGINEERING 

Engineering poetry? Why, yes! How does one do this? With paint chips! 

Step 1 ….run to your local home improvement store and collect as many paint chips as you can. The titles of these paint colors are really beautiful, and they are perfect to help create a poem. After you collect the strips of paint chip, cut them into individual chips.

Step 2...you need prompts for your paint chip poetry. This provides learners with a theme and a message that they can craft their poems around. I love this station because learners don't have to create the words (which can be difficult), they just have to arrange the words. This station was a fan favorite. 

Option 1: Run this station as a game. (In fact, Amazon sells a paint chip poetry game). Learners can pull a theme and 6 paint chips. They can take turns arranging them into a poem, and the players can vote on the poem that makes the most sense.

Option 2:  Another option is to pull a theme and sift through the paint chips using the ones that best apply to the theme. Learners can write down their favorite poems. 
Oftentimes, I will start with option 2 and then have learners finish with the game version. Either way, this is a fun station! 

A is for ART 

Poetry is art! This station is not a stretch. Blackout poetry is a beautiful blend of art and words.  I have old discarded dictionaries that are perfect for this station. I love giving students a page from the dictionary, and they have to select the words they want to form a poem. They can then create a drawing out of the words. 

T is for THINKING LAB

This is a harder station. We revisit the poets from the REFLECT station, and we analyze one of their most popular poems. I have this formatted in 2 different ways. I created six task cards with the poet, the important quote from the poem, the QR code to the author's bio, and a chart for answers. You can print out multiple copies of each task card and students can complete 3-4 of them depending on the time allotted. Another option is to print the six task cards, laminate each one and then have students complete the chart I created for the answers. Either way works! 

Poetic device chart to use with a task card

Sample Task Card 

E is for EXPRESS

Express is a great way to explore how music IS poetry.  Using a worksheet I created, students can determine the figurative language for each of the popular song lyrics. Once they think they have the correct answers, they can check their work by listening to this great video about figurative language in songs that my music teacher friend found for me! I used this video to create the worksheet for my students. 

If you would like to access these activities, feel free to check them out at Teachers Pay Teachers (FREEBIE)! Any of these lessons can be adapted to the level of your group. 

For librarians and teachers who like to give students a CHOICE BOARD for independent work during checkout or reading groups, I have one for the month of April! This choice board is geared toward younger students. but honestly, I think all students can find something to interest them! The magnetic poetry is really fun. 

To view the choice board, click HERE.

To make a copy, so you can make copies, click HERE.