Return to CREATE Stations: A is FOR ART - Fourth Grade Station

The Olympics were fun and our One Book One School launch has been exciting, but now we are back to our regularly scheduled CREATE stations. Our art station primarily focuses on the Quivervision app and turns our artwork into augmented reality 3D images.

Our fourth graders are learning about the solar system and the planets. If you recall, they spent their time in the robot station coding their Ozobot to revolve around the moon. That lesson can be found HERE. 

To continue to learn about outer space in the library and supplement the students' learning, we have our Space Comparison Quivervision art coloring page. 

Getting started....researching and front loading:   

The perfect introduction to this lesson is a Britannica resource pack that focuses on the solar system and planets.  If your school or county subscribes to the Britannica database, then take a look at the resource pack I curated HERE. This is a great place for students to get a basic overview by reading and listening to articles. 

I also have students access PRINT encyclopedias with different articles that cover the various planets. I love having students identify nonfiction text features while they are researching at the same time. It covers so many standards of learning while covering important content. I have an activity that I am sharing here that has our library learners answering questions while accessing these library resources.

Check out this FREE resource from my TPT shop:

Library learners can also complete this quick research activity while in their fourth grade EXPLORE station (more on that coming up in a couple of weeks). Either way, having students read about the planets in conjunction with the Quivervision coloring app is the perfect combination! 

Next step...COMPLETING THE ART STATION: 

Whether the research is used as an introduction to front load your learners or part of another station, the visual effects of the Quivervision app really brings understanding to this topic. When students first arrive at this station, they have a selection of coloring sheets, markers and colored pencils. I try to have at least two coloring sheets for them to complete. One quick tip: do NOT have them color the background of the worksheet; have them focus on the space rocket or the moon. Sometimes when the background is colored in, the app can't read the image and the AR won't work! 

After students color in the worksheet(s), I give them the iPad mini and click on  the Quivervision app. Once it has loaded, they enter our classroom code, find their name and their 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 in camera mode to scan the entire page. 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. 

 Interested in this station? Below are the station signs I created that can be used at the students' tables or part of your lesson plan template; hope these help because they include the standards, directions and I can statements. Click on the sign below to access this free resource from my TPT store. 

If you would like a simpler sign that is in a chart form, this one below covers all three art stations at this table. Click on it to make a copy. 

This is not the first Quivervision lesson we have completed. Check out my earlier post about our 5th grade plant cell lesson HERE. These cell worksheets turned out amazing and the kids really grasped the different parts of the cells through coloring, labelling, and discussing it together in their library station. 

March Choice Boards and One School One Book

Today is the BIG LAUNCH....our school is celebrating Read Across America and One School One Book with the Adventures According to Humphrey.  Our school community will be reading a chapter a day while completing fun activities across every grade level and resource class. The website, Read to Them, provided discussion questions, trivia, activities, and guidance for how to host a successful program. Highly recommend! 

To set the scene for the book this week, students dressed in pjs so they could "snuggle" with a good book on Monday. Tuesday students brought their favorite stuffed animal. Today, Wednesday, students and staff are dressing like pirates. The big title reveal was announced this morning during our daily morning announcements. Everyone is ready to celebrate our reading adventures with Humphrey the hamster!

To supplement the activities, I created a choice board for students to access over the next couple of weeks both from home or at their literacy station at school. It follows the same CREATE format that I have used with my other library stations. I included the image below, but you can check out the board and the links on the library website here: According to Humphrey Choice Board on the Website

If you would like a copy of the board to make changes, click HERE. 

I also created a virtual classroom that combines several March themes. If you would like to view it on the website, click HERE. 

If you would like to make copy of the classroom, so you can modify it, click HERE. 

 A third choice board option is one that focuses on springtime and March. This choice board also includes links to other choice boards from other librarians (credit is given on their slide). 

Feel free to make a copy HERE. 

I am excited about our reading adventures, and I know the kids are going to love having a pet hamster that will live in the front office to greet all of our visitors and students. Hopefully March will be full of warm days and sunshine! 

OLYMPIC FUN @ Hannon's Hub ...Recap

 

The Winter Olympics were certainly exciting, and we were happy to join the fun @ Hannon's Hub. We are going to return to our normal CREATE stations this week (we will pick up with the ART station) and I will continue to share what we are doing. 

In the meantime, our last Olympic station was our EXPLORE station. The EXPLORE station normally has students working on their lego storyboards. This time around, we had students create the Olympic Rings using legos! This was quite the challenge, and we had so many fun designs.

  

Here is a recap of what we did during all of our OLYMPIC Stations....

Let's start with our ROBOT  station where we had fun with our SPHERO and OLLIE! These are awesome robots, and we were able to turn this robot into a snowboarder mastering our halfpipe ramps. Ollie and Sphreo had to build up steam and give it their best. 

Here is the blog post highlighting the ROBOT station: Ollie and Sphero

In our ENGINEERING station we created our own OLYMPIC ski slopes. Students produced all kinds of sizes, shapes, ramps, and designs. It was fun to watch them make a plan, build it, and test them out. 

Minecraft at our COMPUTER station is always a favorite. The students look forward to this EVERY week. Students designed ski slopes, skating rinks, the Olympic Rings and so much more. They built their creations in the arctic biome, which really set the scene. 

More information on our ski slope and Minecraft challenge can be found here: OLYMPICS in the LIBRARY.

Quivervsion ART station had our students designing their own OLYMPIC FLAG or using an almanac to find a flag from a country who participated in the Olympics. Check this station out in more details: ART STATION. 

That's a wrap....next I will share more of our regular ART station, as well as our technology station and explore station. Also, stay tuned. We are getting ready to launch ONE BOOK, ONE SCHOOL, and I will share what we are doing! 

Sphero and Ollie Make their Snowboarding Olympic Debut!

Who has solved the Olympic Wordle today? We only have four more days! Check it out here....

Who loves snowboarding? We have turned our robots into professional snowboarders! We love driving the Sphero and Ollie all over the library... but getting them up and over the ramps is a new challenge that we are tackling. Each class has configured the ramps in different ways and styles. Needless to say, watch your feet because these robots have taken over the library! 

Before dismissing learners to their station, I do give a brief overview of what to expect. Here is the challenge sign I created for the table, so they can can head to their station, read the challenge and get started. Click on the image below to get the link to the sign!