5th Grade Poems

Several 5th graders got to come to the library to bring one of their published poems to life. They used the Chatter Kid app to create their videos. This project was a lot of fun! Simply click on the red dots to watch the videos.

Holiday Traditions

After reading "Snowmen at Christmas," students used the Show Me app to create a drawing. They illustrated one of their own favorite family holiday traditions.

4th Annual Special Reading Spot Contest

It's that time of year again! We are calling for all creative families to submit a photo of their child reading in their special reading spot. If your picture is chosen, it will be blown up and displayed in our library.

Contest rules:

Ø The school-wide contest runs from NOW until Monday, January 11, 2016.

Ø Students must be visibly reading a book in the photo.

Ø Participating students must turn in a 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 photo print of their entry AND a participation form (back side of this flyer). 

Ø Entries will be voted on by Union Hill staff members. 

Ø Winners will be notified on Friday, January 15, 2016.  Then they will need to provide a digital version of their image to be enlarged.

To get a copy of the application click here.

This Week in Our Library

As usual, we've had a very eventful week in our library. You can see some highlights below, but I don't have pictures to post of some other highlights from the week.
-K-2 got to visit our Makerspace (lesson highlights below)
-3rd graders did a Nearpod activity to practice summarizing expository text
-4th graders came to go on a poetry scavenger hunt
-2 groups of 5th graders met for book clubs

Pre-K & PPCD/TWC Using the iPads

Our youngest students had so much fun using the iPads for the first time today. I used the Scribble My Story app to create a book of the well known poem "Five Little Pumpkins." After reading it together, students created their own pumpkin pages.

Preparing for the Science Fair

UHE Teachers Compete in Makerspace Race

Our teachers and staff competed in a Makerspace Race on our Professional Development day. They had a blast getting to experience some of the stations that our students have or will get to participate in. The stations they chose from were:
-Tallest Tower
-Marble Run
-Color Alive
-MakeyMakey
-Little Bits
-Trash Turned Treasure
-Origami
-Kodable
-Lego Challenge

Book Fair

We just wrapped a wonderful Book Fair week. Thank you to all of the parents, students, and teachers who bought books this week. The money we raised will help buy books for our library and pay for author visits this year. Below are the winners of our raffle, congratulations!

1st Grade Building the Tallest Towers

First graders had fun this week in the library with the challenge of "Who can build the tallest tower?" After students built a tower, they were supposed to discuss with their team what changes they were going to make to so their next tower would be even better. Below is a Pic Collage of some of the tallest towers we saw!

STEM Learning in our Library

This year we are incorporating some STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) activities in our library. Our Makerspace is one place you will see students completing tasks and challenges that are STEM based. Whole group lessons are also taking place. Last week Kindergarten students completed an experiment to test which shaped paper column held the most weight (of course using books as our weight). After conducting the experiment, students added their data to our class table, and we noticed that the circle or round columns held the most weight. Students were challenged to think of ways they could improve their columns. We had a lot of fun!

Highlights From Day 1 of our Makerspace

Dot Day

Our entire school is getting ready for International Dot Day tomorrow.

 In the library today, Pre-K and TWC/PPCD listened to the inspirational book "The Dot" and then got to create their own dots. These were hung in the hallway with the dots that Kinder-5th grade students got to make in art class.

Bluebonnet Reading Program

Next week we will be kicking off the Bluebonnet Reading Program with 3rd-5th graders. If you want to get a head start on deciding what to read, click the link to the right "2015-2016 Bluebonnet Books." The Thinglink has a book trailer for each of the 20 books. Below you will see the prizes that students can earn for participating in the program.

1st & 2nd Grade Orientations

We've wrapped up orientation with the upper grades, and are now seeing the lower grades. 1st and 2nd graders are getting to see one of my first attempts at "App-smashing." I used several apps (Pic Collage, ChatterKids Pix, Tellagami, Sock Puppets, and Canva) to create this Thinglink. It reviews some of the important things about our library.

iPads Got Their First Use Today!

Our 5th graders got to be the first ones on campus to use the iPads today. We used Kahoot to review library procedures (in place of my usual library orientation).

I'm not sure who had more fun, me or the students!

New technology in the library!

Today was my first day back at work! Although I didn't get to spend much time in the library, it was for a great purpose! I spent the day in a meeting learning about the technology below. This year, our library will be part of RRISD's Next Generation Digital Classroom (NGDC) Library program. We have already gotten our equipment- 32 iPads, and an interactive TV! I cannot wait to see all of the learning adventures we will share with our new technology. See you soon! ~Mrs. Stenulson

Don't forget to read this summer!

Here's more info for next year's Bluebonnet Books

Paper Cut-Out Creations

This week Makerspace students created paper cut-out mobiles. We began by reading artist Henri Matisse's biography called "Henri's Scissors."

After reading the book, students cut out paper and created mobiles.

We hung the finished projects in the middle of the library for all to see.  They turned out great!

Happy Earth Day!

We are celebrating Earth Day all week in the Library!  Each class is learning about how they can take care of our precious Earth with stories and activities.

Students are able to make bookmarks from pages of discarded books after they checkout.

5th graders are writing lyrics for their own Earth Day songs.  Next week they will record their music videos.

Makerspace students did an upcycle project where they created out of recycled materials.

Aluminum Boats

Last week, Makerspace club designed and built boats out of aluminum foil. They were challenged to see how many paper clips their boat could hold, before it sank. The first boat to go down held 60 small paper clips. The next to go down held 236 paper clips! We ran out of time for the other 3 boats, but we stopped at 350 paper clips. How many more paper clips do you think they could have held?

Catapults

This week the Makerspace club built catapults!  The only materials they used were popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and bottle caps.  After using the catapults a few times, some groups bottle caps fell off.   Students found that the catapults worked better with the lids.  They experimented with catapulting several small objects to see what flew the farthest.  

Lucas Miller Presented to 5th Graders

5th graders got a great science review with Lucas Miller on Tuesday.  He did some demonstrations and reviewed concepts like animal adaptations, photosynthesis, ecosystems, and metamorphosis.