Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Label Your Library With DC Super Heroes & Super-Villains From Capstone!

Today I saw a tweet from my friend Andrea Brinkert that caught my attention.

It showed some of our favorite DC Super Heros on super fun Dewey category sign....created especially for our libraries!
 With these DC Super Hero posters, your students will definitely be able to find books in the library.
You can go to the link that Andrea shared here.

It will open up the Capstone website page for the DC Super Hero, and even Super-Villain, signs.
You can click on each poster to download the Dewey range PDF.
 There is one for each of the Dewey ranges our students find in school libraries.
The posters are amazing and will bring students to all of their favorite books.

They will also help them remember what subjects are in each Dewey category with the eye-grabbing graphics, bold numbers and words, and of course....the famous characters themselves.
Happy Back-to-School Friends.

I hope you use these DC Super Heroes and Super-Villains signs to bring lots of fun and power to your library this year too.

#CantataLearning .... A New Way To Celebrate The Creativity, Voice, Mind and Passion Of Our Students!

The conversations, sharing and learning on Twitter is one of the best parts about using this amazing social networking platform.  . 

By using hashtags # in our tweets, we are sharing and engaging others on Twitter to take part in that specific conversation too.  
As teacher librarians and educators we share and join conversations using #tlchat (Teacher Librarian Chat), 
#iowatl (Iowa Teacher Librarian Chat) #edchat, #musiced and lots of others.  

I also love seeing what authors, illustrators, digital tool companies and publishers have to share and say on Twitter.  It is amazing what we can find and the things that are shared within this social network.  

One of my favorites to follow is Cantata Learning at @cantatalearning

I love seeing what the authors and illustrators for the Cantata books and songs share.  The sketches of the new illustrations and book ideas are my favorite tweets from them. 
I use @CantataLearning too!

I share the new books and songs I am excited about and can't wait to share with my little friends.

I share ideas for using Cantata Learning within education and empowering music can be to learning.

I share projects that I do with students using the Cantata Learning songs and books.  Look at this tweet above.  I tweeted Look what my 2nd grade friends created for MLK last year after reading and singing with @CantataLearning 

By clicking on the link in the tweet others were able to see...
the beautiful book the 2nd graders created using original art work and putting it into a digital tool called Flipsnack.  

By sharing on Twitter, people around the world were able to read and listen to their story....think about what that meant to the 2nd graders.  
We have also been sharing a lot of tweets focusing around the Cantata Learning Harmony Projects.  

Harmony Projects are global projects which are inspired by Cantata Learning books and songs.  They are an opportunity for your students to showcase their creativity in a variety of ways from writing stories and poems to creating videos, recipes, artwork and more! 

The tweet above was during our first Harmony Project #WinterAroundTheWorld.  The 2nd graders participated by researching, creating and sharing their winter in Iowa.  
As we kick off our next Harmony Project, Give A Shout Out To Your Community, we have already started to tweet and share it on Twitter. 

And this week we are adding something new to our tweets....

#cantatalearning 
We are going to get a conversation start on Twitter using #cantatalearning to share singing, creating, learning, reading and fun!  

And of course, we can continue to use @cantatalearning.
Now when we tweet and when we follow what others are sharing, #cantatalearning will be a hashtag and conversation that we use and look for on Twitter too.

This will be a special place to celebrate the creativity, voice, mind and passion of our students.

We want you to be part of this conversation and we can't wait to see what you and your students share too.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Happy Birthday To One Of My New Favorites....They All Saw A Cat by Brendan Wenzel!

One of my favorite moments of ALA Annual this summer was meeting Brendan Wenzel in the Chronicle Books booth.

My friend Lara Starr from Chronicle was so excited to share Brendan's new book They All Saw A Cat with me.
I had the best time talking with Brendan about his amazing work in this beautiful new book.  He even gave me a print and drew the coolest message. 
We have all admired Brendan's work in children's books, animations and magazines...
with one of my favorite being Some Bugs by Angela Diterlizzi.   If you haven't seen this one, you must check it out too. 


Today my print has a home next to They All Saw A Cat in our library at home and I couldn't be more excited to say Happy Birthday to one of my favorite new books. 

And to share it with all of you!  

In this glorious celebration of observation, curiosity and imagination, Brendan Wenzel shows us the many lives of one cat, and how perspective shapes what we see.  When you see a cat, what do you see? 
I love following the journey of the cat as we watch through the eyes of...
a boy,
a fish,
a snake, skunk and several others along the way.

Brendan's illustrations are absolutely breathtaking as he captures the perspective of each character perfectly.
You can find They All Saw A Cat on the Chronicle Books website here

They have created two wonderful resources for teacher librarians and other educators including...
 They All Saw A Cat Activity Guide...
 and They All Saw A Cat Discussion Guide.
My friend Emily Arrow also surprised all of us with a Happy Birthday treat, They All Saw A Cat Song.  

You are going to love singing along! 
Happy Birthday to your book again Brendan....This is at the top of my list for Caldecott picks this year and one that every child will love.  

And one that will hold a special place in our library forever.  

One New YouTube Channel All Librarians & Teachers Will Want To Subscribe To....Cantata Learning!

As a librarian and teacher I used YouTube for a variety of purposes....storing and sharing student work, promoting reading celebrations throughout the year, research and gathering new ideas, and virtually traveling around the world.  

One of my favorite ways to use YouTube is to find all of the awesome publisher channels!  

I can find book trailers for new titles coming up, author and illustrator interviews, new product development, project and lesson plan ideas, reading celebrations, library branding, and so much more!  
It is easy to keep up on what they are adding and save what you love, because we can Subscribe to YouTube Channels right from the publishers pages.  

This way we don't miss a thing and everything we Subscribe to is added to our YouTube Channel too.  
All of the content from YouTube is easy to access online or through the YouTube app.  And best of all....Everything is FREE!   
There is a new YouTube Channel on the block that I don't want you to miss.  

It is Cantata Learning's YouTube Channel, a place to read it, sing it and learn it!  
You can subscribe now by clicking here.  
As the Cantata Learning YouTube Channel states, 

We take pride in making the best music enhanced picture books.  Cantata Learning engages every type of learner.  Through music, movement, art, and text, you can access multiple learning styles with one book.  

Cantata Learning's YouTube Channel is packed full of singing, reading, and lots of fun!  This is a place that your students will want to go, that you can use in the library and classroom, and one that children and parents will love to visit at home or even on the go from the YouTube app. 

As you can see there are lots of special places to check out on Cantata Learning's YouTube.  

Let's take a look....
The first place you visit on Cantata Learning's YouTube Channel is a place called What to watch next.  
Here you can find wonderful new YouTube videos that have just been added.  This week there are several book videos of the new Fall 2016 books.  

This is something wonderful that can be sung and read as a class, small group instruction, or even individual students will love finding these and singing along too. 
Here is one of my new favorites Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  

You can watch this one by clicking on the window above.
One the Home page you will also find a video for each book in every season Cantata Learning has produced so far.
These can be browsed by season....
...and also under the Video tab each one can be found.
Another one of my favorite spots are the Virtual Storytimes.  In this section, you will find five Cantata Learning Virtual Storytimes.  

There are more to come!  
Each of these includes a fun video that children will love to read and sing along with. 
You will also find two other videos of me reading the book.  One video includes the text as I read and one is without the text.  

These videos are a wonderful addition to storytime at school or home, because it is a special storytime with a librarian.  

Watch me reading Miss Mary Mack above.  
You will also find an About Cantata Learning section which contains videos and information to help you understand what Cantata Learning is and how to use their books and songs with your students too.
Don't wait another day to subscribe to Cantata Learning.

Go here and sign up.
Remember....once you sign up, Cantata Learning will become part of your YouTube Channel subscriptions and you will always have access to all of these amazing videos, books and songs too.
From the YouTube Channel, you can also connect with Cantata Learning's website and other places on social media including Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook which brings you so many terrific ideas, projects and fun too!

You can find these links in the right hand corner of Cantata Learning's YouTube Channel or...
on the About page here. 
Subscribe to Cantata Learning's YouTube Channel today and become part of this wonderful network. 

This is one that you will want to share with your students, parents and others too!