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Great resource to supplement Social Studies curriculum. Read to learn more about topics such as consumers and producers. Then use that knowledge to create a teaching page.

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Bearded.dragons. Danissoreers

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Students used Pebble Go to research animals and created a Shadow Puppet EDU video about the animal.

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Students used Pebble Go to research famous African Americans and created a Chatter Pix video

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1st grade researched bodies of water and then used the visual poet app to show what they learned.

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1st grade researched bodies of water and then used the visual poet app to show what they learned.

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Sara Romine

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Before thanksgiving I had each first grader research turkey on pebblego - then we created turkeys with facts in the feathers!

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Our First Augmented Reality Scavenger Hunt Through A Fairy Tale Capstone Interactive eBook & PebbleGO With The Second Graders!

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Our First Augmented Reality Scavenger Hunt Through A Fairy Tale Capstone Interactive eBook & PebbleGO With The Second Graders!

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Shannon McClintock Miller

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Friends....This is a project that I did with LayAR a few years ago. Since that, LayAR has changed the way things were created and unfortunately took this project down. Even though it makes me sad, I hope that this idea inspires you to use other apps which offer AR and VR experiences to our students.
I am working on a few ideas right now and will share as soon as I have them ready.
Thank you, Shannon

Please read the original post....

All year long, I have wanted to do a project with augmented reality.

I have used a few of the AR apps that are available such as the ColAR app for Dot Day and we learned about Aurasma when my friend Brad Waid and his students taught us about it in a Google Hangout one day.

Both of these apps were so engaging and exciting for the kids to use....I wanted to do more.

And I wanted to create a project that incorporated reading, books, and technology. And most of all....be fun for the kids to be part of.

My friend Elissa Malespina told me a few weeks ago that I had to try out the Layar website and app. She thought it was much easier to use than some that we had been trying.

I also wanted to mention.... During this post you will want to get the Layar app downloaded on your device before you read any further. We are going to have some fun.
When you need to use the Layar app to scan, the text will be in bold like this.

So I had the tool that I wanted to use, now I just had to match it up to the right project and group.

I decided to incorporate augmented reality into a project I have been working on with the second grade teachers, along with the art and music teacher. We have been focusing on fractured fairy tales, which is a big part of their curriculum in second grade as well.

One of the teachers, Melanie Smith, and I happen to run across this wonderful series of fairy tales from Capstone Publishing called The Other Side of the Story. The story and illustrators are just so much fun....any child would love to read these. And teachers would love to share them too. We have the titles in our library now.

We love the eBook! It is told by "The Wolf" which is so much fun.....and the kids love the voice of the wolf too.

When we got the eBook a few weeks ago, I read it and knew we had to do something with this eBook from the series.

I would create an augmented reality scavenger hunt through this fairy tale eBook using Layar and a few more digital tools. The kids would LOVE this....To be able to use the iPads and the laptops would be super fun for all of us.

So I set off to create the scavenger hunt using augmented reality. I have created them with QR codes before but this would be something new for me.

I decided to have 10 different questions that the students would answer while participating in the steps of the scavenger hunt. I created the 2nd Grade Fractured Fairy Tale Augmented Reality Scavenger Hunt Google Doc to share with all of them.

As they read the eBook, the students would come across these 10 questions that would ask questions about what they were reading and extending that knowledge a few times too.

Within the website Layar, I created a new "Campaign", which can contain multiple pages that you create (you can see the pages on the left hand side of the page in the screenshot above).

I created the pages from different screen shots of the pages of the eBook. I took 10, which is how many questions I decided there would be for them to answer.

Next I went through each page in my campaign and decided what they were going to have to find when they scanned it with the Layar app. These are called "Buttons" in Layar.

This is one big reason I love using Layar....there are lots of choices of what you embed into your images.

With the "Standard Buttons" you can embed websites, video, audio files, and even SoundCloud is a choice.

When I saw that SoundCloud was an option, I was so excited. I love SoundCloud and how easy it is to use. We have a Van Meter Library Voice SoundCloud channel that we use to record quick podcasts when reading poetry, sharing books, and even reading aloud.

The kids love using SoundCloud on the computers and especially the app.

In fact, if you scan this picture from the book, you will be able to see how SoundCloud works too.

Under "Standard Buttons" you can also add video and audio.

Scan the cover above to hear the directions for augmented reality scavenger hunt from my little avatar I created.

I have been creating little Tellagami's to highlight a tool each day in My Teacher Librarian Gave To Me....20 Days of Awesome Library and Technology Tools & Resources Smore. I thought it would be fun to use for the scavenger hunt because the avatar can actually tell my students the directions....and it is my voice and avatar.

It was very easy to add this Tellagami video to the page.

You can scan this page too with the Layar app to see how fun it is to use the Tellagami app with this project.

You can also create "Custom Buttons" which gives you lots of nice ways to embed content. You could have the button point to images, video, website, and more.

For my buttons, I created images using ReciteThis. It is a great digital tool to create posters....there are always lots of awesome styles to choose from and ways to share it. These is easy for the second graders to use to create too.

You can scan this page and answer a question from PebbleGo. This page goes along with the Tellagami that you just watched above.
Once I gave the second graders the directions and showed them the different things they might find, they were ready to get started. They were so excited! I reminded them to read and listen to every page of the eBook....the questions would guide them.

Each student had a partner. They got a computer and iPad from the carts. They also had one of the worksheets and a pencil so they could record their answers.

I love how almost all of the second graders came up, including our friend David from Capstone, to scan the front cover with their Layar app. Remember....this took them into the Tellagami I created to explain the directions.

I had so much fun too working with the second graders and hearing their reaction to the project.

They all enjoyed answering the questions too. The took a lot of pride in doing a good job throughout the entire project....and they wanted to make sure they found the correct answers during the scavenger hunt.

You can also create a button using a YouTube video.

Scan this page and see what they found at the very end of the eBook.

This project using Layar is one that I am going to do with the other 2nd grade class today. I am excited for them to be able to do an activity like this too.

Using Layar and other augmented reality apps and websites holds endless possibilities on how we incorporate it into the curriculum, our classrooms, and libraries.

By adding augmented reality to this eBook I connected them to our school community, several digital tools, and created a reading experience that was interactive, fun, and memorable for them.

Within Layar, you can also save and share your campaigns. All of your pages are brought together, you can add a description and cover page, and then press "Save and go to sharing options."

I can't wait to create my next project using augmented reality.....Just think of the possibilities.

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Our First Augmented Reality Scavenger Hunt Through A Fairy Tale eBook With The Second Graders

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Friends....This is a project that I did with LayAR a few years ago. Since that, LayAR has changed the way things were created and unfortunately took this project down. Even though it makes me sad, I hope that this idea inspires you to use other apps which offer AR and VR experiences to our students.

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Ms. Heslep's Class Interviews With Animals From Hispanic Countries With The Help From PebbleGO! 

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Ms. Heslep's Class Interviews With Animals From Hispanic Countries With The Help From PebbleGO! 

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Ms. Heslep

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Ms. Heslep's Class Interviews with Animals from Hispanic Countries - Interview with an Anaconda by Marlin and Christopher

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Observing the Day & Night Sky with Kindergarten

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Observing the Day & Night Sky with Kindergarten

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Andy Plemmons

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Kindergarten is working on observing the day and night sky in science, and they want to use technology to document their observations. They are working on the following standards:

ELACCKW6 digital tools help writers write and share their stories.

ELACCKW7 writers work in groups.

SKE1 Students describe time pattterns (such as day to night and night to day) and objects in the day and night sky.

Classes came for 2 separate lessons. During our 1st session, we used Capstone's Pebble Go to read about day and night.

Then, we read the book Sun Up, Sun Down: The Story of Day and Night by Jacqui Bailey. During our reading of both Pebble Go and the book, students discussed the scientific reasons we have day and night. We setup the idea of starting to "notice" things about the sky and how it changes during the day and night.

For our 2nd session, I opened up the blinds on our massive library windows and setup observation areas for students. We started our time together on the floor and shared some observations we had already made at recess or at home. We practiced saying aloud what we would write on our clipboards at the windows. Next, the teacher paired the students together, gave them a clipboard with paper and pencil, and I placed groups in front our our windows. The teacher, parapro, and I walked around and talked with kids about what they saw. We encouraged them to write and sketch. We also helped them make connections to the information that we had learned from Pebble Go and our book. For example, the sun was blinding us in the windows on he left side of the media center but on the right side of the media center it was shady. We remembered that the sun is at different positions in the sky throughout the day due to the Earth rotating.

At the end, we split the class in half at our 2 projection areas. Student groups shared what they observed and we used Padlet to capture the observations. I tweeted the link to our padlet and later in the day Margaret Powers, Mrs. Keating, and Mrs. Bolster and their students added to the wall from Pennsylvania. It was interesting to hear about the cloud-filled sky there compared to our cloudless sky in Georgia.

Now, the Kindergarten teachers will share this link with families and encourage them to add notes to the Padlet from home. This will allow students to make some observations of the night sky. Please feel free to leave some comments on the Padlet about what the sky looks like where you are!

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Observing the Day & Night Sky with Kindergarten

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Kindergarten is working on observing the day and night sky in science, and they want to use technology to document their observations. They are working on the following standards: ELACCKW6 digital tools help writers write and share their stories. ELACCKW7 writers work in groups. SKE1 Students describe time pattterns (such as day to night and...

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In Dinosaur cub, we meet two times during lunch recess to research our favorite dinosaurs! During our first meeting, we use PebbleGo to learn information about any dinosaur we'd like. During our second meeting, we use our green screen to video tape us sharing our research in front of our dinosaur! ROAR!

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In Dinosaur cub, we meet two times during lunch recess to research our favorite dinosaurs! During our first meeting, we use PebbleGo to learn information about any dinosaur we'd like. During our second meeting, we use our green screen to video tape us sharing our research in front of our dinosaur! ROAR!

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Kaitlin Fajks

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In Dinosaur cub, we meet two times during lunch recess to research our favorite dinosaurs! During our first meeting, we use PebbleGo to learn information about any dinosaur we'd like. During our...

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The Perfect Place To Go When Studying & Drawing Animals.....Capstone's PebbleGo On Our iPads!

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The Perfect Place To Go When Studying & Drawing Animals.....Capstone's PebbleGo On Our iPads!

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Shannon McClintock Miller

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When Miss McClintock's class came to library today, we started working on the Iowa Animal eBook. I told them all about the project. They were super excited to hear they would be artists and authors.

I explained how each one of them would have their very own page to illustrate with their Iowa animal and the habitat that it lived in. I passed out nice paper and all kinds of different drawing tools for their illustrations.

I then made their day by telling them we would also be using the iPads to go to PebbleGO. This is their favorite place to go for their Iowa animal research. Capstone just announced that PebbleGO can be used on iPads, which has brought so much excitement to the library over the last week.

I loved watching them go get a iPad and get right to PebbleGO.....They have become little experts. They all went right to the Animals database within PebbleGO and were able to type in their animal.

After they used the pictures and videos within PebbleGO to draw the animals, they also went to the "Animal Habitats" articles to look at the pictures of habitats too.

They all created the best illustrations today. It truly showed through what the kindergarteners have learned throughout this PBL project over the last several weeks.

I can't wait for Mrs. Caltrider's class to create their illustrations on Wednesday. We will then use a few new tools to record voices, write text, and create an interactive eBook to share next week with each other, our community, and all of you.

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The Perfect Place To Go When Studying & Drawing Animals.....Capstone's PebbleGo On Our iPads!

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When Miss McClintock's class came to library today, we started working on the Iowa Animal eBook. I told them all about the project. They were super excited to hear they would be artists and authors. I explained how each one of them would have their very own page to illustrate with their Iowa animal and the habitat that it lived in.

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Researching Snow Flakes and Winter With PebbleGO! 

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Researching Snow Flakes and Winter With PebbleGO! 

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Shannon McClintock Miller

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The holidays have passed, we are into a new year, and right in the middle of a very cold, snowy winter.

It is the perfect time for my first grade friends, the classroom teachers, and I to learn a little more about snowflakes through beautiful books, a database, websites, and art activities.

To start out our month of wintery activities, we looked at books with a snowy theme.

Both of these beautiful books won Caldecott Medals, The Snowy Day in 1963 and Snowflake Bentley in 1999. The kids always love learning and talking about the Caldecott books so they were very excited we listened to two of them on the first day.

After listening to the two books, we then talked about winter and snowflakes. All of them had a fun story about playing in the snow to share with everyone.

Next, I showed them the websites I added to the First Grade Symbaloo. I included the two books we listened to from BookFlix, along with PebbleGo and a few websites.

Next week when they come to the library we will dive in deeper and learn even more about snowflakes on our favorite database for little ones, Capstone Publishing PebbleGo.

They will research snowflakes using the printout from PebbleGo too. They love drawing, writing, and sharing what they know.

And in a few of our eBooks too.

For the first day after listening to the books, we created our very own virtual snowflakes using two awesome websites.

One website is Make-a-Flake. On the right hand side you click on "Make Your Own Snowflake" and it takes you into the page....

that lets you create, preview, save, and print your snowflake.

The second is the Snowdays website where it talks about snowy conditions, the shape of snowflakes, and lets you click on snowflakes that others have created.

At the bottom of the page, you can click on "Create Your Own Snowflake"....

to create your very own snowflake too.

After one of our first graders Grady created his snowflake, we sent it to his mom.

His mom in return wrote a comment back to Grady about his snowflake and asked what he learned. I love the interaction with this website.

Katherine also wanted to share her snowflake, #11901032. I sent it to my email and opened it up.

When I saved it to my computer, it opened up like this.....How cool is that! I love how it shows off their snowflakes so nicely along with the information about their flake.

Keith created a very unique snowflake that we thought looked like birds on his flake.

After the kids created their snowflakes, it was fun for them to track their own snowflake. On the screen above you can see the brown arrow pointing to the snowflake.

When you put your cursor over the top, the information about the snowflake pops up.

Snowdays also lets you search for the number of the snowflake, names, locations, dates, and even messages that snowflakes have with "Find-A-Flake".

When I searched for "Van Meter" in "Find-A-Flake" there were 38 of them that started falling from the sky. The little arrows on the screen above show them.

This is very fun for them to take a look at all of the snowflakes their friends created too.

After we start researching and learning more about how snowflakes are made, the first graders will also be creating their very own too.

By watching YouTube videos and showing examples in class, everyone will be snowflake makers by the end of this month.

The first graders and I will brainstorm together and come up with a project to show everything they have learned....maybe an eBook created with Google Presentation and FlipSnack, maybe one using Little Bird Tales, or even an interactive animation they create. We will discover and plan that part together.

We hope you try some of these websites out. Even if you are not surrounded by snow right now, you can have the beauty of snowflakes around you too.

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A Snowy Time With Our First Graders.....eBooks, PebbleGo, Interactive Snowflake Creators, Art, and Great Fun!

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The holidays have passed, we are into a new year, and right in the middle of a very cold, snowy winter. It is the perfect time for my first grade friends, the classroom teachers, and I to learn a little more about snowflakes through beautiful books, a database, websites, and art activities.

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Empowering Student Voice Through Individual Projects: A Kindergarten Research Project

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Empowering Student Voice Through Individual Projects: A Kindergarten Research Project

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Andy Plemmons

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My library uses a flexible schedule. This means that I don't see classes at a set time every week. Instead, I collaborate with teachers and schedule lessons and projects as they fit into the curriculum each week. This flexibility allows me to work with more than just homeroom classes to include classes like art and music, gifted, special education, and extended learning time groups. It also allows me to work with small groups of students or even individuals.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been working with Mick, a Kindergarten student. He is an avid reader and is very curious about so many things. Mick discovers a topic and wants to know all there is to know about it. Our recent exploration has been around seahorses, which was sparked by a book that he read in his class.

Over several sessions, Mick came to the library for research. We developed questions together on a Google doc. He did all of the talking, and I did the typing.

Once we had a good list of questions, we started exploring PebbleGo, a Capstone Interactive ebook on seahorses, and Encyclopedia Britannica in our Galileo database. We listened to the read aloud feature or I read the text aloud if it was too difficult for him to read on his own. We paused often to see if any facts had answered our questions. If Mick pulled out a fact, we put it into his own words and I added it to the doc.

Using @ CapstonePub pebble go and interactive books for an individual kindergarten project. #tlchat http://t.co/gN1H5rTV2B-
Andy Plemmons (@plemmonsa) January 21, 2015

After each session, I printed our notes for him to take back to class in case he did more research on his own or at home. Once Mick felt like he had enough facts, I asked him what he wanted to do with his information.

He really wanted to "make a book using the computer". There are several tools we could use to do this, but we decided to use an iPad and the Storykit app. This app lets you create multiple pages, type text, record audio, draw, take pictures, and import pictures. I've seen other Kindergarten students use it, so I felt like it was the right tool for the job.

Kindergarten researcher showing our guests how he is making his own ebook. #tlchat @ LSDenham http://t.co/rBDsNXGbvs-
Andy Plemmons (@plemmonsa) January 23, 2015

Mick's first steps were to find some creative commons pictures of seahorses. He used the camera on the iPad to take pictures of the pictures and put one picture on each page.

During another session, we went through Mick's facts and selected an order for the information. He read the facts he wanted, and I typed them onto the iPad. I originally had him typing, but it was taking longer than we had time for.

In our final session, Mick recorded his voice reading each page.

Mick is very proud of his informational ebook about seahorses. #tlchat #edtech http://t.co/58YKvllRl8-
Andy Plemmons (@plemmonsa) February 06, 2015

The Storykit app lets you upload the book to the Storykit server and then you get a link to the work to share.

I invite you to take a look and a listen to Mick's informational story on Seahorses. I love it when student's voices are empowered through projects in the library. If you have comments for Mick, please leave them in the comments.

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Empowering Student Voice Through Individual Projects: A Kindergarten Research Project

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My library uses a flexible schedule. This means that I don't see classes at a set time every week. Instead, I collaborate with teachers and schedule lessons and projects as they fit into the curriculum each week. This flexibility allows me to work with more than just homeroom classes to include classes like art and...

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Exploring Chinese New Year with Kindergarten: Google Voice Search, PebbleGo, colAR Mix, and More!

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Exploring Chinese New Year with Kindergarten: Google Voice Search, PebbleGo, colAR Mix, and More!

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Andy Plemmons

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Mrs. Li's Kindergarten class has been exploring the Chinese New Year with me in the library. During our exploration, we've tried out several resources for information. First, we used Capstone's PebbleGo database to do some pre-reading for background information. We did this with little discussion about the holiday, but instead just focused on listening to the information to build some shared knowledge.

Next, we thought of questions that we had about the Chinese New Year that were possibly not answered by PebbleGo. We asked things like:

When is Chinese New Year this year?

When is the lantern festival?

Where is it celebrated?

How is it celebrated?

Before students came, I installed the Google Voice Hotword Search extension in Chrome. This allowed us to control a Google search with our voice. For Kindergarten students who aren't fluent in typing, this lifted a big search barrier for them. We took our list of questions and took turns saying:

"OK Google"

When is the Chinese New Year?

Google searched and spoke to us telling us that this year Chinese New Year begins on January 31st. We continued this process to answer many of our questions.

Next, we used Grace Lin's book Bringing in the New Year to continue our exploration. Many facts that we had already discovered were confirmed in the text, but the book allowed us to learn some of the family structure in China and what different family member roles are. Mrs. Li was able to help us with this part of the lesson. Since I wasn't sure how to pronounce some of the words, she pronounced them for us and also explained the meaning of each family member's name. We certainly could have used Google for this, but we had a conversation about choosing resources to answer our questions. Since Mrs. Li was with us in the room and is an expert in Chinese culture, she was a faster option for us than taking the time to go to Google. It's never too early to begin surfacing the thinking process that we go through as learners when we are trying to find the answers to our questions.

During the 2nd lesson, we once again used the Google Voice Hotword Search to explore the Chinese Zodiac. We learned that 2014 is the "Year of the Horse". Students were curious about their own birth years, so we used Google to look for the signs for each of their years too. From here, we spent some time coloring a colAR mix coloring page for Chinese New Year. Students used the iPad app to view their carousel creations. The app uses augmented reality to bring coloring pages to life. The carousel pops off the page and rotates to music with they year 2014 in front of the carousel. Students were mesmerized by their coloring page brought to life.

We explored so many skills and tools in just 2 lessons. I want to continue this transliterate thinking of how our students can experience content across multiple platforms. In these 2 lessons, we examined print, databases, websites, search engines, crayons/markers/paper, and augmented reality. I'm curious to ask students later what they remember about Chinese New Year and see what stands out in their minds from these 2 days.

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Exploring Chinese New Year with Kindergarten: Google Voice Search, Pebble Go, colAR Mix, and More

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Mrs. Li's Kindergarten class has been exploring the Chinese New Year with me in the library. During our exploration, we've tried out several resources for information. First, we used Capstone's PebbleGo database to do some pre-reading for background information. We did this with little discussion about the holiday, but instead just focused on listening to...

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First Grade Researchers Share Their Curiosity, Knowledge, and Creativity In Fun Fall Research Project

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First Grade Researchers Share Their Curiosity, Knowledge, and Creativity In Fun Fall Research Project

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Shannon McClintock Miller

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Over the last month, the first graders have been researching fall topics in the classroom and library.

At the end of the year in kindergarten they participated in an Iowa Animal Research Project and just loved being curious little researchers finding, learning, and creating. We knew that they would be ready for another research project as first graders too.

Since they were focusing on fall, apples, and pumpkins in the classroom, we used PebbleGo and a variety of print and eBooks for our research in the library on the same topics.

One thing I love about PebbleGo are the "Printouts" that are located on each page. The image above shows the PebbleGo Printout from the Apple page. I printed out the pages for apples, fall, and pumpkins to make a research packet for the first graders.

As the first graders were researching the fall, I also asked the third graders from Mrs. Volk's class to help one day too.

It was really fun to see them research and learning together.

Our first grade friends were super excited to gather information in writing and pictures. They love, love, love to research and discover new things. This is one of the best things to see as the teacher librarian and as a teacher.

We are wrapping up our fall research before Thanksgiving so we can move onto "Our Family Holiday Traditions" research project in December. Today I created an activity that would give them an opportunity to pull all of this information together and share what they learned.

I created this Google Doc above and printed it off for them to use as a place to summarize what they had learned. First, we discussed finding main ideas. We walked through several students packets and pulled out main ideas to put down as examples.

They were excited to go through the three PebbleGo Printouts to find the information that they wanted to highlight.

After they had the information filled out on their sheet, I had them go to Wordle which I put onto the First Grade Symbaloo webmix.

They have used Wordle to create word clouds since last year and always really enjoy using this website.

The students put phrases and words from the information they collected into their Wordle.

They have fun picking their own font, colors, and layout within the Wordle.

Once they had their Wordle created, we helped them take a screen shot and upload them into a Padlet that I created before they came to the library. I also created a link to the Padlet on their Symbaloo. All they have to do is find that tile and go to the Padlet.

Once at the "Look What We Learned About The Fall, Apples, and Pumpkins" Padlet, they click on the wall and upload the image of their Wordle. It is such a beautiful, easy way to bring all of their work together to be published and shared online.

You can see all of their Wordles at our Padlet here or at the top of this post.....Just scroll down in the box to view them all.

I can't wait for next month to see what the first graders do with their family holiday tradition projects.

To give our little ones the opportunities to be curious, embrace wonder, and share their excitement for learning is giving them the world.....it is giving them a voice.

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First Grade Researchers Share Their Curiosity, Knowledge, and Creativity In Fun Fall Research Project

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Over the last month, the first graders have been researching fall topics in the classroom and library. At the end of the year in kindergarten they participated in an Iowa Animal Research Project and just loved being curious little researchers finding, learning, and creating.

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Researching Objects in the Sky with 1st grade.  Then share what we know on Popplet.

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Researching Objects in the Sky with 1st grade.  Then share what we know on Popplet.

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Sara Romine

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First grade is learning about things in the sky. We used Pebble Go and Popplet to make a web of 2 things they can find in the sky.

Popplet was a little challenging since anytime you touch a new popple comes up but the students enjoyed it and hopefully the teachers will start to use it more in the classroom.

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First grade is learning about things in the sky. We used Pebble Go and Popplet to make a web of 2 things they can find in the sky. Popplet was a little challenging since anytime you touch a new popple comes up but the students enjoyed it and hopefully the teachers will start to use it more in the classroom.

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Sara Romine

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More thanks to our wonderful District Library Instructional Coordinator for helping us to take our research up a notch using the Guided Inquiry model. Our kinder students researched jobs in the community and the tools people need to do their jobs.

This involved kinder coming four times for 45 minutes each time (and we still could have used more time). We started off discussing what would happen if our school did not have a custodian. You can read about that here. Then the students went to tables where they sorted picture cards. The cards had pictures of people and then tools that they might use in their jobs.

We had a good discussion about what tools people need to do their jobs well.

In the 2nd lesson, the class was split into two groups. One group stayed on the carpet with the teacher to look at books and the other groups went to the computers with me to read an ebook. Then we switched.

At the book station, I had books from these two series out on the floor.

Being the non-kinder teacher that I am, I was so thankful for the suggestion to give have index cards prepared with one green sticky and two yellow stickies.

As the students looked through the books, the put the green sticker on a page where they found the name of the job and the two yellow stickies when they found a tool the person used.

After they placed their stickies, they went and sat on a different part of the rug and the teacher paired them with another student to share what they found. Most students had time to do 2 books.

Meanwhile at the computer station, we navigated to four ebooks that our district owns. These are called Community Helper Mysteries and give clues about the person all the way through the book and then reveal who it is at the end.

After they listened to 2 books, they came to the table where they glued the cover of the books that they listened to and wrote the name of the person and a tool they used in their research journal (5 half sheets of manilla paper stapled together).

On the next visit, the used iPads to access PebbleGo and listen to one of the community helpers there. Again, in their journals, they wrote the name of the person and two tools they used.

On the fourth and final visit, they used 30 hands to make a movie of one of the jobs and tools that they researched. The librarians in our district had previously all found some pictures to put in a file that the students could access for this part. The students saved the 3 pictures they needed to the ipads and then I walked them through adding the pictures to 30 Hands and how to record. We modeled the video after the Community Helper Mystery Books. The students saved their videos to the camera roll and then I loaded them in dropbox for the teachers to access back in the classroom.

This was a great project for kinder however, as always I wish we had more time. You'll notice on this video that we forgot to include the source slide. We talked about citing our sources and how important it is to give credit for where we found our research, but when it came to crunch time we didn't make one to include. We always seemed to be rushed trying to get 6 or 7 classes in four or five times during the two-week window that our district scope and sequence allows for research. Wish it could be an ongoing skill through the whole year as interesting things come up instead of a two week chunk of time in their ELA block.

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More thanks to our wonderful District Library Instructional Coordinator for helping us to take our research up a notch using the Guided Inquiry model. Our kinder students researched jobs in the community and the tools people need to do their jobs.

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A Room Full Of Kindergarten Researchers Connecting To Eric Carle, Global Read Aloud, Cats, PebbleGo....and of course a whole lot of curiosity!

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A Room Full Of Kindergarten Researchers Connecting To Eric Carle, Global Read Aloud, Cats, PebbleGo....and of course a whole lot of curiosity!

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Shannon McClintock Miller

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We have such wonderful kindergarteners at Van Meter....I love working with them in the library every week. This week we are starting our first research project with them.

As we all sat on the floor together, I asked them...

"What is research? What does it mean to be a researcher?"

Their answers were the best!

"Looking in a dictionary."

"Finding out a little more about it."

"Being curious like Curious George"....at the time not knowing they had read and talked about Curious George that morning in their classroom.

Last year, we did Iowa animal research project s towards the end of the year within the classrooms, library, and homes. It was a wonderful project and so much fun for everyone. Since it is so early in the school year I wasn't sure how this would go. But I wanted to give it a try because during my planning this week I found the perfect connection!

And after hearing the discussion about research and being a researcher, I knew that they would love this project with that natural sense of curiosity and discovery.

I saw the connection with animals as we continued to participate in the Global Read Aloud Project for the second week with the kindergarteners. Within this project, over 138,000 students are reading, discussing, and interacting with other children all around the world.

This year the youngest readers are focusing on Eric Carle books for the 6 weeks of Global Read Aloud.

One more perfect fit for these students since they are studying Eric Carle in their classroom during the month of October. We always focus on the same authors and illustrators within the library too.

For week 2, everyone is reading Have You Seen My Cat. We didn't have the book in the library so I found a YouTube video to show of someone reading the book.

As I sketched out the next five weeks of Global Read Aloud, looked at my curriculum within library and technology, and connected it to the Common Core and curriculum within their classroom, I thought that their first research project would be a natural fit for everything else taking place.

Also, I have the perfect online resource that I could introduce and use with this project and the kindergarteners.

We would learn all about PebbleGo from Capstone Digital, an amazing " database for prek-3 researchers that supports literacy and builds a foundation for a lifetime of learning."

Since the Global Read Aloud book focused on cats this week, the kindergarteners would research cats within the PebbleGo Animals database.

They would find several cats under "Wildcats" and also domestic cats under "Pets".

On each page, there is a button called "Share What You Know", where these awesome PebbleGo Printouts are attached for printing. I printed the one from the cats under "Pets", so the little people would have an option of what cat they wanted to research.

Each child will use PebbleGo Animals to find a cat they wanted to learn more about. Their learning target for the day was to draw the animal in the top box and label it by writing the name somewhere within the box too. They will complete the rest of the printout with their Third Grade Buddies that come to their classroom to work with them.

As I continued to plan, I was very excited to see all of the Common Core Standards that we will cover throughout this project.

R1.K.1 Reading: Key Ideas and Details....With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

W.K.2 Writing: Text Types and Purposes....Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

W.K.8 Writing: Research to Build and Present Knowledge....With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

After we learned the basics about PebbleGo and understood the printout, everyone set off to be little researchers. I put a new tile onto the Kindergarten Symbaloo so they will be able to to the website easily.

The kindergarteners love to "Listen" to the sounds that the animal made. You can play these on the right hand side of the animals window.

They also enjoy the videos about the different animals. These can be found in the right hand corner under "Watch."

I love seeing them being curious little researchers collaborating with their friends around the room.

They were not only drawing an illustration of their cat and labeling it, they were also helping one another be successful.

As you can see from their super work, every one of the kindergarteners learned and created something awesome as they became researchers!

We will continue reading and connecting with The Global Read Aloud Project which will take us to four more books by Eric Carle.

During each week, they will be researching something new within PebbleGo and filling out a sheet to show what they learned. These topics will tie into the Eric Carle books. We will be connecting to other classrooms who are also reading the GRA books and will share what we are learning about the different animals too.

At the end of Global Read Aloud, we will bring all of this together by creating an online eBook or video to share with friends all around the world.

I love how our friends even made connections to the books they checked out to take home. Bella couldn't wait to go to the shelves with all of our books about "Cats". She got one that was perfect for her to take home and share with her family.....and she couldn't forget to bring the PebbleGo login information. They were very excited to use it at home too.

Bella told me...

"I am so glad this library isn't like others where you have to be quiet. We can be noisy and curious here....and on the computers too."

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A Room Full Of Kindergarten Researchers Connecting To Eric Carle, Global Read Aloud, Cats, PebbleGo....and of course a whole lot of curiosity!

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We have such wonderful kindergarteners at Van Meter....I love working with them in the library every week. This week we are starting our first research project with them. As we all sat on the floor together, I asked them... " What is research? What does it mean to be a researcher?"

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1st and 2nd grade have researched an animal, then used the describing words to create a Tagxedo word cloud in the shape of that animal. We love PebbleGo! 

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1st and 2nd grade have researched an animal, then used the describing words to create a Tagxedo word cloud in the shape of that animal. We love PebbleGo! 

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Debbie Cashmareck, Kingwood, TX

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I have never seen any online database bring this much excitement, learning, and fun along with it! All of our youngest learners from Pre-K through 3rd grade loved everything about PebbleGo and we found them using it on the laptops and iPads all of the time at school and home.

From the moment I heard they were creating this new database I couldn't wait for this day....and I just know all of you will be excited to check it out too!

PebbleGo Next was created with our 3rd through 6th grade learners in mind giving them an amazing place to go to learn more about all 50 states and each American tribe.

Within PebbleGo Next, students can click on the map to navigate to the information they want to find.

They can explore the U.S. Regions or American Indian Culture Areas by selecting either on top of the map.

Once within the U.S Region or Culture Area, students are just a few clicks away from the articles.

They can click on a U.S. Region or Culture Area of the American Indian Tribe which will prompt them to narrow their search even further.

Once a state is selected within that region, PebbleGo Next will show the tribes within their Traditional and Present Location. This is one of my favorite parts of this database....especially how you can look at each overlay at the same time.

I wanted to learn more about the Ute tribe so I clicked on the map which took me into the article.

Once in each article, PebbleGo Next takes the reader on a wonderful adventure through different topics such as Family Life, Traditions, and Modern Life.

Each article includes a video...

famous person....

and timeline. I learned so much about the Ute tribe from Colorado and several others as I navigated my way through PebbleGo Next.

To learn from the 50 different state articles, you go back to the map and click on the region and state. It is easy to use the "Search" box at the top of each page as well.

I went to Iowa and was excited to learn new things about my Hawkeye State.

Within each state article, the reader learns about Landmarks, Geography and Weather, and even a Recipe or Song. There is a video included for each state, along with an Ethnic Pie Chart, Famous People, Timeline, and....

Fast Facts, which will come in very handy for all of us.

Throughout the entire database, there are little speakers next to every entry which gives our reader live voice narration.

One of the BEST things Capstone has included with PebbleGo Next are the activities for each article. One is able to click "Print", type the responses, and print or save the sheet.

Three styles of citations are included with each article too.

One more super fun thing I love about PebbleGo are the two buttons included on the front page below the map.

Our young people can go to "Games" to find eight different games to play about the United States and American Indian Tribes.

They can also answer the "Question of the Day", which is fun for them to see what others have answered.

Just like PebbleGo, Next is available through the browser on most devices too.

My son Hagan and I are having fun trying PebbleGo Next as our Thanksgiving break starts.

I hope you take a little time to try it out too....I know you and your students will love it just as much as we do!

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I have never seen any online database bring this much excitement, learning, and fun along with it! All of our youngest learners from Pre-K through 3rd grade loved everything about PebbleGo and we found them using it on the laptops and iPads all of the time at school and home.

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Animal Research Project: 4th & 5th Grade using PebbleGO, Capstone Interactive and Picture Books. 

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Animal Research Project: 4th & 5th Grade using PebbleGO, Capstone Interactive and Picture Books. 

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Heather McClintock Fox Amana, Iowa

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Great for building vocabulary with ELL students and those needing reading support. I have used it with 4th - 8th for this purpose.

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Great for building vocabulary with ELL students and those needing reading support. I have used it with 4th - 8th for this purpose.

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Jennifer Lauchlan, Brookline, MA

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 I love using PebbleGo to research everything and anything. My 3rd graders just used it to learn about the 3 main cloud types.

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 I love using PebbleGo to research everything and anything. My 3rd graders just used it to learn about the 3 main cloud types.

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Lisa Straubinger

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We've used it to learn about animals for a project on local animals, will be using it to learn about animal habitats later in the year for a "create a zoo" project, and for learning about holidays. And a "who was the best president" project, and a biography project on people who made a difference in the world. We LOVE PebbleGo. Just please make a country database, too :) 

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We've used it to learn about animals for a project on local animals, will be using it to learn about animal habitats later in the year for a "create a zoo" project, and for learning about holidays. And a "who was the best president" project, and a biography project on people who made a difference in the world. We LOVE PebbleGo. Just please make a country database, too :) 

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Maya Bery, Carlisle MA

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There are so many wonderful ideas, resources and ways to use PebbleGO when you "Search PebbleGO" on Pinterest.