Give Me the Details!

Blue Skies Smiling at Me!

Nothing but blue skies do I see.

Bluebirds singing a song.

Nothing but bluebirds all day long!

photo courtesy of Unsplash.

Those are lyrics to the song, "Blue Skies" that jumped into my head the minute I looked out my window this morning.  Such a beautiful day!!

The legendary Ella Fitzgerald recorded this song.  If you have the chance to look up the recording, by all means, do it.  It will leave you smiling all day :)

Today is "B" day, so a very special "Hello" goes out to the students in my B day classes:

Ms Hager 3rd grade, Mr O'Connell 4th grade, Ms Roper 5th grade, 

Ms Johnson Kindergarten,  Ms Simon 1st grade, and Ms Krueger 2nd grade!

Just for Fun:

Google's homepage features a new game today called Rockmore.  You can learn to play an instrument called the theremin.  Clara Rockmore was a gifted performer on the theremin, an electronic musical instrument.

RADCAB

RADCAB is an acronym created to help you remember what to look for when you are doing research.  Today we'll focus on D:  Detail.

Looking at details on a website will help determine if it will be a useful website for you or not.  Details such as:

Does the website have a site map?

Are the pages of the website organized with titles and headings?

Does the website give credit to information sources it uses?

Does the website give external links for additional information?

Are there interactive, graphic elements?

Is it an easy and pleasant website to navigate?

You can use these details to determine whether or not you want to continue to use the website for your research. My research into the Chandra space observatory led me to this website:   https://chandra.harvard.edu/ 

In looking at the details of this website, you can see that there is indeed a site map, and that the pages are organized into titles and headings.  There is a resources page for additional educational links, and plenty of images for appeal.  Overall, it looks like it could get more technical if needed, but the website seems easy to navigate and understand.  I'll use it.

Tomorrow, we'll talk about C:  Currency.

Kindergartners and First Grade: I am interested in learning about the kinkajou, and kinkajou information can be found at:   https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/k/kinkajou/

I decided that it was an appropriate website for me, but now I want to look at the Details.  Is the website easy to use?  Does it have interesting images and videos?  Does it tell me where to find more information?

This website does have a good image of a kinkajou, and it does have its information organized neatly so that it is easy to read.  I'll use it. 

We'll talk about Currency tomorrow!

Don't Forget!

The Stallion Story Time can be found on Flipgrid at:

https://flipgrid.com/edwards5739

The user ID is 2020.

Today I watched Principal Edwards read the book, Me I Am  by Jack Prelutsky. What a wonderful book!  Each one of you is a perfect Me I Am! and you are so special!  It will be so joyful when we are all back together again to share.

That is all for today.  See you tomorrow!

I miss you! 

Website Wednesday

Whew! What a Storm!

The robins certainly know how to build a good nest!  There is a robin nest with three baby robins on the roof of our deck, and I was worried about them during the storm last night.  Thankfully, they made it through just fine:

The birdbath is full of fresh rainwater today, too.  It reminds me of the Langston Hughes poem from yesterday:  "The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk."  There is a still pool in the birdbath now, but as soon as the sun comes out, it will be full of flapping, chirping birds:

Today is an "A" day, so here is a special shout out to the students in my "A" day classes:

Ms. Wilcox 3rd grade,  Ms. Shaw's 5th grade, Ms.  Sicht's Kindergarten, Ms. Snyder's 1st grade, and Mr. Smith's 2nd grade!

Happy Wednesday!

The website  to share with you today is National Geographic Kids found at 

 https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

This website is where I found many of the Fun Facts that I shared with you in our classroom!  You can find a funny video "Wild Animal Selfies" in the Video section, discover  animals like the Amur Leopard in the Animals section, become a human spirograph in the Science tab of the Explore section, and find out what ice cream flavor you are by taking the Ice Cream Personality Test in the Personality Quizzes tab of the Game section.  I discovered that I am Mint Chocolate Ice Cream! (that game is for  you, Ms. Salmons!)

There is a lot to explore and enjoy today on the National Geographic Kids website!

Just for Fun:

Google has a new game today from Google Doodle world.  Click on the Google logo to discover Fischinger - you can spend this overcast day having fun with this musical entertainment!

  Oskar Fischinger was an artist who created musical animation in abstract form.

Specials Newsletter:

Be sure to check out the newest edition of the Specials Newsletter here:

https://www.smore.com/k3w4n

You will find information from Ms. Heavin, Ms. Mclaren, Coach Smothers, Ms. Salmons, and myself!

RADCAB

RADCAB is an acronym created to help you remember what to look for when you are doing research.  Today we'll focus on A:  Appropriateness

When you look at materials and websites to find information about a subject, you want to be sure it is appropriate for you.  Appropriate means "suitable or compatible" when used as an adjective. (Thank you Merriam-Webster.com for that definition.)  If the information you are reading has words that you don't understand, it may not be appropriate for you, and you need to go somewhere else for information.  

For example, yesterday I was looking for information about the Chandra space observatory.  I found several websites about it, but which one is appropriate?  Wikipedia gave me some easy to understand information, so that was a start.  Remember - we want to check more than one website or source for our facts.  Next, I checked out the Chandra X-Ray Observatory website at https://chandra.harvard.edu/   The .edu at the end of the address assured me that this was a trustworthy website, but I was concerned that perhaps there would be a lot of "science-y" and technical language that I would not understand.  If there was, it would not be appropriate for me because I could not understand it.  The website was just fine, and I discovered some cool facts about the Chandra!  Another website that I will use to find information is the NASA website at 

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/main/index.html

These three sources should be appropriate sources to use as I search for information!

Tomorrow, we'll talk about Detail.

Kindergarten and First Graders : Yesterday I told you that I was interested in finding out information about the Kinkajou.  There are several websites about the kinkajou, but which one should I use?  I want to look for an Appropriate website - one that has words that I can read and understand.  Here is a website where I found easy to read and understand information:  

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/k/kinkajou/

It is good to look for more than one source for your information, so I also looked at 

https://wildlifelearningcenter.org/animals/central-south-america/kinkajou/

The National Geographic website and the Wildlife Learning Center are two sources that I trust, so I know that information that I find there will be good.

If you are looking for information about an animal, I would strongly suggest going to your CPS portal and clicking on Pebble Go.  Pebble Go has easy to read information and pictures, and it will also read aloud the text. 

That is all for today.  See you tomorrow!

Miss you!!

National Great Poetry Reading Day

Good Morning, Sunshine!

Today is National Great Poetry Reading Day.  The beautiful sunshine and the singing birds this morning makes reading poetry outdoors a perfect fit.

Today is a "D" day, so here is a special "HELLO" to the students in these classes:

Ms Davis 3rd grade, Ms Hassemer 4th grade, Ms Cummings 5th grade, Ms. Blume Kindergarten, Ms Johnson 1st grade, and Ms Heath 2nd grade!

Do you have a favorite poem?  Try reading a variety of poetry and see which one suits you!  Here is a poem by one of my favorite poets, Langston Hughes:

photo by Dreamstime

April Rain Song

Let the rain kiss you.

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.

Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.

The rain makes running pools in the gutter.

The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night -

And I love the rain.

Perhaps you could make your own poem?  If  you do, be sure to share it with others. A poem can say things that you feel but are unable to say out loud.

Just for Fun

Google's homepage again features a fun game - today's is a cricket game! Go to Google and click on the logo.  Enjoy!

RADCAB

RADCAB is an acronym created to help you remember what to look for when you are doing research.  Today we'll focus on R:  Relevancy.

When you begin to do research, you want to make certain that the information you are looking at is relevant. Relevant is an adjective that means "having significant bearing on the matter at hand."    Definition from Merriam-Webster.com

You do not want to waste a lot of time searching through information that is not related to  your topic, so you use keywords and phrases when you look up information.  Focus questions will also help.  You most probably already do this, I know, but let me give you an example of using keywords and phrases:

  This picture of the Cartwheel Galaxy made me wonder how NASA was able to find that galaxy.  The description says that NASA used  composite images viewed by the Chandra, GALEX, Hubble, and Spitzer space observatories.  I had heard of the Hubble Telescope, but not the others.  I went to Google and typed in the word "Chandra space observatory" and discovered several websites that focus only on the Chandra space observatory.  If I had used "space observatory" only, it would have given me several options before I found Chandra.

Now that I found Chandra websites, what do I do?  Well, we'll talk about that tomorrow! Meanwhile, you can watch the video "Internet Search" on BrainPop found in your CPS Portal. It is a fun refresher on how to use keywords.

Kindergartners and First Graders:  interesting new animals is what we would focus on researching if we were in class.  And what we need to know about Relevancy is that to find information about an animal, we would use keywords to start a search.  Yesterday I heard that there is an animal with the name "Kinkajou".  Well, what is that?  My keyword for finding out information about this animal would be "Kinkajou".  I found several websites about the Kinkajou when I did this.  Which website do I choose?  We'll talk about that tomorrow as well!

Whew!  That is all for today!  I'll see you tomorrow.

I miss you! 

Fun Fact Monday

Tell a Story Day!

Today is a "C" day, so here is a special shout out to the students in my C day classes:

Ms Fitzpatrick 3rd grade, Ms Kolkebeck 4th grade, 

Ms Buddemeyer 5th grade, Ms Floyd Kindergarten, Ms Sharp 1st grade, and Ms Johnson 2nd grade!

Now for a Fun Fact:

The Cartwheel Galaxy is located in the constellation Sculptor.  It is approximately  496 million light years from Earth. It is a little larger than our Milky Way galaxy.

  Here is a picture of the Cartwheel Galaxy. I took a photo while exploring space this weekend! 

Ha ha!!  Okay, I did not really explore space in a space suit, but it makes for a good story!  I did get to take this "selfie" using the NASA Selfies app on my phone.  Thanks to that photo, I did learn about the Cartwheel Galaxy AND about the various telescopes currently in space that work to show us these pictures:  the Chandra, GALEX, Hubble and Spitzer space observatories. This one photo lead to so much information!  I used the Constellation Guide website to find information about the Cartwheel Galaxy:

https://www.constellation-guide.com/cartwheel-galaxy/

Fun Fact #2:  A light year is the distance that light can travel in one year, or nearly 6 trillion miles.

Fun Fact #3:  If you go to the Google home page today and click on the Google logo, you will find a cute bunny coding game.  It is great to practice and play with coding right now!

Fun Fact #4: Today is National Tell a Story Day.  Perfect day to check out the Stallion Story time on Flipgrid!  

https://flipgrid.com/edwards5739

The user ID is 2020.

RADCAB

Evaluating information is vital when you do research.  RADCAB  is an acronym for information evaluation created by Karen M. Christensson, MS Library Media Education.  Here is what RADCAB stands for:

Relevancy

Appropriateness

Detail

Currency

Authority

Bias

You should use all of these evaluators when you dive into investigating. We will look at each one of these evaluators this week and then use them to create Google presentations and/or Word presentations together in the days ahead.  This has always been an exciting part of our class - seeing how you discover information and share it with the rest of us!  We will keep it age appropriate for each grade level, no worries!

That is all for today!  See you tomorrow.

I miss you!

National Arbor Day

My Favorite Tree

This is a pink dogwood tree.  Dogwoods are also white, and that is the color of dogwood that I remember when I was growing up.  Dogwoods bloom in the spring, and I think of it as an Easter tree.  I did not know about the different kinds of trees when I was little because they were just "trees" to me.  However, my mother pointed out the dogwood tree to me one Easter, showing me the four red tipped leaves of the dogwood's flower, and it made an impression on me.  I love seeing the white and pink dogwood flowering in the springtime along with the redbud, crabapple, and other flowering trees.  Some of those flowers smell delicious!  What is your favorite tree?

 A special "Hello" to my "B" day students in the following classes:

Ms Hager 3rd grade, Mr O'Connell 4th grade, Ms Roper 5th grade, 

Ms Johnson Kindergarten,  Ms Simon 1st grade, and Ms Krueger 2nd grade!

Today is a Fun Friday, so you could check out the games on ABCYa! today to celebrate!  This is a good website to find educational games that are fun to play.  Maybe you could check out a new game that teaches you something new?  Games in the orange Letters section and the blue Numbers section are especially good for that purpose.  Have fun!

Fun Fact:

Today is National Arbor Day.  We celebrate this day on the last Friday in April by taking time to enjoy the trees around us and possibly planting new ones.  You can find more ways to celebrate Arbor Day at home by checking out the Arbor Day Foundation website:

 https://celebratearborday.com/

Remember to check out the Missouri Department of Conservation website at

 https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/

to discover native Missouri trees

.

Fun Fact 2:  Did you know that Missouri has a plant called Horsetails?  It is also called Scouring Rushes.  They look like green straws, and they are found along streams and roadsides. There were some Horsetails in the courtyard garden at Shepard school, but I'm not sure if they are still there or not.   

RADCAB

Next week we will explore what this acronym means.  Hint:  it has to do with research!

Check in on Monday to start the discovery!

 

That's all for today.  Enjoy your weekend!

I miss you!

Picnic Time AND Show Me Reader Winner!!

Ants Go Marching

Why are the ants marching?  Because today is National Picnic Day!  It is also a wonderful, rainy day right now, so the ants may have gone underground in order to let the worms come out and look around.  Rain or shine, picnics outside are always the most fun. Have you noticed that food seems to taste better when you eat it outside?  Here is a picture of my son, Jacob, and daughter, Katie, and me having a picnic in our backyard. 

If you have pictures of your family having a picnic, celebrating Earth Day, writing kind notes to Shepard secretaries, library specialists, kindergarten teachers, or enjoying "twin day", please share them on Twitter with the hashtag #shepardshines.  Please also go to Facebook and share your photos on the Shepard PTSO page.  

And now a shout out to my "A" day students in the following classes:

Ms. Wilcox 3rd grade,  Ms. Shaw's 5th grade, Ms.  Sicht's Kindergarten, Ms. Snyder's 1st grade, and Mr. Smith's 2nd grade!

Happy Thursday!!

Google Earth Day Game:  Yesterday Google's homepage featured a game involving honey bees.  If you go to Google homepage and type in "Google Earth Day 2020", the game will be one of the choices.  You will use your mouse to drag the bee from collecting pollen to pollinating flowers and learn some good bee facts along the way.  This would be a game that I would use with the kindergartners to do mouse practice.  Great fun!

Show Me Readers Award Winners!

The votes have been tallied!!  The Missouri Association of School Librarians has announced the top three winners of the Show Me Reader Award books for 2020.  This past year, we have read 10 books that were nominated for the Show Me Reader Award book this year.  The students heard all 10 books, voted on their favorite, and Ms. Salmons turned those votes in to the MASL committee to count.  Votes came in from every 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grader in the state of Missouri.  Here are the top three winners:

In 3rd place with a total of  12, 256 votes is:

In 2nd place with a total of  12, 602 votes is:

 And in 1st  place with a total of  18,977 votes is:

Woo hoo!  It is always so much fun to work with the Show Me Readers Award books!  Every book on the nominee list is good, and students will enjoy rereading them at home this summer!

If you would like to hear the results for the older students' Mark Twain Award book winners, you can go to this link to watch:  https://www.wevideo.com/view/1654588539

And don't forget to check out the Stallion Storytime link! 

https://flipgrid.com/edwards5739

The user ID is 2020.

Well, that is all for today.  See you tomorrow!

Miss you!!

Shepard Secretary Day

Hoppy Wednesday!

I said "Hoppy" because as I was writing this blog, a robin hopped into my bird bath!  All of nature is out and about today, and that seems very appropriate since today is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day!

First, a BIG HELLO! to the students in my "D" day classes:

Ms Davis 3rd grade, Ms Hassemer 4th grade, Ms Cummings 5th grade, Ms. Blume Kindergarten, Ms Johnson 1st grade, and Ms Heath 2nd grade!

Wednesdays are our days for trying a special website.  Because today is Earth Day, I would like to suggest that you check out the Missouri Conservation Department's website at  https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/

Here you can discover nature, find spring trees, explore various field guides, and locate places to go in Missouri.  I'm using the field guide myself to figure out what wildflower this is in my yard:

I also discovered that my hosta is growing now:

Happy Earth Day!  Nature is blooming and growing all around us!

Today is also Secretary's Day!

Shepard school has two amazing secretaries:  Ms. McDonald and Ms. Holt.  They are absolutely wonderful, and they help keep  us all connected.  Thank you!!  Here is a big hug from all of us at Shepard school:

That's all for today . . . see  you tomorrow!

I miss you!

Kindergarten Stars & Library Heroes!

Terrific Tuesday!

Why is it a terrific Tuesday?  Because we have some things to share with you today!

First off, let's welcome students in my "C" day classes:

Ms Fitzpatrick 3rd grade, Ms Kolkebeck 4th grade, 

Ms Buddemeyer 5th grade, Ms Floyd Kindergarten, Ms Sharp 1st grade, and Ms Johnson 2nd grade!

Hello!!

Shepard Stallion Spirit:  Kindergarten Kindness & Library Workers Day! 

Shepard school has the following Kindergarten Stars:  Mrs. Blume, Mrs. Floyd, Mrs. Johnson, and Mrs. Sicht!

Why are they stars?  Because these teachers work with their young students to teach them everything we do at Shepard:  how to line up; where the bathrooms are; how to go through the lunchline; etc.  They also teach them how to read and write!  They are hardworking and loving teachers - Shepard is so lucky to have them!  Thank  you!!

Shepard school has the following Library Heroes:  Mrs. Matheny and Mrs. Salmons! 

Why are they heroes?  Because they help students locate information and find great books to read!  They also show love and support to all of our students!

Thank  you!!

Specialist Newsletter

My fellow specialists, Ms. Heavin, Ms. McLaren, Ms. Salmons, and Coach Smothers, have created a newsletter for our families.  They are the most amazing and wonderful people to work with, and they love and miss you all!  Please check out this link to find it:

https://www.smore.com/k3w4n

Don't forget to check out the

Stallion Story Time 

https://flipgrid.com/edwards5739

The user ID is 2020

That is all for this Terrific Tuesday! See you tomorrow.

Miss you!

So You Think You Know About Cats?

Fun Fact Monday!

  

Yes, it's Fun Fact Monday, and that means that I'll share a fun fact with you today.  But first, let's give a special welcome to my "B" day classes:

Ms Hager 3rd grade, Mr O'Connell 4th grade, Ms Roper 5th grade, 

Ms Johnson Kindergarten,  Ms Simon 1st grade, and Ms Krueger 2nd grade!

Howdy!!

This is my son Michael's cat,  Penny:

Isn't she beautiful?

Now for the FUN FACT:  

"Nearly 10 percent of all of a cat's bones are in its tail."

I found this fact on the website Red Tricycle (redtri.com).

You should always double check your facts, so I went to other websites to verify this fact about cats.  You know what?  There is something called a polydactyl cat!  I love finding out additional cool facts when I'm looking to verify information!  What is a polydactyl cat?  Are there a lot of polydactyl cats?

Hmmmm . . . I think that I"ll let you look that information up for yourself :)

Oh!  I almost forgot!  Yes, it is true that nearly 10 percent of all cat's bones are in its tail!  They said that cats have around 244 bones in their body, and 20 to 23 of those bones are in the tail.  That's a lot of tail bones. 

And now a picture of Penny climbing the screen wall of her "catio".  She is trying to get at the geckos, but they are on the outside of the screen, lol.

Hey!  Geckos!  That would be a neat subject to look up, right?  How big do geckos become? What do they eat?  Where do they live?

See how fun it is to wonder???

Remember!

Join the Stallion Story Time on Flipgrid!  Here is the link:

https://flipgrid.com/edwards5739

The user ID is 2020.

Okay!  That is all for today.  See you tomorrow.

I miss you!!

Fun Fact Friday

Happy Friday!

Today is "A" day, so a big HAPPY FRIDAY goes out especially to the students in these classes:

Ms. Wilcox 3rd grade,  Ms. Shaw's 5th grade, Ms.  Sicht's Kindergarten, Ms. Snyder's 1st grade, and Mr. Smith's 2nd grade!  

And now, its time for a  . . . .

FUN FACT!

Today is National Haiku Poetry Day. 

 "Haiku" is a traditional form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 3 lines.  The first and last line of a Haiku contain 5 syllables (a syllable is a part of a word pronounced as a unit.), and the middle line consists of 7 syllables.  Here is a Haiku to help you remember:

I am first with five

Then seven in the middle --

Five again to end.

Here is a "What Am I?" haiku:

Green and speckled legs,

Hop on logs and lily pads

Splash in cool water.

(Can you guess what it is?)

  

I found this information from the website KidZone:  https://www.kidzone.ws/poetry/haiku.htm

You can go to that website and have fun creating Haiku poems of your own.  It really is fun once you have gotten the hang of it!  Here is a Haiku that I created myself several  years ago after visiting friends in Arizona:

Beautiful cactus

Vivid green in the blue sky.

My, your needles hurt!

Photo by Meritt Thomas on Unsplash

Okay, Friends!  That is all for now . . . see you again on Monday!

I miss you!