March Madness Book Brackets

We just crowned the winner of our March Madness book bracket title after a 4 week voting process!  I originally saw this idea through my PLN on Twitter.  Lots of schools have been doing this and I jumped on the bandwagon a little late this year.  I ran a report through our management system of the 16 books that had the most checkouts so far this year and was pleasantly surprised there was a mixture of Fiction, Graphic Novel and Picture books.  I paired them up and made a large bracket on the library wall.

Then I made a bracket using word and saved it as an image and a PDF.    

I then put the image on my library webpage along with a link to a google form for students to submit their predictions and the PDF in case they wanted to turn in a paper copy of the bracket.  I gave them a week to submit their brackets and this is the part that I would like to start earlier next year.  We started the week we came back from spring break and next year, I think I want them to submit over the week of spring break. 

The next week, I unlinked the prediction google form and linked up a voting form  where students could vote on the book they wanted to advance to the Elite 8.  We reminded the students to vote everyday on the announcements.  

The next Monday, we put up the pictures of the Elite 8 books and a new google form and let them have the whole week to vote again.  This last week, I let them vote on the Final 4 from Monday-Wednesday and then the Final book Thursday and Friday.  

Today on the announcements I announced that Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds was the winner. We had Aaron visit last year and I love that they still enjoy his books.  

I don;t know if you can see on the picture, but it came down to Dead City by James Ponti and Creepy Carrots.  

Using google forms for the voting made it very easy to see who won from each pairing.  There is a "view summary" button that puts the information into a pie chart.  

This was a really fun way to promote books in our library.  Even though they were already the most popular books, I still had kids coming in to check out "the books we can vote on".  I had also told the students that the person who had the highest point total in their prediction brackets would get a $25 gift certificate to our May book fair.  I get to announce that on Wednesday!

Author Visit: Aaron Reynolds

OMG!! He was AMAZING!  I have been so looking forward to his visit since some of the librarians in my district had him in October and couldn't stop gushing about how great his presentations were and he was every bit as fantastic as they said.  He was engaging and energetic (I'm sure his theater background help there) and his presentation were chock full of interaction with the students.  In his Joey Fly presentation for my 4th and 5th graders, he challenged the students in a race against the clock to solve a real-live mystery, all the while teaching them the different elements a mystery has to have.

His Creepy Carrots presentation for the younger students was just as fun.  For my 2nd and 3rd graders, he discussed how a book goes from a story to an actual book, using students from the audience as the Author, the Illustrator and the Publisher.  The kids were fascinated to find out that he has never met the Illustrator of Creepy Carrots in person.

After school, many of the teachers came by to tell me how great they thought he was and how their students could not stop talking about him all day. I highly recommend an Aaron Reynolds visit!  You will not be disappointed! 

And Aaron if you are reading this, please don't judge me on my comma usage ;)

Technology Tuesday: Doodle Buddy App

Our teachers received 3 iPads for classroom use this year and since some teachers are still unsure about how to use them instructionally, I  like to try to model different apps with the 20 that I have in the library when classes come in for a lesson.  I have author, Aaron Reynolds, visiting in January so I decided to introduce my 2nd graders to some of his books and the Doodle Buddy app at the same time.

I started by reading two of his books, Creepy Carrots and Carnivores to the class. Then I told them to think about the characters, problem/solution and setting of one of the books.  I sent them to the tables and with very minimal directions - basically just how to start a text box and the drawing tools - I told them they had to write a sentence about one of the books and then illustrate.  It always amazes me what they can discover on their own just by using the app.  Here are a few of the pictures the 2nd graders made.  

I love that without me telling them, they figured out how to use the glitter paint, the speech bubbles and the google-eyes.  I want the teachers to see that it is OK if they are not 100% sure what an app does, the kids will figure out way cooler things that we ever could.  

After the students finished their Aaron Reynolds picture, I let them have a few minutes to explore and draw whatever they wanted.  During this time, one of the students had figured out how to add backgrounds and found a "snow globe" background.  The teacher happened to see this and said, "Oh wow! We could use the snow globe for a writing prompt when we come back from winter break at stations!"  -  Now that's what I am talking about!  It never would have occurred to this particular teacher to use Doodle Buddy at a station during their language arts time if I hadn't introduced her students to the app in the library and if they hadn't had time to be creative on their own and find the snow globe background.  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

How have you used Doodle Buddy in the library?  Have you had successes making your teachers comfortable with a new piece of technology so they will use it in the classroom?