Building Structures, Building Ideas, Building Community

Our Middle School students have been pushing their thinking. During our weekly community time, Grade 6, 7 and 8 students have visited the library to engage in divergent thinking exercises.  

In our first session, students had opportunities to experience a variety of building materials including kapla wooden planks, magnet tiles, bristle blocks, lego and brain flakes. We began with some tinkering and experimenting time to investigate how the materials function and explore possibilities. 

The first challenge was to construct based on a single word prompt: complicated. Students used the materials to build a physical representation of the the word. We then took time for a gallery walk to view all the other interpretations of the single word. Students remarked and noticed how one word could inspire so many different ideas. We concluded that each of us has a unique perspective and approach to the design challenge.

During our second meeting, we presented the students with the same selection of materials, but asked then to choose something different or even a material that was difficult or new. The challenge was to build an animal (or mythical creature) and to keep the identity a secret while constructing. Then students wrote the name of the animal on a small piece of paper and turned it upside down. 

In our gallery walk students wrote down what they thought the animal looked like - their interpretation of what they could see in the structure. Each student was therefore given feedback on their building and design from their peers. Did their classmates' interpretations match the intended design? Did their classmates' feedback offer a new idea? 

Session three brought the challenge of working cooperatively in a group and using multiple materials. The goal was to select a space in which to create an installation. Students were encouraged to use at least three materials and to incorporate the space into the intention behind the design. Each group named their creation for the final display in our gallery walk.

Students were highly engaged, open to trying new materials and pushed their thinking. Working through the design challenges, viewing other's work and participating in a feedback cycle allows us to grow our ideas and look at our personal views from a different perspective. We agreed that working with other learners in our community and understanding each others perspectives can make our work stronger. Students can apply this to all aspects of learning. We look forward to more design challenges in the come weeks.

How will you make your mark?

We celebrated International Dot Day in our library this week from First Steps all the way through Grade 8. Students were asked, "How will you make your mark?"

Inspired by the award-winning book, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, our students made their marks by creating their very own dots. Students were excited to discover that all around the world this week, people are reading the book and creating art starting with just a single dot.

Our beautiful, colourful and unique set of dots came together to make a giant dot outside of our library doors. Each dot represents the creativity of each of our students and together our dots make quite a splash! Please stop by to take a closer look and add your mark if you haven't already.

Here is a lovely read aloud of the The Dot from the Snugglebug Storytime YouTube channel:

Many of our students enjoyed dancing along with Emily Arrow's song inspired by the book. Give it a try and sing and dance along.

"Make a mark. All you've got to do is start. Make a dot and watch it splatter. Make a mark. Make it matter!"

Our Community of Learners

As we open our new Library Media Center together as a community, we need to get to know each other! My goal as a new librarian in this wonderful school is to learn about how our students learn best and discover their passions and interests. If we know each other, we can learn and work together.

I asked each class to share the "Ways We Learn," "What We Love" and their "Hopes and Dreams" for the new library. Each class built a mind map on each topic to illustrate the group's thoughts and suggestions.

We discovered that we all learn in very different ways. Some of us learn by reading, some learn through by listening, some by building or drawing and some like to learn through experience and play. Some of us like to learn in quiet, some of us like to talk with others and work in groups.

When we share and understand our personal learning styles, we can make good choices about our learning plans. A learning space, such as our library, is designed to support all types of learning. When we know our learning styles, we can find the right tools and locations in the library for our needs.

A great library supports and nurtures the passions and interest of the students in our community. We have a wide variety of books and materials to match a wide variety of needs and interests. Students shared their favourite topics to read about, series, authors, illustrators and genres. We also discussed ways in which we could organise our library collection to make our books easy for our readers.

When you visit our library, try to identify the intention of the spaces, seating, materials and books and how we support a variety of learners. We are learning about our learning and celebrating our diversity. As we learn more about each other, we can shape and develop our library together as a community. The library should be an ever-evolving learning hub where each of us can feel support and grow.

Grand Opening for Students

Drum roll, please! After months of preparation, we opened the doors of our beautiful new Library Media Center to students last week. Each class joined a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate their first official visit to the library. 

Excitement was in the air and many students expressed their delight and appreciation for the new space. Highlights for students included our cozy, relaxing reading spaces, our self-checkout stations, our lego tables and game stations. 

Students are enjoying trying out the ten different types of seating and determining which is their favourite for various types of learning. We also explored the Flex Room, a multi-purpose, flexible learning space available for students and teachers, and the Green Room, which supports media and small group work.

Students began to investigate the different book zones in our library: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Everybody. Favourite series and topics can also be found in browsing bins and we have plenty of display areas for offering suggestions. Our collection is arranged to make browsing and searching student-friendly.

When our community members enter our Library Media Center, we hope to inspire a feeling that something special and exciting is happening here at FISW. Our library is a community hub that reflects who we are as a school and as individuals. We look forward to shaping our library together as a community to build an engaging and dynamic learning space.