Podcast Obsessed

I, Ms. Reynolds, confess that I cannot STOP listening to podcasts. I listen ALL the time. I listen mostly in the car, but sometimes I listen when I'm cleaning my house.
I am addicted!

I listen to all types of podcasts. I listen to parenting podcasts, comedy podcasts, librarian/book loving podcasts, mystery podcasts, etc... The greatest part is downloading and listening to a podcast is absolutely FREE!

Two weeks ago I was able to go to an educational technology conference in Austin called TCEA. One session I could attend stood out to me...how to create a podcast! Duh! I had to take it! Fast-forward two weeks and we have created our Little Black Library Podcast! 

I chose two students (4th graders) to be my co-hosts and we will interview other students and teachers about reading, writing, book reviews, favorite books, and so much more!

My co-costs are ecstatic to say the least! Our plan is to plan the podcast one week and record the it the next week. Therefore, publishing our podcast every other week. 

I'll admit, it is a learning process for me. I'm still playing around with it. My prediction is the students will love it, because they love listening to play-aways from our library. Our 4th, 5th, and 6th graders all have 1:1 ipads in the classroom and should be able to access it there. I hope to somehow find ways for the primary grades to listen as well.

My goal is to promote reading and writing! So, with out further ado, I present to you Season 1, Episode 1 of our very first podcast. 

P.S. We were nervous...

Little Black Library - "Our First Podcast" Season 1 Episode 1

The Day the Crayon's Got Back to Work

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywat and illustrations by Oliver Jeffers

The Day the Crayons Quit is a favorite at our school! The teachers love it, the students love it, the librarian loves it!
The boy in the book named Duncan finds a stack of letters in his crayon box. It turns out the letters are from his crayons. They all seem to have some type of problem. For instance, the red crayon is tired because he is always working so hard to color all things red. He even complains about working on holidays like Christmas and Valentine's Day. So he asks Duncan for a break. All the letters are quite clever. An all time favorite is the peach crayon. His wrapper was peeled off and he is hiding in the crayon box because he claims to be in his birthday suit, if you know what I mean. Everyone is usually rolling by the time this page comes around. 

I decided to do an activity with my students after we finished this book. I told the children to listen closely to each problem the crayon had. I asked them to find a way for Duncan to solve the problem. I read the book and then challenged the kids to choose a color and write a thank you note to Duncan. The thank you note had to be written in response to him solving the crayon's problem. The letter had to be written from the perspective of one of Duncan's crayons. Finally, they could illustrate the resolution.

The kids loved this writing activity in the library!

We called it The Day the Crayons Got Back to Work! :)