Westwood, March 18th

School: Westwood Elementary

Mentor: Sara Martini

Date: Friday, March 18, 2016

Hours: 24

     Today I helped Sara with the 1st grade group work on their animal reports. This group has already researched about their animal using links posted on the school's website. They wrote them down on a graphic organizer that Sara had given to them. Sara showed them the basics of how to use google drive. She showed them how to create a new presentation, choose a theme, add a slide, write in the text box, insert a picture, size the picture, type a capital letter, and title their report. Then Sara and I had to log all of the students into their  google accounts because they do not know their passwords yet. They really only had time today to add their title, name and maybe the first slide. We will continue working on it with them next week.
    I also assisted with the 5th grade reading group. They are starting a new book, so Sara and I chose books for them to vote on to help them choose their next book. The group chose the book Petey, which I haven't read before. It sounds really interesting and I think we'll have some good discussions with this book. The group decided to read together today, so we read popcorn style around the table and Sara asked them some questions along the way.
   Sara explained her summer bus program to me today. When she was at Talahi she wanted kids to be able to read in the summer, so she got it approved to use a district school bus and driver to load up books and drive around areas of need to check out books to students. She wrote a grant for the next year and they received enough money to get their own bus and outfit like a tiny library inside! It is run by volunteers, and I offered to help out this summer and experience this bus book mobile first hand. I'm excited to see how it all works!