Hour of Code

Hour of Code is a worldwide event that encourages kids and adults to try their hand at computer programming through fun and easy tutorials. We strive to reach every student at GRIS during Hour of Code hoping to spark interest in Computer Science. Hour of Code is celebrated during the week of December 5-9th. We will be doing Hour of Code activities in the library and classrooms during the next three weeks. I encourage families to try some of the Hour of Code activities at home.

Try some of these activities. More activities can be found at https://code.org/learn

Scratch Music

Star Wars

Frozen

Angry Birds

Code Combat

Minecraft

MyOn eBooks from Capstone

Many people do not know about the great resources of ebooks that we have on our campus. There are 2 different places that students can go to for some great ebooks.

MyOn e-readers - This collection of ebooks is part of our Compass Learning subscription. MyOn is part of Capstone Publishing Group, and they have an extensive collection of high-interest ebooks.

• To access the MyOn e-readers, you must first login to Compass Learning. (You will need to change school to Glen Rose. It defaults to Odyssey.) 
• Username is grlunch# and password is lunch#. 
• If you are using an iPad, you will want to download the Puffin Academy app. This app allows sites that are built using Adobe Flash to play on an iPad. Usually, iPads and Flash do not work well together.
• e-Readers can be found inside of the Reading Path in Compass Learning. After choosing Reading, look for the e-reader icon in the bottom left corner of the screen.
• Narrow the books by AR level - Choose library at the top of the screen, Then choose either Browse or Search. Click the funnel in the top left corner. Choose ATOS and select a grade level. Then click the magnifying glass to search only books in that level.
• Add books to a reading list - Click on the cover of a book for more detailed information. Click information to see AR level, points, pages, etc. Click the red button with the heart to save the book to your reading list.

Follett Shelf - this is our campus' collection of ebooks. Many of the Bluebonnet nominees and also some of the more popular series can be found on this shelf.

• Sign in with your username (first inital and last name ex: sstatler) and password (lunch number) 
• Destiny Discover is an app that you can download on your devices at home.

Let me know what you think of these resources. I hope this provides more options for getting your kids excited about reading. I'm here to help you if you need anything.

National Young Readers Week

It is National Young Readers Week!

To celebrate, Mrs. Mapes will be camped out with a book all day today. The students will have to follow a trail to find her and have her read to them. Tomorrow, Mrs. Teaff will be on the playground reading to students at recess. All teachers have been challenged to read aloud to their classes this week. I challenge parents to also join us and read aloud to your kids this week. You are never to old to enjoy a good book.

Pizza hut is giving away 2 free ebooks and 1 free audiobook this week. Claim your copies now.

http://bookitprogram.com/amazon/