Spring Book Fair
Our Little Shop of Stories Spring Book Fair is coming up the week of April 15th! We have slots available to help with student wish lists, as well as cashiers. Mr. Reid's class will be visiting on the previous Friday during their regular library time. Here is the list of times and class visits to the book fair. Here is the link to the sign up. Please reach out if you have any questions(izeff@csdecatur.net).
Monday, April 15th
8:30 - McCool
9 - McElveen
9:45 - Gordon
10:15 - Lambert
Tuesday, April 16th
8:30 - Gee
9:45 - Hicks
10:15 - Baerman
1 - Westbrook
2:15 - Eason
Create a Family Media Plan - (AAP)
The best way to manage everyone's screen use in your home is by being proactive rather than reactive. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a wonderful resource on their website that allows you to create a Family Media Plan. Following a series of prompts as shown below, families can have age appropriate conversations with their children about screen use establishing an agreed-upon framework for technology and screen use. This is a wonderful start in establishing boundaries while children are still young.
You can use this link to get started.
As students shared this week during our lesson about "real" versus "fake" websites, I wanted to follow-up with a specific suggestion related to technology use in the home. Prior to wireless technology, the recommendation was to put the family computer in a common area of the home. In this way, even though you might not be sitting with your child constantly while they were using the Internet or playing games, you were always within earshot or could randomly look to see what was on the screen. However, with tablets, laptops, and smartphones, this practice becomes more complicated but also more important. Although your K-2 student might seem to easily navigate apps, games, and websites, they are really more like underage drivers without a license. Establishing expectations now while your child is young and when they assume you are watching and seeing everything they’re doing and talking to them about it, will help to normalize your involvement when they are older and exposed to much more problematic material.
Digital Broccoli versus Digital Candy
Although it's not realistic to rid ourselves entirely of screens, it can be helpful to give some thought to what uses of screens are "digital broccoli" or helpful and useful in our lives, and what are "digital candy" - those uses that are not so helpful. Some examples of digital broccoli include ebooks, keyboarding practice, viewing shows or movies together as a family, video calls with out of town friends or relatives, using videos to learn a new skill, or viewing virtual museums. Examples of digital candy include scrolling on social media, watching video after video on YouTube, video games or binge watching shows. It can also include letting your child be entertained with a screen while shopping, in the car or at a restaurant.
World Read Aloud Day is Wednesday, February 7th! Celebrate at home by doing some extra reading and talking to your child about how people ALL OVER THE WORLD are reading together!
In the Media Center this week, we learned about Lunar New Year. Some of our students were able to share about their family customs. Students decorated dragon scales and we are extending the dragon we started last year to wrap around the entire library!!
If you are interested in better managing screen time in your home, Common Sense Media has some great suggestions here.
