Welcome back!

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Welcome back to another exciting school year! I hope everyone had a wonderful summer.  

You may have noticed the link to the library on the school website has changed. Now, when you click on library you will go straight to the library blog.  On the right hand side you will see links to the catalogue, home page, web Resources and Tumblebooks.  Just click on the one you want. If you need any help, please come and see me in the library.

I hope you all had a wonderful summer and read some great books.  Here is some of the reading I did:

 

 

What were some of your favourite reads this summer? Share on the padlet below.

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The library program has some exciting opportunities in store for your child this year:
• Our curriculum will be promoting the very best of children’s literature to your child with activities designed to help students enjoy the stories even more.
• We will be doing our very best to get (or keep) your children “hooked on reading” by recommending specific reading materials to each individual.
• At each grade level, students will be learning information literacy skills specifically suited to their developmental needs.
• The iPads will continue to be used for learning and exciting new projects!  We have 25 iPads for students to use.
• We have a lot of special events being planned: author visits, DEAR day, book fairs, Literacy Week, the home reading club, and more!
• If you would like to volunteer to help in the library, please let me know. We’d love to have you.

Upcoming Events:

Scholastic Book Fair: Monday, September 18th until Thursday, September 21st. Parent volunteers are needed.  Please see me in the library or look for the sign up sheet on the library bulletin board.

Reading Club: Our reading club begins again on September 26th.  Notices will go home the week prior.  I encourage all families to make reading for pleasure a part of your day, every day.

Check out the library blog for more information and updates throughout the year. You can access it from the school website under the library tab or go to: http://goo.gl/PPPXu
Use your smartphone to find us too! (A great app for scanning QR codes is i-nigma)

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Questions? Comments? Please come and see me in the library. I’m looking forward to an exciting year!

Author Grayson Smith visit

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On Thursday, May 25th we were very pleased to host author Grayson Smith at  South Slope/BCSD.  In our library he presented to all the primary classes over three sessions and read his children’s book, There’s a Norsman in the Classroom.

First, he asked us to think about some of the assumptions we might make about people based on what they look like or what they do.  We found out he was a police officer, but he wasn’t wearing his uniform.  When he asked the students if he looked like a police officer, they said no. However, after he added some elements of his uniform they said yes.  

Next he talked about including and excluding people.  He said we all make choices everyday about whether we include or exclude.  We can invite others to join us in a game or we can say there is no more room for anyone else.  When he read us his book, he stopped and ask the students how they thought the children in the story were behaving. Were they including or excluding? We all enjoyed his storytelling very much.

Finally, Grayson asked if the students had any questions.  We learned that as a police officer Grayson has to be serious, but he loves being an author because he gets to be silly. There were a few questions about Norm, the Norseman. Why does he have a beard if he’s only a kid? There was no real answer to that one except that Grayson didn’t do the illustrations. He told us it only took 2 hours to write the words for the book, but over 18 months to actually make it into a book.  Why so long? He made a mistake on the front page and didn’t notice until it had been printed! His message to the kids, “Always check your work!!!” 

Some of our students won copies of his books at the end of his visit. Part of the proceeds of his book sales goes to the Special Olympics, an organisation close to Grayson’s heart. To order There’s a Norseman in the Classroom or any other of Grayson Smith’s books, please click here. 

 

Tumblebooks is back!

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Great news! Our school district now has a subscription to Tumblebooks from Scholastic. This is a great site to find story books, non fiction, videos and more.  

Read and listen to some of your favourite books any time from the link on school website under Library or click on the link on the left hand side right here on the Library blog. 

Comments or questions?  Please come and see me anytime in the library or leave your comments here. 

30 Second Book Talks

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Division 2 have been reading up a storm and they’re getting ready to share their love of books with the world.  Students chose books they love and then were asked to write a 30 second book talk script to “sell” their book.  Before they began writing students watched many book talks online and created criteria for their scripts and book talk. Now for the really fun part! Students are now recording their book talks using the Tellagami app.  Today the library, the atrium and the hallways were filled with students recording.

Stay tuned for updates and information on how you can watch and listen. 

Please click the link to read more news about what’s happening in the library. April2017newsletter

Author Rachelle Delaney visits South Slope

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On January 12th Rachelle Delaney, author of The Metro Dogs of Moscow, The Circus Dogs of Prague, The Ship of Lost Souls and more, visited our school. She spoke to students in Divisions 1-4 about her books and told us the story of how she plans, writes and researches her books. Students asked her lots of great questions and we learned some interesting things about Rachelle and being an author. Her words of advice: “Great writers are great readers.” Thanks, Rachelle, for a great visit! 

Canadian Picture Book of the Year

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For the past few weeks Divisions 5,6,7,8,17 and 18 have been reading the five nominees for the Maryilyn Baillie Picture Book of the Year Award. From these five Canadian Picture books students will be choosing their winner for the Great Canadian Picture Book of the year.  First,students read some award winning books during our library times and were encouraged to check out award winning and Canadian picture books. Next, we created criteria for deciding what makes a great picture book.  Then, we began reading all five nominees for 2016.  Soon the students will vote for their favourite. Stay tuned to find out which book won!

Here are the nominees: