The Great Canadian Picture Book of the Year!

This week Divisions 6, 7 and 8 will be choosing their winner for the Great Canadian Picture Book of the year.  First, the students read some award winning books during our library times and were encouraged to check out award winning books. Next, we created criteria for deciding what makes a great picture book.  Then, we read all five nominees for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award for 2013.  Now the students will vote for their favourite.Stay tuned to find out which book won!

Here are the nominees:

mr kingmr zingerstamp collectorwallywolf

Michael Wade was here, not Mr.Clean!

On November 15th, author Michael Wade was here.  He began by telling us that, allthough he might look like Mr. Clean, he is definitely not.  Mr. Wade told us many funny stories, reminded us of the power of every day words and managed to embarrass a couple of teachers, too.  One of his stories involved some very strong toilet paper that two students tried to break, but could not.

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He reminded us of some of the things that good writers do.  For example, he read us a story he is working on now and asked for feedback about how to make it better.  He also showed us a sample of his writing and talked about the importance of rewriting.  He does seven complete rewrites of each of his stories.  In the end, his message was that anyone can be a writer.

Thanks for a very inspiring visit, Mr. Wade!

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What does Peace feel like?

imageOn Friday, November 8th we will have our annual Remembrance Day assembly.  Students will remember Canadians who have served our country through words, images and songs.  We will also reflect on what peace means and how we can help create peace in our world.

 

Today divisions 5 and 16 discussed different ways to think about peace.  In groups they answered the questions:

What does peace look like? What does peace smell like? What does peace taste like? What does peace sound like? What does peace feel like?

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Then we read the book, What does peace feel like?, by V. Radunsky.

Come and find more books about peace and Remembrance Day in the library now.

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Happy School Library Day!

Today all our students and staff celebrated Drop Everything and Read Day.  We read in the hallways, in the library, in the music room, in the gym and in our classrooms.  Everyone looked very cozy in their pyjamas and I saw some pretty cool stuffed animals, too!  Thank you to everyone for participating in this province wide event.  Reading is a beautiful thing!

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International Dot Day

We are celebrating International Dot Day this week!  We are among over 1,000,000 participants around the world.  All classes have been invited to read The Dot by Peter Reynolds, a great book “celebrating courage and creativity”.  After reading the book, students are asked to create their own mark on a dot and place it on the giant dot we have on the library doors.

This is what the dot looked like on Monday:

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And this is what it looks like today:

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And here is the final product!

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What do we like to read?

This week many of the intermediate students are completing reading surveys on the library blog. We want to know what kinds of books students like to read, when they like to read and how they read. This information will be shared with me and the classroom teacher so we can learn more about our students as readers and be better teachers of reading for them. You can check out the surveys under Divisions 1-5 under the South Slope page.

Check out this award winning stop motion animated film about reading. Reading is a beautiful thing. We hope everyone can get lost in a book or 2 or 3 or 4 or more this school year.

What do you like to read? Leave your comments below.

Story time magic?

Last Thursday we experienced some story time magic in the library.  I was reading a new book, The Cloud Spinner by Michael Catchpool and Alison Jay , to the grade 2 students.  We were all swept away by this amazing story of a boy who can spin thread from the clouds and weave beautiful garments when, suddenly, it began to rain just as I read the sentence “It rained and it rained and it rained”.  We couldn’t believe it.  It was magical.  One of the students remarked that it must have been because they were listening so hard.  Reading is a beautiful, magical thing.

Come to the library to check out The Cloud Spinner and many other magical stories.

Read any good books lately?

Students in Divisions 4 and 5 have been busy writing book reviews for our online library catalogue called Destiny.  First students read many different reviews and created criteria for a good book review.  Then students chose a book from our library and wrote a review.  Next, they edited it with the help of peers and teachers and finally posted it online.  These reviews are now available to all students and staff in Burnaby on the Destiny catalogue.  The reviews have also been posted in the hallway and in the library.  Here are just a few:

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Have you ever been hungry between meals but there is nothing in the snack cupboard? I know I have! Well, now you can fight back against the urge of hunger with Snack Attack! It gives you over 80 things to snack on after school, on game day or practically anywhere! This book has a truckload of food you and your friends can snack on anytime, anywhere! It goes all the way from cheeseburger dip to Australian meat balls and so on! It even has some amazing desserts you can have after (or before) some of the yummiest dinners ever by your mom! My favourite recipe is probably the cherry chocolate chip cookies. I have tried them and they are delicious!!!! The amazing soft center and crispy edges mixed with the soothing flavour of melted chocolate and then there’s an explosion of flavour when you hit a cherry!! If you like humour, dessert and cheese burger dip, I totally recommend this book to you and only you!!!!

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Do you ever feel like you’ve lived a day over again? Well this is the perfect chapter book for you. This book is by Wendy Mass. It’s a great mystery and realistic fiction book. Amanda and Leo were born on the same day, same hospital and right beside each other. They have always celebrated their birthdays together. On their 11th birthday they don’t celebrate together and that is when they have to live that day over and over again. My favourite part of this book is on the second day when Amanda finds out that she is living her birthday over again. I recommend this book to grades 4-12 and to anyone who likes a bit of humour, action and mystery. Enjoy!

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Have you been involved in a terrible tragedy? Will’s involved in one in this dramatic story by Eric Walters. Will, a grade 9 student, will be spending the day at his father’s workplace, the World Trade Center. Will’s dad works on the 85th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. But a plane hits the North Tower. Will’s Dad tells everyone on the 85th floor to evacuate but Will and his father stay to check to make sure everyone gets out. Then a plane hits the South Tower. Will and his father are above the floors where the plane hit. James (Will’s friend) is worried because his dad is a firefighter and went up to save people, but he hasn’t come back. Does everyone survive? Read it and find out. My favourite part is when Will is scared going up the elevator because Will’s dad told him that the elevator goes really fast. It made me laugh out loud. If you are interested in historical fiction, you will really like this book.

Ashley Spires visits South Slope!

Today we had the pleasure of hosting author and illustrator Ashley Spires.  The students have been reading her books in the library and in their classrooms.  We are all big fans and were excited to meet her.

She talked to the students about her creative process and where she gets her ideas.  Often her characters begin from drawings she just does for fun.  Sometimes they are inspired by feelings, real people or animals, like Binky the cat.  We also learned about the editing process and how hard she has to work to make everything work for her books.  For example, it takes one whole week to create one Binky page spread! Wow!

One of our favourite parts was when Ashley taught us how to draw her characters.  With Divisions 6, 7 and 19 she drew Binky.  And with Divisions 8, 9, 10 and 20 the students drew the penguin from Penguin and the Cupcake.

Don’t forget to come to the library and check out some of her fantastic books!

Have a great Spring Break!