Mark your calendars! The fun and excitement of a Scholastic Book Fair is coming to our school! To adapt to our changing needs, Scholastic has developed a Virtual Book Fair to provide an opportunity for our students and families to experience the joy of reading together.
So savethedate!OurscholasticVirtualBookFairwilltakeplaceonNovember30toDecember11. Whenit’stimeto shop, visit our school’s Virtual book Fair site using this link: Maywood School Book Fair [click here].
You can’t place orders until the Fair begins but before that, you can click the link to:
SAVE it to your browser
WATCHvideosofpopularnewtitles
PREVIEW Featured books
Watch fornews leading up to our Scholastic Virtual book Fair!
During the CoVid shutdown, I collaborated with a group of Grade 3-4-5 teachers and two ELL teachers to create a unit on narrative fiction writing. I had started planning this with one of the teachers before spring break. When the shutdown happened we decided to continue online, and three other teachers joined us for various parts of the unit. Two ELL teachers also contributed material and ideas at different points.
It is a very different experience collaborating online, mostly because we couldn’t count on showing students how to do things in class. It was necessary to create low-barrier instructional materials that would work asynchronously online so students would be able to do the activities at home.
Here is the video I created to introduce the unit, and following that is a short video created by Nancy Kwan that became the centerpiece of the unit: Story Elements.
In total, I made about 12 instructional videos, plus two read-aloud videos for the two stories we used as exemplars. Most of these videos were accompanied by worksheets which were posted in the class TEAMS, and which could be completed online. Students watched one to three videos each week, depending on how much work the related tasks required, and then completed the tasks. The teachers I was collaborating with contributed to this material, supplemented this material with their own material, and used as much or as little of this as they needed.
Unexpectedly, I discovered that this was one of the most personally satisfying projects I have worked on. I found the collaboration with colleagues was creative and comforting during what could have been an isolating time. The only thing that could have made it better would have been the opportunity to work in class with students (or small groups of students at a time) to make sure they understood the activity, had access to the materials, and felt confident experimenting with the technology available.
I see this as one of many possible ways librarians can support teachers going forward in the fall: collaboratively planning and teaching this kind of material as blended instruction. One thing I would add to the in-class instruction is demonstrations of how to create PowerPoint presentations like this so students could tell their stories in this format if they chose.
Thank you to Beverly Lee, Cynthia Johansen, Meredith Mckenzie, Kim Baker, Jason Woo and Nancy Kwan for being such generous partners and so willing to join in this experiment.
Even with social distancing, there is a whole universe out there waiting for you to explore online. The Burnaby Public Libraries will be closed for the summer, but you can still join the Online Reading Club. I think this could be a lot of fun. Click ‘Continue Reading’ below to find the information you need to join:
Reading with your child is important for so many reasons.
It is one of the simplest, most loving things you can do together. This is true all the time, but even more so now when they don’t get the regular practice from being in school.
Don’t be worried about your own read-aloud skills. Teachers and librarians don’t have a magic secret talent for doing this. The thing that makes activities most interesting to children is the attentive interest of a loving adult. Nothing can replace this. Study after study shows that early reading with children helps them learn to speak, interact, bond with parents and read early themselves.
Reading with your child is an opportunity to talk about your own values and ideas, and to get to know your child better. Read-aloud sessions are not just for young children, either. Reading with kids who already know how to read helps them feel close to loving adults, to gain understanding of the world around them by talking about the ideas they’re reading, and to be empathetic citizens of the world. Continue reading “Reading With Your Child”
Here are some links to free online educational resources that you might find helpful for entertaining children during this extended break. Continue reading “Free! Fun! Learn!”
On November 21, the Grade 4/5 classes of Ms Johansen, Ms Evans and Ms Lee held their annual PowerPlay Young Entrepreneur Show in the Maywood gym.
According to Ms Johansen, the team leader of the project, “This is a program that the Grade 4/5 classes are doing where students learn to build their own business, starting from developing their product through market research, all the way to manufacturing and selling their product, and learning about cost/price/profit, marketing, money management, and how to connect to customers” along the way.
To learn more about the project, click ‘Continue Reading’ below. And when you’re done reading the post, click the ‘Back’ button on your browser to return to the blog Mainpage.
The Burnaby Rotary Club has been a steady supporter of the Maywood Library. In October, as they have done every year for the past number of years, volunteers presented a cheque in the amount of $2500 to purchase books for every student at Maywood to receive a book in the month of their birthday. These photos are from the November Birthday Book Celebration. Before choosing their books, primary students listen to a volunteer reading a story. Volunteers help students make the tough choices about which book they want, and write the names of the recipients in the books.
(Note: If you click on the ‘Full Screen’ icon in the top right corner, use the ‘Escape’ button on your keyboard, or the ‘Back’ button on your mobile device or tablet to return to this page)
A library is for reading to yourself or to someone else
Students from Division 17 reading during their book exchange time.
It’s for listening to someone read to you
A Rotary Club volunteer reading to a group of students during the November Birthday Book Celebration.
It’s for reading with someone you love
Preschoolers and their family members from the Strong Start Program, getting practice reading together.
Study after study shows that early reading with children helps them learn to speak, interact, bond with parents and read early themselves, and reading with kids who already know how to read helps them feel close to caretakers, understand the world around them and be empathetic citizens of the world. (Joyce, 2017).
