Author Rachelle Delaney visits South Slope
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
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:
DEAR Video
Here is a short video/slideshow about our DEAR Day. Please share!
DEAR 2016 from South Slope/ BCSD Library on Vimeo.
DEAR Day
We had a great day celebrating Drop Everything And Read day and School Library Day. Everyone was invited to wear their pyjamas and some of us even brought our favourite stuffies. We read in the hallways, the pods, our classrooms and, of course, in the library!
Why do we do this every year? Independent reading, choice and time to read is what students, and adults, need to become readers.
“A child sitting in a quiet room with a good book isn’t a flashy or marketable teaching method. It just happens to be the only way anyone became a reader.” Nancy Atwell, The Reading Zone
BPL visits South Slope/BCSD
Thank you Jon Scop from Burnaby Public Library for visiting our school yesterday. Divisions 3,4 and 15 attended the presentation where Jon talked to us about resources at BPL and gave some great book talks. Many of the books are now on my list to read and purchase for our school library.
Here is the list of books Jon spoke about:
https://burnaby.bibliocommons.com/list/share/85569609_jonprogramming/689987307_grade_4_reads
Thanks, Jon and BPL!
Scholastic Book Fair is coming!
Next week, September 19-22, the Scholastic Book Fair will be coming to the library. We hope you will visit and find a great book and support our school library. 60% of book sales go towards new resources for the library! Parent volunteers are needed. Please see Mrs. Araujo in the library and/or check the sign up sheet in the hall just outside the library.
Book Fair Hours:
Monday 11:45 – 12:15pm, Recess and 3:00 – 3:30pm
Tuesday 11:45 – 12:15pm, 1:45 – 6pm
Wednesday 11:45 – 12:15pm, 2:00 – 2:30pm
Thursday 11:45 – 12:15pm, 1:45 – 5:00pm, 6:00 – 8:00pm
Welcome back!
Welcome back to another exciting school year! I hope you all had a wonderful summer and read some great books. Here is some of the reading I did:
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 19th until Thursday, September 22nd. Parent volunteers are needed. Please see me in the library or look for the sign up sheet on the library bulletin board soon.
Reading Club: Our reading club begins again on September 28th. 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)
Questions? Comments? Please come and see me in the library. I’m looking forward to an exciting year!
Reading Club reaches 250 Nights!
Our Reading Club has reached 250 nights! The last day to hand in your forms is Monday, June 20th. Students will be recognized at our assembly on June 28th. All those staff and students who completed 250 nights will be able to put their name in a school library book next week. I will let teachers know when their students can come to the library and pick a book.
Don’t forget to join the summer reading club at the Burnaby Public Library and at libraries across BC. Registration is now open. Click here for more details. 
Artist: Lee Edward Födi
Read my earlier post, Summer Reading, for reading recommendations and more.
Thank you and please return your books!
Last week students visited the library for their last storytime and book exchange of the year. We read the Thank you book by Mo Willems. This is the last book in the well loved Elephant and Piggie series. We will miss Piggie and Gerald, but I’m sure they’ll remain among the most popular of books to check out of the library. As a response to the book, students were invited to write a thank you to someone on a post it note and put it in the hallway. We wanted to create a “Thank-o-rama” for all to see! Come and have a look at some of the wonderful thank you’s that students and staff have written. If you want to leave your own thank you note, you are more than welcome!
As the library begins the inventory process this year it is very helpful to have all books returned. The due date was June 13th so please check at home if you have any overdue books or maybe even in your desk or classroom.