News about the library and more!
April is poetry month. This month classes will be reading, listening to and performing poetry in the library and all around the school. On April 30th we will celebrate Poem in your Pocket Day. Everyone is invited to put a poem in their pocket and share it with someone.
Here are some of the great poetry books we read from this week available at our library:
Today we had the pleasure of hosting Inuit author and storyteller, Michael Kusugak. He had two one hour sessions with primary students from BCSD and South Slope. We were thoroughly entertained by his humorous and relaxed storytelling. Michael told us that his last name, Kusugak, means icicle and his middle name, Arvaarluk, means baby bowhead whale. We also learned we knew a few words in Inuktitut like igloo and kayak. He even did a bit of magic and storytelling with just a simple piece of string. While telling the story of The Littlest Sled Dog Michael began singing “Somewhere over the rainbow”, the students joined in and the library was filled with beautiful voices. At the end of each session, three lucky students won signed copies of his books. We hope he had as much fun as we did!
You can check out his books from the library any time!
Don’t forget there is another session of Family Storytime at Tommy Douglas Library this Saturday at 2:00pm!
What did we do during Literacy Week? At our assembly on Monday, January 19th, we were treated to two special Readers’ Theatre performances. BCSD students performed Pop, Poppity, Pop! Then the South Slope staff performed Tacky the Penguin. What’s happening?!
On Wednesday, we had special guest readers and ASL storytellers for every classroom from the Burnaby School district and the community. Our guests included Kevin Kaardal, Superintendent of Burnaby Schools, Councillor Nick Volkow, City ofBurnaby, and Raj Chouhan, MLA for Burnaby-Edmonds.
On Thursday everyone was invited to dress up as their favourite character from a book. Can you guess who these staff and students are?
We also had book trivia with prizes all week long.
All week classes read and created responses to Quest by Aaron Becker. Our essential question was, “What is your Quest?” Check out some of the student responses:
Do you have a favourite book that changed you or took you on an incredible adventure? I’d love to read your responses on the blog or come and talk to me in the library.
Upcoming Events: In February, Inuit author and storyteller, Michael Kusugak, will be visiting our school. He will be telling stories to our primary students. Stay tuned for more details!
Literacy week is back! Tomorrow is our official start and we have lots of fun events planned throughout the week to celebrate literacy. Our theme for the week is “What is your quest?” We will be reading Aaron Becker’s amazing wordless picture book, Quest. Last year we read his book, Journey, and we are all excited to find out what happens in this sequel.
On Monday we have our Celebration of Learning Assembly at 9:30am, First, we will recognize Reading Club and 100 nights of Reading. Next, Readers’ Theatre plays will be performed by BCSD students and the Staff of South Slope.
On Wednesday we have invited some very special guest readers and ASL storytellers to visit all the classrooms starting at 1pm.
On Thursday dress up as your favourite character from a book. Here are some fun costumes from last year.
On Friday come back to the gym at 12:15pm for more Readers’ Theatre performed by our leadership students and Drop Everything and Read.
It’s looks like it’s going to be an amazing week.
What is your Quest? What does literacy mean to you? I’d love to read your comments below.
Happy New Year, Everyone!!! I hope everyone had a relaxing break and read lots of great books. Here are some books I read over the past two weeks.
And here are some more new books ready for reading in the library. Come and check them out now!
The votes are in and South Slope/BCSD has chosen their Canadian Picture Book of the Year. The nominees were:
And the winner is…
If you haven’t read these books yet, please come and check them out from the library. Also, check out the display outside the library to read comments from students about their choices.
The YRCA books are in the library and ready for check out.
Junior Division (Grades 4-6):
Intermediate (Grades 7-9):
Come and check them out now. We will vote in April.
Two posts ago I told you about the kindergarten classes writing and sending their drawings to Canadian author, Genevieve Cote. Well, guess what? She replied with a lovely note and I shared it with both classes. Here is her message:
Last week the library was transformed into the Scholastic Book Fair. We raised over $1000 in books for the school library and had lots of fun. Thank you to all the volunteers, parents and staff, who made the fair possible.
