araujoj – Page 15 – South Slope/ BCSD Library

January 29, 2015January 29, 2015

Literacy Week 2015: What did we do?

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!

January 18, 2015January 18, 2015

Literacy Week 2015 is here!

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.

January 11, 2015

Happy New Year!

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!

December 15, 2014

And the winner is…

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.

December 10, 2014December 10, 2014

The YRCA books are out!

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.

December 8, 2014

Genevieve Cote update!

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:

Dear Ms. Araujo,

Your message – and those drawings! – went straight to my heart!

Those little pigs and bunnies, coming from the other side of the country, brightened my day so much, I cannot thank you enough for sending them to me!

Please hug every one of your little illustrators from me, and do tell them their drawings are very special, each and every one of them!

A thousand thanks again, and warm wishes,

Genevieve

We were so excited to hear from an author and illustrator! Hopefully we can meet more authors in the future.

December 8, 2014

Book Fair a success!

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.

November 25, 2014November 25, 2014

Writing to authors in Kindergarten!

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the Kindergarten classes have been reading books by Canadian author, Genevieve Cote. Division 9 and 10 each wrote her a letter telling her how much we enjoyed reading her books. They also created some drawings inspired by her books.

We can’t wait to hear back from her. Stay tuned!

November 21, 2014

A busy week in the library!

It has been a busy week in the library! Here are some of the things we’ve been up to.

Divisions 5,6,7,8 and 17 are well into their Canadian Picture Book of the Year project. We are reading all five of the books nominated for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book award and then voting for our favourite. So far we have read How To by Julie Morstad, Fox and Squirrel Make a Friend by Ruth Ohi, and this week we read My Name is Blessing by Eric Walters and illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes.

My Name is Blessing is a powerful story about a boy author, Eric Walters, met while visiting Kenya. The students were moved by this true story of an orphan with a disability, and shared that, while some parts of the story were very sad, they thought it was beautiful.

The Kindergarten students have also been reading a Canadian author, Genevieve Cote. The students have really enjoyed the characters of Pig and Bunny in one of her series.

We have written letters to Genevieve Cote and will wait patiently and hopefully for a reply.

Finally, Divisions 5 and 6 are coming to the computer lab to learn some digital literacy skills. They have learned how to log on, add tools to their desktop, bookmark a website and navigate some online story web sites. They were hard at work this week listening to stories online on Tumblebooks and had fun at the same time!

October 31, 2014

Happy Halloween!

Well, it was another exciting Halloween at South Slope/ BCSD. Today reminded me of how much I love my job and working at this school. We had the primary costume parade in the gym, the haunted house, the intermediate dance and more.

it was also a fun week in the library with lots of great read alouds. Here are some of the fantastic books we read this week.

Happy Halloween!