Author: araujoj

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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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October is Canadian Library Month!

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Help celebrate Canadian Library month at our school by visiting the school library.  We are open Mon -Thurs 8:45-3:15.  We are closed for lunch, but open at recess 1:45-2pm.

You can also join us for Drop Everything and Read Day on October 28th at 12:15.  Wear your pajamas and we’ll all cuddle up with a good book.

See you then!

 

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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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Book Fair in the library!

The Scholastic Book Fair is being held in the library this week until Thursday.  It will be open at lunch and after school.  On Thursday we will stay open until intake interviews finish at 8pm.  Some classes have come in to preview the fair and it has been a joy to watch them get excited about all the new books. 

We still need a few parent volunteers for Thursday.  Please come and see me if you are available.

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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.

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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 (Author) and Alison Jay (Illustrator), 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.