Category: Special Events

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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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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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Ashley Spires visits South Slope!

Today we had the pleasure of hosting author and illustrator Ashley Spires.  The students have been reading her books in the library and in their classrooms.  We are all big fans and were excited to meet her.

She talked to the students about her creative process and where she gets her ideas.  Often her characters begin from drawings she just does for fun.  Sometimes they are inspired by feelings, real people or animals, like Binky the cat.  We also learned about the editing process and how hard she has to work to make everything work for her books.  For example, it takes one whole week to create one Binky page spread! Wow!

One of our favourite parts was when Ashley taught us how to draw her characters.  With Divisions 6, 7 and 19 she drew Binky.  And with Divisions 8, 9, 10 and 20 the students drew the penguin from Penguin and the Cupcake.

Don’t forget to come to the library and check out some of her fantastic books!

Have a great Spring Break!

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Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh, my!

Yesterday we had the pleasure of a visit from Canadian author, Eric Walters. He spoke to divisions 3, 4 and 5 and then to divisions 1 and 2. We learned how Mr. Walters gets his ideas and how he really gets into his research. He traveled to Africa for his book, Alexandria of Africa, and encountered lions, elephants, deadly snakes and more. For his book, Tiger by the Tail, he found not one, but two tigers to promote his book and was bitten by one in the process. For his book, Between Heaven and Earth, he climbed Mt.
Kilimanjaro with his son. He also picked two of the “cool” dudes in the audience to demonstrate how he creates his characters.

For division 1 and 2, he spoke about his charity, The Creation of Hope, and how it partners with Kenyans to care for orphans and also works on community projects such as building wells. This was a great connection to the students’ current social studies unit on water. It was also incredibly inspiring.

What did you enjoy most about the presentation? What did it make you wonder and think about? Please leave your comments below.  And don’t forget to come to the library to check out a great book by Eric Walters!

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iPads in the Library

Students are beginning to use our iPads in a variety of ways. Last Thursday Division 3 used them in the library to read about author Eric Walters. They went to his site and had to report out about what they learned. Then they created a list of questions for his visit on March 11th.  Stay tuned to find out what happened at our visit with this fantastic author.

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And the winner is…

The votes are in! The Canadian Picture Book of the Year is Small Saul by Ashley Spires!

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Over the last several weeks. Divisions 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 read the five nominees for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award.  First they decided on criteria for a great picture book.  Then we read all 5 books during their library times.  Finally, they voted.  Stay tuned for some of the students’ comments about the books they read.

The other nominees were:

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Gingerbread boy found in Library!

It was an exciting week at South Slope/BCSD!  Divisions 9 and 10 have been reading many versions of the Gingerbread man story and even made their own gingerbread boy.  On Tuesday they put him in the oven to bake, but when they returned to the kitchen he was gone!  They searched all over the school, but couldn’t find him.

On Wednesday morning when I came back to the library I noticed all the missing posters they had made and spoke to some of the students about their missing gingerbread boy.  Later that day I was shocked to see the gingerbread boy running through the library!  He was so frightened, but agreed to stay with me and not run away.  Divisions 9 and 10 were close on his heels when they arrived at the library.  I brought him out to see them and read the letter he had written to them.

After school, I took the gingerbread boy up to Grouse Mountain.  He will stay in the gingerbread village there until Santa’s reindeer, Dancer and Vixen, can bring him back to Gingerbread Land.

What an exciting week!

Thank you to Ms. Lawder for use of the photos of this memorable event.