The Scholastic Book Fair is coming soon!
Visit the fair next week in the library from Feb 21st to Feb 24th. It will be open during student led conferences. Every purchase supports your school library. Parent volunteers are needed. Please sign up outside the library or come and see Mrs. Araujo. Hope to see you at the fair!
Inquiry: What are we curious about at South Slope?
Division 3 and Division 4 are both doing inquiry units in their classrooms and the library.
Division 3 is learning about Canadian Government. What are the levels are government? Who are the important people and their titles? What services does government provide? They will be investigating these questions and more over the next couple of weeks. Check out these sites on the library catalogue to learn more about government in Canada.
Division 4 is investigating Eurpean countries. In groups they have chosen a country to learn about and created questions to guide their inquiry. Today they began using some print and online resources to answer their questions. Check out these sites on the library catalogue to learn more about countries and cultures around the world.
World Book Online
Dear Parents:
Good news! Our library now subscribes to World Book Online. World Book Online is a valuable reference site for schools and libraries. The World Book resources for Burnaby schools include:
• World Book Kids—the premier general reference Web site developed especially for younger users.
• World Book Student—includes all articles from the 22-volume World Book Encyclopedia, plus thousands of additional articles and more than 20,000 pictures, maps, videos, and sounds..
• World Book Advanced—tailored for the needs of older students, it includes encyclopedic content, e-books, multimedia, a vast collection of primary source documents, and a wealth of research tools that allow students to customize and save their work.
• World Book Discover—designed for English language learners, this site includes reference articles, text-to-speech capabilities, research and translation tools, and multimedia.
• Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos—the optimal beginner’s Spanish language reference site.
Our World Book subscription allows us to give you and your family access to this valuable reference source at your home computers 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. We are providing this service to you at no charge!
We hope your children will use World Book Online often to help with their homework, special projects, and at-home learning.
To access the World Book Online, follow these simple steps:
1. Go to our school’s web site: http://southslope.sd41.bc.ca/
2. Hover over the Library tab on the left hand side and the link to World Book Online will appear.
3. Click on World Book Online to get to the World Book log in page. You can find our school’s username and password in the January Newsletter or come and see Mrs. Araujo in the library.
Celebration of Literacy Assembly Jan. 26th
Last week we celebrated literacy at South Slope/ BCSD with a special assembly. The agenda included a performance by the band, two powerpoint presentations about our author visits and recognition of all those students who have now completed 100 nights of reading. Over 100 students received certificates and pencils and a few lucky students received a book prize.
A special thanks to all the student MCs: June, Geena, Graecen and Bisman. And a big thank you to Graecen, Ian, Emma, Alysha and Kylie for all their hard work on their powerpoint presentations.
Storytelling with Michael Kusugak
On January 17th, Inuit author and storyteller, Michael Kusugak, came to the South Slope/ BCSD library. He did two sessions of storytelling for Divisions 5-11 from South Slope and Divisions 15-17, 19 from BCSD. The students heard stories retold from his published books as well as some new stories. We were all fascinated with his string stories, too. Ask someone from one of the classes that were there to tell you all about it.
Eric Wilson visits South Slope
On January 12th Eric Wilson visited Divisions 1-4 at South Slope. He got us all hooked on mysteries and writing. The students were excellent listeners and many of them received an autographed postcards for their quick thinking. Come and check out Eric Wilson’s mysteries and others at the library!
A Parents’ Guide to Facebook
From: Curriculum Connections—School Library Journal
January 4, 2011. By Alicia Eames
A Parents’ Guide to Facebook, by Anne Collier and Larry Magid, the Co-Directors of ConnectSafely.org, is a 34-page resource available online as a printable PDF file. It begins with an introduction to Facebook’s features and uses, addressing topics such as “How do we parent Facebook users?” and “Digital footprints & good reputations,” along with sensible suggestions. For example, “…the No. 1 safety tip is ‘Talk with your child.'”
While Facebook is designed for users aged 13 and older, there’s nothing to stop younger children from side-stepping that guideline with a few simple, albeit dishonest, clicks of the mouse. The authors note, “A July 2010 survey found that 37% of U.S. 10-to-12-year olds were on Facebook, which means that every one of these children had to lie about their age to get on the service.”
Check out the link on the library home page under “Parents” to this PDF document.
Upcoming Author Visits
We are excited to annouce 3 upcoming author visits this term.
Canadian mystery author, Eric Wilson, will be coming January 12 to do a presentation for students in Divisions 1-4. Check out his site for more information: ericwilson.com
On January 17th Michael Kusugak will come to share his stories with Divisions 5,6, and 7 from South Slope and Divisions 15 and 16 from BCSD. Check out his site for more information: www.michaelkusugak.com
On February 22nd best-selling Canadian author Kari Lynn Winters will come to visit Divisions 8, 9, 10 and 11. Her website is: www.kariwinters.com
Reading Club Reaches 100 Nights
January 4th officially marks 100 nights of reading! Forms may be handed in to the library anytime after this date. New forms for 150 nights will be available by Thursday, January 6th. Please make sure your forms are handed in by January 21st in order to be recognized at the assembly on January 26th.
South Slope’s Canadian Picture Book of the Year
During November and December Divisions 6, 7, 8 and 9 read the 5 books nominated for the Marilyn Ballie Picture Book Award 2010. The nominees were Me and You by Genevieve Cote, The Delicious Bug by Janet Perlman, You’re Mean Lily Jean by Frieda Wishinsky , Timmerman was here by Colleen Sydor and Our Corner Grocery Store by Joanne Swartz. The students enjoyed all the books, but chose The Delicious Bug by Janet Perlman as their favourite. Check these great books out at the library and you be the judge!
