National Simultaneous Storytime 2013

Our school registered to take part in the National Simultaneous Storytime again this year. The three Kindergarten classes came to the IRC to listen to and read “The Wrong Book” by Nick Bland at precisely the same time as school libraries and public libraries all over Australia did the same.

Once again the story was brought to life by using an iPad app of the book projected onto the interactive whiteboard. Discussion of the characters and story followed after which students were provided with paper craft activities based on characters in the story. The students remembered the story from last year’s National Simultaneous Storytime, seen when in Prep, and we watched and listened to this book again as well.
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Katrina Roe visits Prep – Year 6 (Author of ‘Marty’s nut free party’)

Last week the IRC Theatrette was transformed into a party room for the visit of Katrina Roe who both entertained and educated our Prep – Year 6 students about food allergies. She certainly had the attention of all the students as she led them in party games then read her new book Marty’s nut free party. The students went away knowing how to hold parties that could be happily attended by friends with food allergies – and they really enjoyed the story as well!
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Library Lover’s day @ BACIRC

It has become a tradition in our library for all of Year 9, on February 14 each year, to take part in ‘Speed Dating’.  Books are pre-selected from all genres with appropriate but varying levels of reading.

Senior students observing the ‘set-up’ this morning could be heard reminiscing about their own experiences doing this three years ago. Clearly it was memorable and favourable!

Statistics are kept from the ‘rating’ sheets to make a display of most popular ‘dates’ and many students come back for second dates.

Library’s Lovers day!!

By Hayley B (Year 9 student)

Today was Library’s Lover’s Day 9. Our English class made their way down to the IRC where we stood behind a table, which was very prettily decorated, and which made us feel as if we were in a restaurant with our date sitting there staring at us. On the table next to our ‘date’ we had a cute red heart chocolate. Everyone was nervous for their first date, sitting down and opening to the first page and getting to know all about their date. After four minutes everyone rated their date and moved on to a new date and did the same thing all over again.

I think being at Library Lovers Day today was a great experience for everyone to perhaps find the right book for them, one which suits them best or maybe not even finding the right date at all but reading a variety of books.

 

 

School Libraries and Teacher Libarians promoting literacy

In her latest post in An awfully big blog adventure, award winning author of 60 books for children and teens, Linda Strachan says:

We all know that children have to learn the skill that is reading so that they can discover the joy of losing themselves in a book, the delight of living new experiences through the characters in their favourite books

…we need our schools not only to help children learn the skill of reading but to find joy and delight in a broad range of books, to help them to become enthusiastic readers.

She goes on to discuss the role played by the school and Teacher Librarian in the of promotion of books and reading.

Imagine for a moment…Storytime at the BAC Spring Fair

The IRC held a special storytime (“Imagine for a moment”) for the ‘littlies’ at the Spring Fair and we used our latest technology acquisition… a web cam to show picture books!
The iPad Dr Seuss Apps were also in full swing … but there was something special about the real moment of turning pages and the ability to stop and receive comments or discuss pictures from a book – but with the ability to share the story with a large number of children. The mix of technology plus human input made for magical moments.

School Holidays! Celebrate the National Year of Reading with special activities

Why not use these holidays to inspire a love of reading. Activities that bring a story to life can also bring a family closer together. The Book Chook blog has a post this week full of ideas of how to do this.

Zoe Toft says she “Plays by the book” because

  • it’s fun!
  • it gives me a focus and outlet for my desire to be creative
  • it helps me find a mutually enjoyable way of being with the kids
  • it shows the kids how much I value the book
She goes on to explain ways to bring a book to life with three failsafe activities
  • getting out the playmobil and make a landscape to mirror what is in the book
  • using the same medium as the illustrator to do your own pictures
  • baking a cake based on an image in the book

Grandparents’ Day: Books & reading focus in the IRC

Thursday 24 May was Grandparents Day – It has been a busy week in the IRC!
Grandparents’ Day is always a special time here. Students from the P-6 section of the school eagerly bring their grandparents into the IRC to share this amazing place with them. The whole building is filled with children sitting with their grandparents looking at books, displays or just relaxing together.

We boost our collection each year by offering books for sale for grandparents to donate back to the IRC on behalf of their grandchild. This year, again, we received more than two thirds of our selected new books back as donations.
Many grandparents were very interested in the direction taken with Information (Non Fiction) books for children these days, with their many illustrations and limited but pertinent text. All of these particular books were sold quickly and added to our collection.

Maurice Saxby – A real inspiration to all Teacher Librarians – and to this Nanna as well!

Maurice Saxby spoke at the Awards Night for the School Library Association of NSW on 30 March held at the Children’s Bookshop at Beecroft.

In 1955 Maurice Saxby was the second Teacher Librarian ever to be appointed to a school in New South Wales. He has inspired teachers and Teacher Librarians for many years and his book “Give them wings” impelled many to offer exciting opportunities for children to experience literature.

He spoke of his own encounter with books and reading as a young boy and told us of the influence of the special teachers he had as a child – who inspired in him a love of literature simply by reciting a poem or leading a discussion.  Teachers, parents and even ‘Nannas’ still do this today but we now have at our fingertips so many rich resources to extend these experiences even further.

Maurice told us why reading literature is important: “Apart from what we see about human beings when we read and what we find out about life, we’re attuned to story and to the shape of story and to the way words work.”

The night of the awards I went to stay at the home of my son where I regularly read books to my two granddaughters and we make up and enact imaginary stories. With renewed energy to instill a love of literature and reading into the lives of these two little girls, aged two and four, I seized hold of opportunity and here is what enfolded the next morning.

As usually happens, the four year old commandeered my iPad to open a folder full of books and activities selected for her. The younger two year old went for my iPhone where she too knows how to open relevant folders and spends a lot of time looking at family photos and videos of herself in particular! This photo was not “set up”!

 

 

 

 

 

Miss Four had, on a previous occasion, asked me to get the “Playschool App” as she had seen it advertised on Playschool and it had cool puzzles in it! I had done so and she now was looking at a previous episode of Playschool she had found on the app – streamed live from the ABC website. She was watching the reenactment of “The Hare and the Tortoise” and we discussed the meaning of the fable and the saying  “Slow and steady wins the race”.

 

 

I was a little dismayed to find there was no print copy of the story in this home to read to the girls – Nanna will have to rectify that!

 

 

Later I took the girls outside to play.

“Lets play races”, said Miss Four…

”I’ll be the tortoise and you can be the hare,” she said to her little sister.

“Well, we’ll need a washing basket and some ears,” I said.  So she ran off and came back with some ears out of the dress-up box – left there from Easter bunnies last year. The washing basket was emptied and straps were attached to it by her mother.

With very little help from Nanna the story was enacted – again and again! The little hare asleep on the mound of the basketball stand was just beautiful… then she awoke just in time to see the Tortoise win the race!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later in the day when the technology was again “picked up” Miss Four asked if there was a book app for the Hare and the Tortoise. I found a traditional version with original pictures as well as a more modern version. Both offered read-a-loud support and some interactivity. A couple of dollars later we read both versions together and Miss Four mastered all the activities – while Miss Two once  again watched herself in family videos on my phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An exhausted Nanna was sure by the end of the day that both girls had encountered literature in many engaging ways – a day we will all remember! Thank you Maurice!

 

 

 

 

“The very hungry caterpillar” – an older book that will never die

Eric Carle wrote and illustrated this book in 1969. It is still a favourite of children young and old and the book is used every year by our Kindergarten teachers to teach students about life cycles. Naturally, art work follows and Kindergarten’s creativity is on display and being enjoyed by the whole school in the IRC for one more week.

Library Lovers Day @ Broughton: Speed Dating with a difference

After discussion with the English teachers, it was decided that Year 9 would take part in our literacy event for Library Lovers Day and the launch of the National Year of Reading – Speed Dating some carefully selected books!

Fiction, Non fiction, graphic novels, biography and even poetry books were gathered and set on the tables. Students read a book for 5 minutes before rating it and moving to another table and repeating the exercise.

Students enjoyed eating a chocolate heart during their first ‘read’ and many rated their ‘dates’ with the top option on the rating sheet: “I have had a wonderful time! Could we please meet again very soon”. There were also some honest students who opted for the rating “That seemed like a very long five minutes. You’re just not my type!”

This was a very successful and interesting way to expose students to genres and books they would never have found on the shelves or tried to read. Hopefully some “lonely” books will soon be borrowed!

Read a book – Give a book

Here is a great idea as we embark on the National Year of Reading!

“We Give Books is a new digital initiative that enables anyone with access to the Internet to put books in the hands of children who don’t have them, simply by reading online.

We Give Books combines the joy of reading with the power of helping others, providing a platform for caregivers and educators to inspire children to become lifelong readers and lifelong givers.

…Simply choose the charity you want to read for and then select the books you want to read. For each book you read online, we donate a book to a leading literacy group on your behalf.”

2B finish the year with Winnie the Pooh and the Hundred Acre Wood

2B and their teacher Mrs Kate Bradley, enjoyed a Literature Unit on Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne.

They discussed all the characters and their relationship with one another dealing with issues such as tolerance, perseverance and friendship.

Ultimately the children created five characters of their own and then wrote poems and stories about each one. A model for each character was simply crafted out of a bottle and was “dressed” with its own carefully designed emblem to indicate something of the personality.

The ‘characters’ and associated writing were then displayed in the outdoor IRC area, which is currently awaiting renovation. The “wasteland” of weeds and tall thistles became the Hundred Acre Wood and, with their wonderful imaginations activated, the children eagerly drilled holes in the hard clay next to their ‘characters’ to insert a stick to support their pieces of writing. Some children preferred to tie their writing to the fence. Most of them proudly brought their parents through the IRC and out to the back enclosed area to show them their work.


Is the ‘book’ dead?

We are in the middle of a very successful Book Fair where students are pouring into the IRC and dragging in their parents after school – to purchase books!
The success is largely due to the fantastic “Book Talks” by Murray from Scholastic. The books came alive as he spoke about them.
Even more exciting was the new merging of book and web as he demonstrated the “Clone Wars” website where students can interact choosing their own adventure/ending through gaming on the website then reading the resulting text page given to find out what happens next.
Reading books is certainly not dead or even dying at Broughton – but promotion of reading is very important. As technology and books merge an exciting future is developing.
This clip is worth watching: