LIBRARY NEWS

Welcome to the final newsletter for Term 1, where has the time gone?

This week in the library we’re busy wrapping up units of work and having some fun with Easter stories. Kindergarten have come so far this term and have really started to be confident with library routines and expectations. They know how to return their books to the correct place (it sounds easy but books can often end up anywhere!) and are also regularly borrowing too. They confidently identify parts of a book; front & back covers, pages, spine, the blurb, title and also can tell me what an author and illustrator do. A great start to the year!

Meanwhile, in Stage 1 we’ve enjoyed a collection of Pamela Allen’s wonderful stories, their favourite has been Mr McGee and the Biting Flea with Hetty’s Day Out being a close second. This week though we’re reading a new Easter release from Laura & Philip Bunting called ‘This is Not an Egg’ and students are designing something egg shaped for bilby to carry.

Stage 2 is winding down their Leigh Hobbs unit as well with two final Old Tom Books - Old Tom Man of Mystery and Old Tom’s Holiday. They’ve enjoyed learning to draw cartoon style like Leigh Hobbs this term and have created some really fantastic Mr Chicken’s and Old Tom’s.

Finally, Stage 3 has been putting the visual literacy techniques they’ve learnt about into practice and are analaysing an image from a film. They’ve joined a library Google Classroom, opened a Google Slide and are now annotating features of an image by inserting text boxes and arrows, displaying creative technology and literacy skills. I’ve attached two great examples from 6LW.

NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge

By now, I’ve sent home all participants' login and password information. If your child is still keen to join in the challenge, it’s not too late! Please send me an email to invlibrary@arm.catholic.edu.au and I can organise for them to be signed up. 

Congratulations to Julian in 5G for being the first student to finish the challenge closely followed by Ella in 3D. They’ve both done a great job to get this done within the month, congratulations!

2022 CBCA Books of the Year Shortlist

Last week, the Children’s Book Council of Australia announced its shortlist for the 2022 Books of the Year. Over the coming term, I’ll go through each category in more detail and I look forward to reading these in Term 3 with students. For more information about these stories, you can visit the CBCA website here.

SORA - Holiday Reading!

Even if you’re on a holiday, you can still enjoy reading good books from the school’s digital library. The Armidale Catholic Schools Office provides access to a large number of ebooks and audiobooks that can be accessed through the SORA reading app. This free app can be downloaded onto devices or accessed through their website . 

YOUR CHILD WILL NEED THEIR SCHOOL USERNAME & PASSWORD TO ACCESS THIS APP. You may need to get this from their class teacher (I do not have these records). Once you’ve found the App, follow the login instructions on the attached document. 

SORA has also put together some great holiday graphic novels suggestions here.

I hope you all have a safe, happy and holy Easter holiday, happy reading.

Mrs Toni Fraser.