Library News
Term 4, Week 6
Can you believe it’s week 6 already? The term is flying and classes have been busy finishing off units on narratives and genres before we begin some Christmas stories soon.
This Week’s Reads
Kindergarten - the heat’s arrived just in time for Kinder to start a short ‘beach’ theme unit where they’ll be enjoying reading some great stories about going to the beach and creating some beach-themed art. This week, we begin with the funny ‘Unwilling Twin’ by Freya Blackwood. I can’t wait to hear all about the fun times students have had at the beach (and there will be lots!).
Here’s KD completing their ‘Chip’ narrative story map last week.
Stage One - we’ve searched on the World Book Web, we’ve listened to articles about incredible animals and now it’s Stage One’s turn to select one and complete a short research task. These lessons are important to begin developing skills in using credible sources and locating information when researching. Today, 1S and 1M made a great start and could recall some amazing facts. Below are some photos of 1M hard at work.
Stage 2 - are putting all that they’ve learned about genres into action and are creating a poster or slideshow about their favourite books and genre. Students will need to search SORA and Oliver to find books in the library that suit their chosen genre and then convince us why we need to read these. I look forward to sharing some of these with you soon.
Stage 3 - are learning the final technique used in graphic novels, onomatopoeia ahead of creating their own once they return from excursions next week. While easy to spot, it’s certainly not easy to spell! Students are also learning about the difference between onomatopoeia and sound effects, then drawing one of these amazing words in pop art style.
Here are 5WF completing their literary device scavenger hunt last week - students had to search for and then take photos to upload into a Google Doc of foreshadowing, flashback, point of view, and sound effect examples.
Reading Buddies
One of the truly great advantages of having a K-10 school is that our older and younger students have opportunities to spend time together and learn from one another. Last week, KD had extra time in the library so when I saw some Year 9 students sitting on the other side, I nabbed them for some buddy reading. This time, the older students got to pick some of their favourite picture books to read to KD. It’s special to see how much students (young and old) enjoy this experience.
And We’re Racing!
The library is not just about books, it even includes horse racing on Melbourne Cup Day. KS was lucky to have 1M and 1S join their library lesson to watch the race being run. Congratulations to the sweep winners too, it was fun to be a part of.
PRC Update
Yesterday, I received an update from the organisers of the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge about participants’ certificates. Special awards, for students who’ve been participating in the Challenge for several years, will be posted over the coming weeks and these will be presented at assemblies later in the term
But what did people like to read this year and how many students participated in the Challenge?
433,502 students across NSW took part in the PRC this year, with over 313,000 students completing the Challenge. Students read a combined total of 8,658,738 books - with this year's most read book being The Speedy Sloth by Rebecca Young and illustrated by Heath McKenzie. Wow!
Library Loans - It’s Time to Start Rounding Them Up
The library will close for borrowing at the end of week 8, Friday 1/12/23 so ALL library books need to be returned so we can begin our annual stocktake of every book in the library (which is a huge job!). Notices for overdue books will be going out next week so if you could please let me know of any lost books, that would be appreciated. You can notify me by email at library@holytrinity.nsw.edu.au . Thank you for your support with this.
Meet the Reader
Today, Fergus in 4D found ‘his’ book, ‘Good Boy, Fergus!’ by David Shannon. I'm sure this title rolls into real life!
Meet the Helper
Over the course of a year, a number of my library ‘regulars’ in Years 5 and 6, enjoy taking turns in helping me loan, return, and shelve books during snack break. This week, Isadora in 6S enjoyed her time with the scanner!
And while we're still talking genres, this made me giggle.
Happy reading,
Mrs Fraser