FYI Important Dates for Term 3

* 23rd August 2024 Premier’s Reading Challenge closes

* 19th - 23rd August Book Week 2024

* 19th - 23rd August St. Joseph’s Book Fair

* Book Week Character Parade Date TBC

Book Week/Book Fair/Book Character Parade

The theme for CBCA Book Week 2024 is:

Reading is Magic

Before we know it, CBCA Book Week 2024 will be upon us and to coincide with the celebrations of Book Week, St Joseph’s will once again be conducting its annual Book Fair and Book Character Parade. This year’s theme of ‘Reading is Magic’ gives plenty of scope for dress up ideas and the forthcoming school holidays could be the ideal time to start brainstorming ideas for a book character to dress up as - anything that fits in with year’s theme of magic, a favourite book character or a favourite book author would be just great!

NSW Premier's Reading Challenge 2024

The NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge 2024 concludes on Friday 23rd August 2024 so you still have plenty of time to complete the Challenge. The forthcoming school holidays (particularly if it’s raining) would be the perfect time to ensure your reading records are up to date and that you have added to your total of books read by reading more books! Don’t forget that many of the Premier’s Reading Challenge books are on SORA. If you look in collections you will see collections of books devoted to each section of the challenge.

PLEASE NOTE!! Any books on the list that your child reads (or you read to your child for K - 2) over the school holidays can be counted for this year’s Challenge.

Holiday Reading

School holidays are almost upon us (5 days to go), and I believe there is no better way to spend some of your holiday down time than by reading a book! Don’t forget that e-books and audiobooks are still able to be borrowed from the Diocese’s digital library, SORA. SORA has an amazing collection of e-books, audiobooks and magazines for students of all ages to access. They are great to download and listen to when travelling, too. For more information on how to access and browse the digital library, see the notice at the bottom of this page.

I would also like to recommend the Tamworth Town Library as a means of accessing suitable reading material and providing some wonderful holiday activities for the children these school holidays. Check out their website for more information: https://cnl.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/WPAC/HOME

Who knows, the book/books you read in the holidays might provide you with the inspiration for your book character dress up for our book character parade!

Some Quick Reminders

Library Bags - Don’t forget that Library bags are a must to ensure the safe transportation of books to and from school. If your child does not have a library bag, the forthcoming school holidays could provide you with the time to organise a bag for library borrowing - anything that will protect the library book would be wonderful!
Overdue Books – overdue library books continue to be returned to school, thank you most sincerely to those families who have located them and sent them in to school, however, there are still overdue books outstanding. Please continue to keep looking for any overdue library books you know you have at home!
Safe Book Storage - a reminder to store borrowed library books safely away from little hands, pets, food and water.
Book Club - the Book Club orders have now closed and books ordered by the children will be distributed as soon as they arrive at school.

Reading at Home

Don't forget that your child has 24/7 access to reading material through SORA and World Book Online. Please note that your child will need their school login details to access SORA, if they are unsure of their login details please contact the school so we are able to provide them for you. See below for some suggestions from SORA.

SORA

The students at St Joseph’s are able to access ebooks, audiobooks and magazines through SORA, the Armidale Diocese digital library. SORA has an extensive collection of ebooks, audiobooks and magazines for students of all ages.

Instructions for logging onto SORA are as follows:

Step 1: Install Sora app from Apple App Store or Google Play Store, or soraapp.com.

Step 2: When in Sora, click on I have a setup code - “setup” code is cenetau - then sign in.

Sign into your School – Select your school - ACEN

Step 3: Browse the tab and borrow a book. Your book will open so you can start reading right away.

Step 4: Close the book and go to see all your books (including assignments). From there, you can:

Select Open book or Open audiobook to read or listen to the book.
Select Options to renew or return the book, see your notes and highlights, and more.

© 2020 OverDrive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

NB You will need to use your school username and password to access this.

WORLD BOOK ONLINE

Our school has a subscription to World Book Online! This means you have FREE access to this wonderful resource from home or on the go with any internet-connected device. World Book Online may be accessed via the Oliver home page or by visiting the World Book website www.worldbookonline.com

What is World Book Online?

Homework help
Read stories, articles, and current events
Complete activities and Webquests
Play educational games
Learn how to do research
Explore pictures and videos
Find reliable information for assignments and projects

World Book Online is a safe, trusted, 21st-century learning environment for students.

The World Book products our school has access to include:

Kids:

simple navigation
easy to read articles
translations
text to speech (with 10 voices)
educational games and activities
science experiments
a dictionary
an atlas
interactive maps
map outlines
a tool for comparing places or animals.

Student:

expansive reference database
multimedia library
games
behind the headlines
citation builder
research tools

Timelines:

over 650 timelines including Gold Rushes in Australia, Australian Prime Ministers, Cricket World Cup, Star Wars and Harry Potter. Edit or create your own timelines.

User ID: joseph2340

Password: joseph2340

Encourage Learning Anytime, Anywhere!

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