Welcome to Term 3, by far the busiest and most exciting term in the library! I hope you’ve had a wonderful holiday break and managed to avoid all the nasty illnesses that are around at the moment! Hopefully, you had the opportunity to find a nice, cosy spot and lose yourself in the pages of an amazing book.

At St. Joseph’s, Term 3 is all about the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards - Book Week. During Book Week (Week 5, August 19th to 23rd) we will once again be hosting our annual Scholastic Book Fair, as well as our Book Character Parade (Friday August 23rd).

Reading is Magic

“Each year since 1945 the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has brought children and books together across Australia through Children’s Book Week. During this time schools and public libraries spend one glorious week celebrating books and Australian children's authors and illustrators.”

This year, Children’s Book Week will be held from August 19th to 23rd (Week 5 of Term 3). The Book Week theme this year is ‘Reading is Magic’ and award winning illustrator, Jess Racklyeft, is the talented creator of this year’s poster. Jess’ stunning magical poster explores three parts to this year’s theme. Firstly, that reading can take you to other worlds; secondly that reading helps you explore new ideas and thirdly reading helps you to understand other people. This year’s poster celebrates both fiction and non-fiction texts as well as the benefits of reading. The artwork is set in space, celebrating and promoting non-fiction texts, whilst fiction texts are represented by the fantasy elements in the design. This poster is designed to entice young minds and imaginations to travel into a universe of stories, to wonder, be amazed, and captivated. What magical things can you see in Jess Racklyeft’s amazing poster?

Children’s Book Week also recognises the winners of the Children’s Book Council of the Year Awards. As stated previously, the CBCA Book of the Year is broken down into six categories: Older Readers, Younger Readers, Early Childhood, Picture Books, The Eve Pownall Award (for documenting factual content) and the CBCA Award for New Illustrator.

This week I would like to draw your attention to the shortlisted books for Younger Readers, Early Childhood and Picture Books.

Book Character Parade

Please join us for our eagerly anticipated Book Character Parade on Friday, August 23rd. In order to celebrate great stories, all students from Kindergarten to Year 6 are invited to come to school dressed as anything related to magic, or as their favourite author or book character - this year’s theme, 'Reading is Magic' will allow our imaginations to run wild. Students can dress up as individuals or partner up with a sibling or friend. It’s costume time again!

Book Fair

Our annual Scholastic Book Fair will be held in the hall during Book Week, (Week 5, August 19th to 23rd). Opening times will be advised in Week 4's Newsletter.

NSW Premier's Reading Challenge 2024

The 2024 Premier’s Reading Challenge closes on Friday 23rd August (the same day as our Book Parade) - that’s only a little over 4 weeks away. There are a number of students who have commenced the Challenge and some only need to read a few extra books to complete it. If your child is one of these students, please encourage them to come and visit me in the library so that I am able to organise some books for them in order to get them across the line. Congratulations to those wonderful students who have kept up their great reading efforts and finished the Challenge! Well Done!

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 Friday 23rd August

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.

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!

Photo Gallery

Term 2 in the Classroom