Author Visit – Dr Cameron Stelzer, The Story Doctor

What an amazing experience it was to have Dr Cameron Stelzer, Author and Illustrator, visit St. Joseph’s last Thursday! Dr Cameron was a runaway success with all stages and conveyed many encouraging messages about ways of finding inspiration for your writing and drawing and just having fun with it! Check out the photo gallery and the school's facebook page to see our students hard at work with Dr Cameron.

Quite a few St. Joseph’s students have already taken the opportunity to purchase signed copies of Dr Cameron’s books and merchandise. If you have not yet returned your order form, and you would like to purchase a book or some merchandise, we will be holding the order forms until Tuesday, 16th May, and they will then be forwarded to Dr Cameron. Dr Cameron will be sending orders out the following week and they will then be distributed at school.

It was most fascinating to hear the range of student responses after Dr Cameron’s visit. Some comments included: I liked how he showed us videos of how he used things from his childhood, like lego construction, to get ideas for his books and illustrations; I liked how he told us a story about The Stroogle; I liked getting his autograph; I liked how he used alliteration when he made up the character’s names; I liked how he taught us to draw a Pie Rat! I liked the pirate quiz - there were many, many more I likes … far too many to list!

Please come again Dr Cameron!

National Simultaneous Storytime

National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. Now in its 23nd successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6.

This year, the featured text is ‘The Speedy Sloth’, written by Rebecca Young and illustrated by Heather McKenzie. National Simultaneous Storytime will take place on Wednesday the 24th May 2022.

Book Club

Orders for our first book club of Term 2 have now closed. Thank you for all the orders we have received. Book Club orders will be distributed to students as soon as they arrive back at school.

NSW Premier's Reading Challenge 2023

A reminder that the Premier’s Reading Challenge continues, and does not conclude until August 18th 2023; so there is still plenty of time to join in the fun of the Premier’s Reading Challenge and read, read, read. PRC books can be found in the library or on SORA. If you would like to peruse the PRC website, you may do so by following the link https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html

Reading at Home

The students at St Joseph’s are able to access ebooks and audiobooks 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:

SORA

Getting started with Sora

Sora - get free ebooks and audiobooks from your school.

Step 1: Install the 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, then sign in.

The “setup” code is cenetau

Sign into your School – Select ACEN from the dropdown box.

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

Step 4: Close the book and go to the shelf to see all your books. 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 and more.

© 2020 OverDrive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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

WORLD BOOK ONLINE

St Joseph’s also has a subscription to World Book Online! This means that our students have access to this wonderful resource free of charge should they wish to access it from home. World Book Online may be accessed via the Oliver home page or by visiting the World Book website www.worldbookonline.com

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 and text to speech (with 10 voices). It includes educational games, activities, science experiments, a dictionary, an atlas, interactive maps, map outlines and a tool for comparing places or animals.

Student: expansive reference database and multimedia library. It includes games, behind the headlines, citation builder and 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.

Our User ID: joseph2340

Password: joseph2340

Student Support

Mrs Emily Sullivan