Hallinan Library
Library News
Last Week we “Escaped to Everywhere” for Book Week. In the Primary, we explored the theme by having the children solve a puzzle to earn a key to access the hidden item/s in a suitcase. With much delight, they found the iPads hiding. The children then completed an interactive Kahoot quiz about characters who escaped and places where characters sought refuge.
The Early Learning Children (ELC) “escaped” the school with a visit to the Odeon Theatre. Yo Diddle Diddle a version of the popular picture book The Cow Tripped Over the Moon was beautifully presented by the Patch Theatre Company and highly entertaining. The children thoroughly enjoyed the bus trip too, a first for many. On Tuesday, the ELC children dressed up as their favourite book characters. They looked gorgeous in their outfits as they paraded through the Primary School, Senior Library, Canteen and caused a ruckus in Mr Cobiac’s office during the executive meeting!
Friday started with our Book Week assembly. Each class presented one of the nominated or shortlisted books in very creative ways. The children then rotated through a variety of activities focussing on the short-listed books. Children were exposed to art, English, maths, science, technology and ICT lessons.
In the Senior Library, there was the morning quiz where general knowledge and literary questions are given daily in the bulletin, correct answers are then collected and one lucky class from each house is rewarded with a bag of chocolates to share.
Next was the treasure hunt which was undertaken by Year 7 and 8 students. They were given 7 clues and had to use their library knowledge to locate 7 small bags of puzzle pieces in various locations in the library. They then had to put together all the puzzle pieces to win. The boys tackled this with much enthusiasm and some fantastic team work. The winning team would each receive a chocolate while the runners up also got lollies.
The annual guessing competition was another highlight of the week with many students in classes or at lunchtime and recess trying to guess the escape based questions. Winners for this competition are to be drawn at the end of the week.
On Thursday the Library held its staff morning tea and there was a wonderful turnout to enjoy the goodies and either, participate in the guessing competition and just catch up for a chat with staff you might not get to see much of during the term.
Book Week also signals the end of the Premier’s Reading Challenge in the Primary (8th of September for senior boys). There are only a few children yet to complete the challenge. The first JP class (2WH) and UP class (6V) to complete the challenge were awarded with a special visit from Rebecca from Pegi Williams Bookshop. She bought a selection of books for the boys to browse. They were each allocated $100 to buy books for the library. 6V are due to have their visit shortly. We now have a great new selection of books to join our collection. This is always an interesting exercise as the children begin to understand how expensive buying good books can be.
Overall it has been an enjoyably busy week with lots of chocolate consumed, some much needed fun and new experiences for everyone.
The Hallinan Library Staff