21st Century 

Learning Space

Library News

SCHOLASTIC BOOKCLUB

Thank you to the whole school community for your support of Scholastic Bookclub this year. Your purchases have enabled us to add some great resources to our school library collection. 

For a long time, Scholastic have been partners with Rowville Primary School in encouraging children to read. The Scholastic website states that “our fundamental objective is to inspire a love of reading and learning in kids everywhere.” They also state that they “strive to produce sustainable books and paper products that are locally sourced, written, designed and produced here in Australia.”

“Scholastic Australia Publishing has always been committed to seeking out, fostering and supporting new and emerging Australian authors and illustrators, as well as promoting well established ones to produce many excellent Australian books. Of course, in addition to developing and nurturing home-grown talent, our team selects titles from many great international authors and illustrators as well. We are proud of the fact that many of our Australian books have been selected and published because of the support of our partnering schools through Book Club. Otherwise, we may have missed out on some fantastic stories and talents.”

The last Bookclub for the year - Issue 8 – will be distributed to students as soon as they arrive. I look forward to continuing with Scholastic Bookclub next year so that our students can share the new resources and enjoy their love of learning.

STUDENT LOANS

It’s that time of year again - could everyone please make some time to check at home for any Rowville Primary School library books and classroom readers. Please do your best to locate your overdue books and return them to school.  I remind everyone that you can access Oliver V5 our library cataloguing system through Compass to check your current loans. If anyone has misplaced or lost a book please let me know as soon as possible.

For your information the last day for student borrowing will be Friday 2 December, 2022 and all student loans need to be returned to school by Monday 5 December, 2022. 

Thank you.

KINDNESS KIDS

The great fable writer Aesop once said that “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is every wasted.” Our lunchtime program “Kindness Kids” have been working together to make a difference. They have made cards for someone special, drawn pictures to give to a friend or teacher. Made posters, shared stories and supported each other. We also worked together on a poster project to brighten one of our school office areas. A little bit of kindness goes a long way! 

There are a lot of picture books about kindness, here are some of my favourites . . . 

Mud Boy by Sarah Siggs

This picture book is about bullying and how your words can hurt other people. Most importantly it is a book about how to get help and being kind to others. Kindness and caring will always win through. We need to learn how to be kind and what to do if others aren’t. The message is that no one is alone and there is always something you can do to get some support.

Kind: A Book about Kindness

Imagine a world where everyone is kind. How can we make that come true? What can you do to be kind today? Thirty eight world renowned children’s illustrators have been asked to complete a page for this book illustrating ‘kindness.’ This has thought provoking colourful illustrations that children can engage and think about and perhaps even show kindness to the people in their lives. Let’s make a better world.

What Does it Mean To Be Kind? By Rana DiOrio

The blurb for this picture book says “a girl in a red hat finds the courage to be kind to the new student in class. Her kindness spreads, kind act by kind act, until her whole community experiences the magical shift that happens when everyone understands and acts on – what it means to be kind.”  Showing you care about your friends, your families and each other will spread happiness everywhere.

Big Words for Little People: Kindness by Helen Mortimer 

This is a lovely book which explains the meaning of kindness and what you can do to be kind – one word at a time. Kindness doesn’t have to be complicated! Let’s think about the big words in this book Welcome, Sharing, Giving, Understanding, Listening, Helping, Caring, Being Thankful, Loving, Taking turns, Thoughtful – all of these words lead to the end of the book with the last word being Kindness – “It can start with a word but sometimes we don’t have to say anything at all. Act kindly. Show kindness. Be Kind.” It’s easy and it makes you feel good too!

NOTABLE NEW NON FICTION

Our Time On Earth: Animal Lifespans from the Mayfly to the Immortal Jellyfish by Lily Murray and Jesse Hodgson

What a fabulous book! Our world is full of wonder and this book gives us a short glimpse into the wonderful world of nature. I did not know that there was a jellyfish that regenerates itself and is immortal. If it is threatened by starvation or physical danger it transforms back into a polyp and begins its life cycle again! How great is that? However the book goes on to explain that the jellyfish pays a high price for immortality. This simple creature has no heart, no brain and just one opening for feeding and waste! I also discovered that one of my favourite birds The Laysan Albatross lives for 50 years, the Bowhead Whale 200 years and the Greenland Shark up to 400 years. If you are interested in discovering new things this book is a must read. Very interesting.

Wild Australian Life by Leonard Cronin

Full of fabulous discoveries about Australian wildlife. From learning about the Animal Kingdom and classification to pages on incredible insects, radical reptiles, fabulous frogs, animal architects, and mysterious monotremes. This book has a lot of information. Once you find out some interesting facts this book encourages you to further your research. For example did you know that a Plover fakes a broken wing? Plovers nest on the ground. They distract predators who come anywhere near their nests by limping and dragging one wing on the ground as if it is broken. When attacked the plover miraculously takes to the air and escapes thus distracting his enemy! 

Keep reading and be curious about the world around you, you never know what you will discover. 

2022 CHILDREN'S WORD OF THE YEAR

Stories can be full of powerful words so I was interested to learn that the 2022 Children’s Word of the Year is PRIVACY. Oxford University Press in partnership with Storyathon, Australia’s largest online story-writing event for students analysed over 87,000 short stories written by Australian students aged seven to thirteen years old. The language experts discovered that the word ‘privacy’ had a 300% increase in usage from the previous year! Other shortlisted words included ‘impact’, ‘information,’ ‘opinion’, ‘pollution’, and ‘risk’. Further information can be found at 

https://www.oup.com.au/primary/childrens-word-of-the-year

Jackie Hicks

21st Century Learning Space Manager