LIBRARY NEWS

Welcome to week 5, it's hard to believe we’re nearly halfway through the term already. This is an exciting week in the library as we celebrate Catholic Schools Week and also participate in National Simultaneous Storytime.

National Simultaneous Storytime

This Wednesday, 25th of May, National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) will be held across Australia. At 11am, many schools, childcare centres, libraries and bookstores will simultaneously read or listen to a story together to promote the value of reading, the fun of books, quality Australian literature and provide opportunities to involve families and enjoy the occasion.

This year's book is 'Family Tree' by Josh Pyke which is a beautiful story about a gum tree seed that grows and is interwoven with themes of family, community and the seasons of life. The story's themes tie in well with Catholic Schools Week and will be combined with a family picnic after the reading. Keep an eye out for more information about the picnic and we look forward to having families join us to read such a special story.

For more information about the day and how you can participate from home, you can viist the ALIA site here.

New Books

A new week sees new books come to our library. Each year the Armidale Catholic Schools Office generously supplies a collection of great books from ‘The Children’s Bookshop’ to be delivered to all schools across the Diocese. Picture books, fiction and non-fiction texts are provided to engage children across all stages of learning and we are lucky to regularly receive these new books. This year, we’ve also subscribed to additional graphic novels and manga which are proving to be the most borrowed books in the library. I have them displayed on the New Book shelves and students are welcome to borrow them.

Premier’s Reading Challenge

We’ve already had several students complete the challenge and return their reading records for me to validate with the PRC website. The challenge ends on the 19 of August 2022, so there is still plenty of time to read the books. When your child has finished the required number of books and you've logged them on the PRC site, please print this list off and return them to the library. 

This year, I’ve created booklets that have all the PRC books found in the school’s library and students are enjoying using these to help find books to complete their challenge.

CBCA Shortlist - Picture Book of the Year

Last newsletter, I introduced the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Books of the Year. This week, I’ll profile the Picture Book of the Year and you can find more information about these stories here. These wonderful books are all available in our library and I look forward to reading these with students next term.

Library Conference

I will be away at the end of the week attending the Teacher Librarian Professional Learning Conference (TLPLC) in Bathurst and look forward to hearing from a range of presenters and authors about new trends and ideas for the library. I just hope Bathurst’s weather treats us kindly! 

Quick Bits:

• Scholastic Book Club - this term’s catalogue will be coming in the next couple of weeks
• Library Bags - please remember to send one in with your child when they borrow, we’ve had a few books returned lately with water damage from school bags. Thank you for assistance with this.
• Overdue Books - if your child has lost their library book, please just send a note in with your child so we can take it off their record. Usually, these books are found at another time or in some random place, so please don’t worry too much, we understand that this happens.

Oliver, Kassidy and Elsie from Year 1 did some great work this week labelling Rose, the main character from one of my all time favourite books, Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten by Bob Graham.

Happy reading, 

Mrs Toni Fraser