Author Visit

It is with great excitement and pleasure that I inform you that during Week 3 of Term 2 we will be receiving a visit from well renowned author and illustrator Dr. Cameron Stelzer. Dr. Stelzer is one of Australia’s most enthusiastic and talented author/illustrators and his exciting book readings and big screen demonstrations will entertain and inspire our students. During his visit, Dr. Stelzer will workshop the students from every stage, using his illustration demonstrations to bring new characters to life, revealing behind the scene secrets of how a book is made. and working with the students to enhance their own story writing. This is such an amazing opportunity for the students of St. Joseph’s!

NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge 2023

The 2023 NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge is well and truly underway with many children taking up the challenge - some students preferring to use their personal reading time at school to do this. Some students were pleasantly surprised to find that they were already a quarter of the way there!

Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students are able to complete the reading challenge at school, as they are able to include the books read to them in the library and in class on their reading logs. Should you like to support them at home, their reading logs, passwords and logins will be sent home next week.

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is the perfect opportunity to expose your child/children to some incredible literature, written and illustrated by some exceptional authors and illustrators. The Book Lists advising the children which books they are required to read are available on the Premier’s Reading Challenge website which may be found HERE. Many of the listed books are available in the library!

PRC books are also available on SORA, our free online reading app. Information on how to access SORA is detailed below.

If you have any queries please email me at mholley@arm.catholic.edu.au

Thank You

A huge “thank you” to all the students (and their parents) who regularly remember to bring their library bags to school in order to access the amazing collection of books we have at here at St. Joseph’s. It has also been rewarding to see the number of overdue books finding their way back to school - “thank you” for your continued efforts to locate and return these books.

Holiday Reading

American author Tomie dePaola believes that “Reading is important, because if you can read, you can learn anything about everything and everything about anything.” With this quote in mind, I strongly encourage you to take a little time to catch up on some holiday reading, I certainly intend to - maybe we can compare texts when school returns!

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

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