Author Visit – Dr Cameron Stelzer, The Story Doctor

Merchandise and books purchased from Dr Cameron have arrived at school and were distributed last Wednesday. I must say that there have been many smiling faces coming through the library door to tell me about their purchases and advising me of the page they are up to in their chosen text! It is wonderful to see so many happy students enjoying their new books.

National Simultaneous Storytime

Last Wednesday, 24th of May, was National Simultaneous Storytime Day. This year, the student’s of St. Joseph’s, thoroughly enjoyed listening to ‘The Speedy Sloth’ written by Rebecca Young and illustrated by Heath McKenzie. This is a beautiful story of perseverance and persistence, with the underlying message of taking pride in your achievements and always trying to do your best! It is a fun read, and is sure to be reread many, many times. A thumbs up from St. Joey’s!

NSW Premier's Reading Challenge 2023

Remember to keep reading and logging your books for the Premier’s Reading Challenge. Once you have read the required number of books to complete your challenge, bring your Personal Reading Log back to school so that it can be validated. Did you know that many of the Premier’s Reading Challenge Books are on SORA? If you log into SORA and look in the collections, you will see that there are collections of books devoted to each section of the challenge. If you have any queries regarding the PRC, please check out the website https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html or send an email through to me mholley@arm.catholic.edu.au and I will do my best to answer your query. Many thanks for your support of this great program. Happy Reading!

Friday, August 18th 2023, is the PRC closing date for student entries.

Some Quick Reminders

Library Borrowing/Library Bags - borrowing for all students continues to occur on Thursdays and Fridays. Don’t forget that Library bags are a must to ensure the safe transportation of books to and from school.
Overdue Books – there has been a steady stream of overdue library books being returned to school, thank you to those families who have located them and sent them in to school, however, there are still many overdue books outstanding. Please continue to keep looking for any overdue library books you know you have at home!
Book Club - the second Book Club catalogue for Term 2 has now been distributed, order forms are due on 7th June 2023.
Lunch Time in the Library - the library will be open for students to enjoy on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays during the second break. So if you would like to find a quiet corner to read a book, solve a jigsaw, draw a picture or colour one, play a board game or fold some origami come on in! Hope to see you there!

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

Photo Gallery

Catholic Schools Week Liturgy and BYO Picnic