Remembrance Day

Last Friday, November 11th, each class group from Kinder to Year 6 viewed a picture book that portrayed a story reflective of the significance of Remembrance Day. As the children listened to the story it was obvious that they were appreciative of the opportunity to reflect upon what Remembrance Day means on a universal level, but also their own personal response to this special day.

Returning Overdue Books

Thank you to all families who have supported their child with locating and returning their overdue library books. Unfortunately, there are still many books that are overdue! Overdue books may be returned on any day, just take them to the library and place them in the pink tub near the library desk. It would be wonderful if all families could check for any books which should have been returned and send them into school as soon as possible. If you are unable to locate a book identified as overdue and feel sure it has already been returned, please send me an email mholley@arm.catholic.edu.au or send the notice back to school with your child and I will endeavour to resolve the issue. Further overdue notices will be shared in the forthcoming weeks.

Thank you for your support in attending to this matter.

Lunch Time in the Library

During Term 4 the library will be open every Thursday and Friday for students during second break. If you would like to read a book, draw a picture, colour a picture, solve a jigsaw, play a board game, play with puppets AND lots more – come to the library to see what's on! It would be great to see you in the library!

Book Club

A sincere “thank you” to all the families who have supported our school by purchasing books through Book Club. The credit points we have received because of your purchases have allowed me to obtain many new books for the library; thank you once again for your support. A huge “thank you” also to Mrs Galvin and Mrs Chaffey for distributing the catalogues, ordering the books and then distributing the books once they arrive – Book Club just wouldn’t happen without them!

Catalogues for Issue 8, the last Book Club of the year, were distributed last week and are due back at school on the 30th of November. If you are ordering a book that is an intended gift, please identify this when ordering and we will hold it at school and notify you when it arrives so that you can collect it from the office at a convenient time.

Reading at Home

SORA Recommended Reads

Electronic, or ebooks, can be borrowed by students through our school’s digital library SORA. Your child is able to access SORA at home and at school by logging into Oliver (the school’s library borrowing system) with their school email and password. There are ebooks available for students of all ages and one of the best reasons to access SORA is the extensive collection of magazines that is always available for the students. With the Christmas holidays quickly approaching, SORA is something to keep in mind as an activity for your children during this time.

This week’s SORA recommendation for primary students is a non-fiction text that explores the science of climate and weather.

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.

SORA Recommended Reads

Each month, SORA promotes a great read for primary students. For this month it is:

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 during the school holidays. 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

Graphic Novels

The children at St Joseph’s are quickly embracing the ‘graphic novel’ and I am continually receiving requests for new ones to be added to our library collection. With this in mind I would like to share a quick snapshot into the world of ‘graphic novels’.

What is a graphic novel?

Scholastic tells us that ‘The term “graphic novel” is generally used to describe any book in a comic format that resembles a novel in length and narrative development. Graphic novels are a subgenre of “comics,” which is a word you may also hear people use when referring to this style of book.’

What is unique about graphic novels?

Bookmachine.org states that ‘The great thing about graphic novels is the emotive response and connection between the reader and the novel. You no longer have to use your imagination to create an idea of the setting and character profile as a graphic novel illustrates every emotion, struggle and physical change in the characters.’

What makes a book a graphic novel?

Masterclass explains that ‘A graphic novel, as its name suggests, is a novel that tells a complete story via illustrations. A graphic novel contains a beginning, middle and end. A graphic novel will offer the type of resolution that one expects from a novel, even if it is part of a series.’

Library Borrowing

Please note the last day for library borrowing will be Friday of Week 7, November 25th, until then library book borrowing continues to occur on Fridays for all students, K – 6. Please remember to bring a bag to transport books safely to and from school.

Student Support

Ms Nina Gee