Here are this year’s class displays to celebrate CBCA Book Week!
Click HERE to view a slideshow.
We also had a visit from author Bruce Pickworth, a former teacher at our school. He introduced his book The godwits to students in Class 23, and all of Stage 2 and Stage 3.
And here are some old friends…
Books light up our world by 1S
Click HERE for a slideshow of each class display.
UPDATE: The students who created this amazing 3D display for Scary night just heard back from the author, Lesley Gibbes:
Scary night by 3-6R
Lesley wrote, “Thanks so much 3-6R, your display is amazing! Have a wonderful Book Week celebration!” And then, a courier arrived, with free copies of Scary night for the creators!
Make sure to check out out the free Apositive phone app and make the CBCA firefly fly – and read, and wave!
Next week in Library lessons, students from K-2 are investigating rules. Classroom rules, playground rules and home rules are being discussed in class (and in the library), giving us an opportunity to revisit the school library rules.
Our School Library rules have been traditional for many years, with only a few amendments over time. They are:
1. Clean hands.
2. Line up quietly outside.
3. Be quiet in the library.
4. Please walk in the library.
5. Take care of the books, furniture and all library equipment.
* Remember to bring a cloth library bag to borrow books.
Robbie Rules: My first day at school (2013).
Happy Book Week!
Congratulations to Shaun Tan for his gold-medal award-winning picture book, The rules of summer:
Illustrator Shaun Tan – ‘Rules of summer’ [HD] Books and Arts Daily, ABC RN
Our school library is being transformed by the arrival of many colourful and clever displays. The theme this year is Connect to Reading.
Click HERE to view a Flickr slideshow.
It’s been a long time since I’ve made a “shoestring makeover” update!
The school library’s “WELCOME” mat had lost all of its signage due to four years of kids trampling in and out. With only an hour to spare, I cut some paper templates freehand and used three cans of spray enamel to create this new message. Final detailing with permanent black marker.
Paper templates in place, ready for the (first) white layer:
The original mats in place on opening day, 2010:
At one of my past schools, the Principal kept suggesting that I abandon the Dewey Decimal System and create some colour-coded Key Learning Areas (KLAs) in the Teacher Reference section of the school library. Some teachers would complain that they “didn’t understand Dewey” or “couldn’t ever find anything.” This were the bad ol’ days of drawers crammed full of catalogue cards, but I never really understood the problem. My counter argument was always that Dewey is essentially in KLAs anyway, and so many books are useful for numerous KLAs. I was gone from the position for a year and the change to shelving in the TR section was done in my absence. I came back for a few visits: the colours chosen were definitely not good for a colour blind person. Lime, orange, red and green all side by side! And blue next to purple. Torture!
What shuttlecock?
Interfiling TR with the main collection is a great idea for many items. A high school I visited during my initial retraining was creating a brand new library collection with no separate TR section. Almost everything was being interfiled with the main collection. Certainly, in a high school, many items hidden away in TR could be very useful in student assignments. A few years ago, at mu current school, I moved a lot of neglected art books (written for children but stored in TR and seemingly ignored/forgotten/overlooked by most teachers) into regular non fiction, where they are used more frequently by students. When I took over in the library, one of my first major reorganising jobs was to disband (barely-used) reading boxes that had been colour-coded with small, self-adhesive dots. When people came in asking for a particular set of coded colours, I would be beyond frustration trying to find the correct ones, usually having to open the lid of every box.
Actually, our non fiction resources now have little, square, spine stickers representing their ten broad Dewey categories – we use the exact colours of Syba Signs’ shelf labels, after my SASS person saw the system working well in another school. It was mainly to assist the library monitors with sorting and reshelving the NF section more efficiently, but the stickers are quite useless to me, colour blind as I am. (Luckily the PRC stickers colours are quite distinguishable.)
When I worked at Ryde State Office of the NSW DEC, I was often called in to look at various curriculum units’ website designs, and help them pick onscreen colours that worked better for red/green colour blind people.
Please consider that the alterations you make to your library shelves (and web pages) can have repercussions for those who come after you!
Class 3/4L recently had an extra session in the school library, so we decided to create a digital slideshow, inspired by the powerful cover art of the new picture book, One red shoe, by Karin Gruss & Tobias Krejtschi (Wikins Farago, 2014). The book, set in the war-torn Gaza Strip, features black and white illustrations through, with the dramatic use of spot colour on a US-style, Chuck Taylor All-Stars red canvas shoe, to persuade the readers and viewers with symbolism.
Surrounded by RED
The resulting, jointly-constructed text of this digital slideshow, created during a Circle Time brainstorming session, is quite reminiscent of the colour poems featured in the now-classic book, Hailstones and halibut bones by Mary O’Neill (1961), although the students were not exposed to that particular work. Yet. Red objects featured in the images came mainly from the school library environment, but also a few from my personal digital albums.
Download free Teachers’ notes for One red shoe.
Today was Penrith Public School’s annual reading picnic, this time celebrating our 97% success rate in the Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC) in this, the National Year of Reading. It was also the second anniversary of our occupation of our BER school library. How the time has flown!
Our special guest was Judith Ridge, of WestWords. Judith is a recognised expert in the field of children’s literature, a former editor of the School Magazine and a member of the PRC selection and reviewing panel.
Our Guest of Honour, Judith Ridge of WestWords.
Parents, caregivers, toddlers and community members brought with them books, picnic rugs and snacks and joined the 400+ students and teachers for a relaxed afternoon of reading in cosy corners of the playground. Some students sat in class groups, and others sat with family and friends. And Mother Nature turned on some perfect picnic weather after several days of looming thunderclouds.
The school also received a special package from author and illustrator Emma Quay! A beautiful giclée print (Mr McLean had to look up that term on Wikipedia!) and a lovely handwritten letter, explaining that this artwork is a preview of her forthcoming picture book, Not a cloud in the sky (2013).
Emma Quay’s letter and giclée print!
Our school captains present Judith with a school crest keyring.
Judith Ridge, who was very complimentary of our students’ work with digital storywriting, book rapping and our school’s blog and wiki, shared a quote from E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s web and Stuart Little:
“A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people — people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.”
A commemorative plaque has now been mounted on the wall of the school library.
It’s Term 3, so the first Book Week displays from classes have started to arrive in the school library! This has been an annual tradition at my school long before I arrived here. The displays become a part of the library decor until the next Book Week, when everything is refreshed. This year’s slogan is “Champions read”.
1/2H presents “The last Viking”
K-2B presents a frieze featuring “The three billy goats Gruff” and a farm
3F presents “A bus called Heaven”
“A bus called Heaven” – revealed!
K-3R presents “Ben and Duck”
1G presents “Rudie nudie”
1K presents “Surrealism for kids”
Click HERE to see some sample pages.
The creators of “The last viking” have also posted 1/2H’s display on their website! Congratulations 1/2H!
Watch a slideshow of all of these displays (and more as they are added) HERE!
The chick puppet (above left) was probably originally a duckling, too, but when I found a different duckling (right) a few months later, I sewed the beak of the first one into a point.
An assortment of puppets from Taronga Park Zoo’s souvenir shop.
Emu and kangaroo puppets: Australia’s coat of arms!
Students at school helped to display the (now-huge) puppet collection!
Now we just need to complete that puppet theatre.