Author Visits
On July 20th the students in grades Kindergarten to Year 2 had the wonderful experience of an author visit from Aleesah Darlison. She introduced us to her new book Puggle’s Problem. It is the beautifully illustrated story of the efforts of a puggle (a new born echidna) to grow his spines. I am sure that the students who purchased the book have greatly enjoyed reading it. Aleesah’s talk included a very interesting PowerPoint display detailing the writing and publishing process with links to film clips of live puggles.
On June 15th grades Three to Six were treated to a visit from the author Belinda Murrell. The box in the library which holds her works has been empty ever since her informative and interesting talk.
The students all really enjoy interacting with authors and the visits of these two very accomplished women was a great introduction to Book Week.
Term Three
This is the most exciting time of the year for librarians. The shortlists for Children’s’ Book of the Year in the various categories has been announced and we are busy studying them as we prepare for Book Week.
The theme of Book Week this year is Across The Story Bridge. I have made a Smart Notebook for the students highlighting the books that took the staff of Cromer over the story bridge. The books that switched them on to reading and made them realise what a wonderful pass time it is. The overwhelming favourite for most of the staff was Enid Blyton. Her work is still a popular choice in the library today.
Each stage in the school will study one of the categories in the shortlist. Smart Notebooks have been made for each category. We will be analysing the Websites of the authors and illustrators, viewing film clips related to issues presented in the texts, engaging in activities in response to each book studied and discussing the manner in which familiar stories are linked to the new texts that we are experiencing. Hence we will be building bridges between stories.
Using the Intel Education Visual Ranking Tool each class will rank the books according to their preferences. This tool allows the students to compare their rankings with those of other classes. We will also be using the program Wallwisher.com to share comments on the books studied.
The Book Parade
We are all looking forward to the book parade on August 26th. We are all waiting with great anticipation to find out which books will win in each category. Get those costumes ready!
