Stacy Gregg is visiting Woodlands Park School!

Kia ora,

I've got some exciting news! Stacy Gregg will be visiting our school on Monday 3 April for Hui time!

Here are some interesting facts about Stacy:

She is HarperCollins NZ’s third best-selling children’s author of all time – outranked only by David Walliams and Dr Seuss.

To date, Stacy has sold over a million and half copies, has been nominated four times for New Zealand book awards for junior fiction, has won the Children’s Choice award for fiction three years running, and has also been awarded 7 Storylines Notable books awards including two in 2019, one for her novel The Fire Stallion and the other for Mini-Whinny: Happy Birthday to Me!, her first book in a new series of younger fiction for 5-7 year olds. Mini Whinny was also shortlisted for the NZ Children’s Book Awards in August 2019.

One of her book series has been made into a TV series called Mystic - filmed mostly in NZ - which is currently on telly in the UK and on TVNZ2.

Stacy also wrote the script for this new TV series:

https://www.whakaatamaori.co.nz/media-releases/poniponi-yes-new-fluent-tamariki-show-with-horses-speaking-te-reo-maori-on-maori

And, get this ... Stacy went to Woodlands Park School! She is delighted to be coming to visit us!

We have quite a few of her books in the library:

https://nz.accessit.online/WDL00/#!resources/searchresult

Please encourage your children to read some of her books before she visits to make the most of the Q&A time.

Also, I borrowed some Stacy Gregg books from the National Library for issuing. I'm currently reading Prince of Ponies - it's gripping!

Storylines Tour

A warm welcome to Tania and Des

Thank you so much to Storylines for another fabulous tour yesterday! We were thrilled to host not one, but TWO inspiring New Zealand authors. Des Hunt, Tania Roxborogh and Peter from Storylines joined us in our brand new staffroom for morning tea. Then Tania and Des each presented to a group of children from whanau harakeke.

Morning tea in the new staffroom

Des Hunt presenting

I've had the privilege of listening to Des Hunt at two previous visits to our school, so I attended Tania's presentation. I can report back from Lee that Des was inspiring, using scientific gadgets to engage children. He spoke about rejection, resilience and persistence, which ties in well with discussions whanau harakeke have been having this term.

Tania Roxborogh reading aloud

Saying thank you

The children enjoyed listening to Tania (T.K.) Roxborogh. Her life story is one that deserves a memoir. It is not for me to share here, but to say that Tania pursued her goals with vigour and determination, despite many challenges. Tania also read to us from the first chapter of Charlie Tangaroa and the Creature from the Sea (supreme winner of the Margaret Mahy award at NZ Children's and Young Adults Book Awards in 2021). I'm sure it will be in high demand next year.

Thanks again to the authors and Storylines for your time and energy!

Bookmark competition

Happy Spring! I hope the clear skies are a tonic for you. They are for me!

I mentioned that we had a bookmark design competition during Book Week, and realise that I haven't shared them yet. The theme was around books and pets, linked in with Scholastic's Paws for Books theme.

There were so many clever designs, and the judges struggled to choose the top three from each school whanau. Congratulations to the winners, and to everyone who participated.

Here they are in no particular order:

National Poetry Day

 National Poetry Day, 26 August 

We celebrated National Poetry Day in the library for the whole week. On Monday 22nd, the Poet-Tree (inspired by a poem by Shel Silverstein) was rather bare, but by the end of Poetry Day, it was laden with spontaneous poems written by children during their library visits!

  

Reflecting on Book Week 2022

Book Week 2022 was a bookish blast! Our Book Week this year fortuitously coincided with SLANZA's first ever Aotearoa NZ School Library Week. This is a week that celebrates school libraries around the motu. 

Our Book Week kicked off with the Scholastic Book fair, which was well supported. Thank you to WPS parents and whanau for supporting the fair. We have raised almost $2000 in books for the school library. It is great to be able to stock the shelves with new, exciting books for the children.

We celebrated books by inviting community guest readers to read to children including parents and whanau. Past principal, Liz Manley visited and read to children. Debra from the Titirangi Community Library read The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors to a class, followed by a Rock Paper Scissors challenge. We all celebrated together with a morning tea.

On Thursday of Book Week, Weng Wai Chan, visited our school. The visit was organised through Read NZ Te Pou Muramura who run an excellent Writer's in Schools programme. Weng Wai won the Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction at the NZ Children's and Young Adult Book Awards in 2020, and received a Storylines Notable Book Award in the same year.

Weng Wai Chan was warm, friendly, engaging and sincere. She shared some of her early life in Singapore bringing in humour and educational information. She shared a picture book she had written in younger days, making the process of writing and illustrating tangible for the students. A bit of Zumba got the children to have a stretch and a wiggle before they settled in for some more interesting learning.

After presenting in age appropriate ways to the three whanau groups, Weng Wai ran a writing workshop to a group of around 20 children. I was impressed with our tamariki who answered questions and engaged with the author, showing how much their teachers have taught them about writing narratives. They went away buzzing.

 

Weng Wai gifted us a signed copy of Lizard's Tale.
Her books can be bought at Unity Books
and other bookshops and are available widely online.

We also ran a Bookmark Design competition - and winners were drawn. Children could choose prizes from the Book Fair. I'll post some of the gorgeous bookmark entries soon. The winners' bookmarks will be printed out and made available to children in the library. It was a "pawsome" effort!

Teachers also made use of some of the excellent resources in the SLANZA Aotearoa NZ School Library Week booklet, including search and find pics, word searches, crosswords and more. I believe there was a literary quiz too (I missed it as I was packing up the fair). 

The sun came out for our annual Book Character Parade, which was a real blessing. It was wonderful to see parents back at school - all of us enjoying a special event together. The pics and videos are on the Woodlands Park School Facebook page. Here's our principal, Nardz Stephenson dressed up as Violet Beauregarde turned into a Blueberry, and "I am Jellyfish", plus Thelma the Unicorn (who walked into a netball pole)! The costume winners excitedly collected their prizes from the Book Fair after the parade.

 

At the end of the parade, I was presented with a kowhai tree, which I will plant in the corner of our garden to attract Tui birds. It was a special moment for me!

Now I have the job of cataloguing and covering the new books. Thank you everyone. There is a blog post on 19 August thanking you all in more detail.

Ngā mihi

Kate

Book Week thanks!

Thank you to everyone who helped to make Book Week a success. 

A huge thanks to the teachers at WPS for all your mahi - embracing bookish activities for the week, and to the support staff for your help and support! 

Thank you to all the children in whanau harakeke who helped me with set up, wish list visits, thanking the visiting author and more.

Thank you to all the guest readers for sharing your love of books with the children.

Thank you so much to the parents who helped at the fair - it was lovely to meet some of you for the first time. You dived in at the deep end and were awesome! 

Thank you to Read NZ Te Pou Muramura for our visiting author, Weng Wai Chan, and a huge thanks to Weng Wai for your energy and enthusiasm.

Thanks to all the children and teachers who dressed up for the Book Character Parade, and the parents who went to so much effort with costumes.

It was also the first ever Aotearoa NZ School Library week, and a huge thanks to SLANZA and the sponsors for the fabulous resources.

Thank you to WPS parents and whanau for supporting the fair. We raised almost $2000 in books for the school library. It is great to be able to stock the shelves with new, exciting books for the children.

I hope I've remembered everybody. There were so many acts of kindness that week that it's a bit of a blur. 

I'll write a post on the happenings of the week soon.

Exciting bookish things on the horizon!

Kia ora,

There is so much to share that I thought I'd try to cover it all in a blog post.

Books Alive Programme

Firstly, I just wanted to let you know that LIANZA (Library & Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) is running a programme called Books Alive, featuring the authors and illustrators of the finalists of the NZ Children & YA Book Awards.

Children can learn about illustration, learn about maps and stories, listen to Q&A sessions with authors, watch "Books in Action" sessions hosted at local libraries, etc. 

Here is the link for the full programme, for you to dip into as it suits:

https://lianza.org.nz/events/books-alive-online-events-virtual-storytimes/books-alive-calendar-2022/?fbclid=IwAR0BSSVzEiqPP0HORcOn4cft3F4QQDj8wNoUn0Q2dZ9eYW4dVxRl01PH7Bk

Teachers can use this resource at school, and parents can also access this at home.

There is also a Virtual Storytimes programme:

https://lianza.org.nz/events/books-alive-online-events-virtual-storytimes/virtual-storytimes-calendar-2022/

Enjoy!

Woodlands Park School Book Week
8 - 12 August

Our annual Book Week will be jam packed with events and activities that generate excitement around books and reading. There will be a Scholastic Book Fair in the library. Parents can visit on the following dates and times:

Monday 8 August: 2.30 - 4 pm

Tuesday 9 August: 8.30 – 9.30 am and 2.30 – 4 pm

Wed 10 August: 8.30 – 9.30 am and 2.30 – 4 pm

Thursday 11 August: 8.30 – 9.30 am and 3 – 4.30 pm (later afternoon start due to author visit)

Friday (9-12 August): 8.30 – 9.30 am 

I am looking for parent volunteers to help me during the fair opening times - at the desk and on the 'shop floor'. Please email me at library@woodlandspark.school.nz if you can offer up half an hour or 1 hour to help out. Thank you!

During Book Week, we also have a visiting author, Weng Wai Chan. I have read Lizard's Tale, her award winning chapter book and it was an exciting historical fiction adventure. It won the Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction at the NZCYA Book Awards in 2020. Here is some more information about Weng Wai:

https://www.read-nz.org/writer/chan-weng-wai/

On the last day of Book Week (Friday 12 August), we will have a Book Character Dress Up Day, with prizes for the winners. I will also be running a bookmark design competition at lunchtimes, with prizes.

Our Book Week falls on the first ever Aotearoa NZ School Library Week. The hard-working team of librarians at SLANZA (School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) worked with the award-winning illustrator, Paul Beavis to put this together. It is downloadable here:

http://www.slanza.org.nz/uploads/9/7/5/5/9755821/slanza-activity-guide__5_.pdf

Do have a look at this excellent resource.

Well that's all for now. Keep well.

Kate