Authors Around the Alphabet

I love mixing things up a bit in the library. Not too much - as it's great when children know where to find books - but enough to keep it interesting. I have a display shelf that I use for this purpose. This year, I'm running a theme called "Authors Around the Alphabet". 

Every couple of weeks or so, I change the display around, so that it features authors whose last name starts with a letter in the alphabet. We've been through A, B, C, D and we're up to E & F. You can just imagine all the wonderful picture book and chapter book authors that I've had on display.

How it works:

 - When a class comes in they usually get seated on the mat. I often chat to them and offer to read them a story. I will point out anything new on the main wall display (eg. Inquiry topic books, book award displays, etc). Then I'll say - "Now, in Authors around the Alphabet, we're up to..."

- This gives me an opportunity to point out some of the authors' names and their wonderful books to the children, so that they can start making connections and finding favourite authors. It helps to circulate books so that many older books get a chance to be featured and be on face out display.

- I chat to the children about how one letter on the spine signifies that the book is a picture book and three letters, being the first three letters of the authors' name, shows that it is a chapter book. So there is a wee library lesson in there too. If the children are young, I might chat to them about the sound of the letter too.

- Then I'll dive in and read them a book from the display, and invite them to borrow books from there.

So far we've really enjoyed books by Pamela Allen, Aaron Blabey, Anthony Browne, Joy Cowley, Julia Donaldson, Lynley Dodd and Ian Falconer, to name a few. 

I'm really enjoying this little excercise. It offers teachable moments about how the library works, and introduces the concept of authors. I get excited when I discover books I haven't read aloud before too. Such fun!

Stacy Gregg's fabulous visit!

Meeting Stacy Gregg yesterday was a thrilling experience for our ākonga. Stacy is warm and lovely and a pleasure to host. A huge thank you to Stacy for your time and energy! Thank you so much ReadNZ Te Pou Muramura for another fabulous author visit, organised through your Writers in Schools programme. Our children have been so enriched by author visits over the years.

The morning started with a writing workshop for 25 children from whanau harakeke. Stacy led them through the writing of a short story with a beginning, a middle and an end. We brainstormed a variety of first lines in a story, some intriguing, some adventurous and others deliberately gross. Then we brainstormed sentences that formed the crux of the middle of the story, linking up with the opening lines. Finally we wrote the closing lines, some forming a victorious resolution, others deliberately tragic. The children then wrote their own short story based on the various options. When they read their work back to the class I was proud of their imaginations and writing talent. Lastly, they were asked to write a description of their main character and Stacy offered pertinent feedback. A teacher said that some of the children were still working on their stories at tea and wanted to carry on after that. 

Mrs Stephenson had asked me to organise an author for the Hui time. Stacy presented to whanau pohutukawa and whanau harakeke during this time in the hall. It was interesting learning about the actual characters and horses behind Stacy's historical fiction novels. The topics were clearly well researched and presented in an interesting way. The children were hugely engaged, leaning on her every word. A Viking contest was a fun way to end it, giving the children a chance to for some exuberance after sitting and listening so attentively. 

Stacy kindly donated a few books from her new series, Spellbound Ponies, and an overseas print copy of The Princess and the Foal to our school. Thank you Stacy! I am sure the Spellbound Ponies set will be a hit with younger readers. 

Stacy complimented us on our use of Te Reo in our school which was heartwarming to hear. Thanks again to Stacy Gregg for visiting your old school and bringing so much joy to our ākonga!

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