James Russell's visit

James Russell visited our school last week. He had the children and teachers in stitches of laughter with entertaining stories about his childhood. We were also captivated by his readings from the Dragon Brothers Trilogy (his picture books) and the new Dragon Defenders chapter books series. I can't wait to read Book 1 of the Dragon Defenders, but I may have to get in a waiting list of reserves at school.

James also demonstrated the augmented reality app. He was the first author in New Zealand to introduce augmented reality to his books, through an application called AR Reads. There was a buzz in the library at lunch time with children asking to borrow my phone to look at the maps through the app. We will be uploading the app the library iPads soon. Ultimately the end goal is to create excitement and enthusiasm around books and reading!

Thank-you James and all the best at the Auckland Writer's Festival.

Lunchtime in the Library

 The library is a popular place at lunchtime. Lego club on Tuesdays and Thursdays is open to all WPS children. The rule is "Play & Pack Away". Sometimes it helps to know that one's creation is being photographed and put on the blog before dismantling it and packing it away :)

Children love to come in to read books, listen to CD books, play Lego and the librarians help out at the issue desk, shelve books and help visitors to find books, make reserves, etc. We're all very grateful for our lovely library!

James Russell is visiting us on Thursday!

Reading Fair Boards

After a great deal of creative energy, the Wednesday and Thursday book club groups have finished their Reading Fair boards. We have set them up on tables in Room 18 for viewing. They will be available for viewing at lunch time on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Well done everyone. Each board is original and they all capture the essence of the book they are depicting.

Painting our reading boards at book club

Painting our boards in the sun

We took advantage of the gorgeous sunshine on Thursday to finish painting our Reading Fair boards. Next step is to glue on the literary elements that we have written about on Pic-Collage and to start decorating the boards. I always look forward to seeing the children's creative ideas coming to life.

Painting while the sun shines

The Y6 book club made the most of the sunshine last week to paint our Reading Fair display boards. Both the Wednesday and the Thursday group have been working on typing up their literary elements using pic-collage on iPads. After the holidays we will finish painting, complete the literary elements and print them out and then the children can work on making their designs eye-catching.