Samoan Language Week

 Talofa Lava,

We have enjoyed Samoan Language Week at WPS. In the library I have been reading stories to the children from the Children of the Pacific series. 

I love the theme of this year's Samoan Language Week, "Serve in love for a blessed future".

Authors around the alphabet

We have finished going from A-Z in the authors around the alphabet display shelf. It is definitely a shelf theme that I will return to at some point, but for now, after Samoan Language Week, I have a new shelf theme coming up... Watch this space for more details. I think the children are going to enjoy this one!

Colouring competition winners!

Congratulations to the following children who entered the Tim Bray colouring competition (via the school library), and won prizes!

Sofia: 2nd place in the 6-8 age group

Sorcha: 2nd place in the 8+ age group and Freya, 3rd place in this age group.

The lucky winners have won book vouchers from the wonderful Dorothy Butler Childrens' Bookshop. As they are all keen readers, they are delighted.

Thank you to all the sponsors of this competition. I hope the Great Piratical Rumbustification will be a rip roaring success.

Sea Week

Sea Week made a splash at WPS Library. We "reached for a good book", and children entered a sea themed colouring competition at lunchtimes. Here are some pics.

Storylines National Story Tour

We were thrilled to hear that we had won another Storylines National Story Tour visit recently. Tessa Duder and Peter Millett visited our school on Monday 11 August. It was such an honour to hear from Tessa CNZM OBE. We were fascinated by her life story, including her swimming medal, working on the Spirit of Adventure, visiting Scott Base, and the research she did for her new book, The Sparrow. 

Both authors talked about research and about intermingling fiction and non-fiction (historical fiction). Peter shared some interesting choices that he asked the illustrator to make in The Anzac Puppy, and how he conducted his research in the days before the internet. It was interesting to hear about the challenge he had in making sure the ending was right. Our Y5/6 ākonga  will have gleaned so much from this - as their teachers are talking to them about the importance of research and rewriting before publishing. Thank you Storylines for an excellent visit! Kate, WPS Librarian

I was amazed that we had one another Storylines tour! It is our 4th since I've been working here. We've had Fifi Colston, Swapna Haddow, Des Hunt & Tania Roxborough and now Tessa Duder and Peter Millett visit our school. As a school we feel incredibly fortunate and grateful to Storylines for all your hard mahi bringing authors to schools! Thank you to Vicki Cunningham for your work behind the scenes and to Miguel for doing the facilitating. Thank you to Tessa for sharing your wonderful life story with us (we were star-struck) and Peter for your vibrant presentation and interesting behind the story titbits.

It's buzzing back at school

The beginning of term is always busy in the library - training new class and lunchtime librarians, getting the National Library books out to the classes, putting up new displays, etc. It's a buzz :) We're looking at bees this term. Pop in - it's a hive of activity ;)

 

Colouring competition winners

Congratulations to Pearl, Sorcha and Lilly from Room 8 who placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Tim Bray "The Magic Faraway Tree" colouring competition, and to their teacher Lee for encouraging them!

I loved reading "The Magic Faraway Tree" by Enid Blyton to my own children, who are now young adults. I know many teachers have enjoyed reading this book to their classes over the years. When I saw the competition on FB, I thought it would be fun to share it with children at lunchtimes in the library, and with the teachers. 

Children of all ages loved colouring in the pictures. I posted a big envelope full of entries in time for the deadline and wished them luck.

I know we have talented children at Woodlands Park School, and was thrilled when I received the email saying that despite over 150 entries, we had won all three places in the age 8+ category! 

First prize is a family pass to the Tim Bray production, and 2nd and 3rd prizes are book vouchers from the wonderful Dorothy Butler Children's Bookshop. Here are some pics of the happy prizewinners.

   

Pearl's fabulous pink tree

Sorcha and Lilly with their book vouchers

Sorcha's colourful pic

I told the children that there would be children entering from all around the country, but it's always worth giving something a go.

Thank you so much to Tim Bray and Dorothy Butlers Children's Bookshop for putting a smile on these faces.

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!