Library News - Veronica Melville
CBCA Book Week
There have been many celebrations of books around the school this week from reading in class, artwork based on books, stories and crafts at lunchtime in the library and students guessing who the teacher was behind the book. Yesterday many students also had an extra visit to the library to celebrate the first “Australian School Library Day” taking the time to chill with a book. We are very lucky to have a wonderful library that is well resourced with a wide variety of physical books and online resources such as Britannica Online and Storybox Library. If you would like to learn more about why school libraries are important visit https://studentsneedschoollibraries.org.au/research/
Author Visits
On Monday students in Years 3-6 had the opportunity to meet and workshop with Harry Laing, a poet, creative writing teacher and children’s author.
Harry recited some of his own poems and was able to demonstrate how to take something as simple as a thumb and create a poem. He had the students writing poems on their favourite sport using verbs. The students commented that “Harry used a lot of expression when telling his poems . This made them interesting. He could make up poems on any topic.” Harry was funny, we loved the rapper bee.”
On Tuesday local author Amelia McInerney visited the Kindergarten to Year 2 classes and shared her books. The students asked some fantastic questions about the writing process, including “How do you stay focused?” and “How long does it take to write a story?” They were surprised to hear that “Bad Crab” took 6 months to write. When Amelia read her funny story “The Book Chook” a student commented “I like the way the chook wanted to come out of the book but if you are in a book you are not real.”
It is not too late to order the books as a wonderful reminder for students of meeting the author and the wonderful time they enjoyed. Below is information on ordering books
Street Library Launch
If you have been walking near the school you will have noticed that we now have our own Street Library. This was given to St Monica’s by Street Library Australia through the CBCA ACT Branch in 2021. Julie Long OAM the CBCA ACT branch president was present for the launch on Monday. Julie loved the thought and detail our 2021 Year 6 Arts leaders had put into the design of the art work. It is great to see that books are being borrowed and that new titles are being added to the library by members of the community. Happy Reading!
Book Character Parade
I am not sure where the students and staff of St Monica’s were this morning but they missed a great morning as hundreds of characters from the books in the library came out of the books and into the courtyard this morning. The librarian was there to meet a Snow Queen, Wolf from “The Bad Guys”, fairies, Harry Potter visiting from Hogwarts, Red Riding Hood..
Thank you to all the creative students and parents who showed great imaginations and innovation in designing and making their costumes.
A special thank you to everyone who donated a gold coin to support the great work of Story Dogs Australia in supporting over 2700 children around Australia each week with their reading.
Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge
The Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge finished on 19 August. Students are required to give their completed reading records to Veronica Melville by Friday 26 August for verification and presenting of certificates.
Issue 6 of Scholastic Book Club for 2022 will arrive home today. This is a fantastic way to build your child’s/ children’s personal library and love of reading. All purchases support the school library with the library receiving a percentage of the sales to purchase books for the library. Orders need to be placed by Monday 12 September.
It is easy to order. All orders are placed using Book Club LOOP platform which allows parents to pay by credit card. Your child’s order is submitted directly to school safe and sound and the books will be delivered to class. You can place your child’s order at scholastic.com.au/LOOP or using the LOOP app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.