Book Fair and more!

Welcome back!

Term 3 was very busy and, as you can see by the date of the last post, it was hard keeping up with everything! While I haven't done a lot of blogging here, the students and I have been "blogging away" on the Great Reads blog - writing book reviews and making comments on each others posts! The Great Reads blog is closed and can only be accessed by students through the Department's Kidspace Portal.

At the end of last term I announced the winners of the book week competition in the newsletter, but I wanted to congratulate the winners here on the blog too :-)

With so many great entries it was very hard deciding, so in the end Mrs Frederick put in the casting vote. Congratulations to:

• Collette (Year 6)
• Aaryan (Year 5)
• Cherin (Year 4) 
• Damian (Year 3)
• Jacquelina (Year 2)
• Jennifer (Year 1)
• Omar  (Kindy)

This term we are holding our annual book fair  – so you can get in early with Christmas presents – or maybe something for New Year! Really anytime is a good time to buy a book :-)!

We have several time slots for parents to buy without their children if you want to make it a surprise:

•    Monday morning 24th October - after the Hall Opening Assembly
•    Monday after school until 4pm
•   Tuesday 25th October, before school from 9am and after school until 4pm 
•    Wednesday morning 26th October, before school from 9am until 9:45am this will be the last chance :-)

Please note: Students are not to come in by themselves before school as they have a time to buy during the day – of course they can come with an adult!

Students will be able to buy books during class time.

• Years 3 - 6 Monday 24th October
• Kindy - Year 2 Tuesday 25th October

Finally, while at the book fair, if you would like to make a book donation to the school, it would be much appreciated :-)

Have a great term,

Happy reading!

Mrs Blake

Last chance to enter PRC entries...

The Premier's Reading Challenge is drawing to a close and I have to have all entries validated by the first of September. So students need to have

books entered and 

permission slips returned by

Tuesday 30th of August 

Congratulations to the very keen readers completing the challenge this year. 

The children taking part have had to be totally self motivated for a few reasons: 

1. It was completely voluntary [Come if you want]
2. It was to be done in their own time  [at lunch time or at home - not even class time!!]
3. They began later than most of the other students taking part in the state [I didn't start at the school until the beginning of term 2]. 
4. They didn't have their teachers pushing them to do it [just Mrs Blake occasionally asking them had they entered their books!]

Well Done, certificates should arrive in Term 4  

Keep up the reading and if you didn't do the PRC this year, why not join us next year?!

Mrs B

Book Award winners announced

Kindy, year 1 and year 2 have been reading all the early childhood books shortlisted by the Children's Book Council of Australia and then voted for their favourite one. While most of the students liked all the books we read, the majority  prefered....

• The Deep End,
• It's Bedtime William and
• The Tall Man and the 12 Babies,

...... however, only one of these received an Honour award and none of them won!

The winner is ....

Maudie and Bear!

The two books to receive an Honour Award [runners' up] were....

• The Tall Man and the 12 Babies   and
• Look See, Look at me 

I think that the judges are looking for a number of things other than what is just popular - we were obviously just looking at what we liked! 

We celebrated book week with a competition for the best bookmark for years K - 2 and the best poster or bookmark for years 3 -6. Winners will be announced on Monday 29th of August. It has been hard to choose a winner for each grade as there have been some excellent entries  :-).....

Week 2 almost over...

The term is already going fast!

Book club orders have been placed and we eagerly await the books :-) Thank you again to our wonderful parent helpers and Margaret our library assistant for your help to manage the big task that book club is. The school will receive about $300 worth of books because of the orders we received.

Some of the books and resources we chose include

• Super Diaper Baby 2 - a favourite of the boys
• EJ 12 Pyramid puzzle - a favourite of the girls
• Magic School Bus- in Space DVD - for stage 2 to use this term when they learn about space!

Book Week is in week 6 this term - 22 -26 August and we are celebrating One World, Many Stories.  While looking for resources I found a fun little video to remind us of the importance of stories around the world and another to remind us of the role of libraries in helping to share this- I hope you enjoy!

After the seniors come back from camp I will post details of our competition for book week on the theme of One World Many Stories - stay tune for the details!

Welcome Back

The new term has begun and we are getting straight to work!

Term 3 is beginning with Book Club due in week 2!

Book Club orders will  only be collected Wednesday 27th July between 9 and 9:30am.
There are 3 ways to pay for Book Club

• by phone or online with Scholastic 
• by cheque made out to Scholastic
• by cash - with the correct money in an envelope.

We are also continuing to process more new books for the library, including 

• a second set of the ever popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, 
• the Zac Power Test Drive series and 
• nominations for this year's best children's books!

This term: 

• Stage 3 are blogging about their favourite books;
• Stage 2 are continuing their blogging and developing their research skills;
• Stage 1 are appreciating great picture books and learning about how they are made. They will also be working on making their own books; and
• Kindergarten will be enjoying some great books and learning to give their opinions about them! 

Don't forget to drop in any Wednesday from 2.30 pm if you have time to cover some books :-)

Mrs B

Thank you

Term 2 is nearly finished and I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has made my first term at Hurstville South Public School so enjoyable - the students are truly a pleasure to teach!

We have had a very busy term-

Kinder and year one students have looked at:

• fact and fiction - we read stories such as Wombat Stew and Possum in the School, then read about real wombats and possums
• some of the new 2011 Children's Book Council of Australia [CBCA] short-listed books

Year 2 have 

• looked at past winners of the CBCA short-listed books 
• looked at some of the new 2011 Children's Book Council of Australia [CBCA] short-listed books
• begun looking at the library book review blog and some classes have begun adding comments :-)

Year 3 & 4 have

• begun writing book reviews to publish on the blog - some have already finished and begun working on their own illustrations to add to their post

Year 5 & 6 have been

• developing locating information skills
• discovering what makes a good website for their task

Thank you also to our book club helpers and our book coverers!
We have -

• added over three hundred new books to the shelves
• covered all these books
• begun labelling Premier's Reading Challenge books

Have a safe and happy holiday!

Take time to read a book and enjoy :-)

See you all in term 3

Mrs blake

Books, Books, Books

Reading books:
The National Simultaneous Story-time reading of Rod Clement's Feathers for Phoebe was enjoyed by all who took part! I enjoyed "playing the part" of Zelda and Phoebe, wearing my feather boa and using an eccentric voice for Zelda :-) If you drop into the library you will see some lovely pictures drawn by year one of Phoebe in her "finery"!
Check out these links  for Feathers for Phoebe:

• the actual story and 
• Mt Gambier Library's great adaption!

Talking and Writing about books:
The library has begun a book review blog called "Great Reads". This is a closed blog, which means it can only be accessed by the students through the department's intranet. The children can go on to the blog from home via Kidspace with their username and password.

At the moment year 2 are learning to make good comments and years 3 and 4 are learning to write good reviews. In the next few weeks we hope to have the students publishing their reviews. All students are welcome to add comments any time!


Covering books:
We have been madly processing and covering our books from the last book club, and we still have more to go!
So we need

***VOLUNTEERS***

WHEN: Wednesday afternoons 2:30 - 3:30 PM

[or if mornings are better: 9:30 - 10:30 any Monday to Thursday]

WHERE: The school library

WHO: Anyone with an hour to spare - mum, dad, grandma, grandpa, friend???

Come along, we have the room for a group on Wednesdays to get together and chat while we work!

Remember, if you have any questions, I am available Monday - Thursday

Mrs Blake

Library Week 23rd - 29th May

Did you know it is Library Week?

To celebrate, many of the classes are taking part in the "National Simultaneous Storytime" at 11am on Wednesday 25th May. In classrooms and in the library we are all reading:

Rod Clements' Feathers for Pheobe

This book is being read in libraries across the country, so if you have a toddler or pre-schooler, why not visit one of our council local libraries and hear the story too! [see details below]

Our local libraries are celebrating Library week with a number of great activities you might like to enjoy

Hurstville Library

Highlights include

• National Simultaneous Storytime for children 0 - 5 years at 11 am on Wednesday 25th             @ Hurstville
• Under the Sea for "kids of all ages" from 5 - 6 pm on Thursday 26th@ Hurstville

For details of all events during the week  visit the library's website -  What's on page

Kogarah Library 

[Including South Hurstville and Oatley libraries]

Highlights include

• Murphy's Puppets - The Frog Prince 4pm on Tuesday 24th @ Oatley - booking needed
• National Simultaneous Storytime 10:30 am on Wednesday 25th @ Kogarah
• Open day on Thursday 26th from 10am until Midnight! @ Kogarah 
• Murphy's Puppets - The Frog Prince 4pm on Thursday 26th @ Kogarah -  check to see if booking is needed

For details of all events during the week  visit the library's website - events page

Did you know...

If you are a member of the local library you also have access to many online resources. 

Your child can access for free

• Your Tutor - which provides online homework help
• Online encyclopedias - Kogarah has World Book and Hurstville has Britannica 

So make sure you visit your local library and join this week!!! 

Premier's Reading Challenge

The Premier's Reading Challenge [PRC] is well underway.

Students interested in doing the challenge need to:

• visit the library during the 2nd half of lunch to find out what they need to do.
• know their username and password
• enter the books they read this year into their student reading log on the website
• read PRC books!

To help participating students, I have printed out the book lists for each level and I have also begun labelling books with PRC stickers. Labelling the books is a long process and will take time to complete. So ....

If you are able to help with putting the stickers onto the books, drop in and see me in the library :-)

Parents:

• Visit the PRC website to find out about the rules and see what books are on the book list.
• Gently encourage your children in their reading - remember we want them to LOVE it NOT HATE it!

Bookclub thank you

Thank you so much to Julia, Jessie and Margaret for all your hard work today!
We have placed all the orders and await the delivery :-)

Bookclub is a big job, money to count and balance, orders to check and process, checking and checking again to make sure nothing is left out -  but has its advantages:

• students get the opportunity to buy a book and perhaps find a new favourite
• the school gets some extra resources for free- approximately 20% of the value of the sales returns to us in the form of free picks and bonus coupons -  which we use to buy more books!

Some of the new books we bought today out of our free picks and bonuses include:

• the 39 Clues set [books 1 - 11] normally valued at over $170
• a Pearlie the park Fairy set of 7 books, normally valued at over $90  [the link is the opening title for the TV show - we bought the books NOT videos!]
• The Wonky Donkey and Willbee the Bumble Bee picture books with CD valued at over $34 [check out the links for a preview]

There are many more too - so watch out for the new books on the shelves soon......

Because bookclub is such a big job, especially counting and balancing the money, I think we can wait until next term before we do it all again!

Thanks again,
Mrs B :-)

Welcome to Term 2 in the Library

Welcome to the new Hurstville South PS  library website :-)

Term 2 has begun with the usual happenings in the library

• books have been returned
• books have been borrowed
• books need to go back on the shelf !
• books have been processed and added to the shelves by the wonderful library assistant  and
• the library is still open second half of lunch :-)

There have also been a few changes

• Mrs Blake is the new teacher librarian
• the new interactive whiteboard has been installed and
• this website has begun.

To introduce myself: I am a fully qualified teacher librarian with a Master of Education in Teacher Librarianship. I have taught for 20 years in a variety of schools. I look forward to teaching here at Hurstville South and to meeting all the students, staff and school community. 

Please come in and say hello when you have the time!

Mrs Blake
Teacher Librarian
Monday - Thursday