Term 3 update

What a busy term!
Stage 3 students have been busily working on book trailers, Stage 2 have been learning to write and publish book reviews and Stage 1 have been creating PowerPoint presentations. However, for me, the highlight was the whole school reading in the hall for Reading Hour!

Book Week - Reading Hour

Wednesday, August 22nd, saw the whole school gather in the hall in their peer support groups. Everyone brought along a picture book to share with a buddy from their group, and the seniors also brought along their pencil cases so the group could respond to their reading on the big piece of paper provided.
Our hour started with the "Gotta Keep Reading" youtube clip to get us in the mood and was followed up with the viewing of a number of book trailers. Younger students then read to their buddy and they drew something from their story to begin their groups mural - some students included words to describe their book - it was great to see lots of positive comments!

After an "ad break" - a few more book trailers - the older students read to their buddy and responded with more drawings :-) The students also participated in a quiz on this year's Shortlisted picture books and other favourites regularly borrowed from the library.
Much fun was had by all and it was a "real buzz" to see the enjoyment that can come from reading!
Thank you HSPS kids for making it a great success with your enthusiasm for reading :-)

PRC

By the end of August, we had over 150 students who completed the challenge and recorded their books - what a fantastic effort from those students!
It was great to hear, that because of the challenge, many students read books that they might not have previously chosen. It was also good to hear that some of these books became new favourites!
Well done and look out for your certificates in Term 4 :-)
And remember ... just because the challenge is over for this year, don't stop reading....

New Furniture

Our new desks have arrived!

There is plenty of room for netbooks, pencil cases and books!
Now all students can fit and be comfortable :-)

Get Reading ...

Premier's Reading Challenge

The deadline is fast approaching - check out the countdown on the right to see how many days you have left to read and record your books....

The Reading Hour

Around Australia, people will be participating in the Reading Hour on Saturday August 25^th. Why not take the opportunity to enjoy some books together as a family.

At school, we hope to have a reading "get-together" during Book Week - so keep an eye out for when, what and where!

Book Week

Champions Read!

August 18^th to 24^th

Many great books have been nominated for this year's Book of the Year awards and the winners will be announced during Book Week. We have purchased those titles suitable for K – 6 students and we are enjoying them in our classes and the library. 

As part of our Literacy program, students in years 3 -6 will be making book trailers for their favourite books. Years 5 & 6 have already been working busily and hope to have their book trailers finished for Book Week. Years 3 & 4 have just begun looking at book reviews and will start their book trailers later this term.

Until then, enjoy book trailers made by the professionals for some of this year's shortlisted books:
 

Rudie Nudie:

The Last Viking:

The Golden Door:

A busy term ahead...

Welcome back!

Term 3 is a busy term with lots of things happening.
Here are just some of the important events

• the Olympics and our very own sport-a-thon
• visit the AOC official website
• an Indigenous story teller visiting
• get ready by visiting the brilliant Dust Echoes site at abc.net.au
• Science Week, with lots of experimenting
• go exploring for things to do
• Book Week - Champions Read!
• visit another "Mrs B's" Interactive Literacy website

AND

• we have lots of students who need to get reading and recording to 

finish

the Premier's Reading Challenge!! 
Deadline: Monday 27th August

Students have just 

40 days ! 
[as of Monday July 16 - check out the countdown, top right, to see how much time you have now!]

(We finish a few days early so I have enough time to validate all the records)

It's Library and Information Week!

This week we are celebrating Library Week by participating in the National Simultaneous Storytime.

We are sharing Nick Bland's The Very Cranky Bear in many of the K - 3 classes.
Local and school libraries across Australia will be participating too - thousands of children will be enjoying the story at once!!
Why not visit your local library to see what other activities they are holding this week :-)
Both Hurstville [including Penshurst] and Kogarah [including South Hurstville and Oatley] Libraries have a number of interesting events.
Visit your library and enjoy a good book today!

Premier's Reading Challenge Launch

On Monday, 5th March, we launched the 2012 Premier's Reading Challenge for our school.
The students enjoyed listening to Lane Smith's It's a book, read by myself and Mr Mark Coure our local member.


Hopefully they also enjoyed and were inspired by the catchy "Gotta Keep Reading" song (a reworking of the Black-eyed Peas' hit I've got a feeling)!
Many of the students have already begun reading PRC books and recording them on their record cards.
From Monday 5th, the students have been able to enter their books online. They simply login at the Premier's Reading Challenge site

Students use their school internet username and password then choose:

• Student Reading Record 

It is easiest if they

• type in the title

 then the rest of the information should appear! Then they simply click on

• Add

That's it!
If students have any difficulties they can come and see me in the library during second half of lunch for help....

To ensure that our students have a wide variety of books to choose from at their level, we are working to significantly boost our Premier's Reading Collection. We are doing this by

• allocating a portion of our library budget towards new PRC books
• using some of our free picks from Book Club
• providing opportunities for the school community to donate

Happy reading everyone.
I hope you find a new favourite -or two ;-)
 Mrs Blake

Welcome to 2012

Welcome back to the Hurstville South Public School Library blog :-)
I hope you have had a relaxing holiday and are looking forward to the new school year!
I have had a low key holiday, staying at home or doing day trips to visit friends, go to the movies or shop. My house is a little more organised and I've had time to read a book or two - hope you have too!

With just 2 weeks before school starts back, I have started collecting resources for our first term units and begun thinking about how we will celebrate the National Year of Reading. I have created a wiki page where I hope to gather some great resources. If you find anything you think will help us celebrate, then leave a comment or come and chat to me when school goes back- I'm in the library Monday to Thursday.

One resource that you may enjoy and help other with is we give books. This website lets you read an ebook and then your act of reading enables a child somewhere in the world receive a free book! Check out the website to find out more - it doesn't cost anything to you :-)

Enjoy the rest of your holidays,
Try and read another book or two,
Happy Holidays!
Mrs Blake