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

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