Category: Events

Digital Literacy, Events, Family Literacy, Media Literacy, Scholastic Book Club, Special Days/Weeks/Months

Screen-Free and Digital Citizenship Week Coming Up, and October Scholastic Flyers

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Picture of English October Teacher Newsletter

October- English Digi-Flyer

Picture of French October Teacher Newsletter

October- French Digi-Flyer

My Class Code
RC391237
Shipping is free to your home for orders over $40!
The week of October 16, HHCS for the first time is going to participate in Screen-Free Week and Digital Citizenship Week! We are planning lessons every day on topics of media balance, online bullying and how to deal with it, reliable information, giving credit for images and information, and online safety. We are excited to dedicate an entire week to these important topics. Please keep an eye out for family resource sheets that will be coming home. We are also challenging HHCS students, staff, and families to take the Scree-Free Week challenge! We are going to see how many of us can take a break from entertainment screens for a whole week. All classes received a visit from myself or from our school social worker this past week to introduce the challenge and hand out pledge cards. Ask your grades K-4 children about ‘The Couch Potato’ book! Here is a video read aloud of it, as well as other books related to digital citizenship.
Books about safe use of technology
https://childhood101.com/picture-books-digital-citizenship/
Book Cover
Book Cover
Events, Growing Readers Tips, Storywalk

Storywalk Installment

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Have you done your book fair shopping yet? Support HHCS and get amazing prices at the same time! It’s so easy to shop with Spark Book Fairs. (formerly Book Outlet.) Visit the landing page here- https://sparkbookfairs.ca/organization/HHCS-bRRttcF6Qssr

Books will be delivered to your home!

Last day to take AR tests is Thursday June 8! Don’t be late!

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Our first Storywalk installation is complete! A Storywalk combines nature, physical activity, and literacy for a fun event. Our first Storywalk features vignettes written by Grade 6 about their ‘Grandpals’ who mentored them this year. Coming up in the new school year, our HHCS Storywalk will feature books written by other classes, and picture books by well-known authors- cut apart with each Storywalk stop featuring a couple of the pages. Each stop also has activity ideas- discussion questions, action ideas, things to notice in nature, etc. If you are at HHCS, take a walk around our wetlands and enjoy our Storywalk at the same time! Thank you SO much to Mr. Jarvis, our vice-principal, for helping me to envision and plan out how this project could be done, and to Mr. Tosh for physically making all of the Storywalk stops with the help of volunteers! We are looking forward to enjoying Storywalks at HHCS for years to come.

GROWING READERS TIP- CATCH ME READING

 

Modeling reading in front of your child teaches a powerful lesson that we all read for different purposes. Challenge your child to find times they catch you reading. Make a point to have books you are reading in a variety of rooms. 

 

Take away: I am a powerful reading role model for my child. 

Events, Growing Readers Tips

SPARK Book Fair Launch

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Dear parents and families,

Our two-week online book fair is officially underway! You can shop thousands of books across all categories on Spark Book Fairs at up to 90% off. Plus, they offer free shipping on orders over $45 CAD!

By placing an order during our book fair from May 29-June 11, 20% of your purchase will automatically go to Halton Hills Christian School in cash rewards.

To keep track of the fundraising progress and check out what Spark has to offer, visit our landing page here: https://sparkbookfairs.ca/organization/HHCS-bRRttcF6Qssr

HHCS, the last day for Accelerated Reader tests is coming up soon- June 9! Students should make sure to plan out their time accordingly and to do their best to make their goal. Keep reading, HHCS!!

GROWING READERS TIP- WHEN KIDS SAY “I DON’T WANT TO”

 

How do we help kids feel motivated to read? Ideally, we want them to feel self-motivated to pick up a book and enjoy it. But sometimes a little extrinsic motivation can be a stepping stone to being intrinsically motivated. Here are a few ideas to motivate your child to read. 

 

Have your child set a goal for the number of books he/she would like to read or hear. Set up a special treat for accomplishing the goal.

 

Let your child pick the books he/she wants to enjoy. The power of choice can be extremely motivating. 

 

Carve out a reading time in your home where everyone is engaged with books at the same time. 

 

TAKE AWAY:  Carving out time, setting goals, and allowing choice are huge motivators to read. 

 

 

Authors, Events, Growing Readers Tips

Field Trip to the Forest of Reading Festival

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Last week I took a group of students to The Forest of Reading Festival – “the largest literary festival for young readers in Canada.” What an amazing experience! This group of students, over the past few months, had read a selection of books from the nominated list for the Silver Birch award. They then voted for which author they felt was most deserving of receiving the award. At the festival, the winning author was announced. It did indeed feel like a “rock concert for reading”! We also went to some author workshops, waited in line for author autographs, got some free books, and generally walked around and had fun!

One of our students got selected to be a presenter on stage! Very exciting!

It was so amazing to see kids everywhere reading, and during an author workshop to hear them share about books that have been special to them and their families and friends.

My shirt says, “It’s a good day to read a book.”

These girls waited so patiently to get a photo op with the winning Silver Birch author- Colleen Nelson, who won for her book Undercover Book List!

GROWING READERS TIP- DID YOU KNOW?

 

If you read to a child 15 minutes a day, by age 5 that will add up to:

27,375 minutes or

456 hours or

19 days!

 

TAKE AWAY:  Read for at least 15 minutes every day.

 

Don’t forget- Spark Book Fair is coming in one week!! (Book Outlet). We ran this book fair a couple years ago with great success because of the amazing prices and wide selection for adults and kids.

Events, Growing Readers Tips

Books About Flowers and Springtime, Save the Date for Online Book Fair

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Save the date! An online book fair is coming May 29-June 11 with Spark Book Fairs! (Book Outlet). We ran this book fair a couple years ago with great success because of the amazing prices and wide selection for adults and kids.

With Mother’s Day and May flowers all around us, I thought this would be a good week to post some great book choices about flowers, spring, and gardening. I’m sure many of you will be gardening on the upcoming long weekend!

Little Green Thumbs: 10 Garden-Filled Picture Books for Spring

Books Celebrating Spring and Gardening- A Mighty Girl

Picture Books About Gardening

HHCS Moose News

It was wonderful to have so many families at school recently for the Celebration of Learning night! Thank you for the support for the Terra Cotta Cookie sale in the library to raise funds for a Storywalk- looking forward to sharing more about that in the coming weeks! We hope that you also got a chance to read the new issue of our student newspaper- HHCS Moose News. The digital link is above.

 

GROWING READERS TIP- How to Help New Readers with Words

 

It is common for new readers to get stuck on words. Here are a few prompts and questions you can try to help your child decode the words:

Look at the first letter and say the sound.

Give it a try.

Are there any parts of the word you know?

Look at the picture for help.

Skip it, read on, and then come back to try.

 

Using these prompts and questions encourages your child to do the problem solving instead of relying on you to tell him/her the word.

TAKE AWAY:  Prompt to problem solve decoding words independently.

Authors, Events, Growing Readers Tips

Author Visit with J. Torres

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Grades 4-6 had a visit from author J. Torres last Friday! We were excited to meet this graphic novelist and comic book writer. Mr. Torres showed us his book Stealing Home, about a boy’s experience during the Japanese internment. We learned more about graphic novel terminology and what it is like to be an author. Some of our junior division students will be seeing Mr. Torres again soon when I take them on a field trip to the Forest of Reading Festival! Stealing Home is nominated for a Silver Birch Award- exciting!! Thank you so much to Mr. Torres for his presentation and his time with our students.

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https://www.jtorrescomics.com/

-From Growing Book by Book- BENEFITS OF BEDTIME STORIES

Bedtime stories hold a special place in many peoples’ hearts. Here are just a few of the benefits of reading or telling your child a story every night.

  • Provides a few minutes at the end of each day to bond with your child.
  • Shows that you value reading.
  • Helps kids calm down before bed.
  • Builds your child’s listening vocabulary.
  • Helps instill a love of reading and books.

 

TAKE AWAY- Read or tell a bedtime story every night to your child. 

Events, Growing Readers Tips, Scholastic Book Club

Grand Battle of the Books and Scholastic May Digi-Flyers

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May English Flyer

May- English

May French Flyer

May- French

Summer Reading Guide

Summer Reading

My Class Code
RC391237
Shipping to the classroom is back! Just order online from the digi-flyer, enter the class code, and items can be shipped to the school instead of having to have a minimum $40 order to ship to home like before. Of course that is still an option too if you prefer.
In a previous post, I wrote about how our Battle of the Books teams participated in the Round Robin tournament at the Halton Hills Public Library. On Thursday night the top two teams battled it out in the final Grand Battle! Our junior and senior teams both finished in second place overall for all the schools that participated in Halton Hills. I am proud of these students for their hard work! We had fun competing and working as a team. Go, Moose!!

GROWING READERS TIP- OPEN AND CLOSED

There are two types of questions we can ask.  They are open and closed questions. Closed questions generally have only one right answer and are a short one word response.  For example- “Is an apple a fruit?”  Open questions/prompts encourage kids to talk and generally have lengthier responses.  For example- “Describe an apple.”

Try open type questions when asking your child about their day or a question about a story they are enjoying.  You will get your child thinking and talking.

Take away- Open questions encourage my child to think and talk. 

Authors, Events, Growing Readers Tips

Author Visit with Julia McKeown

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Grades 1 and 2 had a wonderful visit with local author Julia McKeown. I invited Ms. Julia to come and speak to our classes as grades 1 and 2 are planning their Project Based Learning on the theme of the Zones of Regulation, which is a framework that teaches students to build awareness of their feelings and to use tools and strategies for regulation and wellness. Ms. Julia is an occupational therapist. An O.T. is a health worker who helps children and adults to participate in activities they like to do, want to do, and need to do every day. Ms. Julia wrote the story of “Bouncy Blake”, a sloth who is much more energetic than his fellow sloths and sometimes needs tools to regulate his sensory needs. She also told us that we actually have more than 5 senses! Ms. Julia taught the students about her process toward becoming an author and publishing her book. The students were very excited to meet a real author. They asked great questions and had insightful comments during the presentation. Thanks so much to Julia McKeown for this great learning opportunity! You can buy her book Bouncy Blake here-

GROWING READERS TIP- DID YOU GET THAT?

 

A piece of the learning to read puzzle is comprehending what we read. This starts long before your child can decode the words. The next time you are reading to your child, try these questions to build your child’s comprehension of the story.

  • Can you start at the beginning and tell me what happened in the story?
  • What was your favourite part of the story?
  • What do you think the author wanted us to learn or know from the story?
  • If you could be a character in the story, who would you be and why?

TAKE AWAY- Ask discussion questions about a story to build comprehension.

 

Events, Growing Readers Tips, Scholastic Book Club

Battle of the Books Pictures, and April Scholastic Digi-Flyers

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Congratulations to the students of both the Junior and Senior Battle of the Books teams! We participated in the Round Robin tournaments at the Halton Hills Public Library this past week. We placed in the top 2 teams for both tournaments, and as a result both teams will get to participate in the final Grand Battle later in April! We had so much fun and it was so great to see our students high fiving each other and working together. These kids have been working hard and will continue to practice to see who will be the champion school in Halton Hills! Thank you to the Halton Hills Public Library for putting the resources into this important program.

April- English Flyer

April English Flyer

April- French Flyer

April French Flyer

My Class Code
RC391237
Shipping to the classroom is back! Just order online from the digi-flyer, enter the class code, and items can be shipped to the school instead of having to have a minimum $40 order to ship to home like before. Of course that is still an option too if you prefer.

LISTENING TO KIDS READ

Beginning readers need lots of practice reading out loud.  But we don’t always have time to listen to them practice. Try these audience ideas for your child’s practice time:

Let your child read to a stuffed animal, to a younger sibling, or to him or herself in the mirror.

Facetime with a grandparent or extended family member.

Have your child record a video of him or herself. 

TAKE AWAY:  Have beginning readers get lots of practice reading aloud to various audiences. 

Events, Growing Readers Tips

Pictures of Book Character Day

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Wow, March Break just flew by! Here are some pictures of our recent school Book Character Day! We had a blast at school, the kids were so excited to see each other and all the staff dressed up!

Tip from Growing Book by Book:

“Understanding a story is one piece of becoming a proficient reader.  The skill of comprehending can be developed long before kids read on their own. Talking about books with kids is a great way for kids to learn about retelling a story, identifying components of a story, and making connections with books. After you read a story to the kids, periodically stop and ask your kids to tell you what they think will happen next. If a story reminds you of something, share that thinking with your kids. Ask open-ended questions about stories and encourage your kids to tell you ‘why’ when they give you an answer. Periodically ‘notice’ something about the story as you read as a model for your kids.”

 

Building Comprehension: Asking Questions While Reading – Growing Book by Book