HHCS LIBRARY BLOG
Flyers are being handed out this week to your child’s class for the READING OLYMPICS CHALLENGE! I’m looking forward to seeing what your kids come up with for the Reading Olympics categories! Have fun!
Wishing everyone a happy Valentines’ Day! Enjoy these picture books about Valentines, love, and friendship.
Children’s Library Lady- Sharing Love Picture Books
Christian Book- Valentine Books for Kids
Books That Show Kids What Love is All About
The Winter Olympics started in Beijing, China on Friday- were you watching? Enjoy these Olympic-themed book lists! I’m also including general books for the sports-lover in your family! REMINDER- Don’t forget that AR (Accelerated Reader program) reading points are due on Friday Feb. 25! Let’s encourage our kids to meet their goals! AR Reward will be the week of Feb. 28.
Scholastic- Books about Sports
Don’t forget that volunteer hours can now be earned by purchasing from Scholastic!
When ordering, use Class code- RC391237. Orders over $40 are FREE delivery to your home!
Bell Let’s Talk Day was last week, so in honour of that, this week I have posted their website, as well as a slideshow I put together of social-emotional issues, including mental health. Have a look below- you can see the preview in the post- just click on where it says Slideshow and it will take you to the full screen where you can hit your keyboard arrows to navigate through. It has social-emotional books featured by topic as well as by favourite authors who have entire collections of books with social-emotional themes. Hope it’s helpful!
This week on February 2, it is World Read Aloud Day! This day is created by Lit World and sponsored by Scholastic. Check out some of the online events and activities for your family below.
https://www.litworld.org/virtualreadalouds
https://www.litworld.org/booklists
https://kids.scholastic.com/kid/homebase/
7 Ways to Celebrate Reading Aloud Together on World Read Aloud Day
Saturday was World Kindness Day! As Jesus-followers, let’s intentionally teach our kids to find ways to be kind. You will love all the practical ideas and resources on this site: https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/
Take a look here:
A Mighty Girl – 25 Picture Books about Kindness and Empathy
Our fall Book Character Potato Contest was so fun, that I’d like to do something similar yet different for Christmas! I am planning to put up a Christmas tree in the library in a few weeks. I would love for students to create (at home) some book-themed ornaments to put on the tree! Any materials or format are fine as long as they will work well with being up on a tree! Let your creativity flow! I will draw a couple of names again to win an Indigo gift card to say thanks for participating. You may send the students’ creations in at any time – the tree will go up sometime late November. Need ideas? Try a keyword search for “DIY Book Character Ornaments.”
Hi HHCS! See below for exciting details about a fun contest in the library coming up soon for this fall! This would make a great Thanksgiving weekend project!
Ada Twist, Scientist is now on Netflix! Ada Twist, Scientist is a book by Andrea Beaty, the author of many books for children including Rosie Revere, Engineer; Sophia Valdez, Future Prez; Iggy Peck, Architect, and the upcoming Aaron Slater, Illustrator. These books are all in picture book form but the characters also reappear in the Questioneers chapter book series that continues the adventures.
Check out the author’s website for activity printables and more!
http://www.andreabeaty.com/activities–resources.html
We observed Orange Shirt Day at school last week. It was a good day of learning. Here’s a few photos I have to share with you, if you haven’t seen them on the school Facebook page already.
The primary classes at HHCS are participating in a Terry Fox jog-a-thon. Here are some resources if you would like to continue discussions about Terry Fox at home with your children.
Happy Thanksgiving, and I hope to see lots of potatoes at school next week!
Our school will be participating in the Scholastic Reading Program again this year. If your child’s homeroom teacher runs this program through the classroom, then please order through that. However if your child’s teacher does not participate, you are welcome to use my school-wide code! Your order will ship to your home and you can order online whenever you’d like! When you enter the ‘class code’, your order earns 20% back for new books for our school library. Orders over $40 are free shipping.
Use this for the Class code – RC391237
Orange Shirt Day is coming up this week on September 30. Again our school will be observing this day in various age-appropriate ways in the classrooms and as a whole school. We will discuss why Every Child Matters and how all people should be treated with love and respect. We will be working on a wall display this week as well and I will post pictures of that next week. Be sure to wear an orange shirt on Thursday.
I started a new special ‘graphic novel section’ in our school library this year so I thought I’d post about graphic novels! Here is an infographic I made about the benefits of graphic novels. See below for information about graphic novels that may be appealing or helpful to your child. Have a great week HHCS!
Graphic Novels Can Turn Reluctant Readers Into Lifelong Book Lovers
12 Outrageously Funny Graphic Novels for Reluctant Young Readers
It was so nice to see so many families come through on Friday night for a visit to the school! I enjoyed having you all come through the library with your children. Thanks for stopping in!
Here is a link to a presentation I made for our school about Digital Citizenship. I used resources from Common Sense Media which is an amazing site for parents and educators. I hope that you will find this useful and refer back to it during the school year. (link below.)
Digital Citizenship for Families
You can also go to this link from Common Sense Media and get free text message tips about how to promote healthy media habits with your family!
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/techbalance
The Canadian Children’s Book Centre has a very helpful article about how to choose a book for your kids. It has general advice and then also specific advice for each age group and for different book genres.
It’s Hispanic Heritage Month! Let’s celebrate with some great books.
14 New Children’s and YA Books That Celebrate Hispanic Heritage
I have a whiteboard outside the library where I am starting to post a ‘library question of the week’ for students to write their answers. The first week’s question was “What was a great book that you read this summer?” and the current question is “Where do you like to read?” How about you? Feel free to leave a comment below! Have a great week HHCS and don’t forget about Culture and Curriculum Night on Wednesday!
June is Indigenous History Month and it is a time to celebrate First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people. However at HHCS we recently mourned the very sad news about the discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in British Columbia.
If you would like to talk about this topic some more with your children, here is an article from CBC Kids News that could help you.
Here are some resources to help you to highlight the many amazing things about Indigenous people and community.
CBC Kids is always a great site to visit!
The Barren Ground by David A. Robertson
Click on the link above for the synopsis/review. Several of the students I work with read this book for the Forest of Reading program.
Just an everyday awesome indigenous kid in this story!
A sweet and happy book about family!
Community and gratitude are celebrated in this meaningful book.
Visit indigenous websites:
Class code – RC391237
Read about Scholastic Camp Read-a-Lot here! http://classroomessentials.scholastic.ca/s/cec-ca/en/camp-readalot
I will also have more options for Summer Reading Challenges- to be announced next week! Your child will have the opportunity to earn a Summer Reading seal!
In other news, don’t forget about Father’s Day coming up soon!
This week is national Digital Citizenship Week! Learning never stops, and neither do our digital lives. We are helping our students reflect on their media balance, make responsible decisions, and treat themselves and others with kindness. Use these conversation starters to help your kids talk about their digital lives:
