National Simultaneous Story Time: Our Library Lesson

I like both Ms Carrie and her mum, Ms Shelagh because they are kind and good to us, our Class.

Every Wednesday, Block One we, Year 7 F0 go to the Library for lessons on books. Today Ms Shelagh read a whole book about Feathers for Phoebe. The story was about a bird that was not happy with the way she looked. So she tried her best to try all the colourful wings, crest, tails, chest but nothing worked.

In the end, she fell off a tall tree and landed on another bird. All her beautiful feathers fell off and she was a grey bird again and became what she was like before. Each one of us also made a Book Mark, they were all very colourful, we had to choose the bright colours and they were all bright and awesome!

I think the character, Phoebe was sad in the end. I enjoyed the story very much and I am looking forward to listening to both our good librarians next Wednesday. Thank you very much.

By Jordan Shadforth

Worthless Wisdom # 3

Flamingos get their pink colour from the shrimp they eat.   The more shrimp they eat the deeper pink they become.

Dolphins don't automatically breathe, they have to tell themselves to.

The Australian emu holds the land speed record for birds at about 50 kilometres per hour

The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma in an emergency

The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people.

A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue.

A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle; a group of geese in the air is a skein.

You would have to drink 100 cups of coffee in four hours to get the lethal dose of caffeine which is 10 grams.

Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windscreen wipers and laser printers were all invented by women.

Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"...and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie

Feb 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.

Hope you enjoy this list of trivia and useless information to astound and amaze your friends with.

Have a great weekend.

Year 7 Library Orientation

Library Learning is Awesome!

In Block 2 Tuesday this week, we, Year7 F/1 had a Library Orientation where we learn about the Library and how to use it, find books e.g. Fiction, Non – Fiction, Dictionaries, Dictionaries, Encyclopaedia, Thesaurus, Dewey Book Hunt and many more.

Ms Shelagh is the boss and Ms Carrie is her assistant, they work together well and the boss said that she cannot work without her assistant. We are shown everything we need to know about the Library, we are learning a lot and they are so kind and good. We filled up work sheets about the Titles, Authors, Dewey Decimal Numbers and Fact on different Topics.

We were so busy that the long lesson went too quickly, we really enjoyed the lesson, it was so much fun, interesting and we’re looking forward for more next time.

Lastly, both Year 7 Classes would like to thank Ms Shelagh and Ms Carrie for a wonderful lesson and their great help!  

Worthless Wisdom for the Week

Emus cannot walk backwards. Neither can Kangaroos – which is why we use them on our coat of arms.

The average life span of a single red blood cell is 120 days

One out of every 20 people have an extra rib.
A giraffe can go longer without water than a camel.
Studies have shown that classical music helps cows produce more milk.

A chameleon can move its eyes in two directions at the same time.

Human saliva contains ten million bacteria per cubic centimeter.

Giraffes have no voice.

Armadillos sleep for around 18.5 hours a day.

Crocodiles swallow stones to help them dive deeper.

A koala’s finger prints are almost identical to those of a human.

The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps to squirt blood 30 feet.

A tarantula can live up to two years without food.

More human deaths have been attributed to fleas than all the wars ever fought.

Cockroaches have a high tolerance to radiation and are the most likely creature to survive a nuclear war.

Bulls are colour blind.

Enjoy the above post - just for the fun of it.  Have a great weekend.

Shelagh

Tomorrow When the War Began

The movie has been out for a while, and before I watched it, I re-read the book. The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden has always fascinated me. I first read Tomorrow when the War Began in year ten as a class text. My teacher at the time had planned for the assignment after to be about writing the first chapter of the second book, I quite proudly raised my hand and stated that I had already finished the second book and I would be finished the third in a couple of days. I was suprised by this as I have tried to read other books by John Marsden and haven't liked them at all. As always the book is better that the movie and although the movie followed the book very closely, the descriptive writing in the book made the images in my head easy to come by. I love the fact that the eight teenagers in the story have no idea what they are doing and even though there are no soldier skills to speak of in the group, they do massive damage to the enemy. The story isn't so much about a war, but how the teenagers cope with a war in their very own backyard. The nationality of the enemy is not known, which makes them all the more frightening. The fact that they speak another language and they don't understand English very well, adds to this fear. The main character Ellie is probably my favourite; the group votes her in the be the person who writes down their journal as to what is happening to all of them. The description of what is happening is so vivid, you can close your eyes and envisage yourself right there with them. Ellie is the first of the group to kill one of the enemies and she has to deal with all of the emotions that happen after - she does get a little nasty too. The one thing that I was dissapointed about in the movie was that they decided to leave out the story that is told about the hermit that lived in the same place that the teenagers are living in now. A place called Hell. All in all, this book is the complete package - action packed and with a little bit of mystery and love mixed in. The book first book makes you want to read the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. If you do happen to make your way through all of these books, after then come the Ellie Chronicles. The Ellie Chronicles basically is the story of what happens, post war. There are some really bloody moments through all of the books so anyone who loves a bit of gore should definately give these books a go! As I said, the first of these book is Tomorrow when the War Began - and it is at the secondary school library now! Happy reading! Carrie

Wonderful Websites

Every so often here in the Library, we come across little gems of websites that we collect on the off-chance that someone will want to play with them.
The thought occurred today that maybe, just maybe, if we put them all in one place, they are there for everyone - staff and/or students to access.  So using that theory - check out the links below.  They range from search engines through to sites on all sorts of things.
If you come across any dead links, please let us know so that we can delete them - and if you know of any awesome ones that we haven't come across, please let us know that also.  It is all about sharing after all.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/games/       -  online games about science
http://www.iwb.org.uk/     -  collection of tools & resources for IWBs
http://www.teachablemoment.org/elementary.html   - activities/ideas for teaching social responsibility
http://www.snopes.com/     -  site for checking out urban myths & legends
http://www.abc.net.au/beasts/fossilfun/skeletal_jigsaws/default.htm   activities/games re fossils
http://www.swlauriersb.qc.ca/Schools/recit/wq022200.htm  - about Webquests with ideas
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/launch_gms_viking_quest.shtml   -  Vikings & History
http://kidshealth.org/kid/closet/index.html     -  online games for kids health
http://freerice.com/category  -  Play maths & literacy games - help with world hunger
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/interactive.htm   - IWB maths games
http://www.multiplication.com/interactive_games.htm  - Maths games for IWBs
http://www.slasa.asn.au/org/  -  citation maker
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/free-puzzlemaker/  -  Maths/Word search puzzles to make
http://www.cyberbee.com/ - lessons, projects and Internet resources

Search Engines:

Google's Wonder Wheel - unique wheel format - like a mind map.  Visual style
http://www.spezify.com/  -  very visual search engine - check before using with students
http://quinturakids.com/   -  cloud type search engine
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/schooled/SchoolsTopics  -  teachers resources/topics
http://www.sweetsearch.com/   - search engine designed for students.

Hope you enjoy these and we will share any others we come across as well.  There will be a new book review up tomorrow and hopefully we will have some reviews written by students to go up soon.

*Edit: *  A comment was made concerning the fact that I had not given any indication as to what the sites were about - and I had to admit the validity of the argument.  So .... please find my revised post with apologies.  I hope this is of better use.

Worthless Wisdom for the Week!

Did you know………

Most lipstick contains fish scales!

No piece of square dry paper can be folded more than 7 times in half!

The sloth (a mammal) moves so slowly that green algae can grow undisturbed on its fur!

A cockroach can live about 9 days with its head cut off - it dies from starvation!

Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!

The fear of vegetables is called Lachanophobia!..

Apples are more efficient than caffeine in keeping people awake in the mornings!

The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven!

A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is not white, but actually clear.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple. 

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur. 

A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours. 

On average, people fear spiders more than they do death. 

Polar bears are left-handed. 

Just for fun we thought we would include these little known 'facts'.  We have no idea if they really are true but they sound pretty cool.  There are a whole lot of ideas here to try out if the Science or Maths department wants to give it a go and we can visualise a class in folding paper for number 2 on the list - although I think Mythbusters beat us on that one.  If you like this, we may make it a regular post.

Have a great weekend, folks and don't forget to leave us comments.

Tyranny: I Keep You Thin

Author: Lesley Fairfield

I would firstly like to say that I am not a fan of graphic novels. The thought of reading one immediately makes me think of a long sleep, where I can dream of the words in the book and put my own imaginative images to it.

Tyranny is something else though. The pictures support the words well. There were times where I felt so sorry for the main character, Anna, and I wanted to cry when she went back into her old ways, time and time again. Her alter-ego Tyranny, who encourages Anna to starve herself (Anorexia) or throw up her food after a binge eating session (Bulimia) keeps coming back throughout the story, and Anna must battle with the thoughts that Tyranny puts into her head, as well as her condition.

There are some very sad parts - just after getting rid of her evil self, one of Anna's fellow patients die, and Tyranny comes back with a vengeance. Anna desperately tries to ignore the things that Tyranny has to say, and deal with the grief that she is experiencing as well.

I won't tell you what happens at the end of the story; that would be mean of me. The book is set out in a way that makes it easy to follow. The content is very confronting but the amount of text isn't.

This book is for senior students, possibly some sensible year nine students. It is a really gutsy read and I recommend it to any one who would enjoy following a character on some very intense highs and lows.

This book is available for borrowing at the library now!

Happy reading,

Carrie

Library Rules for Secondary Campus

To keep everyone happy, there are a few rules that we all must abide by in the library:

1. Please eat all of your food and drink outside before coming into the library
2. Take off your hat.
3. Middle School students should leave their bags out in the foyer.
4. Year 12 room is for year 12's.
5. Treat everyone with respect.

These are the most important rules that we have in the library, so that everyone can feel comfortable using the area.
So that things are fair for all, these rules apply to staff as well as students.

A reminder that the Library is open for students during recess and lunchtimes Monday to Thursday and Friday lunchtime, providing there is a teacher on duty. During this time, you can use the computers for approved games, check your email, read books or magazines - or you could ask Shelagh or Carrie for a board game to play.

Students may borrow 2 books for 2 weeks.  If you need them longer come and see us so that we can extend them for you.  Looking for a particular book?  Just ask us to see if we can get it in for you. 

What else can we do?  Help you with research/Proof read your assignments for spelling errors/Help with writing bibliographies......... Just ask us!

Something new for Barkly College

2011 so far has been a year of challenges. There are so many exciting things happening in the libraries and this new blog is just one of them. The aim of this blog is to encourage students to get more involved in their school library and also to increase their literacy skills.
Many people do not realise that the library is not all about stuffy books and a grumpy librarian saying "Shhh",  every ten minutes or so. There is a plethora of information and fun to be had when you walk through these doors - all you have to do is be a little bit nosy and ask lots of questions of your librarian. Make them earn their pay - suprisingly enough, they love their jobs and are more than happy to help.
The library staff are still learning their way around writing blogs, and we are sure that this Web 2.0 ride is going to be exciting, albeit a bit bumpy at times.
By the end of this week, Carrie will have a new book review up. The book is written by Lesley Fairfield and is a graphic novel with a twist.