Genre Display and Weblink ideas

I have updated the mini Genre Display with Adventure as the theme for this week.  There are a couple of 'Choose Your Own' titles included in this collection as well.

When you get a free moment - or two- check out the Weblink below.  It gives a list of the 'Top 10 Blogs for Educators to follow' - and promotes them as  "rock-solid and trusted education blogs that continue to be sources of inspiration for us all as educators from all walks of life."

https://www.wabisabilearning.com/blog/10-best-edtech-blogs

Hopefully there will something there to catch your interest.

Have a fantastic week - and carry on being AWESOME! 

Genre Display Update

I've updated the Genre Display - and it's Horror this week.  

Included in the display is a 'Choose Your Own' story.  These books give you the opportunity to choose how the story runs because as you get to the end of each chapter, you make a choice as to where you'll go.  Therefore, you can have multiple stories in the same book - and different endings to each. 

These have proven popular with the students - and they are not big books, so even the unconfident readers are usually prepared to give it a go.

New Books in the Library

The cataloguing training may have paid off - as I have finally managed to successfully catalogue some books into our collection!  

We have on offer:

AFL: Amazing Footy Facts - this one has lots of snippets of information and trivia facts such as  - Which team holds the record for the highest score ever recorded in VFL/AFL history?  or Which player holds the record for kicking the most goals?  

Desert Lake: The story of Kati-Thanda - a gorgeous picture book that follows Lake Eyre over a season from dry to what happens when the rains come.  Beautiful illustrations and small amounts of writing.  

Edge of Extinction - "two hundred years ago dinosaurs were brought back from extinction - and they do NOT like to share.  They reclaimed the earth and humans were driven underground.  But ... they are not the most dangerous predators out there, it seems"

In the Realm of Dragons - this is a 'Choose your Own' adventure story, which are quite popular with some of the students.  In this one you find and care for some dragon eggs - but will you gain a powerful magical friend - or be cast into a dangerous world of fire and ice?  Your choice!

Skyfire: Book 1 - Seven young people enter the mysterious DARE awards - and WIN!! However, they are not prepared to be caught up in the events that follow.  Seven weird symbols pit them against a mastermind of terrifying power and they will be racing the clock to save the world.  If you could be a hero - would you DARE??

Have a wonderful weekend!

Couple of Weblinks to check out.

Below are a couple of weblinks that may be interest to some teachers.  Have a look and see what you think ....

With BloxMob, students and teachers can create apps and share them with others who have downloaded the BloxMob app.  They can download to access the apps that others have made - but the real fun is in creating original apps using the BloxMob website.  Students can start from scratch or work with a template - no coding experience needed.  
https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/bloxmob

The best interactive fiction apps are those ones that are like the usual choose-your-own adventure stories - but have an added set of graphs showing the consequences of your choices, on things like friendships, personalities and your moral standing on issues.  Often, the main character is customisable - plus the best ones also leave room for solving mysteries by entering solutions to problems.  As well, like all good fiction they raise some interesting ethical and philosophical issues to be discussed or pondered over.

https://seanhamptoncole.wordpress.com/2017/04/09/interactive-fiction-the-coolest-way-to-teach-critical-thinking-decision-making-ethics-social-skills-consequential-thinking-engaged-literacy/

I know that the Choose-Your-Own adventure books are pretty popular so these may also catch their attention.  It's always worth a try.

Carry on being awesome .....

Picture Book Month

We have received some new books in the Library recently that people may be interested in.  One of them is 'Resist' by Sarah Crossan, which is the conclusion to the story started in 'Breathe'.  These are based on a future and dsytopian world, where all the trees have died out - or been chopped down - and what little oxygen is available is inside a dome, where you follow the rules or are put outside the dome to take your chance. 

There are also a couple of new Choose Your Own adventures: 'The Jungle of Doom' and the 'Desert of Dread' along with 'Vampire Hunter', so you have a choice of adventure or horror in this area.  As well, we have a couple of Interactive stories, which are basically the same style of book, but are about real life happenings.  We have one about the making of Facebook and another about Hurricane Katrina.

There are also some Shakespeare plays,  but in Graphic Novel format which is a different way of reading these classics. 

I would also like to share with you all that November is Picture Book Month. Personally speaking, I am a HUGE fan of Picture Books and there are many reasons to read them or to use them in your classes.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, what does that say about the power of a picture book?  And the world needs picture books. There’s nothing like turning the pages of a beautiful  picture book. They are not all Fiction either and are often a great way to share with kids - and their parents - little known facts.  (See the post a couple of weeks ago about the 'Lone Pine' picture book)
 
Please check out the link below.
http://picturebookmonth.com/

New Books in the Library

We have some new books available for loan in the Library.  There is a range of different titles that, hopefully, will appeal to a variety of people. Most of them are fiction books with a few non-fiction in the mix. Below is a brief review of a few of the books on display.

Computer Coding for kids:  Computer coding is firmly back on the agenda as a key skill for children to start learning. Computer Coding for Kids is a unique step-by-step guide, perfect for kids interested in computer programming and how computers work. 

Lone Pine:  A story not well known about the Lone Pine Battle at Gallipoli during World War One, is told through the tale of the pine tree which stands in the gardens at the War Memorial in Canberra. This is a Picture book and is based on a true story.

Animal heroes:    Animal Heroes is a collection of 21 short stories in which Anthony Hill remembers just a few of the many gallant dogs, horses, pigeons, donkeys, pets and mascots who have served with Australia's armed services from the First World War to the present day.

There are also a couple of 'Choose your Own' stories in both adventure and horror genres along with science fiction and sports titles as well. 

All worth a look, so come on in and see what we have to offer.

Semester Two

Welcome back to Semester 2, and it is end of week three already.  It is amazing, and a little scary,  just how quickly this year is flying by, isn't it?

All of the new magazines have started arriving and are out on the shelf.  Hyper and Wacky but True seem to be the most popular with the students.  Come and check them out.

I have managed to scrounge up a few 'Choose your own adventure' books to add to the collection as some of the students are right into them.  At the moment I am trying to keep hold of them long enough to catalogue them, while students are hovering, asking 'are they ready yet?'  I think I have had a win this time around, but we may need more to keep everyone happy here.

Quick question- does anyone have any work or similar that they would like to put up on display here in the Library?  If so, please see me, as we have a blank canvas here at the moment.  (And I am a little worried that I may have to get creative myself.  Scary thought.)

Also, if there is anything that you think we may be able to help you with, please come and have a chat.

Wishing you all a nice, lazy weekend - preferrably with lots of reading thrown in.

Reading Hour and Holidays

August 19^th from 6-7pm is the day and time set for The Reading Hour, which is an event that grew from the National Year of Reading 2013. William McInnes has been announced as the ambassador for the 2014 event.
 
Check out this link for more information:

 

http://www.love2read.org.au/
 

This could be an ideal time to promote reading in the classroom or at home. Personally, I would think that it doesn’t have to actually run from 6pm onwards, but at a time that is convenient. Maybe a read-in evening, a shared story-telling activity, a morning or afternoon tea with pages read from favourite books, a book and bookmark swap…. anyone have other suggestions? Maybe we could make this a Library event?

 
On a high note, I have recently had a win with getting a handful of very reluctant readers with their noses in books. They hadn't come across 'Choose your Own' novels before, and it looks like we are going to need some more because they have read almost all we have in the Library - in the last 3 days! Lots of time has been spent sprawled on my office floor reading and sharing books, or searching the shelves for more books.  And isn't that what it is all about?

 With school holidays coming up in a couple of days, and cold, windy, miserable weather outside, it sounds like it is the perfect time to snuggle up with a hot chocolate and a BIG pile of reading material. Get some of that work/life balance happening and enjoy some downtime. 

Wishing you all a wonderful mid-year break, and let’s do it all again next semester.