This week we went from only 3 books in the Russian language to more than 20 thanks to the generous donation of a family.
Reading books in your own language is very important while developing language skills in English. Studies show that the same skills are utilized when reading in any language. Also, children learn better in their ‘mother tongue’ All good reasons to expand our collection.
This year we will hold our third Battle of the Books (BoB) for grade 5 & 6 and our first (BoB) for grades 3 & 4. BoB is a quiz about some books we have chosen for each grade level. Some of the great reasons to be part of a BoB team: you get to read and discuss the same books as your friends are reading, you get to read books you may not have ordinarily chosen for yourself, you get to represent your class in a competition, it is fun. Below is a book trailer showing which books are for each level.
The students selected the titles and now they have started to arrive. We have:
Come and relax and read them in the library or take them home, all magazines are available for a one week loan
Today in the library we read A Visit to the Library by B.A. Hoena. Students had to compare two libraries: the library in the book and our IICS library. They took notes and put them on the board in Similar and Different columns. Grade one students really enjoyed the activity.
Our library catalogue is a great source for lists of books. You don’t need to log in simply click the catalogue tab and on the menu on the left click resource lists. There you will find lists of books we have collated about many different topics. Some are genre lists, for example “Whodunnit” is a list of crime fiction; some are grade level reading suggestions “Recommended reading lists”; and some relate to the IB learner profile, for example “Principled”
While you may not be able to get to the library to get the books today why not make a list of books you would like to read?
A few years ago our primary school art teacher, Jo Hodgkinson, started to write and illustrate childrens’ picture books. Here is one of the stories being read on the television show CBeebies Bedtime Stories. Think about how the presenter uses her voice to bring the characters to life. You can subscribe to channels like the CBeebies for more stories read aloud by famous actors.
