Children's Media Center

It has been a busy week with visitors this week.

Grade 1 classes brought their friends from Papaya Academy into the library to share some stories during ‘Friendship Day’. To prepare for the day, a group of Grade 1 students came to the library to plan their activity. They located many books on our shelves that were stories about friendship. They chose the best of these stories and placed them on a trolley, ready for the groups of friends to share together.

The Friendship Trolley

When the friendship groups arrived, they appreciated the time spent reading and relaxing with each other.

Friends reading together

More friends

Grade 4 classes had the priviledge of a visit from one of our local authors, Ms Gizela Gonzalez.  Ms Gonzalez’s book, Where the Children Are, provides us with some very moving portraits of  children from various part of the Philippines. These children are given a voice by Ms Gonzalez and they are able to tell their stories; very remarkable stories showing how they live very positive lives regardless of the  materially disadvantaged backgrounds from which they come.

An eager audience!

Gizela Gonzalez, Where The Children Are

Following on from Andy Mulligan’s visit earlier this month, Grade 4 classes have been using the non-fiction areas of the CMC and the Media Room to gather information about their investigations into Child Rights.

Meanwhile, Grade 3 classes have been researching information about an alternative energy source ’their town’ can use in the event of a power outage. As well, the students have been practising their note-taking skills as they gather their information. This important skill enables students to re-write the information they’ve collected into their own words, thus avoiding plaigarism.  Note-taking is one of the many skills associated with research that they will need to take with them into their adult lives.

The CMC staff is collating some recommended reading lists for various groups of students in the Elementary School.  To see the list of recommendations for those students who can read more complicated texts, click  the following   Recommended Reading List

Friday February 4, was an inspiring day for the Grade 4′s. Author, Andy Mulligan, shared his story about how he became a writer and then introduced his latest book Trash.

Andy talking with students

Trash tells the story of three boys who live and work on a dumpsite in an unnamed developing country. One day, the boys are going about their daily task of sifting through the trash, trying to eke out a living by salvaging anything of some use, when one of them finds a key. Raphael decides to keep the key and this decision leads him and his two friends into all sorts of trouble. The key unlocks something that is very important to a very rich and powerful man. The boys are incredibly poor and  have no education, no parents, no homes and no money so how can they possibly find out what lock that key opens? Can they solve the mystery and at the same time right a terrible wrong?

Andy with students and 'Trash'

The CMC is a ‘hive of activity’ as classes come in to research information for their units of inquiry and to ‘Browse and Borrow’ their favourite books.

Grade 4 classes have been investigating what it means to migrate and have been reading a variety of fiction and non-fiction books to discover the ‘pushes and pulls’ of migration. Through reading stories of peoples’ journeys, they are developing a deeper undertanding of, and empathy for, those who migrate.

Inquiring Minds

 To support their unit of inquiry into ‘What makes a good citizen?’ Grade 3 classes will be coming into the CMC to read biographies about people who have the qualities of good citizens. As well as investigating the good citizens of our world, they will be examining the language structures used to write a biography.

Grade 2′s have found out all about different habitats in our world and have chosen one to investigate more thoroughly. They are beginning their inquiry focussing on a particular animal from that environment.

Learning is Fun!

Grade 1 parents attended a small worshop looking at ways to help their children ‘catch the reading bug.’ The workshop was based on the book ‘How to Help Your Child Catch the Reading Bug’ by Paul Jennings.We talked about the ways parents can help their children read for meaning and enjoyment.

Catching the Reading Bug

ECLC and Pre-schoolers love coming to the library to choose their book to take home. They love listening to stories and telling us all about their own story.

Loving stories!

It’s been a very busy time in the library this week.  Our ‘Browse and Borrow’ time has seen the children come in and choose a wide variety of books to take home… some they take to read themselves and some they take for their Mum and Dad to read to them. It’s a pleasure to see their enthusiastic faces as they search for, then find a great book!

Once again, Roald Dahl has been the most popular author with Fantastic Mr Fox being his most sort-after book. Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid was a close second. Our younger readers loved listening to Mo Willems’s story Don’t let the Pigeon Stay Up Late read to them by Ms Jo.

Thankfully our ‘army’ of volunteer parents has been in to help us keep up with the processing of new books and the re-shelving of returned books.

Happy reading over the long weekend!

Welcome back to school everyone!

The CMC is also known as the Elementary School Library. When you come into the library this year, you will see these friendly faces welcoming you!

          Ms. Pat                         Ms. Jo                       Ms. Pepper                 Ms. Grace

The first week back has been busy with classes coming through and checking out their books. The most popular authors so far have been Roald Dahl and Geronimo Stilton.

We’ve had several volunteer parents come and sign on to help out in the library. If you are a new or old parent and have some time to help out, we’d love to see you! You can sign on for a regular time or you can just drop in when you have a little spare time.

Some of our Parent Volunteers

Parents can borrow up to 10 items so feel free to come in and browse our shelves for books, magazines and DVD’s that you or your children may find interesting.

Happy Reading!

Thanks for a Fantastic Year!

It’s hard to believe that the end of school year 2009-2010 is upon us.  It’s been a great year of learning and enjoying books here in the CMC. 

Remember that reading doesn’t stop for holidays!  Make sure you’re finding the time to read everyday, whether it’s an old favorite, a magazine, a new find, an online story or a bedtime lullaby.  Reading is a life-time pleasure!

Here are some final photos from “Around the CMC”… biographies, Reading Buddies, Browse N Borrow, read alouds…Enjoy!

Thank You to our Parent Volunteers!

Thank you for brightening up the CMC with your sunny dispositions and willingness to volunteer your time!  You are all greatly appreciated!

For the past few weeks, grade 3 students have been researching for answers to some important questions they have about biodiversity, ecosystems and human’s impact on the environment.  These are BIG questions!

First, they broke down their “big” question into smaller supporting questions.  Once they knew what they were looking for, they used “The Big 6″ to make a plan of attack.

Using The Big 6, students:

1. Define their task
2. Identify resources to use
3. Locate the resources and brainstorm key words for internet or index searches
4. Use the information – take notes and cite sources
5. Put it all together into a project that shows their learning
6.  Evaluate how they did

During this unit, students were introduced to World Book Online, a great reference resource available through ISM’s media centers!  Ask your child to show you some of the cool features they used – you can access it from ISM’s portal page, under the “Media Center and other Online Services” link.

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Some photos from International Day around the CMC…