Just a couple more days until the long summer break. I can tell that our students are excited, sharing happily with each other about their summer plans. During the past week, I asked some of our students who visit the library in the morning before school, to have their picture taken with a favourite book, a book that could be an idea for others to consider reading this summer. As I mentioned in my blog post last week (if you missed it, click on Reading - All Summer Long), it's great to have a list - I like to call it a summer reading wish list - ready with ideas.

This week, when our students visit the library with their classes, we will think more about and help each other in getting ready for summer reading by sharing ideas. The goal will be to have for each grade a Top 10 Most Memorable Books of 2017-18 ready to be posted on our summer reading Padlet (the Padlet will be posted on this blog next Monday!). I can't wait to see which books our students will include on the list - and look even more forward to hearing their surely lively conversations about this!

Personally, I have also begun adding books to the Kindle App on my iPad, my wonderful travel companion each summer. I find getting ready for summer and summer reading almost as exciting as the summer and the reading itself :) I also have a beautiful new journal ready - a lovely gift from a friend - to record my reading and other summer adventures. Over the past years, my journals have become more and more scrapbooks, filled with books and memories I treasure. I will encourage our students too to consider the idea of keeping track in some form of what they read this summer, as a memory for themselves and new reading ideas for all of us when we return to school in August.

Have you begun thinking about books you might enjoy this summer? I would love to read about your suggestions and ideas in the comment section. Let's help each other with wonderful title suggestions so we can read all summer long.

Last Thursday, our Primary School hosted their annual service learning fair during which our students have amongst others the opportunity to meet representatives from our partner organisations. Since a couple of years, we have been connected to Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, an NGO promoting family literacy in Hong Kong. We have made our read-a-thon this year as in the past few years in support of this organisation, contributing to the installation of book case libraries in schools and community centres as well as the training of parents and teachers in reading aloud to children.

Our students enjoyed interacting with Mrs. Pia Wong, Executive Director of BMABHK, and her Program Manager, Ms. Kristal Wong. They were surprised to hear that even though children in Hong Kong are strong readers, a study showed that interest and confidence level are among the lowest in the world. Also, not every child in Hong Kong has access to quality children's literature and BMABHK is trying to change this through the set up of book bag and book case libraries; so far, there have been 412 installed and the number keeps growing.

In addition to learning more about BMABHK, our students were invited to share some of their favourite books.

Most enjoyed by our students were of course the read-alouds. They greeted well-loved stories with much enthusiasm, loved the animated way Mrs. Wong shared the stories, and kept asking for more stories. 

It was beautiful seeing our students sharing stories with each other too, with older students reading aloud to younger students. Seeing our students so engaged, so enthusiastic, so knowledgeable was a wonderful reminder how fortunate we are to have such an amazing reading culture at HKA, supported by great library collections, which allow us to further support and spread a love for reading.

We used the opportunity also to hand over to Mrs. Wong a cheque over HK17,835.75, the total of the money raised during this year's read-a-thon. Thank you again to everyone who participated and supported this, readers and sponsors.

Our Community Liaison Mrs. Lynne McCall handed over another cheque over HK2,340, raised through a book sale organised by two of our eleventh graders, Kazuki Clark and James Hall. Thank you so much for this wonderful initiative which allows BMABHK to install another brand new book case library at a donor site. There are many nursery/primary schools and community centres still waiting for a book donation. We are happy that soon another group of children will have access to a wonderful selection of picture books.

We are just a bit under three weeks away from our long summer break - time to start getting ready for summer reading!

Yesterday, I came across a wonderful blog post by one of my favourite reading experts, Pernille Ripp (check out her blog through this link). In this post, she gives advice to parents on how they may create a wonderful summer reading experience for the whole family (How to Create Great Summer Reading Experiences For All). While I recommend, that you head over to her blog to read the entire post, here are the main tips she lists (and my comments in brackets ;)

Have a to-be-read list
(Creating a to-be-read list is a bit like making a wish list for a special holiday celebration like Christmas or a birthday. It is so much fun putting the list together. And in the same way as most people would not get everything from such a wish list, I think it is also fine to think of a reading wish list not as a check list that needs to be ticked off one by one but thinking of it rather as an exciting menu of possible choices. I have started filling up the Kindle app on my iPad, so that I will have enough to choose from over the summer, and will share this with students, encouraging them to start working on their summer reading (wish) list.)

Visit places where books are present
(Take advantage of any opportunity to encounter books that comes your way as you travel this summer, for example by visiting a public library, a bookstore or by exploring the book shelves of family members and friends you visit.)  

Make it social
(In the past, I would often hear that reading is a solitary activity - I don't agree. Some of the most magical reading moments happen when we read together or when we get to talk with someone else about a book we have enjoyed. I love Pernille's idea of organising a book party. Another idea would be a family book club; you could make it special by preparing treats that have a connection to the book.)

Read aloud
(Children of all ages love to be read to! So how about finding a book that can be shared with the entire family this summer? I will include some title suggestions in our summer reading package which will be posted on this blog June 11. In this context, you might find an article of interest that was published by NPR a couple of days ago with preliminary findings from a study about, What Going on in Your Child's Brain When You Read Them a Story?)

Use audiobooks
(The publishing of audiobooks is one of the fastest growing markets, and the quality of many of the books is simply outstanding. I have become a big fan of audiobooks over the past couple of years, even though I have to admit, it did take me a bit of time to get into it. At first, my mind would easily wander but with time, I realised that I got better at it and now I always have an audiobook going and rarely need to go back a chapter to re-listen to a part I might have missed.)

Find great books
(I can help you with this as I am putting together a package with summer reading suggestions as well as online resources with further lists for you to explore. Make sure to check in any time after June 11, to download the package from this blog. Another way of finding great titles is of course chatting with family members and friends, to find out which books they have read and enjoyed.)

Create a routine
(I know that for many of us, summer can be a busy time as we travel to visit family and friends in other parts of the world. This makes it even more important that we build in time to read during the day. And not just to find time for the children to read; make sure you get the whole family together. This is the best way of sharing your own love for reading with your children.)

Allow real choice
(I know that this can be a tricky one but as much as you can, try to let your children know that they are free to choose, and that you mean it. No matter what format - picture book, chapter book, graphic novel, comic book... -, no matter whether you think it is "too easy" or not, let your child decide and enjoy. Allow, as Pernille Ripp calls it, "guilt-free reading". This applies to the grown-ups too :)

Have books everywhere
(This might be a bit challenging as you travel but if you make sure that everyone has some reading materials in their luggage, it's a great start.)

Celebrate abandonment, but ask questions
(I love this tip! We all have experienced it: we realise a book is not working for us and we begin to avoid reading. Rather than making it a requirement to finish every book, have conversations about why the book might not work for your child, and what he/she has learned from that about what they are looking for in a book. Getting to know yourself as a reader is something we work on with our students throughout the year.)

Explore new books together
(Share your reading experiences together, exchange books, explore books you come across together.)

Be invested and interested
(Show your child that you are interested in what they read, in who they are as a reader. A simple invitation here or there to share about a book is a wonderful way to connect your reading life with your child's.)

Keep it fun
(Positive reading experiences is what we want for our growing readers, and the long summer break gives us so many opportunities to do that. There shouldn't be any strings attached to the reading they do. Yes, I will introduce my (summer) reading journal to our students as a suggestion, an idea. But not everyone might like to keep track and record what they read, and that's okay as well.)

​Did you find these tips helpful? 

Stay tuned for more tips, ideas and resources for summer reading through this blog. There will be more every Monday from now onwards until the start of the 2018-19 school year.

The end of the school year 2017-18 is just around the corner; a good time to reflect on the past year with our students. In the library this past week as students visited with their classes, we engaged in various reflection activities.

Our kindergarten and G1 students brainstormed as a class first about their past year in the library before going off with a buddy to take three pictures each: a picture with 1-2 books that show who they are as readers; a picture that shows something they learned and a picture that shows something they especially enjoyed in the library during the past year. Some of the learning our students mentioned are: inquiry circles and how to find answers to our questions, learning about different authors and topics, books helping us to learn to read and to learn about new things, books having different emotions, being able to choose the books we like, organising your own books at a home like a library (by author), inquiring with different people, returning books each week to check out new ones.

Our students in grades 3-5 got a chance to look at their check out history since January, the last time they had analysed the list of books they had read and set new goals for their reading. First, they tallied the genres, then they entered the numbers into a bar graph. While we will spend more time next week looking at what this data tells us about ourselves as readers and our reading journey this year, a few observations were already shared: some students expressed their surprise about the number of fantasy books they had read, as they hadn't thought of themselves as fantasy readers; others mentioned the variety of genres they had read and/or genres they had not included (yet). The best part for me as an observer was seeing big smiles on students' faces as they excitedly talked with each other about the titles on their lists and the books they had enjoyed this year.

Our PK1 students are currently pursuing a unit of inquiry under the transdisciplinary theme Sharing the Planet, with the central idea, "We care for living things". As part of this UOI, we collaborated with the PK1 team and students in inquiry circles, allowing students to pursue topics and wonderings of their interest. So, what did this look like? In small groups, supported by a teacher or parent, our students went through the phases of the inquiry cycle (according to Kath Murdoch's model).

TUNING IN - students shared their interests, what they thought they already knew about the topic and what they were curious to find out and learn;

FINDING OUT - students searched for answers to their questions in various ways; by looking through books...

... by exploring the PebbleGo Animals database...

... and by speaking to experts.

SORTING OUT AND GOING FURTHER - students checked what questions were answered with the information they found and asked new questions.

PREPARING TO SHARE OUR LEARNING - students thought about what they had learned, what and how they wanted to share this with their peers; and then prepared by working together on posters;

TAKING ACTION (SHARING OUR LEARNING) - each group presented what they learned to the rest of the class.

Next week, when our PK1 students visit the library, we will spend some time reflecting on this experience, about how we learned and what we might want to keep doing or do differently next time. 

It was wonderful seeing our youngest inquirers' enthusiasm to learn about their topics of interest, to see them actively participating in every part of the process, to witness their growing confidence as they shared what they learned and voiced their opinions on how they wanted to present this to the rest of the class. Well done, PK1 inquirers!

Below are some snapshots from our inquiry circles. Enjoy!

​Last Thursday, we hosted the finals of the HKBoB Championship 2018, for primary schools. Our team had qualified for the finals with a fantastic performance during their semi-final (if you missed the post about the semi-finals, click here to read it). It was only the second time ever that our team got to the finals.

​Thanks to our wonderful PE Department, Operations and Tech Teams as well as Chef Chris and his team, we were able to welcome the teams from Independent Schools Foundation Academy, Chinese International School, Shatin Junior School, Kennedy School and Hong Kong International - and of course the parent supporters - to a beautifully set up gym. 

​After a welcome from Ms. Virginia, Mr. Comer, co-chair of the HKBoB Committee as well as coach of the CIS team, went over the rules with everyone, before starting with the first round of questions. Mr. Comer and Ms. Robinson, who is vice-chair of the HKBoB Committee and coach of the HKIS team, had kindly offered to moderate. It was wonderful having such experienced moderators, who made sure the rounds ran smoothly, creating a reassuring and friendly atmosphere for our young readers.

​As always when attending a HKBoB competition, I was in total awe of the students, who must sift through thousands of details in order to find the correct answers – and there were some pretty challenging questions to deal with. It was great seeing how much conferring was going on within the teams, how confident students stated authors and titles, how well they observed the rules. You could tell that all teams had been well prepared for the competition. It was therefore not surprising that it became a very close race for the title, with Chinese International School winning with just one point ahead of the second-placed team. Congratulations, CIS Champions!

​Our team made us very proud with their performance too, especially considering that our fifth graders were also presenting their PYP Exhibition projects – Wednesday evening and Thursday before and after the BoB competition. It was amazing seeing them so focused, making the most of their conferring time, and giving it their best effort once again. 

​For us coaches, the favourite moment though was seeing the reactions and  expression on our students’ faces as the new titles for the HKBoB competition 2018-19 were introduced – as you can see in the photos below. Their love, passion and enthusiasm for these books was priceless; a true celebration of love for reading and the best reminder at the end of the competition what HKBoB is all about.

This past week, we were fortunate to have a very special book with us for a couple of days, an inspirational book that celebrates 13 girls/women from around the world and their achievements: She Persisted Around the World by Chelsea Clinton. In celebration of the book’s release, the publisher Penguin Random House sent several oversized copies on a journey around the world, and one of these copies was with us here at HKA, thanks to Bookazine who coordinated the project in Hong Kong.

​The timing couldn’t have been better as our second graders have just embarked on a new unit of inquiry about heores under the transdisciplinary theme of Who We Are, with the central idea “Lifestories inspire us to act”. I had shared book stacks of biographies with both classes and asked students whether they had noticed anything with regard to the gender of the people these books were about. Both classes confirmed, that there were more biographies about men than women. I explained that for this reason, I was constantly on the look out for new biographies about women to add to our collection, and excited to be able to share this new release with them.

​I was blown away by our students’ reactions and hearing their thoughts and comments as I shared some of the stories as read-alouds with students in grades 1-3. They were outright appalled by some of what they heard as for example Joanne Rowling having been asked to publish under the name J.K. Rowling to make her female identity less apparent (interesting though, as one of our students discovered when looking at Harry Potter books in our library, this was only true in some countries as the German translation shows the author's full first name); Yuan Yuan Tan’s father deciding over his daughter’s fate with a coin toss; or the fact that there was a time in Brazil when it was against the law for girls to play soccer. Our students' sense of fairness for equal opportunities was so apparent, as well as their appreciation for how these girls/women paved the way so that they would enjoy the freedom to pursue their dreams. 

​Some of our students were keen on leaving a message in the book to share what they liked about the book; for example, “I like this book because it is about courage”; “I like this book because it gives girls rights”; and “I like this book because I think girls should do anything. I believe I can do the same things as the girls in the book. Something I can do that I’m very good at.”

​As we spoke about the book and what it means to show persistence, we agreed that it doesn’t matter whether you are a boy or a girl, whether you are a man or woman, if you have a dream, if you think something needs to change, you just have to keep trying, not letting anyone discourage you. 

After preparing throughout the past school year, reading from the list of 20 books, learning the authors' names and titles of the books, and attending weekly meetings to practise answering questions, the semi-finals of Hong Kong Battle of the Books 2018 were finally here! Last Thursday, our B.o.B. traveling team joined the teams of five other schools to show their knowledge about the books in a friendly competition: Clearwater Bay School, San Wui Commercial Society YMCA of Hong Kong Christian School, ICHK Hong Lok Yuen, Quarry Bay School, and the Canadian International School of Hong Kong.

Accompanied by our principal, Ms. Virginia, we headed over to Clearwater Bay School (our hosts for this semi-final), where we were warmly received by some of the students, their teacher librarian, and teachers.

There was time for a team photo and some last minute prepping of our team by Ms. Kim, while Ms. Deb and I got into our positions to help with scoring and judging during the competition. Ms. Angela Barwell, the teacher librarian at Clearwater Bay School, was the moderator, in charge of reading the questions and leading through the competition.

In total there were 15 rounds in which all of the students demonstrated their immense knowledge of the books they have read. I am always in awe of all of these young readers, who must sift through thousands of details to come up with the correct answer. We loved seeing our team so focused, doing a wonderful job in conferring with each other before answering each question, confident in stating authors and titles. They made us all so proud, not just because they got so many answers right, but also because they stayed focused and listened carefully to each question also while other teams were on stage. And then there were of course the biggest of smiles, when the results were announced, after some really "intense" rounds, as one of our students stated. Congratulations to all of the teams who did an amazing job!

Here are a few more snapshots from the competition:

A big THANK YOU to everyone who helped and supported us in preparing for the competition throughout the year in many different ways: our entire B.o.B. team, still 41 students strong, grade 4 & grade 5 teachers, Ms. Virginia, and of course parents - thank you all for your tremendous support, your enthusiasm and passion for the competition and the wonderful books! 

And here they are, our smiling winners of the semi-final of Group C of Hong Kong Battle of the Books 2018!

We are excited to be able to host the final, on Thursday, May 17, and look forward to welcoming the other finalists:

The Independent Schools Foundation Academy
Chinese International School
Kennedy School
Shatin Junior School
Hong Kong International School.

Some of our students were risk-takers as they tried out some of the things you can do with a beautiful piece of cloth as described in Jamela's Dress.

And it isn't just during read-alouds in English that our PK2 students show their love for stories. They are as engaged during their Mandarin story time each week, as you can tell from the pictures below.

In addition to enjoying listening to and talking about stories, our PK2 students enjoy being inquirers, as they demonstrated for example when they were looking for patterns as part of an exploration of the writing and illustrating of Grace Lin. Below are some snapshots for you of that learning engagement. Enjoy!

Our third graders are currently enjoying exploring books by Australian author and illustrator Graeme Base. There is much interest for his books, during read-alouds, book browsing, check out and for some students also during independent reading time in their classroom. Right from the start, our third graders were drawn to the stories, many of which include an element of mystery, and all of them having detailed, intricate illustrations. In the images below, you can see our students searching for mice hidden in the illustrations of The Eleventh Hour. Even though it wasn't an easy task - Graeme Base's books are ideal for reading and exploring one-on-one or small groups - our students met the challenge with much enthusiasm.

On spending some time browsing through a selection of his picture books, our students shared some of their observations: in most books animals are the main characters, some books hint towards an Australian setting, some books have an element of mystery and/or an element of humour, the illustrations are extremely detailed and must take a very long time to create, the words often rhyme, the books are all fiction picture books, they invite the reader to participate and search for clues in the pictures.

This week we will continue reading stories by Graeme Base while also spending some time exploring his website to find answers to some of the wonderings and questions that have so far emerged. Our students wonder for example whether he is from Australia, how long it takes him to create a single page, how long it takes to get one of his books published, how many books he has made in total so far, and where he gets his ideas.

Graeme Base's books are a great example to show our young readers that there is no age limit for reading picture books, that they remain relevant and exciting to read. I invite you to stop by the library to check out one or more of his picture books to read and enjoy with your child. The best time for this is Tuesday and Thursday afternoons between 3 and 4pm, when our library is open to the entire HKA community.

Here are a few more snapshots for you from Grade 3's exploration of Graeme Base's books. Enjoy!