There is nothing PK1 students like better than choosing a book when coming to the library. Sometimes, even before I can get started with our story for the day, I already have the first questions about when we will choose books. Sometimes, before even getting settled on the carpet, students crowd around the little shelf that holds the selection of books they choose from. Excitement is written all over our young readers' faces - it is wonderful!

Even though there is much excitement, as we continue working on how to choose books, I have recently seen students spend more and more time looking through the book they intend to check out. We have moved away from just picking a book from the shelf, but instead look carefully at the cover as well as inside of the book, to make sure we will enjoy reading the story at home. Some students share with me when they bring their book to the check out counter why they have chosen this particular book, even without me asking, e.g. "This book is about trains. I like trains." or "I looked at the story and it wasn't boring, so I am taking it home." Very popular is usually also the story I have just read out loud.

I would like to encourage you to ask your child also at home why they have picked a particular book. This supports our efforts to encourage already at an early age that students make conscious choices in selecting reading material. When making these conscious choices, we are hoping to see personal interests and preferences reflected in these choices. 

If you have time during the upcoming break and are near a public library or book store, make a visit with your child to experience some of excitement I get to see every week when students come to the library. Happy holidays!

Dear Students,

Not sure on how to find our library's online resources (I sometimes call them my favorite links)? Follow the steps below or have a look at the Powtoon video below and start exploring. There is so much to discover on favorite topics, series, children's book authors, free e-books, audio books, edugames and much more. Try it out during the upcoming break and let me know whether you find it helpful. Happy holidays!

HKA Primary Library Online Resources:
1. Go to the HKA Primary Portal - or click here.
2. Click on Library Online Resources - or click here.
3. Start exploring. Just click on the individual tabs.

I was thrilled to hear you ask today how you could recommend books to me. You can do this either through Destiny Quest which I will check also during the upcoming holiday; or you could add a comment to this blog post. (Please, do not sign up with Shelfari or Goodreads. Let's learn to use Destiny Quest to recommend books online first. When you get to Middle School next year, Mrs. Hand will introduce you to Goodreads.)
If you comment here, others have a chance to see your recommendation as well. I would love that! During the holidays I usually take on a "book-a-day challenge". While I already have a whole stack of books waiting for me at home, I am always keen on receiving new recommendations. Enjoy the December break, safe travels (if you go away) and happy reading!

Students could thereby practice their listening skills and were encouraged to make connections to their own life. As a reading response to each book we wondered when we showed the respective learner profile trait. Students showed with their responses that they are already aware about what the learner profile looks like in their own actions and behaviors, e.g. being caring when sharing with or helping a friend or being an inquirer when asking questions to learn new things.

If you would like to follow up on this by talking about the learner profile through literature, here a few suggested titles, organized by the main learner profile trait apparent in the story:

In addition, PK2 students have made wonderful progress in taking time to select their books. They look not just at the book’s cover but also browse through the book to make sure the story looks interesting to them. Some students have even taken a step further, looking through several books before making a decision on which book to check out.

K students are currently inquiring about Australian-born children's literature author and illustrator Bob Graham.

We next thought about how to best find answers to these questions and students had great ideas on how to go about this: looking in books by Bob Graham and searching for information on the computer and the iPad. So we took the next step by reading another book by Bob Graham (Queenie the Bantam) and comparing it to the other one (How to Heal a Broken Wing). While we noticed similarities (e.g. the people in the illustrations looked similar, the story was about people and a bird), we did not yet discover answers to our questions. Our plan is to look on the Internet and check in other books as we continue our inquiry.

While learning about a new author and illustrator, students will also follow an inquiry process, being guided through each of the following phases: Tuning In, Finding Out, Sorting Out, Going Further, Drawing Conclusions, and Reflecting and Acting. We thereby support the development of their inquiry skills as well as encourage them to select from a wider variety of reading materials by introducing a new author.

G4 students have shown great skills as inquirers and readers when revisiting literary genres recently in the library. Divided into groups of 4-5 students, they explored books in various tubs. Their task was to identify the respective genre and provide supporting evidence for their decision (i.e. naming specific characteristics of the genres). The following is a list of the genres we looked into so far and some of the characteristics mentioned by students:

Revisiting genres is a great way of encouraging students to select from a wider variety of reading materials, one of our ongoing goals in developing as life-long readers. While we all have our favorites (nothing beats historical and realistic fiction for me, for example), picking from other genres regularly helps us not to miss great reading experiences outside of our comfort zone and to discover new favorites. It was exciting to see students selecting from the various tubs at the end of the learning engagement.

Dear G5 Students,

It was just fantastic seeing your enthusiasm for the two examples of books in electronic format I shared with you today. I am pretty excited myself, especially about having discovered the James Potter series, and can’t wait to get started reading the books during the December break. As promised, here more detailed information on how you can get to the books:

(1) James Potter Series (e-books)

The James Potter Series is written by G. Norman Lippert. This is what the author himself says about the series:

“First, these stories are not about the Marauders. They are about James Sirius Potter, Harry's firstborn son. They include such next generation characters as Scorpius Malfoy, Rose Weasley, Albus and Lily Potter, etc.

Second, while these stories are not written by J. K. Rowling (obviously) they, and other such stories, have been sanctioned by her, so long as they are respectful and appropriate for children. I have been in contact with Ms. Rowling's literary agency (after they were asked by the press if the James Potter stories and websites were secretly her creation). They have been very cordial and encouraging, even going so far as to actively deny erroneous press allegations that Ms. Rowling intended to sue me. For that, I thank them!

For what it's worth, I have worked very hard to keep the James Potter stories true to Ms. Rowling's canon and literary style, while obviously injecting my own original themes, characters and settings. For the true canon-police, there are indeed some errors and mistakes. For those who merely love the Harry Potter stories, however, I don't expect that such trivialities will detract from your ability to enjoy my tales.” (Source: http://www.jamespotterseries.com/muggle_index.html )

(2) The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (interactive e-book for iPad)

Morris Lessmore was the first app ever I downloaded to my iPad about a year and a half ago. I had no idea at the time what a treasure I had stumbled across. It has become my favorite story of all times and while I have many favorite books and will surely continue discovering more, I don’t think any story will ever be able to reach Morris Lessmore’s. It is so unique and so very special. While the book began its life as an animated short film and interactive app, it is also available in print (I recently saw it at a Dymock’s store in Hong Kong).

We are so fortunate to be able to experience stories in so many different formats nowadays. While nothing will ever be able to replace “good old” print books for me, I love the additional reading experiences we can have through electronic formats. I hope you do too! Maybe you would even like to share some of your thoughts/experiences with e-books in a comment to this post?

During the past couple of weeks we have been focusing on picture books during G3's visits to the library. Through read-alouds and individual recommendations, students were encouraged to include picture books in their selection of reading materials. While I had already planned to let students experience the value of picture books through a special inquiry, including this focus now was also in response to comments from parents during conferences who were hoping to see more picture books included in the reading materials of their children.
In exploring a wide range of titles - not just in the library but also through a specially compiled picture book box in the classroom - students were able to discover that picture books represent a wide range of topics in fiction and nonfiction. Some students were surprised to realize that picture books can have deep and thought-provoking messages and powerful language, combined with stunning illustrations. Through reading and sharing books while in the library and classroom, it became clear that picture books are indeed for readers of all ages - not just for the "little ones".

In support of the current unit of inquiry under the transdisciplinary theme How We Express Ourselves, we will be focusing on reader's theatre over the next two weeks.