Our kindergarteners recently embarked on a new author inquiry. This time, we are exploring the creative work of British children's book author and illustrator Emily Gravett. For our tuning in, we pulled all of her books from our shelves, letting students browse through the books to then share their observations. Our students noticed that there were lots of animals in her books, the stories appeared funny and the illustrations invited to be closely explored for details. Students were also intrigued by pop-up pages and other unusual book features.

Based on these first observations, students shared some wonderings, such as why she has so many animals in her books, whether she has pets, what kind of authors and books she likes, why she decided to make books, and how she creates her illustrations. In order to find answers to our questions, we are sharing her books as read-alouds and also plan on exploring her website. This past week, we watched a video in which Emily Gravett demonstrates how she draws Cedric, the little dragon from the popular book Again! Our students were absolutely fascinated!

The video taught us not only how to draw Cedric but also showed us with what kind of materials Emily Gravett works: pencils and water colors. Many of our students were keen on drawing Cedric themselves and I promised to embed the video into this blog post.

From information on the various books' dust covers, we also found out that she lives with her partner, daughter and dog in Brighton, England, that she likes to go out to sketch the animals that she puts into her stories, and that some of her books have received awards.

In addition to inquiring about Emily Gravett, our kindergarteners continue to enjoy choosing books and sharing these books with each other.

Our grade 2 students have been busy as bees recently and we have been enjoying working with them not just during their weekly library time but also during inquiry circles in preparation for their mini-exhibition on arts and emotions on December 11.

As shared in an earlier blog post and through individual posts by students on SeeSaw, our students are currently inquiring about Australian author Mem Fox (if you missed the first post, click on this link). Each week we are finding out more about this talented picture book author by reading her stories as well as exploring online resources like her website and an interview with the author. In the process, we have also been practising how to record our learning.

Whenever we read one of her stories now, we notice characteristics that we have found to be typical in her stories; for example the at times use of rhyming language, repetition, patterns, and Australian animals featured often in her books. Our students are also loving the humor in many of her stories.

As part of our Mem Fox inquiry, we have also introduced our first graders to Destiny Discover, the new platform of our library's online catalog. Students got a first taste on how to search for books and websites through Destiny Discover and were then able to apply and practice this skill more during our inquiry circles.

In addition to inquiring about Mem Fox, we are currently also involved in inquiry circles with grade 2. The aim of these inquiry circles is for students to learn more about an art form of their choice and how artists express emotions through the respective art form, to then create their own artistic piece. We have a wide range of art forms represented in the groups such as sculpting, drawing, painting, dancing, sewing, and photography. 

At first, our students inquired into the art form they were interested in to learn more about the respective artists express their emotions through this art form. They explored books, online resources and spoke to experts. Currently, our students are applying what they learned in creating their own art product such as for example a dance, a painting, a sculpture or a piece of music.

We look forward to seeing many of you during the mini-exhibition next Tuesday, when you will be able to admire the finished art work and speak to our young artists about their creations.

As part of their current unit of inquiry about light and dark, under the transdisciplinary theme How the World Works, our PK2 students pursued their personal questions and wonderings through inquiry circles. Over a period of three weeks, we came together six times to find answers to these questions and ultimately share our learning with each other. If you have been part of the HKA Primary School for some time already, you know that inquiry circles are a popular framework among our learners of all ages, starting with our youngest students in PK1. Inquiry circles are a great way to promote and provide opportunities for student agency as they allow students to find out about what they are interested in, taking on an active role in the inquiry process. There is always a high level of energy and engagement as students inquire alongside an adult facilitator. Here is a brief overview what the framework looks like. 

TUNING IN - Students share with each other what they think they already know about their topic as well as what they are curious to find out.

FINDING OUT, SORTING OUT & GOING FURTHER - Students search for answers to their questions in books, databases and on websites. They match the information with the respective question and at times generate more questions.

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS - Students identify the big ideas in their learning and think about what and how they might want to share what they learned.

ACTING & REFLECTING - Students share their learning and reflect on how they learned.

An extra bonus during this round of inquiry circles was that our PK2 students got help from their G3 buddies in searching for additional information in online resources (our G3 students who have recently started using Destiny Discover and its WebPath Express database, did a wonderful job in supporting their PK2 buddies).

Below is a video with more snapshots from our inquiry circles in PK2. I encourage you to watch the video with your PK2 inquirer and to let them share some of their learning with you. 

Our PK1 students love listening to stories! Over the past couple of weeks, they have been enjoying read-alouds of books by New Zealand born author Lynley Dodd. Characters like Hairy Maclary, Scarface Claw, Slinky Malinky and Zachary Quack kept our young library visitors highly engaged during story time as you can see in the pictures below. 

How popular these stories are is also apparent during our check out time as students look for these books on our shelves, having learned how to locate them independently.

In the context of introducing Lynley Dodd and her stories to our students, we are also helping our young readers to become aware of the people behind the stories, the authors and illustrators who create these.

And in addition to this, we are also making a connection to their current unit of inquiry under the transdisciplinary theme How the World Works, an inquiry into change, by letting them witness our second cycle of beans growing on our window sill.

Lifelong readers show certain habits. As identified by Donalyn Miller in her book Reading in the Wild: The Book Whisperer's Keys to Cultivating Lifelong Reading Habits (2013), lifelong readers dedicate time to read, they self-select reading materials, they share books and reading with others, they have reading plans and show preferences. In order to develop preferences, we believe growing readers need to read widely, to explore and experience the variety of genres and formats available to them. Therefore, introducing different genres and formats and giving students time to explore these is an important part of what we do together in the library.

While we already have some very passionate nonfiction readers among our students, the large majority is more drawn to fiction, giving nonfiction little consideration. In order to encourage all of our readers to also include nonfiction materials in their reading selection, we are currently having a closer look at nonfiction during grade 5's library time. From the students' reactions while they explore the books, listen to read-alouds and spend time reading some of these nonfiction books independently, I can tell they are at times surprised about what they discover, and realising how much they enjoy (at least some of) these books.

Our students are familiar with the traditional kind of nonfiction, also with browsable and active nonfiction. They just weren't aware of the terminology. Some of our browsable nonfiction (books like the Guinness Book of World Records, which allow the reader to open the book on any page, flip through and just read chunks of texts here and there) and active nonfiction (also these books are browsable but engage the reader in making something/teaching a skill step-by-step) are already enjoying a certain degree of popularity among our students.

It is narrative nonfiction and expository literature that gets the most attention during our current  nonfiction exploration though - narrative nonfiction for its particular appeal to fiction readers with its real characters, settings and narrative scenes; expository literature for the authors' creativity in sharing a topic (topics that at times raise eyebrows, provoking much curiosity) they are passionate about.

It is great seeing more and more of our students giving nonfiction a try and including a nonfiction book in their check out. We hope these books are shared and enjoyed at home too, as they provide great opportunities for exploring, wondering and being active together (browsable, active and expository literature) as well as reading together (many of our narrative nonfiction titles are in picture book format, making them a perfect choice for read-alouds).

If you would like to know more about the different kinds of nonfiction, you might enjoy reading Melissa Stewart's (2018) article in School Library Journal and/or explore our library's current window display of nonfiction books.

Image source: Melissa Stewart (2018) https://www.slj.com/2018/04/standards/understanding-teaching-five-kinds-nonfiction/

Our third graders are currently exploring Destiny Discover, an amazing interface that allows not just our students but anyone at HKA to search for books and electronic resources available in and through our libraries. At first, our students practised searching for (print) books: by a particular author, in a particular series or on a specific topic.

Having discovered a title of interest, our students would find the actual book on our shelves through its call number, a skill we had recently revisited. It was great seeing many our students not just making the searches to practise but to find books to check out for reading at home.

We have now begun to look more closely at how Destiny Discover supports inquirers by taking them to reliable and kid-friendly online resources. For example, the WebPath Express database provides access to more than 85,000 trustworthy websites and allows students to filter their search results  according to various criteria such as interest level, format and domain. Our World Book Online subscription has also been integrated in Destiny Discover and students are linked to articles directly from Destiny Discover. We are encouraging our students to view Destiny Discover as their "one-stop shop" to select recreational reading materials as well as print and online resources for their inquiries.

If you would like to learn more about Destiny Discover, you might enjoy having a look at the video tutorial below and then simply go to Destiny Discover via the Primary Hub page or this link. Explore and access all the wonderful resources available. You don't have to sign in to make searches. Enjoy!

Just like our kindergarteners, our first graders completed a round of inquiry circles this past week (here are links to past posts about the topic: Inquiry Circles & Busy Inquirers ). As part of their current unit of inquiry under the transdisciplinary theme of Where We Are In Place and Time, they inquired into a house type they were interested in. As always at the end of inquiry circles, we got to enjoy and learn from the various groups' presentations about yurts/gers, stilt houses, Adobe houses, igloos, log cabins, cave and underground homes and houseboats. And there was so much to learn from the posters, the videos, the models, and what each group member shared.

It was wonderful how excited our young inquirers were, both as presenters as well as audience members. There was so much interest for each of the house types that there were lots of new questions after each presentation.

Below I have captured some of the learning that happened during our inquiry circles. Isn't it wonderful seeing how engaged our students are, how much they clearly enjoy what they are doing?

One last step at the end of inquiry circles is always reflecting on how we learned - what we think went well, what we might want to keep in mind for future inquiries, and what we might want to do differently. After watching the videos, our first graders had much to share, especially with regard to what went well and what they enjoyed - most importantly, that they want to do inquiry circles soon again!

As shared in a recent blog post (if you missed it, click on this link), our Kindergarten students have been busy learning about habitats through inquiry circles. This past week, they had the opportunity to share some of their learning with each other. Considering that they are still new to presenting, they did a wonderful job. I could tell how much each group, each student had learned about their specific topic of interest and how excited they were that they got to share this.  

We, the audience, learned so much from listening to the presentations; about water habitats and habitats in general, about insects, about how animals stay safe, how and what they eat, and what kinds of homes they have. 

As part of the inquiry circles, in addition to facilitating one of the groups, I also get to do my own inquiry, which helps me in modeling the process for students. For our Sharing the Planet inquiry circles, I chose arctic and desert habitats; this past week, I got to share some of what I learned with our students too. 

Being part of inquiry circles is always very special. Learning alongside our students in small groups, experiencing their enthusiasm and passion for learning, witnessing how in awe they are of the world around us, noticing and wondering continuously, is always a very rewarding experience. Below is a video with some snapshots, providing a few more glimpses into the process. I encourage you to watch the video with your child as they will surely have more to share about what and how they learned.

Literature circles (lit circles) are a wonderful way of getting students excited about books, to further nurture their love for reading while helping them at the same time to grow as readers who think deeply about the characters and stories they encounter and communicate this with others. A couple of weeks ago, our 3ai students embarked on their first lit circles. It is wonderful for us librarians and teachers to be part of the conversations, seeing how much enthusiasm lit circles have already generated for the books read, and how much our students have to say about the individual books. Today, I want to give you a brief overview on what our lit circle journey has looked like so far as well as share some of the expectations we have developed with the students for our meetings.

Generally speaking, our lit circles (inspired by Faye Brownlie's book Grand Conversations, Thoughtful Responses, 2005) are a kind of book club but they allow the participants far more freedom with regard to what they read and talk about. This means amongst others:

• students decide what they want to read - first by voting their favorites from a pre-selection introduced by me, then by choosing their book
• students decide how much they read from meeting to meeting (they move on to their next book once they have finished their current book and joined conversations about this book at least once)
• students always meet with peers who are currently reading the same book
• students come prepared to share
• students decide what they want to talk about
• the conversations are facilitated by a teacher/librarian.

Since our students are new to these conversations, we, the facilitators, introduce them to skills, strategies and ideas that experienced readers use when talking about books, for example how to make connections between the text and personal experiences, other texts and the world at large. We help them to think more deeply by making use of the Book-Head-Heart Framework.  Further, we encourage and guide our growing readers to look at writer’s craft and techniques such as how the writer helps the reader to visualize a particular character or scene or how the author’s voice comes through. A first taste of what these conversations are like, our students got through reading and exploring wordless picture books.

Next, our groups read and talked about picture books with words, before moving on to chapter books. It is exciting for us to see with how much enthusiasm our students participate in the conversations, how keen they are on getting to the next book each week (even though they are not obliged to finish the book within a week). Many of our students are already on their third book and we are considering offering them a new stack of books to choose from soon.

You might wonder why we decided to run lit circles in this particular way. There are three main reasons that make lit circles very unique and especially suitable to develop, nurture and inspire our young readers:
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Choice: by allowing students to decide what they want to read we take advantage of the biggest motivator in getting anyone to read. Our readers get to narrow down a preselected list of titles from which they then choose what to read and when to read.

Differentiation/Individual pace: Every reader is allowed to read at their own pace. We know that each reader is on their very own reading journey, developing at their very own pace. This format allows anyone to follow the pace that works best for them.

Differentiation/individual thinking according to each individual’s abilities: Through weekly Reading Journal entries, as well as further connections and inferring during the conversations, any given text has many access points, allowing every reader to participate.

In addition to nurturing our growing readers, lit circles also help us to practice all the approaches to learning (social skills, communication skills, self-management skills, thinking skills and research skills). We are thrilled that our students have embraced reading and talking about books through lit circles and look forward to many more grand conversations and thoughtful responses.

Last Wednesday and Thursday, many of our students visited the library to share with their parents about their learning in the library and their reading lives. It was wonderful hearing our students speak so confidently as they shared amongst others about author inquiries, how we go about finding and recording information, how we use the online catalog (Destiny Discover), how knowledge around call numbers helps us to locate books in the library, and what kind of books our students enjoy checking out and reading. Thank you to all those who made the time to stop by!

If you were not able to schedule an appointment, here are two big ideas and related resources I shared during the various conferences. 

For those of you who have been to a PTSC in the library, you know that I always speak about the importance of reading aloud to your child, no matter the age. This round of PTSCs was not different; read-alouds were my number one recommendation to all of our parents, for those with children in PK1 and all the way up to G5. As the infographic below also clearly states - supported by research findings - reading aloud to children is key to their development as readers. This is also true for older children, as discussed in this wonderful post on the Read Brightly blog: The Importance of Reading Aloud to Big Kids.

Source: ​https://ebookfriendly.com/best-audiobooks-infographics/audiobooks-promote-literacy-full-infographic/

PTSCs are always a wonderful opportunity to showcase our collection and this time, I had decided to feature mostly titles from our nonfiction collection. While we have some very passionate nonfiction readers amongst our students, the large majority is more drawn to fiction. I therefore suggested during numerous PTSCs the exploration and inclusion of nonfiction in a student's reading selection. I find that for those of us not drawn to nonfiction in our recreational reading choices, it is especially narrative and expository nonfiction that provide a nice entry point to nonfiction reading. Examples were displayed on one of the tables, and as students explored and selected from the display, I was excited having to refill the table regularly over the two days. 

But also so-called browsable and active nonfiction (see examples in the image below) can have a great appeal, especially when carefully selected according to a child's passions and interests. In this context, it is important to remind young readers that this kind of nonfiction does not need to be read from beginning to end; rather, the reader can decide on what sections to read and in which order. For more ideas around nonfiction reading, you might enjoy exploring this post on the Read Brightly blog: How to Get Kids to Read Nonfiction.

You are welcome to stop by on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons between 3 and 4pm to explore what our collection has to offer :)