​I am still on the African continent, enjoying some quiet time with lots and lots of reading. No matter where in the world you are right now, I hope you too are making the most of the summer and the extra time it allows for reading. If you are still looking for some additional ideas on how to make your summer reading extra special this year, here are a few suggestions:

Daily D.E.A.R. time – Drop Everything And Read – set a time every day for the whole family to come together to read. This could be at any time during the day and can be as short as 15min. 

Weekly family book club – Choose a book (picture book or chapter book) you might all enjoy. Read it, then chat about it: What did you enjoy about it? What are you wondering about? How does it connect to your life, to other books you have read, to the world around you? Have some special treats ready to enjoy during your book club meeting.

Trips to the library and/or bookstore – Explore and choose some books that you want to read this summer, share recommendations with each other. 

Here are some reading suggestions of books about reading, books and libraries:

​Nonfiction Books:
Plating Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré (Anika A. Denise)
My Librarian is a Camel (Margriet Ruurs)


Do you have more suggestions of books that are related to reading and libraries? Share them with all of us in the comment section! Thanks!
​ 

During this summer break, I am inviting you to follow my travels, trying to figure out the countries I am visiting. It will involve some prizes to be won when we return to school in August. Are you ready to join the fun and discover more books in the process? Let's begin!
​
My first stop this summer is the African Continent. Did you know that the African continent is the second largest and second most populous continent, covering a total area of close to 12 million square miles and having an estimated population of over a billion? There are 54 countries in total and from the reading list below you will have to figure out, where I am currently reading:

Were you able to figure out where I am?

​Here is what you can do next:

• Post your answer in the comment section to the blog post for this week.
• Have a look at a map of Africa and find the country on the map.
• Search for some information about this country with the help of the resources on our Primary Hub page and write down some interesting facts about this country. You can of course also do the same for the country you are visiting right now.

Have a great week!

​This first part of our summer reading fun goes over ten days, beginning as soon as school is out and running throughout the following week. I know it is the time that many of you will be traveling or getting ready to travel. So, time to make summer plans and pack our reading bags!
Here are some of the things you might like to do to prepare for the long break and pack in your (reading) bag/hand luggage. Can you think of anything else that might be handy on a reading journey?

​Ok, all ready packed now? Then it’s time to get excited about the upcoming summer and journeys with some wonderful books about summer. Here are a few suggestions:

Picture Books:
And Then Comes Summer (Tom Brenner)
A Lullaby of Summer Things (Natalie Ziarnik)
The Golden Glow (Benjamin Flouw)
Perfect (Danny Parker)
The Sand Castle That Lola Built (Megan Maynor)
 
Chapter Books and Novels for the Middle Grades:
Half Magic (Edward Eager)
Secrets of the Cicada Summer (Andrea Beaty)
Letters from Camp (Kate Klise)
The Penderwicks (Jeanne Birdsall)
Tortilla Sun (Jennifer Cervantes)

Have a wonderful first week of summer reading!

You can find additional resources on our Summer Reading Padlet - see below. I will continue to add  resources throughout the upcoming weeks and hope you will discover many books to enjoy. You will also be able to follow what I am reading through the Padlet. 

​Happy Summer Reading!

We are just a couple of days away from the end of the school year, the start of the long summer break - and summer reading! Last Monday, I already shared a few ideas of how parents can continue to kindle our students' love for reading over the break, in the same way we do this in school throughout the school year, mentioning by surrounding students with books, giving them choice in what to read, making time to read every day, providing shared reading experiences and modelling our own reading lives (to read the full post, click here).

This coming week, I will talk with our students about summer reading, showing them where they will be able to find suggestions and ideas for books (all links will be shared through this blog next Monday). Further, I will encourage them to keep some form of record of what they are reading and experiencing. I know many of us will go on exciting journeys during the upcoming weeks, making beautiful new memories. Why not collect these memories in a summer (reader) journal/scrapbook? There are no rules on what should go into such a journal, no requirements on how much or how little to include or how to record it. Just suggestions and ideas to spark our students' creativity. A summer (reader) journal can be kept individually by each child or be created by the whole family together.

The entries in my journals always vary considerably in length and depth, some are just very brief, like the one in the picture above, others are more elaborate. I usually include the author and title of the book, a few keywords to remind me what the book was about, some favourite passages/quotes as well as some pictures and other mementoes like boarding passes or train, bus and cinema tickets. (If I was more artistic, I would also include sketches and drawings.) At times, I also include other memories made around the time I read the book.

Other things that can be included besides entries about books read:

• a want-to-read book list
• a want-to-do list for the summer
• guest pages (let family members and friends you meet over the summer write an entry)
• a genre tally
• a daily and/or monthly log (simple bullet lists of what you did, upcoming travel dates, visits etc.)

I have no doubt that when I ask our students this week, they will have many more ideas on what to add. The most important thing in creating a summer (reader) journal: not letting it become a task but having fun with it, seeing it as a wonderful treasure in the making.

On May 30, we – G4 students, teachers and librarians - had the incredible honor and great pleasure to Skype with Lauren Tarshis, famous among readers around the world especially for her I Survived series. Also in our library, the books are among the most popular and most requested books – we have multiple copies of most titles in the series and still, there are hardly ever any on the shelves as they get checked out again almost immediately after they have been returned. 

​In the months leading up to the Skype, we shared one of the books as a class read-aloud (I Survived the Hindenburg Disaster, 1937) and explored online resources to find out more about Mrs. Tarshis. Our students also looked more into the I Survived series (in addition to reading the books), to find out for example about the geographic distribution of the books’ events. They created a timeline based on when the events happened. As a result, we learned a lot, as for example that Mrs. Tarshis is also a journalist, has been for many years the editor of Storyworks magazine and is the Editor in Chief/Publisher of Scholastic’s Class Magazine Division. We discovered that a lot of research goes into the making of her books, that she visits every place she writes about, and that she gets suggestions of what topic to write about from the Scholastic team. The more we discovered, the more questions we had though, many that could only be answered by the author herself. Therefore, how very fortunate were we to get this incredible opportunity to meet her via Skype! 

​There was an immediate connection between Mrs. Tarshis and our students, no doubt, as she asked each student who came up to the screen to ask a question their name and their countries of origin. I could tell our students were in awe, having such a famous author in front of them but Mrs. Tarshis’ warmth and beautiful smile made everyone feel at ease in no time. Students said to me after the Skype, “she really liked us” with big, big smiles on their faces. 

Here are the questions our students asked:

• Have you been in any natural disasters or dangerous situations yourself?
• Which I Survived book do you like the most - if any?
• Do you get requests from your own children on what to write about?
• What is your reading life like? What kind of reader are you?
• Did you like to write stories/historical fiction when you were young?
• Is it more interesting to write with a boy or a girl as a protagonist?
• How long does it take you to write a novel and get published? How do you make the I Survived books? What is your writing process? 
• Does being a journalist help you to get stories, research and write them? How long is the research process?

And Mrs. Tarshis answered them all in depth, explaining in detail how she researches and writes; how challenging the writing process is and remains no matter how many books you have already written, how much research is part of the writing process, and not only for nonfiction but for all writing, because, as she said, “you need to feed your imagination with details”.

​Especially touching was to hear her speak about how challenging reading used to be for her and how difficult the start to her writing career was (we loved the anecdote she shared about meeting another very famous author). It was something many of our students later commented on, after the visit and during our reflections. It provided motivation and inspiration for their own reading and writing lives. As one of our students reflected, “you always have the chance to become a reader or writer – it is never too late”.

Yet with all the learning, our students are not done with wondering and asking questions. In fact, the Skype visit made them want to read even more books by Mrs. Tarshis and learn more about and from her. They still wonder for example what else she would be interested to write about, whether she has ever thought of her books becoming movies, whether she would consider collaborating with another author on a book, and what her latest book in the I Survived series, the one she just finished, is about. 

And then there is of course that question close to the heart of many of our students: would she consider writing an I Survived book about Typhoon Mangkhut that hit Hong Kong in September last year? (It was as strong as Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 Hurricane.) Our students thought that it would be a good idea because:

• When looking at the settings of the I Survived books, they noticed that most of the books are set in the United States and there is only one book with a setting in Asia so far, the one about the Tsunami in Japan. It would be great to have more stories set in Asia.
• When they made a timeline to look at when the disasters in the books took place, they thought it would be great to have more stories from the 21st century.
• Also, it would add another book on a natural disaster to the I Survived series - as there are currently fewer among the I Survived books.
• Further, if she chose Typhoon Manghkut as one of her topics, we all could get her lots of first hand information and collect resources for her. She could interview us as most of us where here in Hong Kong when it happened.

 
What do you think, Mrs. Tarshis, might this be an idea?

We are so grateful for having been invited into Mrs. Tarshis’ home via Skype, for having had this amazing opportunity to meet her and be inspired by her in so many ways. An absolutely memorable and unforgettable event for all of us.
 
Here are some messages from our students for you, Mrs. Tarshis:
 
Great job on the I Survived series! I really like all the books; they are so good. I keep reading them over and over again without getting bored.
 
I really enjoyed the Skype that we had and I learnt a lot. I think your books are amazing!
 
Thank you for skyping with us. I learned a lot about being a reader and a writer.
 
I enjoyed every single second of our Skype. When I got home I told my whole family about our Skype and they were happy for me.
 
You really inspired me to write books and to get creative with my thinking and helping me to see new purpose in writing.
 
It was so nice of you to say that you were honored to Skype with us when we are the ones feeling honored as you are such a famous author.
 
I hope you make more books – I love them!
 
You are very nice and funny. Thank you for meeting us. I hope that you will not stop being an author.
 
Thank you for sharing your reading insecurity – that was very brave and it inspired me.
 
You are the best author in the world!

PK2 students are currently inquiring under the transdisciplinary theme of How We Organise Ourselves with the central idea, “Communities benefit when people work together.” As part of this, over the past three they explored jobs they were personally interested in in small groups. There were inquiries into jobs in the areas of public safety, health & wellness, construction, transportation, hospitality, cooking, cleaning services, shop keeping, and gardening. 

TUNING IN - First, our students shared with each other what they thought they already knew about the particular jobs and what they were curious to find out.

FINDING OUT, SORTING OUT & GOING FURTHER - Then our students searched for answers to their wonderings in various ways: by exploring books and online resources as well as by speaking to experts, people working in the respective jobs. It was wonderful seeing our students so engaged, so excited about what they were learning and so confident in interviewing our experts.

We are so grateful for the many people in our HKA community who made time in their busy schedules to talk to our young inquirers and answer their many questions. A big THANK YOU!

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS & PREPARING TO SHARE - Then our students got ready to share some of their learning with each other. They decided on what they were most excited about and then got pictures and notes to prepare for their presentation.

TAKING ACTION: Sharing our learning with each other. Our students did a wonderful job sharing with each other what they had learned. 

Next week, we will reflect on our learning, and I am sure our PK2 students will have lots to share about how they think our inquiry circles went. Below is a video with more snapshots. Enjoy!

Over the past three weeks, our youngest inquirers from PK1 learned more about an animal of their choice through inquiry circles. As part of their current Unit of Inquiry under the transdisciplinary theme Sharing the Planet and with the central idea, "People care for living things", they expressed an interest in a particular animal or group of animals, to then inquire into wonderings like what this animal might eat and need, what it looks like, special features and abilities. Here is a brief overview, followed by a video with more snapshots, on how we went about this.

TUNING IN - After expressing an interest in a certain animal/animal group, students were grouped according to interest to then share with each other what they thought they already knew about this animal. (As you can see in the picture, each group had a teacher/librarian as facilitator). Then they shared their specific wonderings and what they were curious to find out.

FINDING OUT / SORTING OUT / GOING FURTHER - Students searched for answers to their wonderings and questions in various ways: by looking through books, by exploring the PebbleGo Animal database and by talking to an expert. (A big THANK YOU to our wonderful expert, one of our Secondary School Science teachers.) They shared and with help recorded what they learned in their groups, to then sort the learning out by matching it with the respective wondering it answers. Sometimes new questions and wonderings emerged.

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS & PREPARING TO SHARE - ​Students looked through all they found out to then decide what they wanted to share with their peers. They searched for images in Photos for Class that would help them in sharing their learning.

TAKING ACTION: SHARING OUR LEARNING - Each group and each student got the opportunity to share three things they had learned.

It was wonderful seeing our young inquirers all so engaged throughout the process, and quite impressive seeing with how much confidence they shared their learning with each other. Well done, PK1 inquirers!

It was wonderful reading and listening to our students' reflections of who they are as readers over the past two weeks. The confidence with which they spoke about their reader identity, noticing preferences, acknowledging growth as well as next steps on their reading journey, and most importantly, speaking passionately about favourite books. It warmed my heart - and at the same time, it made me wonder, how we can make sure we keep this passion alive, kindle it further throughout the upcoming long break. It made me reflect on what we do throughout the school year to nurture a lifelong love for reading in our students and I came up with the following list (in no particular order) as well as ideas how you might recreate this for your family during the upcoming break.

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS - Surrounding students with books in the library and classrooms, introducing them to authors and their creative works, book talking, and making personalised reading recommendations.

What you might do during the break:
=> Visit public libraries and bookstores together, explore what is on offer, some might even have special events including author readings and book signings. Tell your child about some of your childhood favourites - books, authors, series. And have books always available in easy reach for your child.

CHOICE - Allowing students to choose what they want to read, while providing general guidance and suggestions.

What you might do during the break:
=> Encourage your child to share with you what they like to read and why. Let them have the final say in what to read, whether it is a read-aloud or a book choice for independent reading.

​SHARED READING EXPERIENCES - Daily read-alouds in the library and in classrooms, book clubs and literature circles for older students

What you might do during the break:
=> Read aloud to your child every day, no matter their age, and chat about the books you are reading. Share your thinking with your child and encourage them to share with you their thoughts and wonderings about the book. You might even like to consider a family book club - this can be done with all kinds of books: wordless picture books, picture books, chapter books, novels.

MODELLING - modelling what it means to be a reader, sharing our own reading lives, talking with students about what we read, and letting them see us read.

What you might do during the break:
=> Let your child see you read, share about your reading life and reader identity. Make sure to include books for yourself when you are preparing for summer reading with your child.