Black History Month

February is Black History Month and the library’s theme for our Multicultural Fair on February 22. Stop by the gym and check out our Black History books and a great site for hyper local stories, called Black Strathcona.

Some great resources:

This beautifully designed book chronicles achievements of Black women. I do question the slightly derogatory title.

This wonderful picture book looks at the birth of hip hop. Highly popular with children. Great read aloud.This gorgeous book shares the successes of many people. Although mainly America-centric, there are a few people from other countries. The book includes a mix of pop culture icons, athletes, and scientists, but no Canadians. Great read aloud in snippets.

Here’s a BC website with stories and resources.

Minecraft Reads Week

Tuesday, January 30  – Minecraft Books and activities

Wednesday, January 31 – Drawing contest!

Thursday, February 1 – Trivia Game

Friday, February 2 – Surprise

Minecraft Reads Week

Minecraft Reads Week!

Join us in the library at lunch for a week of Minecraft related books and activities! We won’t be playing the actual game, but we will have an awesome trivia game using Kahoot with prizes. Dates announced soon…

We’re on the move!

Strathcona School Library has moved out of the community centre building. After 40 years, the VPL moved to their new branch, a beautiful new facility on East Hastings and Heatley, and the school library remained on the site for 1.5 years. Now, the seismic upgrade of the school is complete, and the school library is moving to the southwest corner of the Senior Building on the main floor. Here is what Monday in the new space looked like:

Hopefully this Monday will look a little different.

Harry Potter Week

Come to the Library at Lunch to

celebrate Harry Potter Week

October 30 – November 3, 2017!

 

Monday, October 30 – read books, word searched, colouring pages

Tuesday, October 31 – Halloween – Harry Potter costume contest – prizes – Harry Potter characters only!

Wednesday, November 1 – Harry Potter Lego Movie

Thursday, November 2 – Harry Potter Kahoot – trivia game – prizes

Friday, November 3 – play a fun game of Quiddich!

Praying Mantis

Stop by the library to check out our latest acquisitions, praying mantis nymphs. Bring a container – I am giving them away!

 

Makerspace

Mme. Bronwen and I ran a Makerspace experience for her grades 4 & 5 French Immersion students this year. After two sessions with recycle bin materials, we switched to Tinker Toys, building blocks, PlusPlus and other prefabricated, commercially available materials. Engagement was high and it was a great sandbox for developing social skills necessary for effective group work (not always easy).

‘

‘

These makerspace experiences were inspired in part by our Professional Book Club selection, Invent to Learn, an introduction to the maker movement in educational settings.

May the Fourth Be With You

May the Fourth

was an exciting day at Strathcona. It was our third annual Star Wars Reads celebration and the library offered numerous fun literacy activities. Above, you can see our bulletin board, that grew over a week, building anticipation. Staff and students came dressed as favourite Star Wars characters. One of my favourites, was the Princess Leia hoodie:

 

At recess and lunch we had Star Wars books on display and pencil/paper activities. The ultimate activity was the Star Wars Trivia Game Show, set up by tech guru Mme. Annie. Using the site, Kahoot and a projector/screen, kids answered Star Wars trivia questions using iPads. It was a tad tricky for some of the primary students to log in, but the intermediates gladly helped as many as they could. We also ran a draw for students who could guess how long the average Wookie lifespan is (400 years).

Locally raised brothers Jack and Holman Wang are the authors and needle felt artists of the Star Wars Epic Yarn board book series, one of my favourite children’s series. Ever popular, the Star Wars phonic books are a hit for hight interest low vocab seekers.

Explore Web Features

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

 

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/

https://www.historicacanada.ca/

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/home/

Home

http://www.canadashistory.ca/

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/index.php

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/exploration-settlement/pathfinders-passageways/Pages/pathfinders-passageways.aspx

 

 

Evaluating Websites

http://www.petroldirect.com/

Select a website below and use the CRAAP test to decide if the site is credible or not.

http://www.thedogisland.com/

http://www.molossia.org/countryeng.html

http://zapatopi.net/afdb/

http://www.dhmo.org/

Home

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

http://buydehydratedwatermt.weebly.com/