What should I read over the holiday?

Looking for book recommendations for December holiday reading? Look no further than here!

This playlist has links to 2013 Best Of lists for the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and the US. PLus, look here for the 2013 - 2014 Red Dot Shortlists, suggestions for books about December holidays, and suggestions for reluctant readers.

*For some reason, the playlist is taking a long time to load. Be patient or try this link.

Seasons Readings!

What's going on? News for Kids

Want to know what's going on in Singapore or in other parts of the world? I've made a list of news sites on the library homepage for students. Let me know if you know of other great news sites and I will add them to the list.

Here's where to find the list:

Library Catalog Homepage- catalog.uwcsea.edu.sg 

Select East Primary Library

Stay on the Home tab- not Catalog

(Not Destiny Quest) 

Scroll down to: 

You'll see a list like this:

Enjoy finding out more about what's going on in the world!

Name a Book Character who shows a Commitment to Care.

There's a new "black board" in the Round Room in the Primary School Library for students and teachers to add comments about particular topics. For now, the topic is Connecting the UWCSEA Profile with Book Characters. Our first focus is: Name a book character who shows a Commitment to Care.

I chose Commitment to Care because November 13 was World Kindness Day (better late than never!) And really, every day should be Kindness Day. There's a display of books in the library as well. 

Feel free to start the conversation with your classes when you are in the library. Ask the library staff for the chalk. 

Click here for the blog post about lists of books to go with the UWCSEA Profile as well as many other lists on Destiny, our library catalog. 

Lists of stories to teach....

I've created lists of stories you might want to use to promote the UWC Profile with your classes on Destiny, our library catalog.  Please help me add to these lists. Unfortunately, you cannot add to the lists  directly on the library catalog. Please email any titles you have used and I will add them.

Here's how to find the lists:

1. Go to Primary Library catalog-  http://catalog.uwcsea.edu.sg/

2. Click on Visual Search.

3. Here you will find many, many, many icons that are linked to lists of all sorts.

4. Scroll down to: 

There's also an icon for books that deal with social and emotional concerns. 

Do we have....in the Library?

Do we have a book?

You can always find out by going to our online catalog: http://catalog.uwcsea.edu.sg

Select "East Primary Library" and then "Catalog" to start searching.

If you have an Apple or Android mobile device, you can have the library catalog instantly available for searching using the free  Destiny Quest app.

iTunes Version

Android/Google Play Version

After you install it, you need to tell it where to find our library catalog on the internet. 

http://catalog.uwcsea.edu.sg

Select the East Primary library and you're in!

To simply search, explore as a "guest".

To see your own account and books out on loan, log in.

Students/Teachers:   You can log into your account with your regular UWCSEA id (e.g., smith12345) and password to see what books you have out.  

Parents:  Your UWCSEA login/password is NOT automatically loaded into the library system (as there are so many of you).  Instead our library staff hand-create you a library account, so you can tell us what you want your library login/password to be.  Come into the library or email us at libraryeast@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg to set up login information.

For more information on using the app, see these YouTube videos made by Follett, the company that makes our library catalog software:

• Downloading and Configuring the Destiny Quest mobile app
• Learn the features of the Destiny Quest mobile app

What's your bookprint?

"Read every day. Lead a better life." is a Scholastic campaign to promote the importance and value of reading. The website provides book trailers, posters, and teacher resources. Scholastic has partnered up with some talented illustrators and celebrities to promote reading. There are PDFs of some beautiful posters by Wimpy Kid author, Jeff Kinney, Captain Underpants author, Dav Pilkey, Amulet author Kazu Kibuishi and many more for you to download and print. 

One of the ideas that I really like is the Bookprint- a list of 5 books that have had an impact on a person's life. I'm not that keen on the use of celebrities but I really like the list.  It was tough to come up with 5 books that children can relate to but here goes:

What's your bookprint?

Back to School!

Welcome back! Thank you for your patience during the first week of school. The Primary School Library will be open as of Monday 26 August.

Our hours are 7:30 - 4:30. 

Here's more general info about the Libraries @East. 


Parents may check out up to 5 books.


After school: 

• Please have drinks and snacks outside.
• Infant School students must be supervised. 
• Junior School waiting for activities should read or do homework quietly. 

See you soon!

June in the Library

It's almost that time again....
Below is a great deal of information about the end of the school year in the library. Here's a link to a calendar to help you remember important dates. 

• The last day for student borrowing is May 31. 
• June 3-7: Classes are welcome to visit the library for story telling and reading but there will be no student check out. There will be an exhibit in the Round Room (the yellow room with the colorful carpet) called "Footprints of a Migrant" for classes to view. Here's a link for more info and a Teacher's Guide. 
• June 10-19: Library will be closed to classes, during break times, and after school. Returns only, please. 

We realize that you will still need books to continue running an academic program. However, (I won't name names but... :) some of you still have books that were checked out way back in September. Keep what you absolutely need but we would like the majority of books checked out to staff  (and class libraries) returned by Friday June 7. 

Keep an eye out for National Library Books as well. We will send cover images out once we get the updated overdue list from the NLB.

Student book deadline is Wednesday June 5. Please add this date to any parent info that you are sending out. 

To reduce the amount of paper we use, overdue notices will be emailed to teachers and students in grades 3-5. Please remind students to check their email and perhaps forward the lists to parents for help in locating books. 

Please ask TAs and students to sort through your books before returning them to weed out your class library books, guided/independent readers, book sets, your personal books, etc. 

• Books with a sticker like this, do not need to be returned:

We would like to inventory your class library (CL- books with the sticker above) books over the holiday. Please leave them out in one place so that Kalimah and Shirin can find them easily. 

• Book sets with a sticker like below, should be returned to your grade's book cupboard. 
• Any book sets in your book cupboard without this sticker, need to be returned to the library. 

 

When you receive your overdue notices, please don't worry too much if there are books on the list that you haven't see in a while. We have tried to tidy up your lists so that resources from a long time ago are marked as lost. 

Don't panic! We will be reasonable and flexible. 

However, here are some incentives:

Be the first teacher (who has books checked out) to return all books checked out in his/her name and receive a bottle of wine.  

Be the first teacher to return all books checked out to your class library (not the class library books with the CL sticker) and receive a bottle of wine. 

The first class with all student books returned will receive some sort of sweet treat. 
There will be one winner in Infants and one in Juniors. 

**I'm sure the last thing you need is such a long blog post to read. So, be the first person to email me that you've read it to then end and you'll get a bottle of wine! 

What are you going to read over the Holiday?

Not sure what to read over the holiday? Here are some lists of great books to get you started.

These lists are compiled by teachers, librarians, and other experts in children's literature. They are to be taken as guides to interesting titles not as school endorsed must-read lists. Every child has different abilities and interest so please use these lists as starting point to help your child a book in which he or she can escape. Enjoy!

           

The Readers Cup 2013- Update!

Congratulations UWCSEA East! 
We are very proud of your hard work and good sportsmanship. Here are the Readers Cup Results. 

Younger Readers

1st place:      Singapore American School - 81.1 points

2nd place:    SJI International - 81.0 points

3rd place:    UWCSEA East - 76.4 points

NB:  The difference of 0.1 between first and second place!

Older Readers

1st place:      SJI International - 75.9 points

2nd place:    UWCSEA Dover - 71.2 points

3rd place:     Australian International School Singapore - 69.6 points

Mature Readers

1st place:     German European School Singapore - 60.4 points

2nd place:   SJI International - 57.1 points 

3rd place:    UWCSEA East - 56.5 points

SJI Institution International School will host the Singapore Red Dot Readers Cup competition on Wednesday May 22 4:00-6:00 PM in their Main Hall. 

The Readers Cup is where teams from different international schools will test their knowledge of books from the Red Dot awards in two categories: 

Younger (Grades 2, 3, and 4) and Older (Grades 4, 5, and 6).

Eighteen students in grades 2-5 have been preparing after school for 5 weeks. Our team members are:

Younger Readers:

Aditya Nirish Unni

Arya Bhandari

Vanshika Vhoudhary

Aishu Santosh

TejaPrakash

Divya Kartik

Older Readers:

Veda Shah

Vidhushi Harit

Anya Arora

Anya D’Souza

Vidhi Shah

Seo Yeon Kim

Alternates:

Aarush Yendamuri

Ivana Arora

Laranya Sharma

Seo Yeon Kim

Sophia Hamlen

Uditi Gupta

Wyatt Lichko

Morning Meetings- New Resources

Thanks to Karl, we have many new resources to help you with ideas for your Morning Meetings. These new books are in the Blue Room in the Primary Library.  Many are on display on the top of the bookshelves, so please stop by and have a look.

For more information, here is a link to a resource list called Morning Meetings on the library catalog.

Is there a book about...?

Teachers often ask for book recommendations to read to their classes to help with social and emotional concerns. The end of the school tends to bring about friendship issues that may not have problems earlier in the year.

Here are some links to resource lists on our library catalog that you might want to use in your Morning Meetings. Have a look and see if any of these titles might address your concerns.

Bullying, Teasing, and Getting Along

Adoption

Divorce

Different Kinds of Families 

Moving Away

Unfortunately, situations arise when we need to help students with grief and loss. Sometimes, a great picture book can open the door to difficult conversations and help students realize that they are not alone.

Here's a link to a resource list called Grief and Loss on the library catalog that includes books about loss of pets as well as grandparents. There are also books about the general concept of death.

How Green Are You?

It's almost Earth Day. The Lorax and The Wump World are two of my favorite books to use this time fo year but, we've created a display in the library of other fiction and nonfiction books that you might want to use with your classes.  Stop by the library to check out a book for Earth Day. Also, have a look at the resources below.

  

                                       

   Image courtesy of Michelle at http://qreateandtrack.com/2011/04/22/happy-earth-day/

Red Dot Voting

Voting will take place from March 6-13.

As the Red Dots are a "children's choice" award, only students may vote.

Students may vote for ONE book in each category (Early Years, Younger Readers, Older Readers).  

There is no minimum number of books that must be read.  

Simply one vote per student per category.

Votes are collected for one week.

Infant classes will vote for the Early Years category in the library during regular library check out time. A voting table will be set up in the yellow, round room. Students will be given one bean to vote for their favorite book.  Miss Kalimah will have the beans.

Junior classes will vote online via this google form. Our voting code is UWCRED2.

Important Dates:

Voting: March 6-13

Winners announced: March 16

Readers' Cup Activity: Session 4

Readers' Cup: May (exact date TBD)

Mother Language Story Telling during Book Week

So many books, so many languages...story time in mother languages. 

Following another successful Mother Language Day, we'd like to establish a tradition of parents reading stories to native/fluent speakers in the Junior School during Book Week.

We are looking for parent volunteers to share stories in mother languages. If you're interested, please bring your children's favourite picture book and novel to read to children in Grades 2-5 in the Primary Library at lunch time. This would be a half hour commitment on a day of your choice - 25 February–1 March, 11.45am-12.15pm.

Please click here to sign up. For more information, contact Sharon Tymms.

Reading Rocks! Book Week February 25 - March 1

Below is info about the week. 

Feel free to do more in your class or grade.

Our theme for the week is:

Reading Rocks!

Print the posters here.

New to UWC? Or just can't remember anything from last year? 

Here's a link to General Info and other ideas.

Daily Events:

Math Monday- Kick off the week by using a picture book to help teach a math lesson. Need ideas? Ask Tilson! or check out the selection of books in the math resource room or stop by the library.

Poem in your Pocket Tuesday- everyone comes to school prepared to share a poem -- either in their pocket to be read or in their head to be recited. Don't forget to ask students to share their poems!

Rock Your Reading Shoes Wednesday- This day is inspired by "Pete the Cat: Rocking in my School Shoes", a Red Dot book. Students can wear shoes other than their school shoes today. For example: Converse or high tops like Pete's, slippers, trainers, sandals, rain boots, or any fun shoes. (If your class has PE, remind kids to bring in appropriate shoes.) Make sure to read the book and watch the video.  

Thinking Thursday- focus on nonfiction. Jan Latta, an Australian author/photographer will present to K2-Gr 5.

Dress Up Friday- Come to school dressed as a favorite book character. Click here for costume ideas. Infant/Junior assembly at 8:30.

Click here for a timetable of special events during the week.

Week Long Events:

Book Nooks- Be on the look out for special reading areas with bean bags and pillows around campus for reading books before school and throughout Morning Break and Lunch Break. Thanks in advance to Grade 3 for organizing this!

Bookmark Competition- Each class will be given blank bookmarks to decorate to celebrate our theme, Reading Rocks! There will be a winner in each grade. Copies of the winning bookmarks will be available in the library a couple of weeks later. Bookmarks are due to the library by Friday March 1. For more info, click here.

Guest Readers- Sign up with your available times on the google doc. A guest reader will contact you.

Red Dot Award- Voting will be March 6-13 so encourage students to read these books so they will be able to vote for their favorite.  

Want more ideas? Pair a book with a cooking activity, invite a parent in as a  guest reader, extra DropEvereythingAndRead time outside your regular reading time, etc...Click here for even more ideas.