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.