Can a skeleton have an x-ray? by Kyle Hughes-Odgers our book of the week.

Can a skeleton have an x-ray?

By Kyle Hughes-Odgers

Freemantle Press

“How does sound taste?
Do colours smell?
Why do onions make me cry?
Who builds the wings for birds to fly?”

 

These are just some of the big questions in this delightful picture book which is our book of the week. This is a wonderful book to sit with friends and ask each other questions. Whether you are reading this together with friends or by yourself do take the time to enjoy it and see where your answers take you?

There are certainly questions I would love to know the answer to.  “What happens under my bed?” I really hate to think what might be happening under there while I sleep. Maybe my cats are sleeping under there or maybe there is a trapdoor with stairs leading far below the earth and maybe even out the other side? What do you you think happens underneath your bed? Come and tell me. Come and read the book.

It is also a great one for teachers to use in class to get into some deep discussions about how the world works. Teachers please use this link to take you to some teaching notes which will make this book even more fun to read and use with students.

 

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MAR
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NASA shares images of every letter of the alphabet from space

Welcome back to everyone. I hope your holidays were filled with heaps of fun and sunshine. I also hope you had a chance to read a few books.

As we know, books are made up of words and the words are made up from letters in the alphabet. Well, take the time to watch this incredible video from NASA on images they found on letters of the alphabet. All the images are from far off in space.

What an extraordinary world we live in and what fantastic views. Later this year we will be looking at space so this is perfect for everyone.

 

 

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FEB
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Why Reading the Same Book Repeatedly Is Good for Kids (Even If It Drives You Nuts) @dcorneal Some great advice here

Often in the school library or in the bookshop I work in on Saturday’s parents ask me about moving children on from the books they love. The books they want to read over and over again. While I am always keen to help challenge and move children forward or in different directions it must be pointed out that there is still so much to be gained by allowing our children to read their books over and over. It is not just the picture books you read to your children but the books they read by themselves. I have always said that if they love reading Geronimo Stilton – let them read as many as they want. They will move on when they are ready – some may need prompting but  don’t discourage them from reading the whole series if they want. This article is a very short but wonderful insight in to reasons why it is okay to read the same books and just how much our children benefit from doing so. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Why Reading the Same Book Repeatedly Is Good for Kids (Even If It Drives You Nuts)   by Devon Corneal

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays and find some time in the sun to sit back and read.

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JAN
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Year six leavers mosaic panel gifts to the library

Wow! Just wow! What more can I say.

A group of year six leavers decided to leave their special mark on our library walls. These wonderful mosaics have been created as a gift to the school after all their years here. And what a gift! The mosaic panels line the entrance to the library. One panel leads us to a world of stories and fantasy and the other is dedicated to non-fiction and highlights facts found in books. So much time and work has gone in to these panels and they truly are beautiful.

A huge thank you to the boys and girls who created these wonderful panels and making our library entrance so amazing. So proud of you all.

I wish you all the very best as you venture off to Intermediate.

 

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DEC
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FOS book club students on our annual trek to Trengrove Kindergarten to share stories

The year six book club has grown so much this year that it had to be split in to two groups. We still did heaps of reading and had some great discussions.

One of the special things we do at the end of the year is trek down to our local kindergarten and share Christmas stories with the young children. It is wonderful to see that all the boys and girls in book club get right in to the spirit of it all and enjoy reading picture books to the wee ones. I love the community feel between all the children and it is a highlight of the term when we all make our way down the road – wearing our Santa hats of course.

Unfortunately not everyone can be in book club as there is limited room and time but if you are moving into year six next year and are keen for a challenge, come and let me know.

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Our year six Faultline Fiction Fanatics book club students after the event. A great way to end the year!

9
DEC
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Dolls returned to Fendalton School after 90 years

 

 

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I had a lovely chat with Mrs Bobbity Murfitt last week. Mrs Murfitt has very kindly gifted two amazing dolls to our school. The dolls are dressed in our school uniform of the 1920’s and were part of the 50th celebrations of our school in 1925.
Mrs Murfitt’s grandmother,  Mary Ambridge made the dresses when her children, Margaret, Patricia, Joan, Audrey and Barbara were students here in the 1920’s. The dolls are amazing and we are so lucky to have them as they represent our past.   I love the little cap and hat with FOS hand embroidered on them. Very authentic.
We have decided to name the dolls Mary and Robert, after the Ambridge parents. The dolls are being kept safe but we will be looking at getting a special case to showcase them. They are in wonderful condition and we want them to stay that way. We have our 150th birthday in 2025 and it will be just perfect to have them on show once again.
So a massive thank you to Mrs Murfitt for your wonderful gift to our school. A real taonga.
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DEC
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The opening of the new Te Hāpua Halswell Centre

What a wonderful day on Saturday. The sun was shining down as a large crowd gathered for the opening of the new Te Hāpua Halswell Centre. Well done to the Halswell School Kapa Haka team for their performance on this special occasion. Even a lonely monarch butterfly fluttered overhead giving us its blessing.

This is the new community facility with a swimming pool and so many rooms to have meetings and events but of course the best bit is the new library. It is stunning. The building is so light and fresh and seems to go on forever. It really is fantastic. We are so lucky to be living in this wonderful city where we have access to so many libraries.  Of course there are computers and free WiFi and pre-school programmes too and access to so much more. And yes! I did come away with a pile of books to read and a huge smile on my face.

It was lovely to see brothers, Sam and George  (past and current pupil ) flicking through many books and enjoying the atmosphere. Great choice of books there, boys! Their dad had a huge part to play in the design and building of this new centre and I have to say – it really is a wonderful place.

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I love the little spaces where you can hide away and forget about the world while you slip between the pages of a book into other worlds. This little corner looks out on to the swimming pool. (sorry about the reflection).

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We are very lucky to have our own wonderful school library but do take a visit to the new centre. I know you will all love it.  For more on our city libraries click here. If you are not yet a member I encourage you all to join.

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NOV
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Our library tree decked out in a Christmas Winter Wonderland

Our library tree looks amazing. Our lovely caretaker has been hard at work again and the tree is looking very much like a winter Christmas. There is a train whizzing round the tracks in and out behind the tree. The secret cave has elves sitting around a camp fire reading books. Just delightful. Do pop in and have a look. As the children say – “it is awesome”.

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25
NOV
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Maker Monday: Today’s challenge – spaghetti and marshmallows

Once again the library was buzzing with chatter and creative thoughts. Students had the challenge of creating any structure they wanted as long as it could stand up by itself. The only tools they had were dry spaghetti and marshmallows. Lots of thinking going on and I love how they shared their ideas. I especially love the Eiffel Tower from Phoebe and Lily.

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Noah and Tabitha’s 3D cube.

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Jasmine and her hanging structure.

Lots of fun. Look out for another challenge coming soon.

9
NOV
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Still a chance to support our school library with Book Island

Thank you to everyone who went on to the Fendalton Open-Air School Facebook page and shared our fundraising poster. An email did go out to parents but this is just a reminder that the idea is  by sharing the page with family and friends, others too might share the page so that we could end up reaching hundreds of people. Anyone at all up and down New Zealand buying books from Book Island up until 10th November will have 35 percent of the profits donated to our school library for new books. That would be awesome. Anyone in the school community buying from Book Island themselves, can save postage and have the books delivered free to school and I will hold them until you can pick them up. If you have not been on to our Facebook Page it would be fantastic if you could do it soon. If you are not on Facebook it would be great if you could just let people know to check out the library blog and read the poster below.

Many thanks to all who have done so.

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NOV
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Piper is our special visitor in the library today

Today was a special mufti day where students dressed up with a Christmas theme and brought in a gold coin donation for charity.

Team 17 came into the library all dressed in bright Christmas colours but they didn’t come alone.

They brought a special visitor.  Piper came in with her teacher/owner to listen to stories.  Here she is listening to Nyah and obviously enjoying the pictures too by the look of things.

 

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Piper is a Standard Poodle and as you can see very keen on reading! She even wanted her own book out. Great to see that she wore her reindeer ears getting right in to the spirit of our special day.

 

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28
OCT
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Our library OPAC has had an upgrade. Check it out!

Over the last two days I have been playing with the new upgrade from Access-it to our school library OPAC (Online public access catalogue).

You will see it has a whole new home page with lots of extra library news items for you to read and enjoy. You can still search for your books but there are a few tricks I will show you to make searching easier and more fun. You can always ask me to help if you are not sure but try having a look around here first. We will have sessions on this when you come to the library. You can find the link to the OPAC on the side bar of this blog under favourites. Or you can click on the image here to get started. This page will be moved along by other posts so it is always good to remember the side bar because that is going to always be there for you to find quickly.

There are some very cool book trailers you can click on too and watch. Enjoy and come and let me know what you think of the upgrade. There are still things I have to do and I am learning too but do just ask and maybe we can work things out together. Teamwork is always great!

book trolley

22
OCT
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Juniors enjoying a lovely spring day under the blossoms

It is great to be back for term four. I hope you all had lovely holidays and read lots of good books.The grounds around our library are looking gorgeous. The trees lining the path are laden with blossoms and are simply stunning. The new library signpost looks as if it is in its own little wonderland with the over-hanging pink blossoms.

           One  of our junior teams decided it was just too nice to stay indoors today and spent time under the blossoms sharing ideas and enjoying the sunshine. Some of the children made up their own pretend games of how they would get to the places on the signpost. How cool would that be to travel to Hogwarts!

 

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OCT
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Andy Griffiths with some of his Fendalton Fans

It was lovely to see some of our Fendalton children queuing up to meet the famous Australian author Andy Griffiths when he was at The Original Children’s Bookshop on Saturday.
I was there too, working, but thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere. The queue was out the door and around the corner but no one seemed to mind. His books are so popular and even with multiple copies of his books they are always out and issued to eager readers. It was awesome to see that he loves his readers too as you can by the smile on his face. His one hour turned into two so we were very lucky. Andy told us that in Australia sometimes the queue is five hours long. That is incredible.
Check out Miya, Arnika and Abbie with their Andy Griffiths books. Check out his site if you want to know more about him and his writing. Andy shares some great tips about writing and getting his ideas. So if his words inspire you and you feel like writing a story of you own over the holidays I would love to see them when you have finished. Or if you are real keen you can use your google docs account and share them with me so I can read them over the holidays.

I hope you are all still having fun. See you next term.

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OCT
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Andy Griffiths

Author Andy Griffiths coming to Christchurch these holidays

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Very exciting news that author Andy Griffiths will be in Christchurch in the school holidays.

His famous and very funny Tree-house books are so popular that even with multiple copies they are always out of the library on loan.

Who:     Andy Griffiths

Where: Original Children’s Bookshop

             Shop 5

             Blenheim Square

             227 Blenheim Road.

When:  Saturday, October 3, 2-3pm.

He is very busy and we are so lucky he is coming to the Children’s Bookshop shop but he will only be able to sign books and not put personal names in them. He will also only be able to sign two books per person. It has been quite a few years since he was in Christchurch so do try and get to see him when he is here.

I will be there too so do come and say hi!  In the mean time enjoy a little trailer and listen to Andy discuss his 26-Story Treehouse book. Or you can find out more about Andy on his website.

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SEP
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Percy Jackson and the lightning thief 10th birthday celebrations in the library

To celebrate Percy Jackson’s 10th year of publication we held a Percy party at lunch time today. It was crazy with heaps of senior children answering questions about Percy Jackson and his books. You could tell straight away who the real fans were with their hands up constantly. Some children created posters, and one even wrote poem about Percy. It was a hectic, noisy library with lots of bookmarks given out as prizes for answering questions. I hate to admit it but they knew more than I did. I had to look at the answers. I will have to read my books again.
I want to thank our wonderful caretaker for creating such wonderful props to add to our display.

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Check out this awesome trailer for author Rick Riordan’s latest series, coming soon. Can’t wait!
Magnus Chase and the gods of Asgard

 

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SEP
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Another wonderful Maker Monday in the library

We held another Maker Monday session in the library at lunch time today, this time for some year five students.

Their challenge was to create the tallest structure they could, using only pipe cleaners. No tape or glue was allowed.

They put themselves in to little teams and began some wonderful discussions. Midway through they were instructed to hold one hand behind their back and carry on. The next challenge was to be allowed two hands again but no talking. They had to find some other way to communicate.

This was a bigger challenge for some of them but it was fun. So much fun in fact that the children did the challenge several times.

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Maker Monday – our first Makerspace session in the library

What a busy lunch time we had today. We started our first Maker Monday with some year six students who re-purposed some old faulty books turning them into hedgehogs. It was a hive of activity and conversation. Unfortunately we ran out of time to add feet but the children were happy with their end product.  It was wonderful to see so many boys participating in the activity. Today’s effort was all about folding paper and maintaining a sense of shape and symbolism so not only fun but learning a long the way.

We will hold other activities for other year levels.

On some occasions we will have the year six students helping our young year ones. Some children have decided to paint the bottom of the hedgehogs and write special messages for Father’s Day.

 

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AUG
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A wonderful celebration of popcorn and poetry to mark NZ Poetry Day

Today at lunch time was a feast of popcorn and poetry to celebrate NZ Poetry Day.

Children packed in to the library to recite old favourite poems. Many read their own creative poems which was just delightful. So many talented children.

It was lovely also to see so many children standing up and reading poems out loud together. For every poem read out children received a handful of popcorn and a bookmark. It takes courage to stand up in front of other students and read out your poems so I thank you all for making this another Fendalton School day to sparkle and shine.

We have heaps of poetry books in the library if you want to read more and you can check out the very creative Poetry Box where a number of children from Fendalton have had poems published online.

 

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