Scholastic Book Fair

IT'S BOOK FAIR WEEK 😃

and I can't wait!

You will all have the opportunity to come into the library with your class to view the fantastic display of books and non book items. We can make up wish lists to take home to share with our families, then ..... we'll count up our pocket money and.................  start buying our goodies on Thursday morning. 👍

You'll see on the programme below that there are times before and after school when you can bring your families to browse and buy too.

Thursday is DRESS UP DAY

Which book character will you dress up as? It could be fun to dress as any character then make up a book title to match your outfit! What do you think?

We look forward to seeing you in the library buzzing about books from Wednesday to next Monday. 

😄

Grandparent and special friends day 14 June

We do hope you can bring your special people into the library during lunchtime on Thursday to share your favourite books. 😃

The importance of reading picture books with your littlies

What's Going On In Your Child's Brain When You Read Them A Story?

This article published by blogger Anya Kamenetz from National Public Radio in the US is a valuable reminder to us all about the value of actually physically reading to our pre-schoolers.

"I want The Three Bears!"

These days parents, caregivers and teachers have lots of options when it comes to fulfilling that request. You can read a picture book, put on a cartoon, play an audiobook, or even ask Alexa.

A newly published study gives some insight into what may be happening inside young children's brains in each of those situations. And, says lead author Dr. John Hutton, there is an apparent "Goldilocks effect" — some kinds of storytelling may be "too cold" for children, while others are "too hot." And, of course, some are "just right."

Hutton is a researcher and pediatrician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital with a special interest in "emergent literacy" — the process of learning to read.

For the study, 27 children around age 4 went into an FMRI machine. They were presented with stories in three conditions: audio only; the illustrated pages of a storybook with an audio voiceover; and an animated cartoon. All three versions came from the Web site of Canadian author Robert Munsch.

While the children paid attention to the stories, the MRI, the machine scanned for activation within certain brain networks, and connectivity between the networks.

"We went into it with an idea in mind of what brain networks were likely to be influenced by the story," Hutton explains. One was language. One was visual perception. The third is called visual imagery. The fourth was the default mode network, which Hutton calls, "the seat of the soul, internal reflection — how something matters to you."

The default mode network includes regions of the brain that appear more active when someone is not actively concentrating on a designated mental task involving the outside world.

In terms of Hutton's "Goldilocks effect," here's what the researchers found:

In the audio-only condition (too cold): language networks were activated, but there was less connectivity overall. "There was more evidence the children were straining to understand."

In the animation condition (too hot): there was a lot of activity in the audio and visual perception networks, but not a lot of connectivity among the various brain networks. "The language network was working to keep up with the story," says Hutton. "Our interpretation was that the animation was doing all the work for the child. They were expending the most energy just figuring out what it means." The children's comprehension of the story was the worst in this condition.

The illustration condition was what Hutton called "just right".

When children could see illustrations, language-network activity dropped a bit compared to the audio condition. Instead of only paying attention to the words, Hutton says, the children's understanding of the story was "scaffolded" by having the images as clues.

"Give them a picture and they have a cookie to work with," he explains. "With animation it's all dumped on them all at once and they don't have to do any of the work."

Most importantly, in the illustrated book condition, researchers saw increased connectivity between — and among — all the networks they were looking at: visual perception, imagery, default mode and language.

"For 3- to 5-year-olds, the imagery and default mode networks mature late, and take practice to integrate with the rest of the brain," Hutton explains. "With animation you may be missing an opportunity to develop them."

When we read to our children, they are doing more work than meets the eye. "It's that muscle they're developing bringing the images to life in their minds."

Hutton's concern is that in the longer term, "kids who are exposed to too much animation are going to be at risk for developing not enough integration."

Overwhelmed by the demands of processing language, without enough practice, they may also be less skilled at forming mental pictures based on what they read, much less reflecting on the content of a story. This is the stereotype of a "reluctant reader" whose brain is not well-versed in getting the most out of a book.

One interesting note is that, because of the constraints of an MRI machine, which encloses and immobilizes your body, the story-with-illustrations condition wasn't actually as good as reading on Mom or Dad's lap.

The emotional bonding and physical closeness, Hutton says, were missing. So were the exchanges known as "dialogic reading," where caregivers point out specific words or prompt children to "show me the cat?" in a picture. "That's a whole other layer," of building reading Hutton says.

In an ideal world, you would always be there to read to your child. The results of this small, preliminary study also suggest that, when parents do turn to electronic devices for young children, they should gravitate toward the most stripped-down version of a narrated, illustrated ebook, as opposed to either audio-only or animation.

EPIC reading

Many of our students read regularly on networked digital reading site EPIC. A favourite pastime is to listen to audio books while following the paper copy like these boys are.


















We have begun the search to find as many books as we can in our collection to match EPIC's audio books. These are the ones we have found so far.

If you see a title that you might want to read on your device with EPIC , come on in and and have it issued. 👍😉

How to help our students read at home

Here are some ideas to help with reading with your children at home. 

With my story books from the library it would be great if :

·         you read them to me using lots of expressive voices

·         you don’t expect me to be able to read the whole book though I like to have fun predicting what the next word or idea might be

·         you invite me to join in repetitive bits

·         we have a fun time reading together

With my non-fiction, information books from the library could we :

·         talk about the topic, because if I’ve chosen this book, I’m probably really interested in it

·         make some links to the book about things I know / that happen in our own family life

·         look at the pictures and relate them to some key words in the text

Can you ask me some questions about the topic to see how much I might know already?

With our younger students who are bringing reading books home from the classroom, here are some more ideas to guide you.

I like reading to you when:

·         we have a regular time that's right for both of us so you are not distracted

·         we have a quiet, comfortable place that is just for us

·         we talk about the book, its title and illustrations, so I can find out what it's about. It only takes a couple of minutes and it helps me focus my thoughts on what I will expect you help me with - like finding some of the tricky words, like `ferocious' and `gnawed', and you tell me what they mean, before I read.

·         I can hold the book for myself and turn my own page.

·         you DON'T cover up the pictures. They make the book fun, and they help me to decide which reading clues to use.

·         you stay as quiet as you can and only help me when I am really stuck

·         you tell me when I'm doing a good job.

You can really help me when:

·         you understand that I am doing the best I can. It really upsets me when you say "That's wrong, I've told you that word before, you should know it by now!" or "That's wrong, sound it out." Instead, please think of something that will help me work it out, like this: "You just read `the fireman pulled the house off the truck and aimed it at the fire.' Does that make sense? What do you think he might have pulled off the truck, that makes sense?”

·         you let me continue to read if my mistake makes sense (e.g. if I say "This is my home" when the words in the book are "This is my house") because I'm still reading for meaning.

·         You learn how to help me when I do get stuck

If I have trouble you can :

·         wait about 10 seconds before you interrupt. I might be thinking about it already

·         tell me to get my mouth ready for the word I don't know e.g. "The boy fell into the w- - - - ." help me to think of a word that would make sense e.g. "What could the boy fall into?" remind me to look at the picture for a clue e.g. "Look where the boy fell in the picture."

·         give me a clue for the meaning of the word

·         read the first part of the sentence back to me e.g. "The boy fell in the ....."

·         encourage me to read the first part of the sentence again

·         say "That's right" or "Good try" and then let me continue reading so I don't lose the plot.

When we have finished you can :

·         praise my efforts and my self-corrections such as, "I liked it when you went back and self-corrected changing `river' to `water'. That was clever."

·         praise my efforts for trying to make my reading interesting for you, such as "I liked the way you used a squeaky voice for the mouse."

·         talk with me about our favourite parts of the story such as. "You obviously liked the part about ... Why?"

·         talk with me about the pictures in the book to help me see their connection to the story and details I might have missed

·         talk with me about what might have happened if ....

·         talk with me about what might have happened next ...

·         ask me questions about the characters and the plot of the book such as "How did you feel when the giant was angry? Can you find that part in the book? Did you think he deserved to get stung by the bees? Why?" This helps me really understand the story and the relationships between the characters and what happened to them.

·         ask me what I might have done if I had been in that situation

·         talk with me about the language in the book and new words I might have learned or not understood

·         suggest other books on similar topics to the book I enjoyed.

·         say something nice that will make me want to read to you again

Of course, I want to remember the magic of the story so don't ask me all these things at once, just one or two so I can think about what I have read and what I have learned.

If we are not enjoying ourselves we can :

·         stop and try again another time

·         take turns at reading a page each, especially if the words are really hard

·         let you read while I listen

·         choose another book

Reproduced with permission from Barbara Braxton, Teacher Librarian

Tuhono library readers

Tuhono and Te Phinga students are looking so comfortable in their 2018 Reading Skins

And so is Mrs C who is revisiting a favourite book of short stories at home :)

The Sapling

The Sapling 

is a fairly new - first published in March 2017,  but utterly fabulous addition to the NZ literary world. Its aim is to engage readers of all ages 'in conversations about childrens books ..... because books grow humans.'
Do take time to check out the eZine link here and read some of the gems within:

THE SAPLING

In this you will find (mainly NZ 👍,) author / illustrator interviews and conversations,  book reviews, a quiz, facts and statistics, book chats and lists for different ages and genre, as well as opinion pieces.

I enjoyed reading about our Prime Ministers reading journey as a child and teenager in the December issue. 

Jacinda Adern: The books of my childhood