Let’s take care of library books and our backs!

I am very excited to be Elsie Roy’s teacher-librarian again this year. I am getting to know your children and their reading interests, and I love to get a good book in their hands to enjoy.

To ensure that these good books are able to be read by many students, this month students are learning about the best way to take care of library books (and classroom teacher books too).

Students are aware that one of the biggest threats to books is water damage. Please ensure students:

  1. pack their water bottles in the outside pocket of their backpack,
  2. they are able to close up their lunch kits,
  3. and to know to put agendas and books in the back pocket (if they have one). Books, agendas, and paper love that separate pocket for an exact layer of protection!

To keep your child’s back safe, please adjust straps so they are tight (but not too tight or loose.) Also, for back health, please remind your child to wear both straps.

Search Tips for Search Engines

Try using one or more of these tips to help you find what you are looking for more quickly.

1. Use the tabs:
-search engines usually have: all, images, videos, maps, …
-if looking for a photo, click on images tab for a quicker find

2. Use quotation marks:
-if you search for Puppy Dog Sweaters, the engine will search for content that contains those three words in any order
-if you search “Puppy Dog Sweaters”, it will search for that phrase exactly as you typed

3. Use a hyphen to exclude words:
-if you search bats, the animal, you can search: bats
-sports -baseball

4. Use OR to search for multiple words:
-chocolate OR white chocolate search will give search results on both types of chocolate

5. Use key words:
-keep it simple by using a few specific words
-example of too many words: What do tigers eat in the wild?
-example of key words: tiger diet

6. Ignore ads listed above found items:
-many search engines have advertisers whose ads are usually listed first
-scroll down to the entries listed that do not have the “Ad” tag

7. Don’t worry about spelling:
-the search engine will ask if tigrs was meant to be tigers?

Reading to Children: Why It’s So Important and How to Start

Excerpts taken from https://www.healthline.com/health/childrens-health/reading-to-children

Experts recommend engaging in literacy activities (like reading) for around 30 minutes per day. But you can also think outside the book here. Try reading traffic signs or cereal boxes, singing songs, listening to audiobooks together, or having your child read to you to the best of their ability. It’s all good.

Reading to your child

As your child begins reading on their own, you might involve them in the process of reading together by asking them to read words or sentences out loud along the way. This is great practice.

Younger kids (and even some older ones) may still appreciate pictures with little text. That said, you can start introducing stories that have more complex plots in them and books with more words than pictures — even chapter books.

Ask questions — you don’t have to wait until the end of the book or chapter to check your child’s comprehension. Try open-ended questions like “What do you think might happen next?” These will help your child delve deeper, rather than surface questions like “What color is the house?”

Reading to your older child

Librarian Donna Jeansonne says that you shouldn’t stop reading to your child once they learn to read themselves. While independent reading is certainly important, reading out loud to kids as old as age 14 still holds benefits, both academically and emotionally.

At this age, it’s about your older child’s reading fluency and comprehension. It may be helpful for them to follow along in the book as you read. And consider asking questions about the text to gauge their comprehension.

Tips for reading to children

Again, all you really need to do is take the time to read to your child. It’s truly as simple as that. However, you might be wondering how to make the experience more enjoyable for everyone.

Here are some tips:

  • Be consistent. Whether it’s one book per day or more, try to make reading a part of your regular routine. And while you’re at it, you don’t have to read different books each time you sit down. Kids love hearing the same stories over and over again — and they learn through this type of repetition.
  • Take your time. Be sure to leave enough time to read versus sneaking it in or — worse — making it a chore. Of course, you won’t have loads of time each day to read, so some quickies are just fine. However, your child should see reading as a dedicated activity and one that you give your full attention to.
  • Make it fun. Use different voices for characters, pauses, songs, or other dramatics to make the story come to life. Reading with flair will help your child better understand the story. It also provides a good model of expressive and fluent reading for kids who have begun reading by themselves.
  • Point out connections. Children love applying stories to their own lives. It not only makes the text more meaningful, but it also may help your child cope with different situations they encounter in their everyday experience. Point out those connections to your child. Note where the character was brave about that monster beneath their bed.
  • Don’t stop with books. Any exchange of words is beneficial to kids. So, if you’re uninspired by books one night, turn to telling stories. You can also look at pictures and talk about what you see or ask your child to be the storyteller. Anything that gets language flowing between you and your child is golden.

Audiobooks – worth listening to!

Checkout VSB and VSB Audiobooks

Besides enjoying a book from cover to cover, families can also share a good audiobook. These books are read by wonderful readers that have rich and engaging voices. Prior to TVs and screen devices, families gathered around the radio to listen to stories. Listening to books is gaining popularity again and there is good reason for it! Below is some factual information about listening to audiobooks. Besides all these benefits, these books are very entertaining and spark great conversations if listened together.

VSB audiobooks
https://library.vsb.bc.ca/
click on Elsie Roy
log in (each student has a login number and password)
go to Catalog – click on Destiny Discover and scroll down to audiobooks (they also have e-books too)

*Students who are wanting to read on their own mobile devices: please note that the minimum requirements for the OS of a mobile device for both Destiny and Destiny Discover are iOS 10 / Android 5.0 and Chrome version 74.

Vancouver Public Libraries audiobooks
https://vpl.ca
you must have VPL card
VPL has an app called Libby that is free to download

From Western Downs Libraries (Australia): The benefits of listening to audiobooks are extensive…

Audiobooks are immersive, educational, instructional, and entertaining. Audiobooks can also change the way we listen, read and learn, improving the literacy of readers.

There are plenty of benefits to regularly listening to audiobooks, including:

  • Increasing reading accuracy by 52%
  • Increasing reading speed, expanding vocabulary and improving fluency
  • Teaching pronunciation
  • Improving comprehension by 76%; and
  • Increasing test scores by 21% when engaged in multi-modal learning.

Not to mention:

  • 27% of the Kindergarten to Year 12 population are auditory learners
  • Students can listen and comprehend two grade levels above their reading level when regularly listening to audiobooks; and
  • Combining print and audio increases recall by 40% over print alone.
  • Listening is the first language skill that we acquire and 85% of what we learn, we learn by listening.
  • For those learners who have difficulty reading, listening to Audiobooks can make learning a much easier process.
  • It also makes it inclusive and fun!

There are endless reasons why audiobooks are an essential part of learning – time to get the kids listening anywhere and everywhere!

Welcome to the Learning Commons

Welcome to my school blog! I am very excited to be the teacher librarian for Elsie Roy. Each class has an assigned day to visit the library for book exchange. I am looking forward to getting to know all the students of Elsie Roy and share my love for reading.

Thank you, Ms. Wyss