Library
The MPPS library is fully computerised, and is situated in an air-conditioned purpose-built classroom, with stepped seating forming an amphitheatre for story-telling, and chairs and tables for co-operative group work. There is an extensive range of high-quality picture story books, junior fiction and non-fiction titles. The library also holds the Reading Counts collection of 'Lexiled ' books, which are used to match readers with texts to suit their reading ability and their interests.
Foundation
In the Foundation Library Program this term we have been learning about how to care for our Library books and how to borrow them. We have been using the 6Ls for listening as we read stories together and have spent time enjoying books with our year 3/4 Buddies. We have been learning about the features of books such as the front and back covers, the spine, pages, title, author and illustrator. When reading stories we have been thinking about the characters and what makes them special. We have also been thinking about the order of events in the story and sharing our favourite parts.
Years 1/2
This term in Library, the Junior classes have been immersing themselves in and
Some of our favourites have been ‘Stuck’, ‘How To Catch A Star’ and ‘Up and Down’.
The students have identified the problem and the solution within the story and have been asked to make predictions about what they think will happen in the story, which is not easy when Oliver Jeffers has such an amazing imagination. They have compared the written story of ‘Lost and Found’ with the animation and discussed the impact the music has on the story and our emotions.
Years 3/4
The Year 3/4 Library Program in Term 1 has covered how to search for specific books in the Library. This has involved an introduction to the Dewey Decimal System and how we can use it to search for books, not only in our school library but any public library. We are currently working on our skills in inferring from clues in illustrations and text with the book, ‘The Mysteries of Harris Burdick’ by Chris Van Allsburg. Students have begun to write their own short stories based on the illustrations from the book.
Years 5/6
The Year 5/6 Library Program for term 1 has involved opportunities for students to practise and develop their skills in searching for information. This has involved finding a specific book by accessing the Destiny Catalogue to search for titles. We have also been learning about the Dewey Decimal system for classifying Non-Fiction texts and that it is the most widely used system for organising books in the world. So students will be also able to apply their knowledge of the Dewey Decimal system to any public library that they use.
We are currently learning about conducting online searches and how to tell whether a website is reliable or not by using a checklist of elements such as the appearance, the publisher and the dates. We have practised cross checking if the information is factual by comparing sources and other websites.
From Ms Marita.