Session Three - Friday 28 February

Happy 110th birthday - click here

Last Day of Summer!

Another great session today. 

We celebrated Dr Seuss' 110th birthday…
with a few quiz questions.


1. How many times did Dr Seuss's first book get returned from publishers before it was published? - 27

2. What was the name of his last book? Oh, The Places You'll Go! published in July 1990

We will place some more quiz questions up for you in the near future!

New Books
This year sees the century of the beginning of World War 1 - 100 years  ago World War 1 began.

"The First World War (1914–1918) was one of the most significant events of the 20th Century and had a seismic impact on New Zealand society.Ten percent of our then population of one million served overseas, of which more than 18,000 died and over 40,000 were wounded. Nearly every New Zealand family was affected." (ww1.govt.nz)

If you want to read more about this click here -

We thought it would be good to focus on a couple of books on this theme.

We introduced the book "Stay Where You Are Then Leave" written by John Boyne. This book is described as " An instant classic that, once read, will never be forgotten." by Eoin Colfer (author of Artemis Fowl)

What's the story? (from The Book Zone: For Boys blog)

Watch the Book Trailer

Stay Where You Are And Then Leave tells the story of Alfie, a boy whose fifth birthday coincided with the announcement of Britain going to war with German in July 1914. That night Alfie's dad makes a promise to his mother that he will not go away to fight, a promise that last less than 24 hours.
Four years no and people are still saying the war will be over by Christmas, exactly as they have been stating in each of the previous years. The letters from his father have stopped arriving and Alfie's mother has told him that his father is not able to write as he is on a top secret mission. Alfie fears the worst and wishes that his mother or grandmother or someone would be honest with him.

Unbeknownst to his mother Alfie has taken to skipping school several days a week in order to help supplement her meagre earnings by shining shoes at King's Cross Station. One day, whilst shining the shoes of a doctor, the doctor's papers go flying and as Alfie aids in their retrieval he spots his father's name and serial number on one of the sheets, with the name of a Suffolk hospital inscribed at the top. So sets in motion a series of events that sees Alfie heading off to Sussex in the hope of finding his father and bringing him home, whatever the consequences.

John Boyne also wrote " The Boy in the striped pyjamas" which is another book based around a war theme.


What Are You Reading?

This week we would like you to let us know what you are reading. Add a comment and let us know - make sure you name your comment  but only with your first name. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Session Two: Friday 21 September

Summer Passports
It's time to hand these in - we have enjoyed looking at these so far and we are really excited about how much reading you have been doing. Once we have received all the passports we will then be able to let you know how close you are to receiving your Lit Club Bronze award.






Romeo and Juliet
This classic was written by William Shakespeare.
Things you could try to remember:
- One classic saying from this book is "Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo?"
- The two feuding family names  are Montague and Capulet.





Books recommended by Kate DiCamillo

We listened to Kate DiCamillo again today - she had a list of books that she recommended for children to read on days when they need to stay inside because of the weather.

Recommended Books
Charlotte's Web - EB White
Stuart Little - EB White
Wonder - R.J. Palacio

The Borrowers - Mary Norton
Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson
The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963 - Christopher Paul Curtis

Parents
On this link you can listen to Kate tell you how you can encourage your child to be a reader. There are also lists of books for different levels that your children might be interested in.


We looked more closely at one of the books Kate recommended:
Wonder - written by R.J. Palacio
We watched the book trailer - you can watch it again here and you can listen to the author talk about how the book came about here.  

We also and a quick look at this site which is an off shoot from this book. Choose Kind

There are many precepts in the book - the main one is "When given the choice between being right and being kind - choose kind!" Mr Browne

Hope you enjoyed Lit Club this week - add a comment - tell us what you thought and what else you would like to be doing.

Have a good reading week!

Mrs Earl and Siobhan

Lit Club 2014

OLA Lit Club 2014 started last week on Friday lunchtime - what a fantastic turnout! Lit club is open to all children from Year 5 up to Year 8.

Today we collected in the Summer passports - we are really excited to see how much everyone has been reading …. fantastic!

Today we also introduced "The one and only Ivan" written by Katherine Applegate. We watched a short video clip listening to the author talk about how the book came about.

We have this book in our school library.

The One and Only Ivan - Katherine Applegate

We also watched the Book trailer for Flora and Ulysses - written by Kate DiCamillo. This book won the 2014 Newbery award. Click here to find out more about the Newbery award and what people receive it for.


We listened to Kate DiCamillo talk about writing the book and you can watch this again by visiting Mr Schu's blog Watch. Connect. Read. Flora and Ulysses is a story about a a ten year old girl (a natural born cynic) and a squirrel with superpowers.

Here is a clip from youtube where Kate DiCamillo reads the first chapter.


We have just purchased this book for our school library.


We had lots of lit quiz questions today - what do you enjoy the most about our first session?