Just like Olympic athletes, practice, training and support are important for students as they learn to read.

We are encouraging all of our students to take part in our Olympic Reading Challenge.

Each student has been given a reading record form and they have chosen a personal goal to read for a certain amount of minutes at home each day. You can help your child achieve their goal by providing time and support for them to do this reading. Please initial the form every time they do this reading. When they have completed all 10 reading "events", they can return their form to the library for some "gold". All student forms will be put into a draw box for prizes of books and posters at the end.

Go For the Gold!

Be watching for information about the Scholastic Book Fair coming soon, November 25 - 27. Be ready to "Blast-Off Into Reading" in a "Galaxy of Books"! I'm looking forward to seeing some great new titles and a few old favourites.

These past two months, we have been reading stories about mustangs and ranching and enjoying a cowboy song or two. Our wrangling will end with several classes taking trips to Agribition in the coming weeks.

The Mayor's Reading Challenge once again is an opportunity for our students to show just how much we read each week! Teachers are recording the reading meetings done by students at school. We encourage students and parents to record the number of minutes that children read at home. This can be reading that they do on their own or with their parents. The reading log that students keep for "at home" reading can be dropped off in our McLurg Library. Students can get a small treat from Mrs. Wills for doing some great reading! As well, they can add a clock face to our Mega Minute Bulletin Board and enter the McLurg draw for some book prizes. Forms will be collected each week by Public Library Staff and entered into their draw box for great prizes.

We're trying to beat our record of just over 77,000 minutes last year!

We can do it!

I always look forward to our Book Fair! It's a great time for us to see new book titles.  I enjoy hearing the discussion about good books and appreciate all of your recommendations for our library. Thank you to everyone who visited last week! Because of your support, we have been able to add many new titles to our shelves. Mrs. Waldner and I will try to be quick about getting them ready for you to read!

Thanks to everyone who participated! We had a box full of forms and a wide variety of reading experiences happening: email, fliers, mail, instructions, the phone book, recipe books, newspapers, books, magazine, research, catalogues, schedules, calendars, and many more!

Reading is an important part of our everyday lives. Sometimes, we don't even realize we are doing it!

Congratulations to our draw prize winners! Keep reading!

The theme for Education Week this year, "Reading More Into Education", allows us to reflect and focus on the importance of reading in our everyday lives.

We have some fun activities planned. Teachers and other staff in the school are switching places to read their favourite stories to classes. "Drop Everything And Read" time will happen unexpectedly every day so everyone needs to be prepared by having a book with them at all times, even in Phys. Ed.! We hope that every family will join us for our Book and Bagel breakfast on Thursday morning.

Caught reading at home? That's great! Be sure to record it on the Caught Reading forms that your child brings home. Every completed form is entered into our draw box for some great book prizes!

We encourage all of our students, from Pre-K to Grade 8, to read at home every day, even if this is for only a few minutes. Younger students benefit tremendously from having an older sibling or an adult read to them or with them. If your child is in an older grade, please take some time to talk to them about what they are reading. Tell them about what you are reading. 

"Ribit" is something that you might hear a frog croak. It also stands for "Reading In Bed Is Terrific!" Try some R.I.B.I.T time with your child tonight!

By now, I have met with each of the classes as they have come to visit the library and look for something to read. It's been great to see everyone!

I encourage you to look for a book that is "just right" for you. Maybe it is about something that you are really interested in. It might have great pictures or be written by an author that you have liked before. If you are starting to read lengthier novels, use the "five finger test" to find one that is not too hard. We want reading to be lots of fun!

Swing on into the library and go wild about reading! We're on safari! Let's explore. Look for the unusual and ask lots of questions. I'm looking forward to learning with everyone. Let's see what we can discover together!