September News from the Beach Drive Learning Commons

September 23, 2022

Academics

GNS

During the past few weeks the Learning Commons has been a very busy place. It has been wonderful being able to finally have our library ‘walls’ truly open. With just over 10,000 books to choose from, our self service circulation computer is as busy as Grand Central Station!

Check out some of the neat things the students have been up to the past few weeks:

The Junior Kindergarten students have been learning about squirrels. They are tasked with watching squirrels and bringing back information to share about their observations. They are also enjoying a weekly selection of new books for their classroom from our collection.

Our Kindergarteners were each gifted with a beautiful new book from 1000×5, a children’s book recycling project which collects board books and picture books for children in need. In the last five years the Glenlyon Norfolk Junior School community has donated over 7,000 books to this organization. This was their way of saying thank you to our school!

The Grade 1s are practising their Library routines. They have explored the fiction and nonfiction areas of our collection and are self selecting books, with help they are using the self service check out and “yay” returning their books and book bags on Tuesday, their Library Day, so they can get more! Way to go Grade 1s!

The Grade 2s are exploring the world through print resources. They are working on beginning research skills (information literacy) on a country of their choice. They have become masters at using the self service check out and as you can see enjoy sharing their expertise.

Have a question about bats? In a couple of weeks, ask Grade 3 students all the questions you have on them. They are exploring the world of print and digital resources through an ‘All About Bats’ study. They are soon to become bat experts. The Grade 4s are discovering the wonders of primary and secondary sources of information. They have been practising being History Detectives. We were very fortunate to be one of the first schools in Canada to receive ‘The History Box’ from the Canadian History Museum. The students have explored the objects in the box and are using the Canadian Museum of History portal to find out more about their object. Our Grade 5s have enjoyed reviewing all of the amazing print and digital resources we have in our collection. They have shared their favourite with the other grades. Check out their favourites plastering the wall in the Learning Commons! They have reviewed how to access our library collection online, use SORA (our e-book service) and our databases for finding out more information on topics of interest.

Our Grade 4 co-curricular Library Squad kicked off last week with 23 keen members to help celebrate, advertise and organize literary events for our students. Stay tuned, they have some great plans!

Thank you so much for your book donations to our collection. What we don’t need we pass on to 1000×5, classrooms and little libraries in the neighbourhood.

Any questions? Just ask! smcleod@mygns.ca