SHELLEY SAUNDERS, AUTHOR OF "RACHEL'S SECRET", VISITS FM!

On Wednesday, May 23rd, Shelley Saunders visited Florence Meares.  What a wonderful visit it was and our Grade 5 to 8 students were rivited to Shelley's story.  Shelley shared about her experiences as a new author, inspiration from her grandmother, and Jewish persecution in turn of the century Russia.  Thank you so much for your visit Shelley!

STANLEY CUP FINAL HERE WE COME!!

Here at Florence Meares our school community is filled with many hockey fans.  As you can imagine the FM Library is filled with many books on the subject of hockey.  I was even able to make a display of some of our favourite hockey books to mark the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs!

In honour of the Stanley Cup final we have been reading a number of hockey books.  Last week I had the chance to share "Clancy With The Puck" with our Kindergarten friends.  Clancy is a very skilled hockey player and is acquired by the Hogtown Maple Buds.  With Clancy's help, the Maple Buds make it to the Stanley Cup final.  Will the Maple Buds win it all?  Will Clancy score when his team needs it most?  We sure had fun guessing the outcome.

ONLINE BOOKS AT THE FM LIBRARY

At Florence Meares we have a multitude of reading resources at our fingertips.  One of the most exciting resources is BookFlix by Scholastic.

Recently, I had the opportunity to share the following books, through BookFlix, with our Kindergarten to Grade 4 students:  Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni (Kindergarten), Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert (Gr. 1), The Curious Garden by Peter Brown (Gr. 2), and Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney (Gr. 3 & Gr. 4).

BookFlix, puts books in unique categories.  Books are then put in pairs:  one fiction book along with one non-fiction book.  Text is displayed and highlighted, as the fiction books are read, to help younger readers following along.  Email Mr. C if you need login information for home.  Recently, BookFlix has been licensed for use in all publicly funded schools in Ontario.

For more information check out the Ontario Software Acquisition Program Advisory Committee website.

For more Online Books to explore, be sure to check out the "Find a Book" Section of our FM Library website.  If you have any questions please send Mr. C an email.  Happy reading everyone :-)

SMALL SAUL

Nominated for a 2012 OLA Blue Spruce Award, our Primary students have been loving this book about Pirate antics on the high seas.  At the start of the story we are introduced to Small Saul who is too small to join the Navy.  Pirates, not being so picky, welcome Small Saul aboard.  If you like Pirates you'll love "Small Saul" by Ashley Spires.  Small Saul is an inspirational story that reminds the reader that differences need to be celebrated and not thrown overboard.

MY PRIVACY AND ME

Every year, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada hosts a contest where you have to create a video about online safety and privacy. This year students from FM entered the contest for the first time and created amazing videos. These videos covered a variety of topics including privacy, mobile devices, gaming, and social networking. After watching all the videos and voting to decide which ones to enter in the contest, we ended up with four great submissions to send in.

By Katherine

You can have a look at our submissions here:  My Privacy and Me!

If you are interested in entering the contest check out the Privacy Comissioner's website here:

My Privacy and Me Contest!

IS YOUR BUFFALO READY FOR KINDERGARTEN?

Buffaloes are big, hairy and clumsy. You think that a buffalo wouldn't belong in a Kindergarten class. Our Kindergarten students learned that buffaloes are good for many things including hide and seek. Even though we come in many shapes and sizes, everyone has a place in Kindergarten. Don't miss this awesome book with a fantastic message.

We can be afraid of many things in life: sharks, snakes, elevators . . . .

We had fun this week with Bob Shea's I'm a Shark. The Shark in this story is awesome and tough. However, our Kindergarten friends soon discovered that Mr. Shark was actually afraid of spiders! Good thing he lives in the ocean.

Check out I'm a Shark. It's awesome just like Mr. Shark.