Participating in the Forest of Trees Reading Program

Olivet is participating in the Forest of Trees reading program run by the Ontario library Association (OLA). The older students were paired up with students from the Primary Class and together they read the Blue Spruce level books. This further develops the older student’s ability to read aloud, encourages the younger students to practice their reading skills, and allows the younger students to accomplish their reading goals for the program.

Reading

The students in grade 1 are reading better and better every day!

Reading Dr.Seuss

The Junior Room teacher is reading Dr.Seuss books to the older students during library time. Nearly every single Dr.Seuss book was read to the students before the school went to see Suessical the Musical.

Forest of Reading

The grades 2 through 5 went to Harbourfront to celebrate the Forest of Reading. The children had to read 10 books each and then voted for their favourite. The winners were announced at special ceremonies which the children attended. Hundreds of screaming children just can't be wrong! The authors were treated like rock stars and the fever was high!!

Also on this special day was the opportunity to meet with the many authors, chat with them a bit and get their autographs. We also attended two informative sessions given by two of the authors.
As you can see in the photos, the children were having fun while being encouraged in their reading efforts.

One of our students won a copy of "Hunchback Assignments". She was delighted to meet the author, Arthur Slade, and get her new book autographed.

The students were all excited to meet the famous author Gordon Korman. For this year's Silver Birch awards he was nominated for "Zoobreak"!

In the event that one of the authors was not available, we had the opportunity to write a message to him/her on the "Graffiti Board". The messages were all heart warming and encouraging. The authors are sure to love them.

The students paid attention while Maureen Fergus, author of "Ortega" gave a talk on how to write good fiction stories.

There was even a small art gallery featuring original art by some of the illustrators of the books. The children were most impressed by the clay picture by Barbara Reid which was in "Perfect Snow". We also paused for a long time to admire the wildlife paintings by Robert Bateman which made up part of his book "Vanishing Habitats".

The students are posing with Maureen Fergus, author of Ortega.

Olivet is most grateful to Margaret and Dave Starkey for their kind donation to our field trip fund which makes school trips like this one possible. Their thoughtfulness is most appreciated.

Forest of Reading

Every year Olivet participates in the “Forest of Reading” program put on by the Ontario Library Association (OLA). An OLA selection committee chooses 10 books for each reading category; this list is made available, by late fall, to schools and libraries across the province. The children then start to read! Read! Read!! In April the children vote for their favourite book(s) and finally, in a special ceremony at Harbourfront in May, the awards are given to the winners.

The entire process is so exciting! The children look forward to the new crop of books as though it were Christmas! The books fly in and out of the library as the children take them to the classrooms and home to read. The children’s conversations and the chatter about books is music to a teacher’s ears!

This year we have a special bulletin board to encourage and track the children’s reading. It is located just to the left of the main office. If you are in the building, please come and see it!! For the rest of you, we will post photos of the board as the children progress in their reading; you will notice that the tree will sprout more and more leaves!

Playschool's Library

Playschool participates in the TD Canadian Children's Book Week (Nov 15 to 21). Our letter of the week is "Bb" for books. During the month of November we are learning about people in our community and their jobs. Our local librarian has visited our school to talk about her job and shared books with us during her story time circle.

Welcome to Playschool's dramatic play library. Eliza and Gabriela are role playing librarians.


Many children come to our library to make a book selection.






Grace reads to Madeline.

Luka enjoys a comfy chair and a good book.


Check out time.

These books are going home!

Grades 3 and 4 Try Toe Shoes

We have been reading a book called To Dance-a ballerina's graphic novel about the ballerina Siena Cherson Siegel. We wanted to try out some toe shoes so that we could better understand the story and what a ballerina has to wear.

We found out that these shoes are very uncomfortable and that it is very difficult to stand on toe. Kaylin and You-Jin were able to stand on toe, but only by holding on to something; they tried to stand on toe using only one foot, but couldn't do it for more than a few seconds.