All Categories - Ardtornish Primary School Library

What's next after level 30?

3/12/2019

On Saturday, March 9th, 56 people attended a professional development session on using the library and children's literature to run a reading program in their classrooms.
Teachers and teacher librarians from country and city South Australia were able to see first hand how the reading program operates in Ardtornish Primary School.
This PD session was supported by The Children's Book Council of South Australia, whose mission is to "engage the South Australian community with literature for young Australians and encourage children's reading though a variety of community based activities."

Students select their "Just Right" books

3/12/2019

Students are able to select a book that is at their reading level because they understand what makes a "Just Right" book for them. They have learnt the guidelines for selecting and testing a book they can read at school or at home.

Classroom Libraries

3/12/2019

(article from APS Newsletter, week 5, term 1, 2019)
Frequent independent reading supports a student’s learning across the curriculum. The more children read the more they learn. So, at Ardtornish we are committed to making access to books as easy as possible. When all classes make their weekly visit to the library each student borrows on average of 5 to 10 books and last year 42,040 books were loaned out.

At Ardtornish we set high expectations for students as readers and students from F-7 are encouraged to read at least 40 books a year. Last year 75 % of our year 2/3 to 7 students read 40 books or more (sometimes in the 100’s), 85% read 30 plus books and 95% 20 plus books. The Read Write Inc program, run in the junior primary, is highly effective and supports many students to become independent readers by year 1.

Just knowing how to read is not enough, we want students to be passionate, independent readers for life. Research shows that students who read more, are better at every subject and are more likely to achieve higher educational qualifications later in life.

How much a child reads is linked to four main factors:

Access to books – how easy is it for them to browse and select books
Choice of reading material – being able to make personal choices about what to read
The enthusiastic promotion of books – hearing a teacher talk about great titles on a daily basis and getting reading recommendations
Having opportunities to discuss books every day – students sharing their reading experiences with others

To address these four key factors effectively we have committed, over the next few years, to establishing class libraries in every classroom.

In 2019 we are establishing independent classroom libraries in 9 rooms. These are specific, age appropriate libraries that operate entirely independently from our main school library and their presence will ensure that students are constantly surrounded by books and have instant access to fiction and non-fiction texts.

The selection of books in class libraries will grow over the years as students actively participate in selecting more titles for the collection and teachers encourage reading and to make the use of the collection an integral part of the classroom.

Classroom libraries will not replace the school library, which contains a wider range of titles, but they will encourage children to more easily borrow, read and share popular books. Students that have access to classroom libraries become more confident readers and actually borrow more from their school library as well.
The classroom libraries are an exciting addition to our school literacy program and will help to continue to build on Ardtornish Primary School’s successful reading outcomes.

Year of the Pig

2/14/2019

Students were invited to read books about pigs ready for the new "Chinese Year of the Pig". Congratulations to Aaliyah, Lilybelle, Kayla and Jaxon for winning a piggy to take home.

40 Book Challenge

2/11/2019

2018 was a successful year for Ardtornish Primary School students. We aim to for each child to read 40 books a year. Here are our results for 2018. Well done.

Authors from rooms 19/20 RWInc group

12/13/2018

44 students from the Read Write Inc group in rooms 19/20 have been working on publishing their own versions of Freya Blackwood's picture book, "the Great Rabbit Chase".They have spent a term constructing their characters and storyline as well as illustrating the text.
Mrs Matthews, Mrs McAskill and myself are very proud of their efforts. They made one copy to keep and one copy for other students to borrow from the library.

Star Readers select new books for 2019

12/12/2018

Each classroom teacher selected 2 or 3 students from their class to be "Star Readers" and aid in the selection of new texts. Wade from St Georges Books brought along a collection of fiction and non fiction texts to show the children. Each child then looked through several books and then selected one to add to the library collection. A label is stuck into each book to indicate who chose the book for APS Library.
As a thank you, the library monitors then came to share a pizza lunch with Wade.

Room 18 Celebrate their 40 Book Challenge

12/7/2018

Room 18 have had a successful year of reading. They proudly showed off the number of books they had read during the year.

Premiers Reading Challenge Assembly

12/7/2018

Had a wonderful PRC assembly with the help of the year 2/3 students from room 18. Using the artwork created by the children we presented the school with a version of "Snow White". Mr Hansen, Deb, Jack and Mrs Agaciak kindly lent their faces for some of the images and the 66 students who achieved "Reader for Life" were turned in to 66 dwarfs. We are proud that the school achieved 99% score for PRC in 2018.

Book Week

9/3/2018

In week 5, term 3 our students have been reading the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s notable books and shortlisted books since March. The yearly winners are announced in August and libraries and book stores all over Australia are decorated in the year’s theme, “Find Your Treasure”. In our library we used treasure and pirate ideas and incorporated J M Barrie’s book “Peter Pan”, as the play of the book will be performed by six classes in term 4.
Students have been excited by the many displays and activities in the library and each class had their own special time to participate in quizzes and treasure hunts and enjoy the books. Many children also contributed to the yearly art competition, based on our themed displays.