Te Totara Primary School Library

Last Friday, eight Year 5 & 6 students represented our school at the Waikato Literacy Association's Book Battle. It was held at Hamilton Central Library and 19 teams were competing by answering questions about five books by NZ authors (and a couple of rounds about books in general). The event was part of Hamilton Book Month and photographer Alice Parminter took the photos below (except for the two posed photos).

While we didn't place in the competition, our students were full of high spirits and all enjoyed the event. They each received a pizza voucher for their efforts (and one got a spot prize!).

It's Aotearoa New Zealand School Library week!! To celebrate we are running a Dog Man scavenger hunt during lunchtimes. As you can see it's very popular!

More students from the Earth team got to read with Milo today. It's lovely to see everyone smiling while reading a good book.

Milo has been busy listening to stories read by some of our students. The 'Elephant & Piggie' stories are fun to read aloud, so we made special headbands for each character.

On Tuesday, we were very lucky to have picture book creator Vasanti Unka come and talk to our Year 3-4 students. She told them that where and how she grew up influenced her art. Her cat, called "Chicken", also appeared from time to time!

Vasanti ran a workshop for some of our students, creating art inspired by her book "I am the Universe". She also added to our "illustrator wall" in the library.

What a fantastic Book Week we have had! As part of our 'Read around the World" theme we were lucky to have some of our Year 6 students perform traditional tales from different countries.

It was fun to see all the creative costumes for our Book Character Day today. Our Reading Raccoons Book Club looked very different!

On Tuesday night, two teams of our Year 6 students joined 53 other teams from 31 schools. They took part in the Waikato regional heats of the Kids' Lit Quiz, a wonderful event which celebrates the 'sport of reading'.

Our teams had a lot of fun and because the Lit Quiz is open to Year 6, 7 & 8 students we might see them competing again next year. Congratulations to ex-student Nathan at Fairfield Intermediate, whose team came second, earning them a place in the National Final in Wellington!

We have a large book club this year called the Reading Raccoons. These Year 6 students meet every Friday at morning tea to talk about books and get given a reading challenge. It is wonderful to see so many students excited about reading :)

Want to pick up library books for your child after you drop them off at school? The school library is open every morning until 8.55am for parents and guardians to select books for their children (including preschoolers). We'd love to see you!

We've been having a look at our top books for the year. There's a mixture of books we saw last year and some new favourites. If you're stuck for a gift idea some of these might fit the bill 🙂

We are open for end-of-year borrowing! There are two ways to do this:

The library is open every morning from 8.15am-9am until the end of term so that you can borrow books for your children, or

You can complete this form - https://forms.gle/ghhS5xAmB42h5Yoj8 that gives permission for your child to borrow six books over the school holidays.

To borrow books students must be returning to the school next year and have no outstanding invoices or overdue library books. All books are due back by Friday 9 February (the end of the second week back at school).

The playground is ready to be tested! What a great weekend for a library visit 😃

Several of our Powerful Peacock Book Club members have shared with us some of their favourite books of the year. How many of these have you heard of?

We filmed at morning tea so apologies for the loud background noise - the kids outside were having a lot of fun!

Favourite Books of 2023 This year's book club, the Powerful Peacocks, talk about some of the best books they read in 2023.

Our shelf monitors had their cupcake morning tea today and our student librarians had pizza and lemonade for lunch. Our library runs so much smoother with the help of these wonderful students, who issue and return books at lunchtime or check books are in the right places. A big thank you from the library team to all of these students, and another thank you to Mrs R for making the yummy cupcakes and lemonade.

Some of our Year 5 & 6 students had an excellent morning at Berkley Normal Middle School today. They were competing in the inaugural Waikato Book Battle, run by the Waikato Literacy Association. There were 20 Year 5 & 6 teams, and in a very exciting finish, our Te Totara A team came 3rd! 🎉

At the end of the main event, they were actually tied for first place with three other teams. They answered an extra round of questions and ended up tied again, for 2nd! After a one-question tie-breaker they took out third place and won a selection of books for our library. To top off a great day for the team, they also picked up a spot prize of books and stationery that they could take home.

Congratulations to both our teams for trying their best and representing our school well.

Our Year 5 & 6 students were privileged to listen to one of two visiting authors on Friday as part of the Storylines National Story Tour.

Milky Way 20 heard Gay Buckingham talking about the writing process and how you should write about things you are passionate about. She read excerpts from her book 'Kākāpō Keeper' and discussed conservation.

The remainder of the Year 5 & 6 classes had the pleasure of listening to Graci Kim, author of the Gifted Clans trilogy, which starts with 'The Last Fallen Star'. Graci told us about the importance of learning from failure, and about dialling up our levels of confidence, curiosity and resilience so that we can try the things that scare us.

In honour of School Library Week, we have been running a scavenger hunt in our library this week. Lunchtimes have become VERY busy! Our students are enjoying trying to find ten little 'Pig the Pug' pictures. They can then enter the draw to try and win what I've described as 'random prizes I've found in my office'!

Our intrepid readers and chess players have valiantly ignored the extra bodies and rising noise levels.

Today we took our five Head Students Librarians to Te Kete Aronui - Rototuna Library as it opened its doors for the first time. This was a thank-you for all the hard work that they do in our library. They all had a wonderful time looking at the beautiful new building and shelving, trying out origami, bead-making and using a 3D pen. Some memorable quotes from our students - "I'm in my love place" and "I'm making sure my mum brings me back TODAY".

Due to popular demand, we launched a lunchtime competition today to name our new dragon!

Our new mural in the Library is a sight to be seen. A very talented staff member was busy over the holidays painting this amazing work of art.
The sleeping dragon has been a huge hit in the Library, the children's "wows"', and "that's so cool!" as they look up at this wonderful mural we have on our library wall.
Pop into our Library and take a look!

Only four more sleeps until the opening of Te Kete Aronui Rototuna Library! It opens on Friday 21 July at 10am. We are very excited to finally be able to look around inside.

https://www.hamiltonlibraries.co.nz/location-and-hours/te-kete-aronui/

The library was bustling as usual today with lots of lovely readers and chess players.

I have really enjoyed working with our Year 6 book club, The Powerful Peacocks, and our Kids' Lit Quiz squad this term. Both groups are enthusiastic, polite and have positive attitudes. Book-lovers are the best!

It's hard to get a good photo of our Head Student Librarians but Mrs R did her best! We are very pleased with the enthusiasm these five students have in helping us with all our library-related tasks.

We are very excited about the new library, Te Kete Aronui Rototuna Library, being built just a ten-minute walk from our school. It is due to be completed mid-year.

Below are some photos of the work being done on the inside.

If you'd like to see a timelapse video of the construction on the outside, then scroll down this webpage - https://hamilton.govt.nz/strategies-plans-and-projects/projects/rototuna/rototuna-village/

Good morning everyone! This afternoon (1pm-4pm) is your last chance to come in and stock up on library books before school starts next week. The forecast for this weekend is currently terrible, so having some books on hand might be a good idea (although in my opinion having some books on hand is a good idea in any kind of weather).

Milo (our school support dog) will be in the library office again - I can't guarantee he will be awake!

Got bored children on your hands? Come down to the library tomorrow, Thursday, from 1pm-4pm and they can leave with a pile of books to keep them occupied for days.

They can also try our Pig the Pug scavenger hunt and give Milo (the school support dog) a pat.

A reminder that the school library is open again tomorrow, Thursday, from 1pm-4pm. It was wonderful to see so many families come and issue books last week.

Our scavenger hunt is still up and running for those who couldn't make it last week.

The weather forecast this week is for lots of rain so it is the perfect time to stock up with books! We even have an indoor Pig the Pug scavenger hunt for students to play.

Come and see us from 1pm-4pm every Thursday in January. Students must be accompanied by an adult.

If you're looking for a fun way to encourage your child to keep reading over the holidays, why not sign up to Hamilton City Libraries' Summer Reading Programme.

"Children can enrol into our Summer Reading Programme by getting a booklet from their local library OR they can register via Beanstack (an app) which can be used to track independent reading time and books!

Every one hour of reading earns you an entry into the weekly prize draw. There are prizes to be won each week of the programme. You can earn extra entries for completing a line of Bingo."

There are also adult and teen reading challenges on Beenstack, so the whole family can join in.

Summer Reading Programme 2022 Children and families will enjoy being 'Out and About in Hamilton' while exercising their brains over the summer with positive activities that can be done in-library and at home.

Our book club, the Inferno Dragons, are all huge fans of the book "The Last Fallen Star" by Korean Kiwi Graci Kim. They asked me to email her and pass on their love of the book and its use of Korean mythology. A couple of the girls asked her to write quicker! Fortunately Graci has already written the other two books in the trilogy.

The girls gave squeals of delight when we opened a special package Graci had sent them, complete with a personal message, bookmarks, bookplates and stickers. Look at those big smiles!