Christmas

Happy Christmas

From St Joseph's Library

See you in the New Year to open all our presents of new books!

The Reading Cloud

READING CLOUD

The children in Years 3 – 6 have just had a reminder talk on how to use the Reading Cloud (our online resource for books). They have been reminded of their log-on details which are now in their school diaries.

Please log-on to:

https://u015640.microlibrarian.net

www.ilovereadingatstjosephs.blogspot.com

https://u015640.microlibrarian.net/

 or www.st-josephs.islington.sch.uk(under the library tab)

 to access the library resources and blog. It is an amazing resource for the children to check out all the books we have in our library, write reviews, research authors and get recommendations for what to read next.

 

The Reading Cloud is fantastic!

Log-on today with your child!

New Books

New Books in the Library

Father Christmas has come early to the Library!

 

We have lots of new books that will be ready to be borrowed when the children are back at school in January.

 

New to the library will be the ‘Daisy and the Trouble’ series by Kes Gray, ‘School for Stars’ series by Holly and Kelly Willoughby, 'Comic' by Frank Cottrell Boyce and the ‘Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow’ by Katherine Woodfine to mention just a few.

 

Thank you to everyone who continues to support the school library through the Book Fairs.

Competition

Design a Bookmark Competition

To follow on our celebrations for Roald Dahl’s 100 year anniversary the library launched a ‘Design a Bookmark Competition’. Inspired by Roald Dahl’s life and works the children were encouraged to design a bookmark featuring characters from his books and images from his life.

There were so many absolutely fantastic entries and it was difficult choosing a winner from each class.

Pearl – Frankie-rae

Red – Matilde

Ruby – Imogen

Amber – Martha

Orange – Bethany

Diamond- Sapphire

Citrine – Dillon

Yellow – Assumpta

Emerald – Aaliyah

Green – Robert

Sapphire – Jasmine

Blue – Isabella

Turquoise – Kayleigh

Tanzanite – Narelle

Indigo – Priscilla

Violet – Destiny

Amethyst – Arabella

 

There was a special prize ‘The Librarian’s Favourite’ that went to Georgine –Turquoise class. Georgine had not only designed a spectacular bookmark but had laminated it, ready to use.

 

Well done Georgine!

Drama Workshop

“Celebrating Shakespeare 2016”

Workshop presented by the Freshwater Theatre Company

Archway Library

Friday 11^th November

 As part of the celebrations for Shakespeare, as it is 400 years since his death

a group of Year 5 children were invited to Archway Library to a workshop presented by the Freshwater Theatre Company. It was called “Shakespeare’s Life and Times” and it was designed to discover more about the man behind the plays. The children had lots of fun learning about Shakespeare. They re-enacted scenes from the Bard’s plays, exploring the plot, experimenting with the language and taking on a host of captivating characters. There was a lot of laughter and excitement. And there was on ‘shushing’ going on despite it being in the Library!!

A huge thank you to the Freshwater Theatre Company and Archway Library for inviting us.

 

Author Visit

Matt Haig

On Wednesday 16th November the bestselling author, Matt Haig came to visit St Joseph's.

Matt Haig has not only won the Blue Peter Book Award and the Smarties Book Prize but, he has been shortlisted three times for the prestigious Carnegie Medal for his stories for children. Released last year, A Boy Called Christmas was called “an instant classic” by The Guardian, with Stephen Fry, the voice of the audio book, proclaiming it “The most evergreen, immortal Christmas story for decades”.Its sequel, The Girl who Saved Christmas, has just been published.

 

His presentation to children in Years 3 – 6 was fantastic. Matt talked to the children about his writing and explained how his inspiration for writing A Boy Called Christmas was his son who wanted to know how Christmas began. He read from his new book, The Girl who Saved Christmas and showed a fun video of the illustrator, Chris Mould, creating the images for the story. Matt also taught the children words that Charles Dickens had invented such as “chuckaboo” meaning friends and “gigglemug” meaning someone who laughs a lot.

The children were so delighted and participated in all the fun activities that Matt had prepared for them especially Ilaria (Year 4) who dressed as an elf and Bianca (Year 5) who dressed up as a troll for a game called ‘Trolls versus Elves’.

 

Afterwards many of the children got to meet him personally as he signed their copies of his books. He was truly impressed with the children and the school.

 

It was a truly inspiring visit!

 

Thank you so much Matt.

 

Thank you too to Canongate Books and Children’s Bookshop, Muswell Hill who made this event possible and to all the Parents/Carers who supported us by purchasing books.

 

 

 

 

 

Clifford the Big Red Dog

Clifford the Big Red Dog Visits the Library!

"Come and see the Library transformed into a Bookshop and maybe you will see me there." - Clifford The Big Red Dog

Thank you to Scholastic Book Fairs for organising him to visit us.

Book Fair

The Book Fair has arrived!

Come and join us in THE LIBRARY to see our very stylish Book Fair.

Friday 4th - Wednesday 9th November

8:40 - 9:00am and 3:00 - 3:45pm

Don't forget that every book you buy helps to get FREE BOOKS for our library!

 

 

Don't miss it!

Competition

Librarians

Welcome to our new librarians!

Victoria Miatudila - Turquoise

Reece Richards - Amethyst

Abigail Necho - Violet

Amber Hughes - Amethyst

John-Paul Renner - Violet

Albert De Souza - Tanzanite

Madeleine Adjei - Indigo

Lucy Dunne - Indigo

Lewhat Atsbaha - Tanzanite

Henry Ford - Turquoise

They will be helping at lunch-times and during their class sessions to keep the library in order.

Roald Dahl

Our celebrations for Roald Dahl's 100th Birthday still continue.

The children have been busy doing Roald Dahl themed activities. They have created drawings of their own sweets for 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', written dreams to go into their own dream jar for the 'BFG', and even penned letters to Roald Dahl himself.

We have a sample of the fantastic work on display in the library.

Come in!

Library Timetable

Class Sessions

Roald Dahl Celebrations

As part of our Roald Dahl celebrations during our class sessions for the past two weeks we have been concentrating on his writing.

The children have been listening to extracts from his books being read by celebrities such as Chris O'Dowd reading from 'The Fantastic Mr Fox' and Julian Rhind-Tutt reading from 'James and the Giant Peach'.

We even had an appearance of Mr Fox in our library!!

You can listen to more excerpts of Roald Dahl's books if you follow the link:

http://www.roalddahl.com/create-and-learn/read/reading-lists

We played games where the children made up names for their Roald Dahl character and played quizzes to test their knowledge of the writer and his books.

Did you know that Roald Dahl's favourite composer was Beethoven and his favourite colour was yellow?

It has been a brilliant celebration and the Roald Dahl books have been flying off the shelves!

Lots of Dahlicious reading going on!

Roald Dahl Day

Dahlicious Dress-up!

Every year we celebrate Roald Dahl Day.

2016 is the 11th annual Roald Dahl Day and celebrates 100 years since the birth of

Roald Dahl (13th September 1916 - 23 November 1990).

At St Joseph's we had a Dahlicious Dress-up day to celebrate. The children came dressed as their favourite Roald Dahl character. We had a COMPETITION for the best costumes and the winners won splendiferous Roald Dahl books.

All the costumes were amazing and it made choosing the best costume in each class really difficult.

Our winners received a golden ticket and Mrs Noronha (Head of School) gave them prizes of Roald Dahl books in exchange.

Through-out the day the children took part in various phizz-whizzing activities including quizzes, drawing and games to celebrate the World's No.1 Story-teller.

Many classes also watched the Puffin Virtually Live event which included a performance from the cast of Matilda The Musical and a draw-along with Quentin Blake, famous illustrator of the Roald Dahl's books.

www.puffinvirtuallylive.co.uk

Don't Forget The BFG directed by Steven Spielberg is arriving in the Cinemas this Friday 16th September.

Why not read it before you see it? We have plenty of copies in the library.

or

visit the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden

www.roalddahl.com

Roald Dahl Dress-Up

Congratulations

Prizes of Roald Dahl books went to the following children for the best costumes.

Pearl - Patrick Lawson

White - Jack Muldowney

Ruby - Ali Marciano-Mustafa

Red -  Flora Mckay

Amber - Liam Antoni Budek-Saez

Orange - Jason O'Leary

Diamond - Finley Etheridge

Yellow - Mia Confeiteiro Amaldos

Citrine - Ella Claisse

Emerald - Celino Dos Santos

Green - Henry Sharp

Sapphire - Leila Tyrell

Blue - Eadie Kellett

Tanzanite - Narelle Wojtkowiak

Indigo - Oluwafeyisola Taiwo

Turquoise - Frazer Wynne

Amethyst - Orla Feeley

Violet - Olujuwon Taiwo

Enjoy your new books.

WELL DONE!

Roald Dahl Writing Tips

Top writing tips from the world's number one storyteller, Roald Dahl

1. "You should have a lively imagination".

2. "You should be able to write well".

3."You must have stamina".

4." You must be a perfectionist".

5."You must have strong self-discipline".

6."It helps a lot if you have a keen sense of humour".

7."You must have a degree of humility".

read more at: www.roalddahl.com

Roald Dahl

The whole world is celebrating 100 years since the birth of Roald Dahl, author of Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG.

10 facts about Roald Dahl

1.   He was born on 13 September 1916, in Llandaff, Cardiff. His parents were Norwegian.
2.   He did not start writing for children until he had children of his own.
3.   He wrote all of his children's stories in a small hut at the bottom of his garden.
4.   He was a Hurricane fighter pilot during WWII.
5.   He had two steel hips and six operations on his spine.
6.   He wrote the screenplay for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
7.   He loved chocolate, but not chocolate cake or chocolate ice cream.
8.   He always wrote in pencil on yellow paper.
9.   He wrote short stories for adults.
10. He died on 23 November 1990 and is buried in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's  Church, Great Missenden.

Join in with the celebration and make it a Phizz-Whizzing Day!

For more information on events log-on to:
http://www.roalddahl.com

Roald Dahl Day!

Welcome Back!

Roald Dahl Day -Tuesday 13th September

We are celebrating 100 years since the birth of the world's number one storyteller.

Children are invited to come to school as their favourite Roald Dahl character.

Splendiferous prizes of Roald Dahl books for the best costumes.

We will be hosting phizz-whizzing activities to celebrate and reading from his gloriumptious stories.

So remember to don your Willy Wonka top hat or your fantastic bushy Mr Fox tail for a Dahlicious Dress-up Day!

Happy Roald Dahl Day!

Summer Holidays

To help you to keep reading over the summer go along to your local library and join the Summer Reading Challenge.

Summer Holidays

To help you to keep reading over the summer go along to your local library and join the Summer Reading Challenge.

Author Visit

OSKAR JENSEN

We were delighted to welcome the author, Oskar Jensen, to our school on Friday 8^th July. Years 4, 5 and 6 congregated with much excitement in the hall to listen to him talk about his books, ‘The Stones of Winter’ and ‘The Wild Hunt’; a Viking Tale of myth and magic. He read from his book and the children got to ask him lots of questions.

 

What was his favourite book? The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.Lewis

Where does he do his writing? Lying down either in bed or on the sofa!

 

He shared with the children his dos and don’ts for writing : choose a subject that interests you and don’t put your friends or family in your stories.

 He also played from a Finnish musical instrument called a 5-string Kantele to the delight of the children.

It was a brilliant morning. Thank you Oskar and good luck with your next book.

 

Thank you also to the Children’s Bookshop, Muswell Hill who made this event possible.

Authors

Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler

Scriptwriting superheroes, Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler, the brains behind top TV shows such as 'Danger Mouse' and 'Thunderbirds Are Go' and the authors of 'Defender of the Realm' have written to the children to thank them for their fantastic fan mail following their visit to our school in March.

Thank You!

Author

LAUREN PEARSON

Welcome back to LAUREN PEARSON, the popular author of the ‘Crabtree School’ series.

Lauren came in on Tuesday 28^th June to present creative writing workshops to our Year 4 children. Lauren shared her writing tips with the children especially how to create a character in a story. Lauren spends a long time asking questions to build up a clear picture before she begins to write. The children then got a chance to make-up and draw their own character. As an extra special treat Lauren read an excerpt from the next book in the ‘Crabtree Series’.

It was a fantastic and inspiring morning for children and teachers.

Thank you Lauren!

Summer Reading Challenge

Thank You

to the librarians from Archway Library who came in to talk to the children about the

Summer Reading Challenge.

They spoke to the children about how every year thousands of families all over the country take part in the UK's biggest reading event for children. This year the theme is 'The Big Friendly Read' to link up with the Roald Dahl 100 celebrations. The children watched a fun video made by local children
bigfriendlyread.org.uk

It is simple.

1. Register at Local Library from 2nd July

2. Read 6 books over the summer

We will celebrate everyone who completes the challenge after the holidays.

So come on and join in and make St Joseph's the best read school in Islington!

Watch out for fun Summer Holiday Events at your local library

www.islington.gov.uk/libraries

Creative Writing Workshops

Lauren Pearson is back!

The fabulous author of 'The Crabtree School' series is coming back to visit us this month.

She will be holding creative writing and drawing workshops with the Year 4 classes.

They are so lucky!

Summer Reading Challenge

Watch out for the Summer Reading Challenge 2016! Coming to a library near you!

Every year thousands of families all over the country take part in the UK's biggest reading event for children in libraries, the Summer Reading Challenge, run by the charity The Reading Agency. The aim of the challenge is to get children to read any six books of their choice from their library during the summer holidays.

Every year there's a different theme; this year it's 'The Big Friendly Read', as a link up with the global year-long Roald Dahl 100 celebrations, honouring the world's No.1 Storyteller.

To promote this event we have a librarian from our local Archway Library coming in to talk to the children to explain how to join in.

We will be sending home leaflets and if you want more information please go to

bigfriendlyread.org.uk

We will be celebrating all winners in September.

Come on and join in!

Unwrap New Books

More new books were unwrapped in the library this week.

'Whistling In The Dark' by Shirley Hughes

In the hardship of war, everything is rationed – except true friendship. From much-loved author Shirley Hughes comes a compelling wartime adventure set during the Liverpool Blitz.

            

Liverpool, 1940: thirteen-year-old Joan’s home is under threat from the Nazi’s terrifying nightly air-raids. It is not an easy time to be a teenager, especially with the sweet rationing, strict curfews and blackouts. Joan and best friend Doreen love going to the cinema until the bombings intensify and then even that becomes too dangerous, especially when an army deserter is found lurking near their home. Who is he and why does he think Joan can help him? As the Blitz worsens, Joan and her friends make a discovery that will tear the whole community apart…

'Darkmouth' by Shane Hegarty

A monstrously funny debut from the new star of middle-grade adventure. THEY'RE COMING!

 Legends (also known as terrifying, human-eating monsters) have invaded the town of Darkmouth and aim to conquer the world. But don't panic! The last remaining Legend Hunter - Finn - will protect us. Finn: twelve-years-old, loves animals, not a natural fighter, but tries really, really hard, and we all know good intentions are the best weapons against a hungry Minotaur, right? On second thoughts, panic. PANIC NOW!