The Wilky Way

Farewell

2009-06-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

This is my final post on the Wilky Way as I am moving to a new school in September. Wilkinson is an amazing school and I look forward to reading about many wonderful events there as I continue to follow the blog.
Happy holidays everyone!

The final Telling Bee

2009-05-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

Recently, Wilkinson held an evening event for the Telling Bee. All the storytellers who told at the daytime Bee were invited back to work their magic one last time.
Once again, we started the Bee in the gym, this time with an audience largely made up of parents and grandparents. Storyteller Dan Yashinsky happily was able to join us also to experience the students efforts.

Here are some of the highlights from the evening:

Ailie told her story of snapped elastic and missing underwear; this time including a nice tribute to her Dad (the subject of the story) who was in the audience. A large round of applause followed this amusing and confidently told tale.

Ruby was up next, reminding us all of the perils of going to Starbucks when it is icy outside...

Matthew retold the folktale "Silly and Sillier", a story about some extremely silly individuals. Matthew gave each of the characters their own voice and once again showed a real flair for storytelling.

Fatima told her story about the worst day of her life. It brought a tear to more than a few eyes to hear such an innocent story about what must have been a very fearful event for all concerned at the time.

Our final act for the gym, Logan, once again managed to charm the audience with his recount of a tornado. Following his story, Logan decided he needed to take charge of events and did so alarmingly well. I am beginning to wonder why I spent so long preparing myself to speak to the audience!

Following this stunning start to our event, everyone moved upstairs to listen to around another 60 storytellers in a more relaxed classroom setting. I wandered up and down the halls listening to small parts of many stories. Judging by the proud faces I saw in the audience, these students did an exceptional job once again telling their stories.

All too soon, groups started to finish and families started to leave for home. Hopefully everyone involved in the evening was able to take away some happy memories.

The Telling Bee book is now nearing completion (in part, that is why it took so long for me to post this response to our event!). It has taken many months to prepare but it is going to be well worth the effort in the end if the latest draft is anything to go by!

The Tale of Despereaux

2009-04-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

A book talk by Sienna.
'The Tale of Desperaux' is a book about a tiny mouse with huge ears.He lives in a castle where a young princess lives with her mother and father.In this book, a rat,a maid,a princess and a mouse have an amazing adventure. One day I was sick and I read the whole book all in that day,(thats how good it is).This is my favorite book ever!

The Giving Tree

2009-04-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

A book talk by Emily.
'The Giving Tree' is personally one of the best books I have read by Shel SilverStein. It is a book about friendship. But not the kind of friendship you and your best friend would share, the couple is a boy and a tree. If you want to find out more then open the book and start reading!

A school full of stories

2009-04-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

The Bee is really buzzing!
The Wilkinson Telling Bee daytime event took place on Wednesday April 15th. Our Telling Bee started with 11 confident student storytellers in the gym both in the morning and after lunch. The whole school was captivated by the stories and little sound was heard until the resounding round of applause following each of the storytellers. A special congratulations goes to Sophia, Ailie, Matthew, Imaan, Zainab, Jodie, Fatima, Helen, Logan, Mughees and Ruby for their performance in front of the whole school. Following their amazing performance, about another 107 storytelling students from Kindergarten to grade 6 told their wonderful stories to audiences set up in every room on the second floor. Many students and adults in the audience were inspired to join in and tell their own stories.

Afterward, students, staff and parents were really buzzing about the Bee. Many students told me that they were going to share the stories they had heard with their families at home.Here are some of the things the students had to say afterwards;
Andrew in grade 6, "Personally I liked hearing stories of other kids who have had very exciting times in their lives and very different from many others of the kids."
Sienna also in grade 6, "I think that it was fun to hear peoples stories and to know things about their family or other friends."
Niki in grade 2 had this to say, "I liked telling the stories."
Olina in grade 6 told me (in a quite animated fashion), "I thought hearing peoples stories was awesome! Yeah!" Way to go Olina!

There were also some very thoughtful comments from some of the parents who have donated a lot of their own time to helping the students involved in the Bee. April, who's daughter is in grade 4 said afterwards, "I travelled into 3 classrooms and heard stories 3 times in a row. It didn't matter if the kids were in grade 6 or whether they were in grade 1, they changed their story each time and it actually changed the flavour of what the story was and that's exactly what happens with folk tales."
Another parent Susan, with 2 children in the school, told me, "I loved how hearing one child telling stories encouraged other children to tell stories."
This is what our Bee is all about - sharing a little bit of who we are and where we come from in order to further enrich our school community. Every time a story is shared, our Bee is a success.

Tell me a story

2009-02-25T17:40:00.000-08:00

Do you ever wonder how a story gets started? Something I have noticed over the last few weeks is that for every story told, it reminds someone else of a story about their own families and their own lives.
There is something magical for me about listening to one student only to see the rest of the group start to see links with their own life experiences and get excited about listening and talking.

Here are some of the comments I have heard from parents about the progress of the Telling Bee:
Sophie from grade 1 told her Dad,"she really liked hearing stories from the different people in the school who she didn't know before. She also said she wished her little sister could be a part of it too because she think she would also like the stories."
Sophie's dad Phil had this to say,"Speaking as Dad, I can tell she is excited about it and she couldn't wait to show us the work she had done to prepare for her story last week."

Another of our parent's, Laura, also got in touch to tell me about her family's feeling about the Bee, "The positive impact of stories…
The telling bee initiative has positively impacted my family. Anthony and Sam are recalling and sharing stories with great enthusiasm. The story telling exercise has made long winter car rides to cold hockey arenas entertaining, amusing and most delightful. Sam loves to re-tell me, over and over, about the day he was born and I missed my nail appointment because he arrived early.
So many wonderful, heart-warming stories. So grateful that both my children are engaged in this amazing process. Thank you Ms. Found."

This event is about our whole school community and it is great to hear that it is having such an impact on the families involved.

A very quick Silver Birch Contest!

2009-02-19T17:26:00.001-08:00

The first student to answer this question will win a prize:
In the book "Eye of the Crow" what initials were on the back of the glass eye?

To answer the question, click on the comments link under this post and post your answer!
I will be posting another contest inside the library next week.

Storyteller Dan Yashinsky

2009-01-26T11:56:00.000-08:00

Over the last 2 weeks storyteller Dan Yashinsky visited with all of our students and staff, as well as meeting with some parents.
Dan introduced us to the wonderful tradition of the talking stick. Many cultures use items such as a stick or a feather as part of their storytelling traditions.Dan's own talking stick is decorated with many interesting artefacts collected as he has travelled and told stories. Many of our classes will be making their own talking sticks by adding small items each student has contributed, and will use them during their own storytelling.

Dan told engaging stories from his own family history and well as folk tales and riddles which he encouraged students to solve. Everyone clearly enjoyed every moment of his presentations judging by the buzz around the school which is still going round this week!

Sharing Stories
Some of our staff and students also shared stories about their own families.
Here are some thoughts shared by staff and students following Dan’s visit.

Mr. Carrigan told a beautiful story about his Grandmother,” I thought it was a wonderful experience from my point of view… that story was something that effected me throughout all my life, how my grandmother came up with the money to help my Mother to buy me something I really wanted. I always remember my Grandmother for that as she had so little money herself so it was a very emotional experience to talk about it and it felt wonderful to share it with the children.
”Pia from grade one both told a story and said afterwards, “it was kind of fun, I liked telling the story”.
Jackie in Senior Kindergarten was asked what she liked about storytelling,
”We have the ability to share and write it down. I like to write stories.”

We are now well on the way with our Telling Bee and we are all looking forward to sharing many family stories over the next few weeks!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-11T05:40:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to school and to what will be a busy and interesting term.

We are well on the way with our Silver Birch Reading Program with some students already reading their 3rd or 4th book. There are many exciting titles this year, so if you didn't sign up and would like to, please come and visit the library to take a look at some of the books.
I will be posting a new contest on the blog just for Silver Birch Readers soon so keep visiting often!

This week will also see the launch of our school-wide Telling Bee. I will be keeping track of all the Telling Bee developments on the blog and would love to post some of your thoughts and experiences too.

Looking forward to having many visitors in the library over the next few weeks!

A grade 6 book review!

2008-12-09T07:19:00.000-08:00

The book that I read recently "Trading Faces" is wonderful a book that I think that most of the junior people will enjoy. The book is about two girls (they are twins) who are starting Middle School and trying to fit in. One of the girls is the smart one and the other one is a fashion type. Then one of the girls embarrasses herself and that’s where the excitement comes!
Debbie

Get ready to read

2008-12-05T05:27:00.000-08:00

I have just read my first few books in the Silver Birch and Blue Spruce programs for this year. There is an interesting range of reading available for those of you who wish to participate.
Here is a brief review of 2 of those books.

Mattland by Hazel Hutchins is in the Blue Spruce category (for grades Kindergarten to 3). This is a beautifully put together story of few words. Matt is a young boy whose parents have moved around often. In their latest home, they are surrounded by a bleak, muddy wasteland. Matt sets about creating his own world and in the process builds himself a community of friends. The illustrations are beautifully done and I highly recommend that you take a look at this book.

Silver Birch fiction (grades 4-6) - The Moon Children by Beverley Brenna deals with the sensitive issue of a boy born with many different learning and behaviour issues. He is a very likable but lonely character who becomes friends with a young Romanian girl who never speaks. This young girl also has a troubled past and spends all her time writing in a notebook and tracking the phases of the moon. The friendship that develops between the 2 is very touching. This is not a light-hearted story at all but it is a worthwhile read and the characters are very well written. This is my favourite so far!
Let me know what you think when you have read it.

Silver Birch is starting!

2008-12-02T16:22:00.000-08:00

Make sure you come visit the library this week to sign up for Silver Birch. It is open for grades 4,5 and 6. There are 3 different groups of books:

Silver Birch Express - including both fiction and non-fiction - which is more suitable for grade 4 readers (you can still read them in grades 5 and 6 though and there are some fantastic books this year!)
Fiction - 10 fabulous books by some authors you will know and others that may be new to you
Non-fiction - 10 more amazing books on a range of subjects including

To vote at the end of the program in April, you must have read at least 5 books from the group you wish to vote for.
I have already started reading as have many of the teachers (we need a head start after all!) and the books will be available to you starting December 8th.

Everyone's a winner at Wilky!

2008-11-29T10:15:00.001-08:00

4 students won themselves a new book this week. Ayshah, Zoe, Yameen and Shahla all came to tell me about books they have read recently. Congratulations to you all.
Watch out for other contests happening throughout the year!

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane: A book review by Ms. Sterioff

2008-11-28T11:28:00.000-08:00

Edward Tulane was a china rabbit who lived with a very wealthy family. He was rather shallow and not a nice individual to be around. One day he got separated from his family and went on a journey. The journey took him from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman. Then he went from the top of a garbage heap to a hoboes' camp. Along the way, he learned how to love, to lose, and to love again. I truly recommend this book which teaches us a life lesson.
Ms. Sterioff

Storyteller Cheryl Thornton

2008-11-25T14:01:00.001-08:00

Last week, Cheryl came to our school to tell stories with our kindergarten and grade one classes. As Cheryl began her first story, many of the grade ones suddenly realized that they knew the story from Cheryl's Storyvalue web site. Seeing the excitement on their faces was one of the happiest moments of the year for this teacher librarian. Cheryl keeps up a lively and interesting pace with her telling. Some stories were just to listen to, others needed a little assistance from some little tellers and the grand finale was a beautiful telling of Stone Soup with all the students participating.
Today, Cheryl came back to visit with the grade 2 and 3 students.
The stories today were all around the theme "celebration and heritage". Once again the students were highly involved in the telling and many students had the opportunity to try out their own storytelling skills on their classmates.
We all enjoyed Cheryl's stories very much and can't wait to retell some of these wonderful stories!

A quick contest anyone?

2008-11-23T17:53:00.000-08:00

Here is a chance to win a quick prize this week.
The first 5 students to come and tell me about a favourite recent book they have read, will win a new book. Simple eh?

Some questions that may help you with this:

Who is/are the main characters in this book?

What is the main idea of the book?

What does the book remind you of? (another book, an event in your life etc)

I like to hear what you are reading so be the first to visit!

Still reading!

2008-11-23T17:40:00.000-08:00

A perfect Gentle Knight by Kit Pearson

This book is the tale of a young family struggling to hold themselves together following the death of their mother. Their father has retreated into his work and the children become absorbed in role playing the knights of the round table.
Kit Pearson develops the delicate relationships between the children with compassion as each individual goes through changes as they meet new friends and become less involved in the game. The oldest brother, Sebastian is unable to cope with the changes and retreats further into the role of a Knight. His sister Corrie, the main character in this story, goes through many trials and tribulations as she struggles to cope with supporting her brother.
This book is definitely not an easy read but in my opinion is a very worthwhile one.
The book will be available in our library soon...I wonder who will be the first student to read it?

StoryTelling at Wilkinson

2008-11-05T16:02:00.000-08:00

This year, we will be holding a Telling Bee at Wilkinson. A Telling Bee is a celebration of storytelling involving everyone in the school community. You can find out more at http://www.tellery.com/Telling_Bee.html All of the students and staff will be talking to their families to discover stories which have special significance to them.

To start our year of storytelling, we have invited 3 storytellers to visit with the students. This week, the grade 4, 5 and 6 students enjoyed a visit from storyteller Anna Kerz.

Anna is a member of Storytelling Toronto which is a non-profit organization. You can look at the work they do to promote and celebrate storytelling at http://www.storytellingtoronto.org/

Anna shared a variety of multi-cultural stories with us, including family stories from her own childhood experiences.

We all thoroughly enjoyed Anna's visit and came away ready to find out some of our own family stories. Everyone was starting to think about their own past, trips they have made, countries they have visited or emigrated from. It was wonderful to see so much enthusiasm coming from the audience after hearing one of Anna's stories.

Do you have a story you would like to tell?

Forest of Reading 2009

2008-11-04T18:02:00.000-08:00

The titles for this year's contest have been announced. There is an amazing selection available this year and I can't wait to get started reading!
The books will be available in school in December but in the meantime, if you would like to preview the titles, visit the Forest of reading site at http://www.accessola.com/forest2009/

Are you ready?

2008-10-21T06:01:00.000-07:00

The nominees for this year's Forest of Reading will be announced next Monday October 27th. Visit the library next week if you would like a sneak preview of our Silver Birch titles! Our Silver Birch Club will be starting before the winter break this year to give you lots of opportunities to read the books.

The end of a contest

2008-10-21T05:59:00.000-07:00

Ailie from grade 6 is the final winner for our 1st contest. Well done to Ailie and keep watching the blog for future contests!

What are you reading today?

2008-10-14T06:04:00.000-07:00

I took advantage of the long weekend to catch up on some reading. I finally read the "Giver" which reminded me very much of the Ray Bradbury books I read as a child such as "Farenheit 451".

I also read a book by Eric Walters called "We all fall down".

This story is based around 9/11. A boy goes to work with his father that day, and the father just so happens to work in the World Trade building. Mr Walters build great depth to the emotions of these characters and the story relates events of that day in such a way that you feel that you are walking every step of the way with them.

Both books are well worth the read in my opinion.

Only one prize left...!

2008-10-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

Abdullah found a card in the 2002 World book series. The only prize left is in a book in the character education display. Remember that the crane holds the clue...

Don't forget...

2008-10-09T07:32:00.000-07:00

...to vote on our poll. I am really interested to know which part of our library you like best!

More winners!

2008-10-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

Ayshah and Shahla both from grade 6 just collected 2 more of our book prizes! Clue 2 was the book "Falling Up" by Shel Silverstein and clue 3 was "The abominable snowman" from the "choose your own adventure series".
Congratulations girls!
There are only 2 more book prizes to find! Come visit soon.

And the winner is...

2008-10-09T05:55:00.000-07:00

Caillie from grade 6 won the first of the book prizes for our Find the Clue Contest. She chose a graphic novel called "Warriors" for her prize. Congratulations Caillie!

The clue that she solved was number 1. The nervouse mouse is Chrysanthemum!

4 more clues to go so put your thinking caps on everyone!

Ready for a contest?

2008-10-07T15:57:00.001-07:00

There are 5 cards hidden in the library inside books.
Your mission (if you wish to accept it) is to find one of those cards and bring it to Mrs Found.
These are the clues that will help you find the cards - please remember to only bring me one card:
1. There is a book about a mouse who is very nervous. Her name is the name of a flower. This book is a picture book.
2. This author writes poetry. His books can be found in the 800's section of the dewey system (non-fiction). This book is the opposite of falling down.
3. These books are about building your own story. They are in a basket on a coffee table in the library. Look for the book about a snowman.
4. This is a world reference book. Look for the numbers 19 and 2002. This book is blue. It is in the reference section.
5. This month's character trait is responsibility. Look for the cart near the character education display. The crane holds the clue.

Welcome back!

2008-08-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to school everyone! I am looking forward to having lots of visitors in the library next week. See you all soon!

Blue Spruce Nominated Author, Kari Lynn Winters

2008-05-22T15:18:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday May 20th, Kari came to visit our Kindergarten and Primary grades. She not only told stories to the students (including Jeffrey and Sloth - her nominated book in the 2008 Blue Spruce Award) but used the students as characters within her stories. She encouraged everyone to make connections, predictions and to visualize stories as well as telling jokes and singing songs.
Kari is a true entertainer and we were all happy to have had her visit with us.
Check out her website at http://kariwinters.com/

A Poem for today

2008-05-12T08:07:00.000-07:00

Sometimes
taken from If I had a million onions - Sheree Fitch

Sometimes I'm selfish.
Sometimes I'm not.
Sometimes I'd give away
All that I've got.

Sometimes I'm kind.
Sometimes I'm cruel.
Sometimes I'm clever.
Sometimes a fool.

Sometimes I know.
Sometimes I don't.
Sometimes I answer.
Sometimes I won't.

Sometimes I try.
Sometimes I'm lazy
Sometimes I'm sometimes
A little bit crazy.

Sometimes I'm quiet.
Sometimes I'm loud.
Sometimes I'm guilty.
Sometimes I'm proud.

Sometimes I'm frightened.
Sometimes courageous.
Sometimes I'm healthy.
Sometimes contagious.

Sometimes I'm dirty.
Sometimes I'm clean.
Sometimes I'm living
Somewhere in between.

These are my sometimes.
But most times? I'm me!
All the times wondering
Who will I be?

StoryFest 2008

2008-05-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

On Friday May 2nd, six grade 3 students accompanied Ms F to storyfest 2008. Storyfest is a celebration of telling stories and about 20 schools were taking part in the festival ranging from grade 3 to grade 8. They told stories and listened to many other stories being told over the course of the morning. During the afternoon, Itah Sadu, storyteller and author, performed a lively and inspiring presentation for the students. Itah is the author of Christopher changes his name, Christopher please clean your room!, A touch of the zebras and Name calling, all of which can be found in our library. The students did an amazing job of bringing their stories to life and all had a great time at this event.
Here's looking forward to next year's festival!

Welcome to the Wilky Way!

2008-05-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the "Wilky Way", a new place to share ideas, reading and thoughts in general about events in our school, community and the world at large.
I hope that many of you will choose to visit frequently and add your comments to the postings you find here!