G.P. Mackie Jr. P.S. Library Learning Commons Newsletter December 2014 Teacher-Librarian: Ms. Raynor
Dear Parent/Guardian:
$2,000.00 worth of new
The Gr. 5’s, focused on books were recently the Canadian Government.
purchased for the Their collaborative inquiries library!
Half of these involved reading current news have been written by Canadian authors and are articles about how the 3 different levels of nominated for awards as part of the Ontario
Library Association’s Forest of Reading Program . government were responding to both a social and environmental issue in Canada.
They created
These are primary and junior fiction and non-fiction collaborative Google Slide Presentations and orally books. Stay tuned for more information in early presented them to the class . Each group created a
January when we launch this exciting reading solution to one of their issues and defended their program! ideas using supporting evidence.
We’ve been busy in the Library… Throughout the process of
Ms. McFarlane, Ms. Duncan and their classes completing their inquiries, the worked intensively over an extended time with students were developing the
Ms. Raynor to complete collaborative inquiries.
following complex and often
The Gr. 3’s explored early communities in Canada from 1780-1850, and working in small groups, found newly acquired skills :
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develop questions to guide their inquiries
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locate information from appropriate print and answers to their inquiries regarding how these communities lived with respect to the style and electronic resources
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use the School Virtual Library including the structure of their homes, the food they ate, and the type of clothing they wore. The students made online catalogue to access print resources, online encyclopedias, online databases, agecomparisons between two early communities, and appropriate and curriculum-relevant websites, then chose one of them to compare to our lifestyle and image sites such as Flickr in Creative today. Their choice of lifestyle needed to be explained to the class. Each group worked collaboratively to create a Google Slide
Presentation of their inquiries which they orally presented to their peers .
The Gr. 4 students created collaborative inquiries regarding the different geographical
Commons
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read and understand a wide variety of print and electronic texts
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make point form notes about key pieces of required information
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organize and order their information
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compare information by analyzing it
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draw conclusions about questions they had by synthesizing their information
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work co-operatively and collaboratively within regions within the provinces and territories . They wanted a group of three
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develop oral language skills
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follow digital citizenship guidelines by using to compare the climate, industry (employment) and licence-appropriate sites and citing all sites lifestyle (recreation) between provinces/ territories.
As a group they determined which area they felt was a preferred place to live for someone who was moving used for both information and images
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develop word-processing skills
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develop skills in navigating between various to Canada, and they needed to defend their point of view. Oral presentations and Google Slide documents and websites
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copy images to their photo library and import
Presentations were created and shared with the class. them to their Google doc
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use the web cam to take a self portrait
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create and use the collaborative tools and features of a Google Slide Presentation
* Please see important information on the back.

During Media Literacy classes in the library, the Kindergarten classes :
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learned the differences between media and non-media items
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are learning to login to the netbooks, open
Starfall.com and navigate through the site and learning modules
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are developing their phonics and reading skills
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are developing a love of reading by being exposed to a variety of fiction and non-fiction print and electronic texts
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are learning to identify, compare and sort fiction and non-fiction texts by examining their features using both print and electronic media
The Gr. 3 students:
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learned a wide variety of media texts and created “Wordles” (word clouds)
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learned and compared the features and characteristics of a variety of media texts
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learned how to use the Internet in a responsible and safe manner (Please refer to the “Privacy Playground the First Adventure of the 3 Little Cyberpigs: ”) http://mediasmarts.ca/game/privacyplayground-first-adventure-three-cyberpigs
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learned about online advertising and how to protect their privacy from advertisers and third party marketers
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are learning to analyze the slogans advertisers use in print ads to entice and persuade people to buy their products
Important age-appropriate skills and lessons are taught during Library
Book Exchange classes such as how to:
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locate books and other resources using the
Dewey Decimal System and the computer online catalogues (Picture PAC and Online
Catalogue)
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login and save computer files to student accounts
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compare the features of fiction and non-fiction texts both print and electronic
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use the online databases, ebooks, and online encyclopedias in the School Virtual Library website to conduct searches for research
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use the Internet in a responsible and safe manner (for Gr. 3-6 students)
 use the Internet ethically and responsibly by following Copyright Law, and practising digital citizenship by using information from appropriate sites and citing sources used by creating a bibliography (list of print and online sources such as books, online databases, encyclopedias, images/photos, magazines and newspapers)
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evaluate websites in terms of accuracy, currency, relevance and navigation tools
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learn about new ebooks such as TabVue and
Capstone which support the social studies and science curriculum
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learn about other ebooks on the School Virtual
Library such as “The International
Children’s Digital Library,” which provides multicultural children’s literature from around the world, written in many different languages for all grades and interests!
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learn about Follett Shelf ebooks which are junior/intermediate fiction books and biographies
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learn about new books, authors, genres and reading programs such as “The Forest of
Reading,” to support and extend an interest in reading and develop literacy skills
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learn about seasonal and culturally significant events
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be exposed to books, ebooks, and videos regarding values within the
TDSB’s Character
Education program
http://www.tdsb.on.ca/findyour/schools/libraryc at.aspx?schoolno=4510
Use the “Learnmark in your child’s agenda to access the logins and passwords to the sites in the Virtual Library.