Kids Lit Competition

The Dr. A.R. Lord Elementary Kids Lit Trivia team went downtown to compete in regionals on Friday, January 20th. Lead by Coach- Teacher Ms. McCandless, they answered 100 questions on ten different themes  of questions about kids (age 3-11) literature (eg. bears, females, furniture)! 

Each of our two teams won a round of ten, which was quite impressive. That also means that each of the competitors came back to Lord with brand new books, donated by Kidsbooks! We are not quite headed to Toronto for Nationals, but we all had a great time and did an excellent job representing our school. Ms. M is very proud, and will definitely be coaching a team again next year!

Kids Lit Quiz

Some brave intermediate students have decided to join the ever-exuberant Ms. McCandless in attempting WORLD DOMINATION in a new area for AR Lord. Eight students will soon be attending the regionals for the international Kids Lit Quiz competition.

This is a test of ONE HUNDRED questions, on ANY literature written in English for kids aged 3-11. It's a vast subject area, and we have been practicing and reading hard for months now! This year, the national and international levels will both be held in Canada. Kids Lit Quiz is a registered charity, and is sponsored in part by our local Kidsbooks! 

For more information, check out their website, http://kidslitquiz.ca/​ .... and good luck Lord Lions! 

Reading Bingo for Literacy!

R-E-A-D-O is like Bingo, but for reading. Everytime a student reads something according to the squares, they write the title and date in the square on the forms that were sent home with students.       The goal is to add some fun and encourage reading for students in a wide variety of forms.   

Rules:

* This game is open all year, until the library closes in June 2017.

*When the student fills up the whole board, they can bring it to Librarian, Ms. McCandless and trade it in for a prize.

*Each thing read counts as only one square. 

Read 4 Poems              Read a Book with a Female Lead           Read to a friend or Sibling

Read a Magazine               Read a non-fiction book                  Read someone a bedtime Story  

              Read a store Flyer         Read a book about a special event or holiday 

*Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunties, Uncles, Godparents, Babysitters, Family Friends, Moms, Dads, Cousins....all count as adults to share reading with.
*Keep the READO form in a safe place (eg. agenda pocket) or in a special spot at home. If the child loses the form, they will have to start all over again! (yay more reading!)

Happy Reading!

Library Celebration Ceremony

The school library isn't just rows of books, it is the heart and soul of building the love of reading in young A.R. Lord students. 

The whole school gathered in a celebration ceremony to acknowledge all the hard work that has been put into the continual building of the school library.  This wonderful learning resource for students continues to foster literacy through the efforts of many individuals, community partners and the school staff/educators. New books that span numerous topics and genres are continually brought into the school library to spark the interest of students. The library space has also been revamped to foster a comfortable place to read. 

Ms. McCandless lead the event and gave recognition to the VSB movers, library mentors, book fair volunteers, Librarian-Teacher Ms. Macmaster, parent volunteers Gavi and Tracy, and Diana of Coles/Indigo, the representative of the Love of Reading Foundation, was on hand.  Student book ticket winners, book review contest winners and library monitors were also applauded. 

Thank you to all the supporters of the Library and Literacy at A.R. Lord Elementary

Book Exchange for all Students

A school wide book exchange was held on March 10th at A.R. Lord Elementary School.  All classes had the opportunity to go into the gym and check out the hundreds of donated and gently used books that were on display.  Students got to take home several free books to read over Spring Break. The students really loved choosing the books and the event was a huge success On behalf of the staff and PAC, we want to thank everyone who donated books and helped make this event something that we hope to host again!                                                                                                  "The more that you read, the more things you'll  know.  The more that you learn, the more places you'll go!" - Dr. Seuss

The importance of Libraries and Reading

Ms. McCandless, the A.R. Lord Librarian shares this article on fiction and reading for children:

http://neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming

Neil Gaiman is an award winning English Author of short fiction, novels, graphic novels, comic books audio theatre and films.  Last fall he gave a wonderful lecture on child literacy.

Giving Tuesday Recipient

A.R. Lord Elementary was the recipient of an additional $5000 from the Love of Reading Foundation (on top of what we have already received). We were notified of this wonderful generous donation this week on "Giving Tuesday". These funds will be used to purchase classroom and library books and materials from Coles Indigo. A thank you card was also  prepared and signed by students and then presented to Coles Lougheed Mall Staff to thank them for their support to our school and literacy. http://www.loveofreading.org

Indigo Adopt a School Results

This year A.R. Lord participated in the Indigo Adopt a School Program that was hosted by the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation which has donated more than $17 million to over 1,600 schools over the last 10 years. 
http://www.loveofreading.org/

This campaign resulted in over $3100 in books for our school classrooms and library from the support of families and friends who adopted us online and the Coles bookstore at Lougheed Mall.

Thank You Indigo Adopt a School Supporters!

Yay we are the winner of $1000 in books for our library for our blog post in the Indigo Adopt A School Contest! Thank you Indigo, our sponsor store Coles Indigo Lougheed Mall, Students, Teachers, Staff, Families, and Friends! We also had 175 books from our adopters who clicked away each day!

Thank you Indigo Love of Reading Foundation for this wonderful and generous campaign that has helped us grow our library and literacy to the benefit of all school children at A.R. Lord

https://adoptaschool.indigo.ca/eng/giveaway

A.R. Lord Elementary + Indigo = Child Literacy

"I love the library and reading new books" - Gr 1 Student

A.R. Lord Elementary loves reading! It is a collective effort and creates an environment that fosters imagination, literacy, and sharing. 

"The library is the heart of our school and one of the key ways the librarian  turns children into lifelong readers is by connecting every one of our students with a "just right" book. The support from Chapters/Indigo means that we can get more books into the hands of our students and inspire them to love books and reading and learning." - Ms. Burke - Resource/Reading Recovery Teacher 

Literacy activities within our school have included the creation of a community bookshare, hosting parent workshops on how to support literacy in the home, providing support to new readers with the One-to-One Literacy program, book exchanges and the Indigo A.R. Lord Flipgive campaign.
Now for a limited time until October 10th, the Indigo Adopt as School event will bring together school teachers, students, families, and supporters along side Indigo staff, customers and the community.  It provides us a chance to win $10,000 in books for the school library.  The Indigo store in Lougheed Mall, Coquitlam is our generous sponsor store!  Adopt us online and help support literacy:


Click to Adopt A.R. Lord

ADOPT A.R. Lord online with the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation

Between Sept 20th to Oct 10th, 2015, Dr. A.R. Lord will be participating in the Indigo ADOPT A SCHOOL program.  Our sponsor store is the Lougheed Mall location and this campaign unites Coles, Chapters, Indigo employees, customers and their communities in raising money to rejuvenate elementary-school libraries across Canada.   

"Adopt us" online (every day during the campaign if you can...it is FREE) and/or make a donation to help support the purchase of books for our library.  We will be participating for $10,000 worth of books!

Adopt now:  Link to A.R. Lord Adopt a School Site

Books Books Books!

Summer Reading!

Wanting to do some great summer reading?  How about:

1.  Visit the free community bookshare box on Turner beside the school.  Take a book, leave a book.
2.  Enjoy the great selection of books and summer kids activities at the Vancouver Public Library.  http://www.vpl.ca/summerreading.  Try nearby Hastings VPL or head downtown to the Central branch and check out the great Inspiration Space where you can create your own digital ebooks, do online editing, recording and even green screen videos.  Free to use! http://www.vpl.ca/programs/cat/C1051

3.  Go to the A.R. Lord Indigo fundraiser and purchase a gift card.  Spend $25 and you get an e-gift card worth $25.... the school gets a bonus $5 towards the purchase of books for the library.   https://indigo.flipgive.com/campaigns/23630-books-for-dr-ar-lord-elementary
Use the gift card to purchase books and gifts online or in store.

Division 4 Reader Theatre

Grade 2 and 3 students in Ms. Phong Many's class performed well know skits such as Henny Penny, the Three Little Pigs and Pinocchio in front of their classmates.  It was a great opportunity for students to develop confidence in performing!  They build skills in oral reading fluency which is the ability to read and speak smoothly and expressively. 
This sounds like a great evening activity to try on the family camping trip! 

Update on A.R. Lord Literacy - By Ms. Burke

"The Staff at Dr. A. R. Lord have been working hard on our school goal of improving literacy for our students. Over the past three years we have committed to becoming an Early Intervention school with the Reading Recovery program as part of that commitment. With a supportive administrator to facilitate times for us to meet, the EI team has been having regular  "power hour" meetings for the past two years. At these meetings we:

• watched each other teach in the classroom and discussed what we saw
• we talked about the progress of individual students and how we could best support them
• we participated in a professional book club lead by the Peer-to-Peer mentor, Mary, (Catching Readers Before They Fall)
• we looked at school-wide Early Intervention data and its implications for our teaching
• we looked at the Observation Survey and learned about the types of information that it can give us about our students

This year we applied for and got collaborative funds to further our inquiry. The intermediate teachers joined our literacy team and our staff is closer and more dedicated  than ever. Our collaborative inquiry was able to:

• release teachers to visit and observe teachers in other schools
• send two teachers to the Literacy Summit in Seattle to hear world renowned educators
• meet as a school staff to share our learning with each other
• spend time exploring the new LLI and BAS kits our school has purchased/received
• discuss best practice strategies for classroom teaching as well as how best to support our struggling students

We have seen our staff developing a shared vision and growing in our expertise by having the opportunities to participate in this kind of professional development. We feel it has been extremely valuable and look forward to further opportunities to learn from both experts and each other to keep improving our professional practice."

Thank You Variety-The Children's Charity for your Support of Literacy!

Recently Dr. A.R. Lord Elementary received a donation of a Levelled Literacy Intervention (LLI) kit from Variety-The Children's Charity to support our Early Intervention program. Over 800 books were sorted, stamped, labelled and organized by Bice, Maria, Mrs. Burke and 

her daughter, Emma. 

Variety - The Children¹s Charity recently provided $125,000 in funding to the Vancouver School Board towards the purchase of 50 LLI kits. Variety is pleased to partner with  the VSB in the provision of key resources for the Early Intervention program. The LLI kits are designed to provide additional literacy support for children in Kindergarten to grade 3; approximately 3,500 students benefit each year from the program.

Variety believes that each child who has special needs is a champion, and is inspired by the courage and determination with which they meet their challenges. With support, children are able to achieve remarkable little victories. Families with children who have learning disabilities and extra needs are encouraged to contact Variety, as funding for tutoring and therapies (speech, OT, PT) is also available through its individual grants program. Visit variety.bc.ca or call 604-320-0505 to learn more.

Literacy Circles for Division 2

Literacy circles are small, temporary discussion groups of students who read the same work of literature. Each member agrees to take specific responsibilities during discussion sessions.  They share their ideas on the characters and the plot.  

These breakout circles meet regularly as they progress through the reading of the book and the discussion roles change at each meeting. This technique is a great opportunity for these Grade 4-6 students at Dr. A.R. Lord Elementary to develop teamwork and collaboration.   

Upcoming Scholastic Book Fair: Volunteers needed

SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR - a yearly favourite, is an "on site" book sale in the School Library.  This event is scheduled for the first week after Spring Break: March 23-27th.  It is an opportunity for students and parents/caregivers to puchase books, stationary and gift items.  This event helps us earn bonus books for the school library and classrooms for all students to enjoy. http://www.scholastic.ca/bookfairs/

.... we have great helpers scheduled, but we need a few more volunteers to setup, sell and shut down.  Link to Online Volunteer Signup

Please sign up directly on the above link for one or more times.  You don't need an account, but do enter your name/email so that we can track and send you an automatic reminder. 

Or send an email to arlordpac@gmail.com 

If you have any questions, please contact Parents:  Kelly Robinson or Linda D.

Morning Reading Time

Each day Kindergarten/Grade 1 Classes start off the day by reading for a few minutes with their parent/caregiver in the classroom.  This unstructured time allows for everyone to settle in, greet their friends, and listen to morning announcements.

For those busy parents/caregivers who can't stay and read on a given day, others are happy to have them join in.  Some kids are happy to read independently.   Everyone enjoys picking a new book, reading, sharing and getting the day off to a great start.

A.R. Lord isn't just about students and school, it is an inclusive place that makes families part of the school community!  We love it!

Linda O'Reill'y Recommended Book List

As a follow up to the January Parent and Child Reading Sessions, Literacy Educator Ms. Linda O'Reilly shares her recommended reading list for various ages:  some old, some new and timeless books!

Dr. A.R. Lord Elementary Loves Reading!   Link to Book List: Linda O'Reilly