Bastion Elementary Library, École Élémentaire Bastion Bibliothèque

March Scholastic Book Club Order, 2024 Bastion Elementary Library Learning Commons Bibliothécaire de l' École Élémentaire Bastion

Wed., Feb. 28th, 2024 is Pink Shirt Day. Please see the blog post for more information about this social justice Canadian and International cause. Together we can make a difference

Pink shirt Day, 2024 #PinkShirtDay #BeKind #Lifteachotherup Bastion Elementary Library Learning Commons Bibliothécaire de l' École Élémentaire Bastion

🎉 Make Pink Shirt Day unforgettable this year! 🎉

Joyful Learning is thrilled to announce that award-winning author Monique Gray Smith will be joining them for this year’s Pink Shirt Day event! Just a few weeks away so register today!!

✨ Join Monique on Wednesday, February 28th at 9:30 am PT for an inspiring session with your whole class where she’ll read from her acclaimed books ‘You Hold Me Up’ and ‘When We Are Kind’ and lead an engaging conversation on kindness, empathy, and standing against bullying. This event is perfect for Grades 2-5, but everyone is welcome!

🩷 Don’t miss out on this opportunity to join Monique Gray Smith in spreading kindness! Reserve your spot now at joyfullearningcanada.ca/psd24 and be part of our empowering event! A rare opportunity for an author visit from one of Canada’s most beloved Indigenous children’s book authors!! 🇨🇦

Can’t make it live? No worries! You can catch the event later via recording! 💖 Let’s stand together against bullying and create a culture of kindness!

👉 REGISTER now at joyfullearningcanada.ca/psd24

Happy Lunar New Year

Happy Lunar New Year, 2024! Bastion Elementary Library Learning Commons Bibliothécaire de l' École Élémentaire Bastion

Happy Lunar New Year. Join in our learning about this festive tradition.

Happy Luna New Year, 2024! Bastion Elementary Library Learning Commons Bibliothécaire de l' École Élémentaire Bastion

Celebrating difference and learning about black history in Canada and North America.

Black History Month Inquiry, 2024 Bastion Elementary Library Learning Commons Bibliothécaire de l' École Élémentaire Bastion

It's Unplug and Play time! Check out the schedule and great events.

Unplug & Play, Jan 20-27, 2024 Bastion Elementary Library Learning Commons Bibliothécaire de l' École Élémentaire Bastion

Two Days Left for the Bastion Scholastic Book Fair - We're half way to our fundraising goal! Bastion Elementary Library Learning Commons Bibliothécaire de l' École Élémentaire Bastion

Bastion Elementary School PAC members please drop by the Bastion library for an early-bird Scholastic book sale opportunity tonight: 5:30pm (prior to the 6:30pm PAC meeting).

Peruse your child's book fair flyer or check out the "Junior [book] Trailers" at this link https://www.scholastic.ca/bookfairs/resources/parents

More information about the Scholastic Book Fair is on the library blog https://ardentlibarian.blogspot.com/

Also, at the meeting tonight, thank you for the opportunity to introduce you to or remind you of SD83's World of Information digital education resources: https://drc.sd83.bc.ca/

I will have a hand out for PAC members which explains these databases, and includes user names and passwords.

I will include the letter contents here as well but without the user name and password due to the "public" nature of this post.

See you tonight, Shannon Murrells-Allaway, aka Ardent Librarian.

Dear Bastion Parents and/or Guardians:
Nov., 2023
Re – SD83 Online Internet Database Access

Students are learning about digital educational resources which are available for home use as well. Go to http://drc.sd83.bc.ca/ and use the following user names and passwords (found also in your child’s agenda or back-and-forth book):

World Book Products: username # # password # #
EBSCO Products: username # # password # #

What Database Should We Use? Our district currently offers seven World Book products : World Book Kids, Student, Advanced, and Discovery as well as Découverte - which are all encyclopedias. They also offer Dramatic Learning, and Early World of Learning. Early World of Learning is a junior encyclopedia targeting primary students (the games section will appeal to older grades as well). Dramatic Learning offers curriculum-based plays for grade 1-12 - a creative way to learn!

The second largest SD83 digital product is EBSCO - which includes ten databases with encyclopedia, magazine, and journal articles. These databases target learners from kindergarten to adult, but they are very text based, so they can be challenging.

Note - I use EBSCO’s “Novelist” every day which is a book recommendation site & includes professional book reviews (it’s like Goodreads, but no ads or pressure for sales, and the reviews are done by paid professionals). Please tell me about what your family finds useful in the EBSCO options below (and, of course, for all kid databases you find powerful):

1. EBSCOhost (Gr. 9-Adult) NoveList
2. Canadian Points of View (High School – adult)
3. NoveList Plus
4. Explora Canada
5. Explora Primary Schools
6. Poetry & Short Story Reference Center
7. Library Reference Center
8. Explora Primary - Canada
9. Science Reference Center - Explora
10. History Reference Centre - Explora

FYI – Our district purchases these educational resources from the BC government’s buying consortium, FocusedEd. For more information go to their website: https://focusedresources.ca/en

MORE DATABASES: Along with the World Book and EBSCO databases, our district further offers the following: National Film Board of Canada (NFB), National Geographic Kids, BC Historical Newspapers, LGBTQ+ Source, and more.

I invite you to explore one, two or more of the databases and offer feedback.

Please feel free to drop by the library or give me a call if you need some help. Thanks for your time and attention.

Ms. Shannon Murrells-Allaway, aka Mme M, Bastion Teacher-Librarian, MA, BEd, 250-832-3741
Library Blog https://ardentlibarian.blogspot.com/
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Bastion Elementary Learning Commons, École Élémentaire Bastion Bibliothèque

Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back." Chinese proverb

We're having fun with weekly Pumpkin Jack updates. Um, yes I'm catching up on posts! This one is from Nov 13th. Lots of "cool" & "ewwwwsss" this week.