Te Totara Primary School Library

We have some enthusiastic students in our book clubs and Lit Quiz Squad this year! Our (mostly) Marama team students named their club "The Nerdy Rats" and brought along their best clever rat pictures. Our (mostly) Milky Way team students named their club "The Fairly Ferocious Ferrets" (which is a mouthful to say over the intercom!). Our Lit Quiz Squad are preparing for the Kids' Lit Quiz next term. They had fun doing some literary Kahoots (online quizzes).

Today we gave out the prizes for our Summer Reading Challenge. Congratulations to all our winners, and to everyone who read books over the holidays. Our staff Reading Challenge was won by Mrs Goile.

In the last two weeks, we have issued over 1,800 books for students to read over the holidays, so there should be lots of children with their noses in books this summer! We hope that your holidays are filled with the best kind of stories.

Here is Part Two of the videos made by our Pink Fluffy Unicorns and Hot Bananas Book Club. They talked about some of their favourite books they read this year. It was great to see their enthusiasm and the wide range of books they selected.

Favourite Books in 2025 - Part 2 The Pink Fluffy Unicorns and Hot Bananas Book Club talk about some of the best books they read in 2025.

Our Pink Fluffy Unicorns and Hot Bananas Book Club talked about some of their favourite books they read this year. It was great to see their enthusiasm and the wide range of books they selected. Here is Part One.

Favourite Books in 2025 - Part One The Pink Fluffy Unicorns and Hot Bananas Book Club, talk about some of the best books they read in 2025.

Today was our Shelf Monitors' turn to enjoy a special treat for all of their hard work this year. Mrs Rorimpandey made a big batch of her yummy cupcakes for everyone.

Our wonderful student librarians had their pizza party today, in recognition of their efforts in keeping our library running smoothly. First up was pizza and lemonade, followed by a rousing game of Kahoot, a choice of a withdrawn library book, and a little book chocolate.

The Waikato Local has an article about our library, the importance of reading, Jenna our wonderful artist, and our support dog, Milo.

The Waikato Local The Waikato Local

Our Year 2s had a visit from author Kristin Kelly today, as part of the Storylines Waikato Story Tour. Kristin showed our students the tiny books that she creates and helped them come up with their own story. She discussed the importance of considering how your characters are feeling, and she described how finding two rather sad dogs at a house with a new baby helped her come up with the idea for her book, "The Squeakling".

On Wednesday, our Year 3-6 students were fortunate to have a visit from author, and current Te Awhi Rito Reading Ambassador, Kate De Goldi. She read excerpts from her stories, spoke about where she gets her ideas from, and spent a lot of time answering questions from our students.

We are very lucky to have Kate De Goldi speaking to our Year 3-6 students next Wednesday morning. She is a very accomplished public speaker, so you may be interested in hearing her talk about the impact of story in young people's lives. This is a free event at Te Kete Aronui - Rototuna Library on Monday 11 August.