Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Happy New Year.

Chinese New Year is the most important of the Chinese holidays and is a time of feasting with the family, celebration, fireworks and gift-giving. It is a 15-day holiday, beginning on the first day of a new moon and ending with the full moon on the day of the Lantern Festival.

 

  

On 8th February 2016 we welcome in a new Chinese New Year, the Year of the Monkey!

Here is an art activity to show you how to draw your own monkey.

 

 You can find out more about China in section 915.1 of the library.

Mrs Henshaw

German Week

This week we have been very lucky to have the opportunity to learn more about Germany.  Our two German trainee teachers, Mr Machulik and Miss Heike, have brought a little bit of their home country to our school.
If you are interested you can find out more about Germany from books in the library.  Look in the geography section 914.3 to find out more.
Did you know that Cornelia Funke is a German author who is as popular in Germany as J K Rowling is in the UK.  We have a copy of one of her books, Dragon Rider, in the library.  Can you find it?

It's just a book....or is it?

What can a book do?

A book isn't just made of words, it's filled with

places to visit and people to meet where you

can travel to far away countries without ever

leaving your chair.

Your library is filled with magic, adventure

 and far away lands.

You can find magic wherever you look.

Sit back and relax, all you need is a book.

Here is a little video about a book.

A new year in the library - 2016

It's the start of a brand new year in Howes library.  I am hoping that this year will be the beginning of something new for the library.  I have been disappointed during the last year about the number of books which go missing from the library.  I love that everyone enjoys reading the library books.  To make it easier this year to keep track of all our lovely books I hope to get everybody using the online checking in and out system.  It is really easy to do, instructions  will be found above the computer in the library.
I hope to have the system up and running to use after half term in February so watch this space for further details.
In the meantime.....please..... can you return any books you find in school that should be in the library (we used to have 26 Horrid Henry books!) so that we can all make a fresh start and all enjoy the library books together. There are some great reads in there.

Thank you,
Mrs Henshaw

It's Roald Dahl Day, Hooray!

Today, Friday 26th September, we are celebrating the life of the wonderful children's author, Roald Dahl.
  Here are 10 facts about him, some you may know and perhaps some that you didn't:

1. He was born on 13 September 1916, in Llandaff, Cardiff. His parents were Norwegian.
2. He did not start writing for children until he had children of his own.
3. He wrote all of his children's stories in a small hut at the bottom of his garden.
4. He was a Hurricane fighter pilot during World War II.
5. He had two steel hips and six operations on his spine.
6. He wrote the screenplays for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Bond movie You Only Live Twice.
7. He originally wrote short stories for adults which were later published as Tales of the Unexpected.
8. He loved chocolate, but not chocolate cake or chocolate ice cream.
9. He always wrote in pencil on yellow paper.
10.  He died on 23 November 1990 and is buried in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's Church, Great Missenden.             

      Roald Dahl wrote 17 children’s novels and 3 children's poetry books.  In total he has published  48 books (not including published screenplays and plays).

Today everyone in our school will be dressing up as their favourite character from one of his many stories.

 Who will you be?

          

Meeting Kevin Brooks

On Friday 27th June Helena and Connor from Year 6 were invited to Sidney Stringer Academy to listen to the author Kevin Brooks talk about his latest book ' The Ultimate Truth'.

Both were lucky to receive a free copy of the book from Coventry Libraries as part of the 2014 Literary Festival and were able to get them personally signed by the author who is the current 2014 

Carnegie Medal prizewinner for his novel 'The Bunker Diaries'.

Kevin Brooks writes mainly for older teens but this is his first novel for Years 6/7.  It features Travis Delaney, a 13 year old boy, whose parents run a private detective agency.  Travis' parents are both killed in a mysterious car accident and he decides to use all he has learnt from them to uncover the truth behind this unfortunate event.  It is a real adventure story full of intrigue and suspense.
I shall be adding a copy to the school library shortly.

Author Visit 24.06.14

We were very lucky to host an author event at Howes today as part of the Coventry Literary Festival 2014.  Years 4 and 5, along with children from Whitley Abbey Primary School and Frederick Bird Primary School, welcomed children's author Lyn Gardner to our school.

Lyn told us how she began writing books for children only 8 years ago and has now had a total of 11 books published, her latest being a gripping adventure on the high seas starring her motley band of pirates.

She has also written a series of books about two sisters who find themselves placed in a stage school run by their grandmother after the unfortunate death of their mother.  The girl's adventures can be found in the Olivia series of seven books, the first being Olivia's First Term.


Lyn read extracts of this book and was pleased to be able to sign copies for those children who bought a copy on the day. 

I have purchased a  copy of this book which will be available in the library soon.

Lyn is also a prolific theatre goer, attending five or six plays each week around the country and abroad. She writes critical theatre reviews  for the Guardian newspaper in London.

Mrs Henshaw

It's A New School Year!

Welcome back to Howes everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful and exciting summer holiday.  I hope you were able to read lots of books too!

It won't be long until the library goes 'live' and you will be able to search through all the books on your IPads! You will even be able to find useful websites to help with your schoolwork too.

  Watch this space!

Did you know that 13th September is Roald Dahl Day?  Perhaps you could find out why it is always held on this date?  Here is a link to the official Roald Dahl website where you will find lots of interesting information about him and his books as well as some games and puzzles to play. 

 

 You might like to test your knowledge of his stories - do you know as much as you think you do?!

All you do is to look
At a page in this book
Because that’s where we always will be.
No book ever ends
When it’s full of your friends
The Giraffe and the Pelly and me.”
-Roald Dahl

Mrs Henshaw

Why Walk To School?

Walk To School Week

Did you know that this week, 20th - 24th May, is National Walk To School Week.  It's part of the National Walking Month scheme which happens each May.

Living Streets, the organisers, will focus on a different aspect of walking each day.

 You can find out more by clicking on the picture below.

 

Monday     Tuesday   Wednesday   Thursday       Friday

  Safety     Discovery    Health     Eco-friendly  Social time

Why don't you challenge yourselves to walk to Howes this week?

 Even if you can only manage it once you are doing yourself and our environment a lot of good.

You can find out more about the benefits of exercise on your bodies by looking at the

books in Section 612 of the Library.

Mrs Henshaw