The week of Christmas is nearly upon us!

This is the last week of term 1, and it has gone so fast.
This term we have had so many fun things to do in the library. We've had storytellers, creativity day, making stuff day, Guinness World Records day and many other activities.

We have a lot of things planned for next term, so make sure you come in and see us when you get back.

This week we have a festive theme at the library. For making stuff day (Wednesday, Primary lunch) we will be making mini cardboard Christmas trees. They are very cute, you should come and make one!

3 sleeps till the end of school, and 18 sleeps till Santa...

EBSCO... it's useful, not useless!

Recently I've shown some of our secondary school classes how to use databases that the school subscribes to. If you are a Harrow student or parent, you can use these resources from anywhere you have internet access. To get the login details, just visit the library.

You can find a link to the login page on the Harrow website electronic resources page.

What is this EBSCO database anyway?
Well, it is a service that we subscribe to, filled with useful and authoratitive* information. Lots of it is full text (that means you get to read the whole piece) but you may also find abstracts (you only get a blurb describing the content of an article).

The database contains items from magazines, journals and newspapers.
Most of the content is assessed by real people and assigned appropriate subjects so that it will come up when you search for it.

*What is authoritative? This means that you can trust the information inside to come from sources which have been verified and are more likely to provide accurate information. Please make sure you assess any information you find before you use it.
I'll write more about how to do that another day...

While you can use Google to find things, it's only one tool in your choice of many!
Using EBSCO will give you the edge over other students who don't. And you'll need to use other tools like this when you're at University, so it's great practice!

Creativity day

Today is creativity day. We have many students coming in to make chocolate truffles, create collage, write fantastic newspaper poems, do fun things with i-pod touch and make their own stories with Storybird. We're really looking forward to seeing all the great stuff that students can make and do!

Here is a poem I wrote because it is creativity day.
Can you guess what it is about?

Home of aliens, paperclips, a person and an octopus
A flock of cranes
Bulldog clips, Cookie Monster cup
A solitary poppy
Tissues
Books (and more books)
A stick with a pointing finger
A sprinkling of glitter
A computer is under there somewhere

Harrow fair, Loy Krathong... exciting weekend!

Tomorrow is the Harrow fair - there will be all kinds of fun stuff to see and do. You can even eat candy floss (delicious and sugary!) I'm not sure if there are toffee apples (or as some would say candy apples) but I really hope there are! That's my favourite thing to eat at a fair. Or anytime I can get one.

Sunday is Loy Krathong. And for those of you at Harrow, we've had a whole day of Loy Krathong celebrations. It was a fun day and everyone looked amazing.

If you have time over the weekend, why not sit down with your toffee apple or candy floss and read a book or e-book? The perfect thing to unwind after a busy weekend. Just be sure not to get it all sticky :)

Britannica Online trial

Right now we are trialling Britannica Online. So if you are doing some research and want to check it out, just ask us for the password. For those of you who haven't seen it before, Britannica is a well known and trusted encyclopaedia. A great authoratitative source for your school projects!

The Red Pyramid

I've been reading (again!) and have discovered another fantastic book for adventure lovers in the secondary/prep section.

The name of the book? The Red Pyramid.

This book is great for those of you who like Egyptian things/history/fantasy and Rick Riordan. Written by the author who bought you the Percy Jackson series, this is an exciting, action packed story. I had a lot of trouble putting it down, and finished it in only two days!

The story focuses on a brother and sister who have spent most of their lives living apart. They are reunited after their father (a world reknown Egyptologist) takes them to the British museum where he asks to see the Rosetta Stone. Things only get weirder, with the children's father unleashing several ancient Egyptian gods (some of whom have their mind set on world domination). After their father is imprisioned, it is up to the children to deal with the gods and save the world...

The Mysterious Benedict Society

I don't usually write blog posts about books that I'm reading, but I've just stumbled across a really good one in the Prep and Secondary library collection.

Have you heard of a book called The Mysterious Benedict Society? I started reading it the other day and I have been finding it really hard to stop reading and do other things I know I should be doing. It's an exciting adventure story with some fantasy elements - worth a read if you like spies and unexpected events.

The book follows the adventures of four children who are drawn together after answering a mysterious newspaper advertisment looking for brilliant and gifted children. All of the children have different talents which are essential for the dangerous mission they are asked to complete.

If you like CHERUB and H.I.V.E books then why not give it a try? If you like Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket and Spiderwick there are lots of similar elements (but I won't tell you what they are - it will spoil the story!) If you're looking for adventure give this book a try!

Need some help? Why not ask us?

We've added an ask a librarian link.
If you need some help to find books, information or have another library related query you can click the link to email us and we will reply to you the next school day. If you would like to contact the Head Librarian (Mr Piggot) or the Primary Librarian (Miss Goodall) directly you can find our email addresses in the Library contact section on the right hand side.

Welcome back to term 1B

It's hard to believe that there are only two and a bit months until Christmas!

We have some really exciting activites and events planned here at the library - one of which is the book fair. The book fair will be held next week, and Harrow kids and families will be able to browse through a wonderful selection of books from local booksellers. It's going to be a lot of fun - don't miss it!

This week for making stuff day we will be making crayon etching pictures. To do this we'll colour in really hard with crayons then colour firmly over the top with a black crayon. Once this bit is completed it's easy to use a sharp pencil to draw on the top. You then get multi-coloured crayon pictures on a black background.

Our storyteller Mrs Brownlow will be back with us on Friday too.

Welcome back everyone! See you in the library soon.

Guinness Book of Records competition

Today we held the Guinness Book of Records competition at Primary lunchtime.
Congratulations to all our winners!
We had a fantastic time eating as fast as possible with chopsticks (milo balls and prunes = de-licious!), holding heavy books longer than anyone else, bouncing balls without dropping them and writing super fast.

Tomorrow is craft day. What are we making? We'll be using crayons to create leaf rubbings.
Ever wondered how crayons are made?


Tomorrow is also maths day! There are all sorts of exciting activities happening in Primary tomorrow - it should be a lot of fun.

Follow us on Twitter

It's official, we've got Twitter :) Our Twitter account will have what's going on from day to day, plus we'll post the link to the new books there each month!

Primary lunch times update!

Hi everyone,

So much has been going on at Primary lunchtime! We have been having a lot of fun doing all kinds of things - on our Wednesday making stuff day we made pop up cards and on Friday we heard some more stories from our wonderful storyteller, Mrs Brownlow.

Something else we've been doing is the good boy and girl award. We give this out every Thursday lunchtime to two students who have been especially well behaved in the library at lunchtime. The winning students get to choose a prize from our goody bags.

Our winners so far have been:
Nina 2B
Jeff 5S
Bua 2M
Chawin 4R
Derya 4R
Boss 3m

Storyteller - Friday Primary lunchtimes

Every Friday for the rest of this term we will have the wonderful Mrs Brownlow reading stories during Primary lunchtime.

The first session was heaps of fun, with Mrs Brownlow reading stories from The Wind and the Willows as well as picture book twists on fairytales.

Come along this week for more stories. The stories will start around five past twelve!

Making stuff day!

This Wednesday at Primary lunchtime we had our first library craft session (or as we like to call it, making stuff day).
Our first craft was bookplates. What will it be next Wednesday? Come in and see!

If you didn't get to come along this week, you can print some bookplates and make your own at home.

More website links - Myths and legends

Looking for myths and legends websites? You can find a list on the right hand side of this page. Scroll down to have a look.