5 new children’s non fiction for Term 4

Term 4 has started and the library has some new and exciting non fiction books for your viewing and reading pleasure. This blog post features non fiction about celebrating diversity, unleashing your inner graphic novelist and techno wiz and  reciting poetry and nursery rhymes on a midsummer’s evening. Why not take a look at these books and decide a trip to the library is in order. Enjoy!

 

image courtesy of syndeticsPride: Celebrating Diversity and Community.

Read all about Pride Day, which is a celebration about embracing diversity and fighting for freedom and equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people around the world.

 

 

 

image courtesy of syndeticsHow to make Awesome Comics.

For the avid comic lover, this book could be considered the holy grail of comics! Read this book and get the chance to become a comic ‘Jedi’ master where your innovative ideas, plot and stories for comics comes to life! Learn how to invent awesome characters, tell thrilling stories and best of all, how to draw so you can make your very own awesome comic!

 

 

image courtesy of syndeticsA poem for every night of the year.

This is probably one of the most beautiful books I have seen all year in the junior non fiction collection. This is a magnificent collection of 366 poems to share for every night of the year. The poems – together with introductory paragraphs – have a link to the date on which they appear. Shakespeare celebrates midsummer night, Maya Angelou International Women’s Day and Lewis Carroll April Fool’s day. Perfect for reading aloud and sharing with all the family, it contains a full spectrum of poetry from familiar favourites to exciting contemporary voices.

 

image courtesy of syndeticsCreate with Code.

Collaborate with your friends and start your very own CoderDojo Nano club, with its own website! In this handbook, covering HTML, CSS and JavaScript, you will find clear, step-by-step instructions, followed up by open-ended prompts and challenges which encourage the reader to take the initiative.

 

 

image courtesy of syndeticsThe Puffin Book of Nursery Rhymes.

Complete with beautiful illustrations by Raymond Briggs, the much-loved creator of The Snowman, this favourite classic of nursery rhymes is now available for a whole new generation of children. With over 250 nursery rhymes, including both well-known favourites and hidden gems, this collection has something for every child.

 

 

 

Back to school – here’s a website to bookmark

So long holidays, hello school. We hope you enjoyed your April School Holidays (despite the weather) and managed to read heaps of awesome books and do cool stuff. Did you get along to any our the Libraries’ awesome holiday activities?

But now that you’re back to school, you’ll need to know about where to go for homework help. Here’s two great starting places:

anyquestionslogo_smallAnyQuestions.co.nz and ManyAnswers.co.nz

These two NZ websites are designed to help school students find online information for their school work. AnyQuestions is a live service – which means you chat live with a librarian who will help you find helpful websites with the information you need. AnyQuestions in open Monday – Friday from 1pm to 6pm. All you need to do is visit the website, type in your question, and you’ll be chatting live with a librarian very soon. The librarian will talk to you about your question and the information you need, and then will help you to search for helpful and trustworthy websites.

ManyAnswers is open 24/7 and has lots of great tips about where to find online info for heaps of topics. Use the search box or topic cloud to find advice on how to search for your topic. this is a great place to visit when AnyQuestions is not open for a live chat.

Four great new Non Fiction for children: Getting set for winter and how to keep safe.

image courtesy of syndeticsWinter bees & other poems of the cold.

It’s a little early for winter but feel free to check out this amazing book on poems about how animals brave the longest and coldest season of the north and discover winter’s safe places for these hardy creatures – how they snuggle warmly and survive until spring’s warmth returns. Beautiful pictures, beautiful poems, who could ask for more.

Also discover….

Freshwater Fishes.

Amber McEwan introduces the physical characteristics, habitat and behaviour of different species of New Zealand freshwater fishes. A great resource to use for projects in biology or New Zealand freshwater life.

Keep safe with….

image courtesy of syndeticsimage courtesy of syndeticsKeeping safe: Online and Friends and Family.

The great thing about these books is they give excellent guidance on how to stay safe in a number of social situations and to assess whether they are in any danger and great for ages 9 years and over.

Keeping safe online takes you through all the tools that will help you stay safe online. Full of advice about how to spot fakes – people who aren’t who they say they are, what to do if you think you are being bullied and how to protect your personal details. This book is an essential guide for any child who uses the Internet, whether you access it on a computer, tablet or smartphone.

While Keeping Safe Friends and Family  will help you stay safe because it is full of advice on what to do if you think you are in danger or have a problem you want to resolve, and also how to avoid or minimise danger in the first place.

 

Back to school!

The school holidays are over and it’s time to go back to school! We hope you had a great two week break.

Your teacher is bound to start giving you projects and homework to do – and we’re here to help!

Have you heard about AnyQuestions.co.nz? It’s a live online homework help service where you can chat live to a New Zealand Librarian who will help you find the information you need online. It’s a free service and open Monday to Friday 1pm – 6pm. the service is available in English and te Reo.

If you need help outside those times you can go to ManyAnswers.co.nz. This is the sister website for AnyQuestions.co.nz and has information about where to find information online for thousands of homework topics.

Of course you can always visit your local Wellington City Library after school and ask the librarians for help finding information -they’re always happy to help!

Give it a go!

Watch the International Space Station live

Above us the International Space Station (ISS), with 6 crew on board, obits the earth every 90 minutes. Recently they fitted a camera to the space station so you can watch live what’s going on. It’s really addictive to watch… we warned you!

When the crew are on duty the camera shows what’s going on inside the space station and you can listen to the audio of conversations between the crew and mission control. When the crew are off duty, the camera is pointing towards earth showing the view the crew have from their windows. Often the ISS goes into a black spot where there’s no transmission and it’s out of contact with Earth. So, if the screen shows nothing, just wait a bit and the video feed will return when the ISS is out of the black spot.

Because the ISS orbits Earth once every 90 minutes the crew experience a sunrise and sunset every 45 minutes – they have 45 minutes of night time and 45minutes of daytime. So if the screen looks dark it may be because it’s night time on the ISS. Look closely and you may see the lights of cities on Earth below.

Have fun watching! Here’s the link to the feed

 

Friday Fun

Because it’s Friday and the weekend starts at 3pm today, I thought we could check out some fun websites with free online games.

Here are my favs:

Sprout:  Games (scroll down the page for games based on well-known TV shows), videos, colour ins, crafts and recipes – there’s so much to do here.

Nickelodeon: Over 1000 games to play, what more could you want (apart from time to play them all)?

PBS Kids: loads of games based on well known TV shows and book characters. I especially love the Curious George and Cat in the Hat ones.

Mattel: Yes this is the company that makes barbies, but the also have Hot Wheels, Monster Trucks, Bionic Battle and Battle Force 5 (and lots of Barbie games). You can chose between different types of games – arcade, racing, make over, action, sports etc.

BBC: Another TV station web site with heaps of cool games. I really like the look of ‘Wizards vs Aliens’.

Cartoon Network: The home of Ben 10 games, also heaps of cool action adventure, sports and puzzle games.

 

 

Check out our Fun Stuff webpage for more links to awesome sites.

 

AnyQuestions – live online homework help

Need help with those pesky school work questions? AnyQuestions is here to help!

It’s a website designed to help NZ school students learn how to find information online. You get to chat live with a friendly librarian who will help you find the answer or information you need and will teach you some cool online searching tips and tricks along the way. It’s free, fun, friendly and helpful.

AnyQuestions is open Monday to Friday 1pm – 6pm. If you need help outside those times you can visit their sister website – ManyAnswers, which has info and good website links about many of the most popular subjects and topics you get in school.

Need information fast?

AnyQuestions is a great website set up to help New Zealand School Students find the information they need for whatever they need it for.

It’s free, safe and reliable.

Here’s how it works: jump on the website, type in your name and your question or information need, then a NZ librarian will chat to you live and help you find a helpful website. Afterwards you chat will be emailed to you so you will have all the directions and websites in your inbox.

AnyQuestions is open Monday to Friday 1pm – 6pm. If you need help outside those days/times you can visit AnyQuestions‘ sister website ManyAnswers.

ManyAnswers is where lots of websites and information is kept about heaps of topics. Use the search box or word cloud to find your topic.

Got questions? We have the answers!

 

Do you have some tough homework, an assignment due in, or just don’t know where to start finding info? You need to know about this website then – anyquestions.co.nz

AnyQuestions is a New Zealand website set up to help NZ school students find online information. It’s a live website that open Monday to Friday from 1pm till 6pm. during those housrs there are librarians waiting to help you find online information to help answer your questions or to help with your school work.

It’s really simple – just state what your information need is, then chat live to a librarian who will help you find what you are looking for online. Not only will you discover reliable and helpful websites together, but the librarian will also give you hints and tips on good internet searching. Cool, right?

Sometimes you’ll need help when AnyQuestions is closed (like late in the evenings, in the mornings or on the weekends). But we’ve got that covered too.

ManyAnswers.co.nz is the sister site to AnyQuestions and contains helpful information, website links and search tips for heaps of topics. We carefully look at all the types of questions and topics we get at AnyQuestions, and write up information about how to find info about really popular topics and common questions over at ManyAnswers.

These two free websites are great for helping you find info for school, or just answering some of life’s tricky questions. Check them out today and impress your teachers and parents with how much you know.

The coolest book website

It doesn’t matter if you are a Dr Seuss fan or not (but really – who isn’t a Dr Seuss fan??!!) you need to check out his website!

Seussville is the home of everything Dr Seuss, from the Cat in the Hat, to Yertle the Turtle (my personal favourite).

Along with checking out all the Dr Seuss books, you can play games, download and print activity sheets, find out about all the many Dr Seuss characters and Dr Seuss himself (did you know his real name was Theodore Geisel?). There are even recipescrafts and activities you can do at home.

This fun, noisy and interactive site is really worth checking out!

 What are some of your favourite author/book websites?