Congratulations to Charlie Roberston (Yr 2), Olivia Moylan (Yr 3) and Finn Robertson (Kindergarten) who recently completed the Premiers Reading Challenge for 2025.  The challenge is open until the end of August so there is plenty of time to read and record those titles. 

A friendly reminder that Book Week will be celebrated on Wednesday, 11 June (Week 7). The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) theme for 2025 is Book an Adventure!  I will be discussing costume ideas with the students for this special day but please, keep it simple and reuse some of the dress-ups you already have in your home.    We will host a Scholastic Book Fair on the day along with some fun, interactive activities for the children. 

This week in library lessons, we celebrated the 25^th year of National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) with the most wonderful picture book, The Truck Cat written by Deborah Frenkel.

This book was read in bookshops, schools, preschools and libraries around the same day/week/time, always in May.  You might have seen me dressed as a truck driver wearing my flannel shirt and ball cap like the main character, Yacoub driving his B-Double tri-axle truck.  This book is not simply about a cat who travels around the country with a truck driver but about relationships, immigration, connection, belonging and home.  With the students, we explored, what makes a house a home…family, Sunday barbeques, books, warm blankets, chocolate, pets…were just some of the children’s responses.  Though I am not a big cat lover (sorry!) this book tugged at all my heartstrings…perhaps because I too migrated to Australia from Canada.

Open this link NSS 2025 - The Truck Cat on Vimeo if you would like to listen to the story being read.

Truck drivers like Yacoub would make a great Book Week costume idea.  It is so easy with a flannel shirt and a ball cap!

Thank you,

Janet Carmichael, Teacher Librarian