Next week. Origami workshops and videochat

On Monday and Tuesday during the upcoming week, there will be two event happening.

All students in grade 8 will be doing origami workshops led by Mio Nakamura and Noa Appelgren.

For all students who would like to familiarize themselves with origami in advance, there are origami books displayed in the library and origami instructions to try out.

All students in grade 7 and MYP 6 will have a video chat with Elissa Rowley, representative for the organization Water for South Sudan. This is because the students have read or will be reading the novel A long walk for water by Linda Sue Park, connected to Water for South Sudan.

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Time to hand in Winter Reading Challenges

Now it’s time for you who have participated in the Winter Reading Challenges to hand in your taken challenges to the librarian Elin. 

When you do so, you get to choose a new book in the library as a gift.  Here is an example of what one student did (see below). 

How can you help someone to survive the winter?
This is who I chose to focus on: My grandmother
This is what I did:

1. Spent time with her looking through picture albums.
2. Read the book that she said was her mother’s favorite.
3. Helped her make chocolate pudding.

Pick out clues to a winter theme.
Chosen book: 

Title: This Winter
Author: Alice Oseman

How I noticed that it was written on a winter theme
1. There is snow in the story.
2. It is during christmas holidays.
3. They mention the cold multiple times.
4. They drink warm drinks that is typically for winter.
5. It is in the title of the book.

Make an illustration related to winter or Christmas.

The illustration is based on an oral story told by a relative about a special winter a long time ago, a family tradition or a family recipe.

Read a nonfiction book about a challenge of our time.

Make a small comic strip based on the book you have read.

Video call with representative from Water for South Sudan

ISGR library would like to inform about an event happening on February 7th, which all MYP 6’s, LGRM 6’s and MYP 7’s will participate in.

This event is the result of a collaboration between the library and teachers, where the students will meet Elissa Rowley, Development and Communications Coordinator at the organization Water for South Sudan.

The reason that this event is happening is that the students have read a novel, A long walk for water by Linda Sue Park, which is connected to Water for South Sudan.

The video call will take place at 14-14.45 on Tuesday February 7th according to the following arrangement:

• 20 min presentation by Elissa.
• 25 min question and answer session based on discussion topics: Water, fundraising, South Sudan, Salva Dutt, the novel A long walk for water.

Elissa has also sent us 2 A4 (see below) pages with information that she wants the students to read in Language & Literature with Binitha, Necla, Johanna, Anna S. and Jenny before the event.

The purpose of the event is to raise awareness of the importance of water, what it means to South Sudan, what the novel A long walk for water has meant to the organization and perhaps fundraising.

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Holocaust Memorial Day 2023

On January 27th is Holocaust Memorial Day. The themes this year is ordinary people and home and belonging.

The library has decided to highlight it through publishing a list of novels and biographies on the theme of genocides. 

All the books on the list are available to borrow from the ISGR library. They take place during different time periods and in different countries. Common for them is that they highlight how humans depend on each other from an international perspective, for it to be possible to create a socially sustainable society and tackle prejudices, xenophobia, racism etc.. 

In the books you  meet people who struggle with well-being, justice, to have their human rights and basic needs met.

Reading novels and biographies about people who went through difficult challenges can help to build resilience, become more open minded and creative.

Practicing these traits can make it easier to find new, empathetic solutions and to know what is the right way to move forward in a challenging time.

It can also teach us how to prevent genocides or something similar from happening again, fight misunderstandings and misinformation. It can also enable us to create a society that is better to live in, where citizens feel well connected, live in peace and where no people is excluded.

By reading about genocide, we can change lives and prevent ordinary people’s non-action as part of how for example the Holocaust could happen. 

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The ISGR library would like to recommend some texts published about Holocaust survivors.

Frågor jag fått om förintelsen / Hédi Fried. We have 2 class sets of this thin title very worth reading. There are also pedagogical materials connected to it.
Hédi is also particularly worthy of attention this year, because she died in November. Dagens Nyheter published a couple of articles (see attached files) in connection to that, “Hédi Fried var en av Sveriges viktigaste opinionsbildare” och “Hur lever arvet vidare efter Hédi Fried”.

Today First News also published “A story of survival”, an article about the Holocaust survivor Peter Lantos, who has recently published a title: The boy who didn’t want to die, because soon there will be no Holocaust survivors alive anymore, telling school children and other people about their experiences. So then the books about them will become even more important. 

First News also got a report about The horrors of the Holocaust. It is not new, but gives brief, good information about what the Holocaust was and why we every year highlight the Holocaust Memorial Day. 

Novels and biographies featuring the world religions

Jan 15th was the World Religion Day and Feb 1-7th is the World Interfaith Harmony week.

Both these occasions provide an excellent opportunity to explore what is the meaning of religion and what different faiths there are across the world. On a personal level, relationship between

Faith and identity can also be highlighted.

Here are some novels and biographies that recognise different identities, values and beliefs within the five world religions (see below). Hinduism and Buddhism belong to the Eastern traditions that began in India. Christianity, Judaism and Islam belong to the Western traditions and began in the Middle East. 

In the video clips below you can get an introduction to the world religions:

Hinduism

A Holly Jolly Diwali / Sonya Lalli.

An autobiography, or, The story of my experiments with truth / M. K. Gandhi ; translated from the original Gujarati by Mahadev Desai.

Midnight’s children / Salman Rushdie

Sita’s Ramayana / by Samhita Arni; art by Moyna Chitrakar; Vālmīki.

Buddhism

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari / Robin S. Sharma 

Siddhartha / by Hermann Hesse

Siddhartha Gautama : the life of the Buddha / retold by R.N. Pillau ; illustrated by Aniruddha Mukherjee.

Spring Snow / Yukio Mishima

Christianity

Crime and Punishment / Fyodor Dostoevsky

Oranges are not the only fruit / Jeanette Winterson.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe / C. S. Lewis

Who Was Mother Teresa? / by Jim Gigliotti ; illustrated by David Groff.

Judaism

Collected stories / Cynthia Ozick

The chosen / Chaim Potok 

Ung man söker kärleken / Isaac Bashevis Singer

The book of Daniel / E. L. Doctorow

Islam

Does my head look big in this? / Randa Abdel-Fattah 

Ayesha at Last / Uzma Jalaluddin

Love from A to Z / Ali S. K.

She Wore Red Trainers / by Na’ima B. Robert

Ungdomsdeckare. Presentation och lista för MYP 8

Här är powerpoints som användes under bokpresentationen med MYP 8, i samband med studium ungdomsdeckare.

I presentationen har deckarna även blivit indelade i subgenrer och det står även lite om vad som kännetecknar de olika subgenrerna.

ungdomsdeckare.-presentationDownload

Här är också en lista över ungdomsdeckare, samt några vuxen- och lättlästa deckare också.

ungdomsdeckare.-listaDownload

Origami workshop preparation

In connection to a Creative School workshop in origami, the library has decided to pay attention to Japan, Hiroshima and how a creative activity can play a therapeutic role.

The library would therefore like to recommend all advisors of grade 8 to read a text excerpt (see attached files) and do at one activity (see below) during an advisory in January.

Reading

Read through 1.) a chapter and 2.) an epilogue from the novel Sadako and the thousand paper cranes / Sadako och de tusen papperstranorna (see attached files).  

The novel highlights victims of the atom bomb during the Second World War. The novel is based on a true story and for the main character Sadako, who is seen as a hero among Japanese children, origami helped her to deal with leukemia (from radioactive radiation).

3.) After having read the text excerpt, please choose and do one of the activities below.

Activities – choose one of these! 

1.) Follow the instructions (see the text excerpt) for how to fold a paper crane. 

Fold a paper cranes and write a message of peace on it. 

If you want, you can instead create another personal symbol of peace, through folding paper, not using glue. Write a message of peace on it as well. 

Optional. Display paper cranes and other symbols of peace in your classroom or present your messages of peace or personal symbol of peace to your class. 

2. Discuss: What do Sadako’s paper cranes symbolize? 

3. Discuss: How can peace be symbolized? 

4. Read peace quotes (see attached file) and discuss them in pairs: 

a.) How are the quotes similar? 

b.) How are the quotes different? 

c.) What kinds of people (for example, writer, president, musician, scientist) made these quotes? 

d.) Which quotes do you agree with? Which quotes do you disagree with? Why?  

5. Color / draw / write a peace sign (see attached files). 

6. Discuss: Have you ever heard of the Japanese art of origami, or paper folding? 

 What is the history of origami? You may want to access Britannica and other sources for information.Note

For all students in grade 8 the text excerpts and an origami instruction will serve as a Creative School preparation for the workshops in Origami by the artist Mio Nakamura on Feb 6-7th, who will visit us in person at the school. 

A schedule for the workshop will be sent out within short. 

Winter Reading Challenges

Please feel free to participate in the ISGR library’s Winter Reading Challenges!

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Writing workshops. The past few days

Now the cultural, creative events – happening in addition to regular teaching – for grade 6 and 9 – are done for this school year. During the spring semester, Creative School will focus on grade 7 and 8. 

We would also like all of you who participated in and stayed with students during the workshops and to Johanna and Lydia who helped out moderating. 

We would like to thank you so much to all of you who helped out preparing the three writing workshops during the last days – doing preparational voting writing, reading and reading comprehension questions and more

The workshop in crime fiction writing led by Shaun David Hutchinson went well. Shaun is good at creating a very “allowing” atmosphere, being nice, intelligent, open minded and wanting the students to get the most of the time together. He also offers Lgbt+ meeting with students after the writing workshop. It was not relevant this year, but maybe another year, if students want to. 

The workshop led by Christoffer Carlsson also went well. It worked to stay up at Chalmers during the workshop, despite being a bit far away.

Christoffer was structured, interesting and engaging to listen to. It was also nice that he is relatively young and very knowledgeable, not only about crime fiction writing – as a celebrated author – but also as associate professor in criminology at Stockholm university.

Then it was kind of a fun coincidence, that a high school representative, Karl-Johan Carlsson, from Drottning Blanka’s high school, who visited 9A on Wednesday – was promoting Christoffer Carlsson’s fiction and nonfiction books and talked about him as a guru for the high school program in criminology, just ne day before the 9th graders would meet Christoffer. In May Christoffer is also going to visit Drottning Blanka’s high school.  

Today it went well with the workshop by Brandon Mull (grade 6). He’s very knowlegeable about the fantasy genre and how to address the age group middle school children. He had a lot of good advice for how to start writing your own fantasy story. The students also got tips for how to build characters, plots and opening scenes. They also got the chance to get feedback on ideas, what they had written and to ask questions. 

Christoffer Carlsson offered us to send him more questions (via Elin) – as he can answer via a video chat or in print, if any teachers want to arrange this? He is also willing to let Elin share his presentation if any teachers would like to have that. 

Brandon Mull offered students to send their text to him (via Elin) and get feedback. 

The school is thankful for having go the opportunity to arrange these workshops thanks to support from the National Arts Council.

For parents / guardians and students. An ebook and app tip

The ISGR library would like to share a couple good and useful resources for students and parents, in order to help out handling conflicts that might pop up during stressful periods. 

For parents there is an ebook in English and Swedish, published by Save the Children / Rädda barnen: 

• Secure parenthood : Handling conflicts with children

secure-parenthoodDownload

• Tryggt föräldraskap: Om att hantera konflikter med barn

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• For kids and students there is an app called Safe place, helping out to handle stress, worries and sadness.

There is a poster for it in English: 

safe_place_english_flyer_a4Download

In Swedish there is a website with information about it: 

https://www.raddabarnen.se/rad-och-kunskap/barn-och-unga/safe-place/

The library hopes that these resources can be helpful!