Loose Part Kits for Storytelling (Coming, End of September 2023!)

Seven kits are currently beginning the processing stage.  Each kit contains a variety of different loose parts that classes within a school can use to enhance their school’s/personal loose parts collections.  When they are ready, we will let everyone know the process for signing them out so that each school will have an opportunity to use them.  More will be made in the fall to increase access.

New Story Retelling Kits (June 2023)

Several new Story Retelling kits are now available.  One of my favourites is “Storytelling: Little Giwas (Deer) Follows the Forest Stream”, as it was written by Colleen Devlin’s students in the Indigenous K/1 program, inspired by William Wasden Jr.’s song Am’lala sa Kumuxse. The kit includes a beautiful wooden stream that desends from the mountains into the ocean. Wooden animals from the story enable the students to retell the story from start to finish. Five activity cards about the animals provide an opportunity to take the learning outdoors.  Literacy, Outdoor Learning and Indigenous Culture all wrapped into one kit!

Kit Upgrades! (Ongoing)

All current LRC currents are being upgraded/updated as they are returned.  Helena, Jana and Starsa have a great eye for identifying them!  Starsa and I are currently working together to improve the “official science kits” that were developed by a district team eight years ago.  So far, four of the 32 kits have been done and this work will continue next year.

Van de Graaff Generator Demonstration Kit (May 2023)

This Van de Graaff device generates a maximum of 325,000 volts depending on humidity levels. The kit includes instructions for demonstrations that cover all aspects of electrostatics such as charge conservation and transfer, triboelectric effect, conductors, insulators, and ionization, as well as forces in motion.  We will let teachers know in August how this kit will be booked due to its anticipated popularity!  We want to ensure it gets into as many schools as possible.

“Play Enhancement” Kits (June 2023)

These kits, all of which start with “Play Enhancement” in the title, have been created to enhance the play opportunities of the resources that exist in your classroom.  Place the “Play Enhancement” kits beside your block centre, drama centre etc. and watch how creative your students are in their play!  Kits created to date are Mythical Creatures (realistic), Mythical Creatures and Caves (wooden), Realistic Animals (like Schleich), Wooden Vehicles, and Marble Wave Boards & Arches.

Tween Emergent Reading Libraries (2022-2023)

The LRC has full kits for the three levels in this series, which is aimed at providing students in Grades 4 to 8 with engaging texts at their reading level (from 0.5 to 1.5).  These full kits have 3 copies of each title.  “Mini” sets that have 1 copy of each title are also available.  Be sure to check out the “TwERL Phonics: Go! Decode” kit as well.  For more information click here.

Genre Novel Kits (February 2023)

Each of these kits focuses on a particular genre, to encourage students to broaden their reading interests.  There are about 40 to 50 individual titles in each, that are either “tried and true”, or new/popular found in bookstores today.  The genres include:  Action & Adventure, Animal Stories, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Humorous Stories, Mystery & Detective, Real Life, Science Fiction, Sports Stories and Supernatural.  The reading levels in the kits vary as much as possible to be inclusive.  Borrowing one of these kits is like bringing a bookstore display into your classroom.  The novels from the Action & Adventure kit are shown in the photo to the left.  Enjoy!

Sphero Indi (September 2022)

“Take your entire class on the road to STEAM with the indi Class Pack. The indi learning robot is designed to introduce early learners to the fundamentals of computational thinking, STEAM, and computer science principles while encouraging open-ended, imaginative play-based learning with real-life scenarios as students build custom mazes and solve puzzles.

The Class Pack provides educators with all the resources and tools needed to get an entire class up and running: includes 8 indi robots, color tiles, storage, a changing case, and standards-aligned lesson plans in our indi Educator Guide Book. indi offers an unplugged programming experience with an on-board color sensor or students can kick their skills into high gear with more block coding options in the free Sphero Edu Jr app.”

For a fun, peppy video clip introducing Sphero Indi, click here.

The LRC has four class sets that your TL can book on your school’s behalf.

Decodable Readers

The LRC has multiple copies of several different decodable reader series:

  • Pip and Tim
  • Flyleaf Publishing
  • Primary Phonics
  • Whole Phonics
  • Meg and Greg
  • TwERL Phonics Go! Decode (Grades 4 to 8)

Levelled Readers

The LRC has multiple copies of professionally scaffolded Levelled Readers from:

  • JillE Literacy Readers (formerly “Key Links”)
  • PM Family Readers
  • Key Links Guided Reading
  • Sails
  • Tween Emergent Reader Libraries

Benchmarking kits are available for PM Benchmark and Fountas and Pinnell.

Root Robots (September 2020)

“Root is a fun and easy-to-use educational robot that teaches coding, creativity and problem-solving skills to kids from pre-readers through high school. Problem solving is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Compatible only with iPad and iPhone running iOS 10 or later.” – from Robotix Education

The LRC has four class sets of Root Robots which are available for loan to elementary schools.  With three different levels of coding, Root Robots can be used from Kindergarten to Grade 7 and beyond.  When LRC bookings for the new school year open, your Teacher-Librarian will have priority to book them to ensure that all elementary schools will have the opportunity to use them once during the school year.  A week after booking opens, if there are available spots left, then classroom teachers may book them.  Be sure to ask your Teacher-Librarian when the bots are coming to your school!  (You tube has some great videos of students using Root Robots.  Check them out.)

Mental Health Kits

These kits were developed in collaboration with Leanne Webster Brenner, School Counsellor.  There are eleven primary kits, which explore the various topics through the reading of picture books, and ten intermediate kits, which explore similar topics through the reading of novels.  Common topics which affect students’ mental health on a daily basis include:  emotions, family life, friendship, school life, worries and low mood, gender identity, physical diversity, positive body image, loss and grief, neurological diversity, bullying and teasing, and scary/traumatic experiences.

Self-Regulation

These kits were created in collaboration with Andrea Wilson and Andrea Fleischer from Inclusive Education, who support teachers in this work in schools.  Kits include:  Controlling impulses, determining the size of the problem, developing flexible thinking, learning perspective taking, managing emotions, and recognizing basic emotions.  Using picture books provides a safe space for primary students to explore these topics.  Several non-fiction kits on self-regulation are also available.