Blog
We are again pleased to launch Book Week 2013 which will begin on Monday 4th March and World Book Day is on Thursday 7th March.
We have been working hard to plan many exciting activities for the week, in order to celebrate the world of BOOKS. Each year I try to plan a slightly different focus and this years’ will be, Stories and Story Telling. To this end, we will be running 2 main projects, with many additional supporting activities.
Story Telling Superstar
The first of these is to be a search for the Ashcroft Schools’ story telling superstar!
We are aiming to promote speaking and listening, dramatic flair and presentation skills through this project. Each child will be asked to prepare a story to tell. They may tell a story they know by heart or they could work on a dramatic reading of a favourite story. The nature of this challenge will lead itself best to shorter stories, traditional tales or picture books. Children should think about ways in which they can engage the audience.
Some ideas are…
- The use of different ‘voices’ for different characters and times in the story
- The use of props
- The use of puppets
- The use of music and or, or sound effects
- Choosing a story with a common refrain or rhythm, so that the audience can be encouraged to contribute to the story
If they would like to work with a partner or would like someone to support with props/ holding the book etc, this is totally acceptable. Children are asked to start preparing for this as soon as possible. There will be help available from the teachers in class and they may rehearse at play times if they choose to, but plenty of work at home should also be encouraged.
The first round of the competition will take place in the classrooms on Friday morning, where each child who wants to, will perform to their class. The children and teacher will vote for the ‘Story Telling Super Star’ from their class. The winners from each class will perform to the school in the STORY TELLING SUPER STAR SHOW CASE on Friday from 2 - 3pm. Please join us for this if you are available.
The younger classes will prepare a whole class story-telling, to perform in the SHOW CASE.
While all children are encouraged to take part in this activity, no child will be forced to present their work in public, but perhaps can prepare to read to a parent or sibling.
Book Craft
The second main project for Book Week will involve each child making their own book. This will operate in conjunction with our Big-Writing work. They will plan, write and edit their stories in Literacy lessons during Book Week and the following week, they will be able to use a wide variety of wonderful new resources to make their very own books. Many thanks to you, the parents, who have raised money through the PTA, to provide resources for this project. The aim is for each child to have a really beautiful piece of work which they can feel enormous pride in.
Thursday 7th March is World Book Day
This is a really exciting day where we work completely off time-table. The children are asked to come to school in their house team T-shirts, as they will spend part of the day involved in activities with the children in their houses. They are also asked to bring in a costume to change into for our parade.
Character Parade
The aim is to dress up as a character from a book. The pre-school children are invited to come back to school and join us for this fun event, if they would like to. See the following website for inspiration:
Readathon
We plan to start the day with a Readathon. The idea is that between the hours of 9 and 10am everyone in the school will be reading. This will take different forms depending on the age of the children, but whatever age your child is we would love for you to join us if you can.
- Foundation Stage (pre-school, JK and SK) – will be involved in Book based activities in their class rooms. Parents are encouraged to come and share stories with their children and get involved with the activities planned by the teachers.
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Key Stage 1 (Grades 1 and 2) – will be based in the Library. They will begin by listening to someone read a story to the group and then they will read quietly for the rest of the hour. This may take the form of children reading to adults, adults reading to children, children sharing books, children reading individually.
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Key Stage 2 (Grades 3, 4, 5 and 6) – will be based outside. They will read for an hour in silence as will all the adults accompanying them. They may choose what they read, whether it is a magazine, novel, or non-fiction book: reading for pleasure. They may like to bring more than one item, in case they need some variety. Mr O’Connell will allow iPads or similar tablets for this activity. If you choose to bring an iPad or kindle however, it must be handed in to the class teacher at 10, when the Readathon finishes.
Adults will be asked to read in silence too in order to provide a model for the children.
Sponsored events usually aim to raise money. Instead of a financial donations however, we ask for each child to select one of their own books to donate. They may have grown out of it or simply will not read it again, we only ask that it is of good quality and in good condition and we will donate the books to other children, living here on the island, who are less fortunate than our own.
Thank you in advance for all of your support, in what I am sure will be an exciting and fun-filled week!
Katie Clark