23rd October Book Week

Another Book Week over! Every year I say do I have to do Book Week next year? It always seems like so much work and often so unrelated to books. This year's Book Week seems to have gone on forever because it was postponed from Term 3 to Term 4 in the hope that Covid would be over and we could once again have visitors in the school. We were lucky we did have an author visit 'in the flesh', not on Zoom and it was a huge success. Kate and Jol Temple came to talk to grades K to 2. They were hugely entertaining as well as informative and the children were certainly inspired. One Year 1 student told me it was the 'highlight of 2020'! We have ibis in our school playground, so the children were fascinated by  Bin Chicken  and I am in awe of Room on Our Rock and the way it gives two points of view, simply by reading the book backwards.

We did have a Book Week Parade and the students did a marvellous job of kitting themselves out, many without spending money, but instead using ingenuity and creativity. I suggested they come as a 'curious creature' or a 'wild mind' instead of a book character and many did do this. There was a myriad of Ada Lovelaces, Jane Goodalls, Albert Einsteins, David Attenboroughs, inspired by the Little People Big Dreams series of books, Bindi and Robert Irwins, from their series of books, Saucepan Men and Silky from The Faraway Tree.

The teachers got into the spirit too. I dressed as Ann Carroll Moore, the first librarian to advocate for children's libraries. I had shared the book  Miss Moore Thought Otherwise by Jan Pinborough with some of my classes and it seemed ideal. She certainly had a 'wild mind', as we now have many children's libraries including the most fantastic one that I work in which caters for 3 to 8 year olds, and as many of my students think 'has a book on everything'!

Every year I look at the Book Week theme and think how am I going to do that with such young children, but as the year rolls on and I think about it some more I manage something and this year was no exception. I have had great fun especially with curious creatures. When I was told next year's theme,  Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds I immediately thought...oh it is so long and so all encompassing, but no doubt as I mull it over and talk to friends, ideas will flow. On to next year. An author or illustrator needed...get thinking!