Sure, the children and teachers should have fun 'with books', but when I started teaching, I did feel it was my job to make sure my students had access to lots of books, lots of reading and lots of opportunities to respond to what they read. I believed that books and reading were a kind of magic and that in the hands of the right teacher, (wizard), children would be as enamoured of reading as I was.
I did not own many books a s a child, but, I did come from a 'reading' home where my parents took us to the library weekly. The town I lived in actually had a separate public children's library and I was always keen to see what was in the 'discarded box' which you could take a book from if you wanted to. True, I did learn a lot about how to teach reading in my teacher training and I did a degree that included children's literature as a subject. I felt well prepared when I arrived at my first school. I 'marched' my Year 5 class off to the public library once a fortnight and we browsed, borrowed and read while there. The school also had a library and a trained Teacher Librarian to learn more from.
What happens now is so 'rushed'...the Teacher Librarian is not always seen as 'a book wizard', but rather as a RFF teacher who allows the classroom teacher precious time to plan 'without the Teacher Librarian' using units of work suggested by the syllabus and often planned by a third party who allows teachers to shortcut their own reading. I find it hard to teach someone else's unit of work. I have to 'own' something to teach it and I need to read any book suggested for myself before sharing it with students whether by reading, viewing or listening.
Back to Book Week. It must be about reading. The theme this year has allowed me to share some magical books as well as the books on the shortlists.
We have read quite a few about imagination being able to create magic, among them these:
Poppy gets into a major pickle when her imagination comes alive! Poppy has the most extraordinary imagination. When she is sent upstairs to clean her room, she just can't help imagining, and suddenly . . . her imagination literally comes alive.
A playful love letter to those wondrous places where secrets and magic live around every corner and between every cover.
We know a place that's mysterious-magic,
a window to lives you can't even imagine.
We know a secret world-wakening secret,
a brain-boggling secret, on Ballarat Street.
Two children set out on a journey to their local bookshop, a magical place where sneaky stories escape as you peep in the door and there's plentiful magic for each and for all. Monsters, giants, trolls and pirates ahoy! But what happens when some cheeky creatures follow the children home one day?
A stunning ode to the world’s grandest adventure of all: reading a book. Gorgeous artwork by Italian illustrator Sara Ugolotti depicts dragons, forests, pirates, merfolk, lollipop trees, lemonade tides, and more as a child journeys through page upon page of the written word.
There's No Magic in this Book by Michelle McWhirter
In this vibrant interactive story, readers are told by the insistent Bookkeeper that there’s no magic to be found in its pages, but eagle-eyed readers can discover enchanted surprises on every spread.
This week we will do lots of reading including Julia Donaldson's poem I Opened a Book. On Tuesday we are having a Magic Hat Day inspired by Mem Fox's book and I have made a hat befitting Aunt Bundlejoy Cosysweet from Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake's Captain Najork books. I will tell the students that I would love to be like Bundlejoy, a harbinger of joy, play and fooling around, so my hat's magic is that it makes me calmer, more fun, an advocate of play and what it allows children to experience.
And then, on Thursday each class is making a chalk garden inspired by Bob Graham's The Concrete Garden
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