CBCA Book Week: Symphony of Stories

At my school, the library ran a program of activities for Book Week, featuring competitions with prizes on offer.

Our highlights included:

1. Book, Song or Both - A series of titles was listed, and students had to determine whether each title was a book, a song, or both.
2. Bohemian Rhapsody - Words and phrases from Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen were scrambled, and students had to decode them
3. Favourite Book or Reading Confession - 10 teachers provided either their favourite book or their reading confession, and students had to decide for each teacher if they had a favourite book or confession and then matched either the book or confession.
4. She Needs a New Book - Students were invited to nominate a character from any book and recommend a book to feature that character in, providing reasons for their choice.
5. 1 Star Character Review - It gave students a chance to list why any character from any book deserved a one-star rating.
6. What's in her bag? - Students nominate a character of their choice from any book and list five items that you would find in their bag. 

We also had a Book Week quiz, which concluded the week on the Friday. 

While our activities may not be as extravagant as other schools, it does show that you can still put on a good Book Week program of activities for students. Some of our competitions received a good number of entries, and even a few Year 12 students decided to have a go to let off some steam after the HSC Trial Exams. 

Book Week Parades - For and Against

I am doing a blog entry for the School Library Association of NSW (SLANSW) on Book Week Parades following an article published by Antoniette Latouff in The Sydney Morning Herald on 25 August 2022 in which she was critical of decisions by schools to hold them because of the frustrations raised by parents, and questions how it relates to improving literacy.

Click here to read that article.

I would also recommend an article written the following day by Caitlin Fitzsimmons in the same publication putting in a case for book week parades. She highlights that it has become an annual tradition in our schools but also promotes literature. In addition, she rebuts arguments about some of the "hassles" in organising costumes and highlights that not much effort is needed for a good costume

I will update you when the article appears on their blog, but note that it will not be available publically as it will be for SLANSW members only. 

Book Week & Early Childhood Studies

Some schools offer Early Childhood Studies as part of the HSC Course in NSW and can be studied by those who wish to follow a non-ATAR pathway.

This week, I presented a Book Week workshop with students undertaking the course in Year 11. The lesson involved students reflecting on their book week experiences, either in pre-school or in primary school before providing an overview of book week itself and the importance of picture books.

I then asked the students to select a picture book and work in pairs to create an activity program for an early childhood centre for each day during Book Week.

I will admit I had to do alot of reminiscing as I provided strategies to suggest to the students e.g. art & craft, story telling sessions, visit to the local library and running a book fair and encourage parents to buy books to read to their children. I personally remember doing this in Book Week whether it was in pre-school or primary school.

I suggested for the 2019 theme Reading is my Secret Power to focus on Superheroes given the interest in super heroes that infants and pre-schoolers will have. I actually had to do some research as this years theme can be open to interpretation. I did apply the superheroes theme for our Book Week display for our students

As students will also do placements in early childhood centres as part of their studies, I told them that they can borrow picture books to use in their placement.

Walking around and helping them was fun too as they got into the spirit of reading the book to their partner and then creating their own activities. I even helped them with their storytelling skills so that they can engage the kids effectively when doing it for real.

Today in the staff room for a weekly morning tea and briefing, there was suggestions floating around of getting students to wear a costume or outfit and that the students had talked about it. Might be considered for 2020!!!