A fitting follow up from the buzz of kicking off Book Week in last week’s post, Emma Nuttall shares her school’s celebrations over the course of the week with some inspirational and memorable activities to harvest in the future. What a wonderful finale for CBCA Book Week 2021!
 |
| © CBCA 2021 Book Week poster |
Book Week is a very special time in schools. It must be one of my most anticipated weeks of the year!
This year we went all out at our school. We had the Book Week Parade (essential), the Book Week Book Swap (inaugural), the Book Week Readings (traditional) and our, now infamous, Book Week Quiz (sensational)!
The Book Week Parade is obviously the highlight of the week. The buzz is palpable.
Dig a little deeper beneath the tangible excitement, and you reveal the different emotions that the parade brings to different people within our community. For some it was an opportunity to grab the limelight, to push the bounds of creativity, to wear the favourite dress-up costumes out in public! For others, it is torment – the pressure of dressing up, the thought of everyone looking at you! In our house, it is 3 costumes to prepare. Fighting over the various tails and ears; face paint and cardboard ensues. Sometimes the Book Week Parade is about becoming your favourite character, sometimes it is just about finding a character to fit the costume that you really crave, and other times it’s simply trying to identify a book that matches the costume that you can pull together at the last minute! Whichever, it’s about delving into your memory and your bookshelves to find that perfect fit.
Our Book Week Quiz is in its infancy but has proved itself to be an integral part of our Book Week celebrations. The collective wisdom of our young readers is amazing. They really do know a lot, about a lot of books! What lucky kids to have already met so many interesting characters, to have been on so many amazing adventures, to have gone down so many rabbit holes – metaphorically speaking of course. And to think, they have only just scratched the surface – I often wonder how many books an individual can read over the course of a lifetime? Book Week plays such a key role in developing, nurturing and maintaining this excitement and passion for reading. The athletics carnival gives the athletes a time to shine; the choir and the band, the musicians; painting sessions, the artists; but the Book Week Quiz – that’s when our readers come out of the woodwork and wow, do they shine!
This year, we also chose to host a Book Swap – again another wonderful opportunity to share in our love of books. The most beautiful moment of the event for me was a Year 6 student recommending a book to a much younger student: “I donated that book – it’s such a great book. You will love it!” That younger student strode out of the hall with their ‘new’ book, beaming from ear to ear. That made Book Week for me.
And finally, an annual tradition – we (the teachers) read to a different class each morning. The children wait to see which teacher it’s going to be, and which picture book they are going to bring with them. It’s something we’ve done at our school for as long as I’ve been there, and I’m reliably informed that it goes back well beyond my time here…. Long may that tradition continue.
Now that Book Week comes to a close, I must say I’m very ready to curl up on the couch with my favourite book!
Emma Nuttall
Teacher, reader and passionate advocate for children’s literature.
Emma, It's wonderful that all those activities are supported in your school. I love that teachers visit other classes and read to students. What a powerful way to connect students to other teachers in the school; And to read that this is a long held tradition is even more rewarding.
ReplyDelete