In order to celebrate World Book Day this year, BPS hosted a stripy Book Week. The week got off to a brilliant start with the entire school dressing as recognisable book characters. A lot of thought and effort had been put into the costumes this year and both children and staff looked tremendous. Our annual parade went ahead, despite flurries of snow trying to stand in our way.
We were lucky enough to welcome children’s author James Campbell to the school. He was astounded by our costumes and said that he had never seen a Book Week parade in the snow before. Every class got to meet with James throughout the day. He made everybody laugh a lot and talked about how he had become an author. Some of the children were inspired and came up with ideas for stories that they could write themselves. After school James signed books for children who
wanted to buy them. This is what the boys had to say about his visit -:
‘I liked the author because he showed us books that hadn’t even been released yet.’ – Haneesh, Year 5
‘The author was very funny.’ – Max, Year 2
‘I found it hilarious when the author said that the banana was magnetic.’ – Raaghav, Year 3
On World Book Day itself, the whole school came together to celebrate books with a very special Book Tea Party. Each child was allocated a reading buddy from a different year group. After the children had enjoyed juice and a stripy biscuit, they were sent to a cosy spot with a book to read together. It was so wonderful to see the older children encouraging the younger ones to read.
What learning took place in book week?
Reception and Pre-School
‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ is a story loved by all, and our youngest children thoroughly enjoyed an entire week of learning linked to this fantastic book by Judith Kerr. The children wrote invitations inviting the tiger to come to tea. What they had on offer sounded very tempting!
Year 1 and 2
‘Oh very well I’ll do it myself!’ said the Little Red Hen and SO SHE DID.
Year 1 and 2 had a real challenge this year. Miss Thompson taught them a story called The Little Red Hen and they had just 2 days to learn the story off by heart. Through lots of practise
and the creation of a story map, the boys succeeded on this mission.
Then came an even more difficult challenge.
Could they change the story and create their own version with stripes as a theme?
Judging by their performances of ‘The Stripy Zebra Fish’ and ‘The Hungry Pooh Bear’, the answer is – yes they could! Now that they could orally recite a story, they would be able to do some amazing writing. And so they did!
Year 3 and 4
What would it be like to be a stripe?
Year 3 and 4 thought very carefully about which everyday objects are stripy. Through imagining life as one of these objects and reflecting on the trials and tribulations that this could bring, the classes were able to write stories from the perspective of an object. What do you think you would moan about if you were a zebra crossing? How would you feel if you were one of the colours in the rainbow? Questions such as these require a high level of thinking but Year 3 and 4 stepped up to the challenge.
Year 5 and 6
It was all about picture books at the top of the school. Year 5 and 6 were asked to create their own picture books that could be read and enjoyed by younger children. Their books had to feature stripes in some way and each class shared ideas and voted on a main character to use. ‘Squeak the Mouse’ would be featuring in Year 6’s books and ‘Gregg the Egg’ was chosen by Year 5.
There is no recipe for writing and illustrating a successful picture book and soon the boys would realise that they were being faced with a rather difficult task. It was all worth it though because the ‘Best Worker’ from each class would be rewarded with their book actually being printed for our school library.
Categories: School News
