World Book Day Has Extra Chapters

World Book Day seems to have lengthened its story as many schools in Henley turned into World Book Week with creative activities to inspire reading and writing.  Dressing up in your favourite character was still a big part of the week though.

Badgemore

Badgemore pupils enjoyed a World Book Week with different activities every day.  Because the school was closed on Thursday, the official World Book Day, the pupils and staff all dressed up on Monday in a ‘word’ costume.  Miss McCarthy, English Lead Teacher said, “We’re looking beyond the character; being creative with vocabulary looking at words to describe the character so for example these children (in the photo) have dressed up as grey, art, love.  My costume, a prisoner is interactive and the children can choose a left or right pocket to see if my character is guilty or not guilty.  Headteachers, Mr Hoskins’ word is backwards so he’s worn all his clothes back to front today. We’re looking at different types of words; nouns, adjectives, adverbs etc.”  Each day the school have released a video of a Masked Reader asking the children and families to see if they can guess who is behind the mask (see below).  They have also created a book treasure hunt and a book gift tree asking parents if they would like to donate a book to the library.

Rupert House School

As well as in-school reading and writing activities, Rupert House Year 4 pupils were invited to Henley Manor Care Home on Mill Lane to show off their costumes and read to the residents.  The children had written and illustrated their own books How to Train a Dragon.  Cecily read an excerpt from The Last Bear to resident Brenda.  She said, “I’ve really enjoyed hearing the story and Cecily is really good at reading.  It’s lovely to have the children here.”

Louise Light, Lifestyles Manager at Henley Manor Care Home said, “It was lovely that they accepted our invitation.  It’s such a nice thing to do with the children and residents because not only is it nice to see young faces but they love chatting, as you can see, with each other.  It is a very, very meaningful activity.”

Mrs Fletcher, Deputy Head of Academic said, “It’s really good thing for our children to come and talk to people who are from a different generation and talk about their books and characters.  It’s really nice they’ve made their own books to show the residents and read a bit from one of their favourite books.”

Sacred Heart

There has been something to celebrate books every day this week at Sacred Heart School. Mrs Edwards, the Year 4 Teacher and English Coordinator, said “It’s been a ‘World Book Week”. Activities included, a bedtime story where children were invited back into the school at 5.15pm to listen to teachers read stories and to enjoy hot chocolate, while Year 4 have taken part in ‘Drop Everything and Read’ which meant every time an alarm sounded they had to stop what they were doing and read, even during their PE lesson. Other activities were writing a collaborative story which started in Reception and then each year added the next part of the story. At the end of the day the school gathered to hear their creation. Year 1 and 2 visited The Oxford Story Museum and Year 3 went to read to the preschool. Years 4, 5 and 6 all took part in a book hunt where they had to answer questions to find their way to the next book and finally, at 1pm everyday teachers read stories to the students, and students could choose which book to listen to. Finally, children dressed up for the day in an array of costumes from many books including, Harry Potter, How to Tame Your Dragon, Matilda and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Mrs Edwards said, “We really hope to promote and encourage reading for pleasure.” At Little Hearts Preschool the children also dressed up and enjoyed many book-themed activities, including a visit from Year 3 who confidently read to them, and a visit from several parents who also read a selection of books. During the day the children took part in lots of sensory activities focused on books, including making bookmarks.

St Mary’s

At St Mary’s School they started World Book Day on Thursday with a costume parade in the playground.  Later they had a poetry slam in the school hall and an inter year group reading amongst other reading and writing activities.  Year 6 children took part in a digital leader’s workshop on AdobeUK creating book covers and writing digital book reviews.

Valley Road

Valley Road were delighted to welcome author, Rab Ferguson who wrote The Late Crew on Tuesday this week who inspired some of the Year 6’s potato book characters. Scarlett, Gabby, Matthew and Seb all created characters from potatoes during a lesson in school.    Scarlett said, “I really liked that the book was all about young carers.  I chose to create ‘Super Cleanatato’ as Levi the main character loves space.  Gabby added, “Mine is a made-up character called ‘Homework Potato’ which I thought Levi might need as he doesn’t have time to himself and it’s a reminder for him to do his homework and tells the time.”  Matthew made Levi and said, “Levi has autism which makes it harder being a carer and has to put everything in a certain order and gets frustrated if things aren’t.”  Seb who made another alien added, “The tricky part was getting his hands to stick.”

On World Book Day, Key Stage One children dressed up in their favourite book characters.