Colourful displays during our Book Week parade

There are so many events that make up Book Week. Reading short-listed books, incursions with authors and illustrators, colouring competitions, quizzes and more!

But for many students, the highlight is the dress up day and parade, which concludes this week-long celebration of children’s literature and reading. This year was made even more special by the fact that a parade like this has not occurred on site in the Junior School for 2 years!

There were so many amazing costumes and smiling faces today and it was great to see students discussing characters and storylines. There was a moment where Casey Grammar looked like Hogwarts with several Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and even a few Slytherin students wondering the school. At other times, it resembled a Minecraft world with Steve, Zach Zombie and even an Enderman in the mix.

A huge thank you to all parents, carers, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends that helped students source items for their costumes. It was great to see recycled costumes, hand-made items and pure imagination that brought the written books to life!

The purpose of book week is to celebrate the amazing Australian authors and illustrators as well as the short-listed books and winners for this year.

We encourage students to engage in reading, as research supports the increase in academic results, comprehension, knowledge and overall engagement in students who read regularly.

By seeing all the costumes, perhaps students will be inspired to read their friend’s favourite books. It was also a chance for some of the teachers to show that they are still kids at heart!

Incursions

Mark Wilson Incursion

Australian author and illustrator, Mark Wilson, recently spent time with our grade 3-6 classes talking about his books, inspirations, artwork and how the students can work towards creating interesting stories.

He spent a large amount of the session walking students through how to draw marine animals, including an octopus, a dolphin, a kronosaurus and more.

He wove in stories of severely endangered animals (like the African white rhino) and spoke of the importance of looking after our wildlife.

He also highlighted the impact that individual humans can have to make change and not think that one person won’t make a difference, as each of us together create the collective.

Some students have shared their reflections below.

“Mark Wilson taught us many lessons on colouring and illustrating. His famous quote is ‘Your first draft is your worst draft.’ I was essentially terrible at drawing but, by the end of the lesson, I was a less terrible at drawing. I enjoyed the experience of Mark Wilson coming to our school and teaching us how to draw and illustrate. - Shanveer 6M

“Mark Wilson recently ran some drawing and writing lessons with students for the upcoming book week. He talked about his books, the inspiration behind them and what they’re about. Mark Wilson has written and published 39 books worldwide. The majority of Mark Wilson's books are written about War and Australia. This is because he has a passion for Australian culture. Mark Wilson taught us some writing techniques. One of those was to always have a draft copy and another was to go over your work multiple times.

The drawings we did with him were mainly quick drawings. One of my favourite things we drew was a squid. The overall time and experience we had with him was great and so fun, I really enjoyed it and would absolutely do it again.” - Chantelle 6M

“Mark Wilson is an Australian author, illustrator, artist, storyteller and musician. He came to give us drawing and writing lessons. He showed us some of his quick drawings and they were really good. We drew poppies, dolphins, squids, a foot, a necklace, a shell, an eye, an ear and more.

He also likes to get his inspiration from coffee shops. He said that when he walks into a coffee shop, he’ll see something then write about it. He also said he likes to do drafts, then if he wants to add more, he’ll do another draft. He keeps on doing drafts until he has a well written draft. Then he’ll check with other authors and see how they like it. If they like it, then he might publish it. The visit was really good and I’ll definitely do it again.” - Phoebe 6M

“Before Book Week, we met an Australian author named Mark Wilson. He told us about what books he likes to write and how he gets his ideas to write books. Soon after, he shared some writing tips for the future and then we started to draw.

When we drew, he told us that a weird leaf-like shape could make loads of different things, like dolphins and feathers. Overall, the experience was great, and I liked how he showed us some tips for writing and drawing.” - Auro 6M

Fern Schreuder Incursion

GEM is the idea of practicing gratitude, empathy and mindfulness.

It can be a challenging task, and for many of us, this was challenging during lockdown. Whilst the days dragged on and seemed to be the same monotonous routine of managing complete chaos, Fern was able to find the hilarious highlights in her day and wrote them down in ‘The General’s Log’.

She has since published two books on her family’s antics during Covid, and it was a privilege to have her come and speak to our Year 7 students about her writing process and how to practice GEM.

Students were also provided with time to complete their own version of a log to turn what might seem like a mundane event into an interesting story that focuses on what we do have rather than what we don’t.

One example of the student work created in these sessions has been shared below.

Diary entry: Operation Flying Cat

Day Number: 58970 (40)

Today, Colonel A woke up late, quickly got dressed in a stylish outfit of pyjama bottoms and a hoodie, and dashed to the intelligence center to start her morning meeting.

While waiting for the Commander to start the meeting, Colonel A brewed herself some tea to help wake up, ready for the day ahead. As usual, the Commander began the morning intelligence briefing, going over the work necessary for today.

As Colonel A was listening intently, Captain Fluff decided to make an unexpected appearance. The Captain attempted to make an almighty leap to Colonel A’s SSS (Standing Strategic Station). Although, it became clear to Fluff that she had miscalculated.

Troop 50 watched as the Captain attempted to pull herself up to the desk, but ultimately her mission was a fail. Captain Fluff was barely able to stay on the edge of the desk as she fell to the floor and ran away, fast as lightning. - Alma 7D

Genre Reading Challenge

The Genre Reading Challenge will conclude in the first week of term 4.

It is not too late to challenge yourself to read a book from 10 different genres and write reviews on them. This is a great way to explore books outside what you would usually read.

Remember to get your passport marked in the library and speak to the friendly librarians about a recommendation on what to read next.

Scholastic Book Club

Orders have now closed for this issue of Book Club. Thank you to everyone who made a purchase. When your books arrive, we will deliver them to classrooms for students to take home.

Happy reading!

Diana Thompson

Head of the Joan Reid Resource Centre