Julie White - Head of School at Oldfleet Primary - has sent me some great reflections on establishing the joy of reading and celebrating it on World Book Day.
Oldfleet Primary School (Thrive Co-operative Learning Trust ) loves to celebrate books and reading on the annual jamboree that is World Book Day. Dressing up (kids and staff), sharing books and receiving book vouchers are all part of the event of the event started in 1995. Here are some of the Oldfleet highlights.
Staff planned all-day fun reading activities featuring favourite books.
Children have created their own version of Where’s Wally.
Children completed and entered into reading quizzes.
Children wrote or drew their own story whilst journeying around our school.
Children drew Dave the Pigeon.
At various times the school took place in ‘drop everything and read’ challenges.
Children completed a whole school read (parents and the wider community joined in at the same time as their children in school).
When I asked Julie about the importance of reading she said, “Learning to read is the key to unlocking a wide-ranging vocabulary. Instilling a love of reading can open a world of imagination and experiences, enriching a child’s world with stories from other realms. What can be more exciting than that?"
The school has also given parents the opportunity to help build their child’s self-confidence through snuggling up with a book for a pleasant, exciting and valuable experience together. Have a look at the school's twitter feed to see the results.
This year, some children took the opportunity to be inspired by their history learning. Year 3's investigation into Hull local hero Mary Murdoch (an early female GP and suffragette) led to this pupil dressing as Mary for World Book Day.
The school is determined to find new and innovative ways of engaging children in reading.
Children build their own library of prize books. Through reward Dojo points for achieving our school expectations of being Ready, Respectful and Safe, children can earn a token for our prize book vending machine (thank you Hull and East Yorkshire Children's University) where they select a prize book of their choice.
Bookmark home reading challenge. Children are challenged to read between 3 and 5 times a week (having their bookmark signed) but with an additional weekly twist to achieving this! Challenges children have achieved include:
Reading in an unusual place - see the school's twitter feed
Reading to someone younger than themselves
Reading whilst exercising
Reading a comic
Children are put into a weekly draw to win more books for their own personal book collection!
The school is desperately proud that every child has the opportunity to start their own personal book collection through reading. Julie said, “We have had a fantastic response from children and parents and their pleasure of reading with many parents sharing their child’s fun whilst reading by Tweeting photographs of them. It is a pleasure to see the enjoyment of reading flowing from the school into the children’s homes.”
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