2024 Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee

2024 Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee

For the second year, St Kilda Park is entering the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee. The competition is open to all our students in Year 3/4/5 & 6. It is free to enter the online competition which I will run with students over the 3 consecutive Tuesdays in August. Entrants will be required to answer 30 random spelling words (timed) per round. Students are required to be signed up by a teacher, so please let me know by close of business Friday August 2nd if your child/children would like to participate. Here is the link if you would like to read up a little more about the competition.

Send me an email on Jacqueline.morphy@education.vic.gov.au I have attached a link to the digital parent consent form here . Please attach the consent form to your email.

Thank you to those that have already reached out and expressed interest.

Book Recommendations

This week I am reviewing a book that I have just completed rather than interviewing another staff member.

What are you reading at the moment?

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

Why did you choose that book?

This book was selected by a friend of mine for our Book Group.

What is the story about?

The story is about a family and their complex relationships with each other.

The Barnes family who appear on the surface as a happy and successful family have hit trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under―but rather than accept this, he’s spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a handyman. His wife Imelda is selling off her valuable items, while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to make poor choices through final exams and twelve-year-old PJ is planning to run away from home. So many events go wrong and all relationships are strained. Murray cleverly weaves unexpected connections throughout the story and keeps suspense at an all-time high right up to last page.

Some take aways...

Parts of this book were very strong and confronting. I have to admit there were sections where Murray chooses not to use punctuation – I found that extremely challenging and it impacted my desire to want to continue reading at times. I spend every day in my job, reminding students to make the readers job easier by punctuating! Areas without full stops meant that I was forced at times to re-read the text as I read it incorrectly the first time. A SKiPPS parent mentioned to me that she listened to the book as an audio and so was removed from the lack of punctuation challenge. She also said that the audio was in Irish accents which made it particularly enjoyable to listen to.

Did you enjoy the book?

I had to challenge myself to persevere with this book as it is long, and some parts were quite confronting for me. I am glad that I completed it but would love to talk to anyone who has read it about their experience, particularly regarding the punctuation and the story line.

Picture Story Book

If I Was a Horse by Sophie Blackall

Nominated for the 2024 CBCA Children’s Picture Book of the Year

A gorgeous fantasy that encourages imaginations to be free! Blackall captures the wonderful aspects of life as a horse. If you were a horse, what would you do? Here, a child imagines their life as a horse ….. what would you do if you were a horse? Would you give your family members a ride? Would you wear your favourite clothes? Would you eat dinner at a table with family?

Young Readers

Being Jimmy Baxter by Fiona Lloyd

Nominated for the 2024 CBCA Book of the Year : Younger ReadersA moving and tricky story told with moments of sheer delight. Jimmy’s determination, imagination and love for his mother never waver, even in the face of hardship. Jimmy’s ability to find joy and remain positive is an inspirational.

Being Jimmy Baxter covers some challenging topics – Lloyd doesn’t sugarcoat the family violence that Jimmy and his mum face, or the mental health issues that Jimmy’s mum deals with as a result. But it’s pitched perfectly for young readers, and the book’s resolution offers a message of hope and encouragement.

For kids with lived experience of family violence or parental mental health issues, this book will have a powerful resonance. It’s full of validation and much-needed representation. For kids who haven’t experienced the kind of hardships that Jimmy faces, this story will generate understanding and compassion that will stay with readers long after its pages have ended.

Pen Pals

Thank you to the children who have written a letter to a member of the Sacred Heart Community, they were delivered last term and very well received. I have spoken to Tamara who is coordinating the letters at their end and she was so grateful that our school community has chosen to be a part of their world. She did explain though, that it is a little more complicated getting responses. Please be assured that the residents will respond, we do just need to be a little patient. I will let you know as soon as we have received some letters back and will then put a call out for a new batch of letters to send.

Book Week 2024

August 17-23

Each year since 1945 the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has brought children and books together across Australia through CBCA Book Week. During this time, we spend one week celebrating books and Australian children's authors and illustrators. Together, we share and tell stories relating to a theme to highlight the importance of reading. The theme this year is Reading is Magic.

At SKiPPS we grab any opportunity to celebrate reading. We have lots of exciting things happening to celebrate the 2024 CBCA Book Week.

All students will be going to a performance from Meerkat Productions who adapt two books shortlisted by the CBCA for the Book of the Year Awards. One show is a book from the Picture Book Category and another from the Younger Readers Chapter Book category. Meerkat Productions create 2 x 40-minute musical productions including original songs and puppetry.

Author Visits

We also have some fabulous authors coming to talk to the children about the art of writing, the process of having a story published and to share their passions and processes about writing stories.

Jane Godwin, author of many books we use as mentor texts at in the classroom to model high quality writing, is coming to speak with the Foundation &1/2 students.

Anna Fienberg, author of the Tashi books is coming to share her stories and experiences with the Year 5/6s.

If you have any questions about anything Literacy, please come and see me.

Jac Morphy

Literacy

Working Bee

Saturday 10th August