Literacy
Book in a day
On Wednesday 6 August, selected students in Year 6 were locked away in the conference room from 8:00am till 8:00pm to produce their very own Book in a day. As part of the competition run by the Kids Cancer Project to raise funds for children affected by childhood cancer, the students were given a setting, human and non human characters and five key words to include in their book entries. The books needed to be a minimum of 1500 – 2500 words, include a front and back page of original illustrations and include an Australian setting, to respect to the competition creator. The books form part of a digital library, accessible to children both in and out of hospital via the kid cancer project website.
Around Australia, 1901 teams have participated in the competition this year, raising over $680,000. This year our students produced the text ‘The Great Switcheroo’, about an athlete and magician, who are identical twins who switch jobs, fooling everyone. Working together for 12 hours to produce such a high-quality text, requires both impressive written, creative and teamwork skills. We are very proud of our students and their efforts.
In addition to the formal competition, Solway will also be running a book in a school day in Year 3 & 4 and year 5 & 6, with students working collaboratively to complete a book between 9:00am and 3.30pm. May the best book win!
Book week
On Monday 18 August, Solway was a blaze of colour as students and staff arrived at school dressed as book characters from a wide variety of fiction and even non fiction books! A huge thank you to the Solway school community for getting involved in this special day.
Following our book parade students were treated to an engaging performance from Cristy Burne, a local author with a passion for writing science, and public speaking. Cristy remarked that Solway really was a special school. She was noticeably impressed by how well spoken, thoughtful and enthusiastic our students were during and after her performance. We wish Cristy (and Noah’s mum Trudi) all the best for their upcoming performance at the World Expo in Japan next month where they will be presenting three times a day for two weeks.
After our performance, students completed art activities based on this year’s Children’s Book Council Awarded books and then working with their buddies they created iMovie trailers about the books they had read. All in all, a wonderful day celebrating all things Literacy.
Sarah Watkins
Acting Assistant Principal
Learning specialist