Book Week
BOOK WEEK AT TRINITY
This week we have been celebrating Book Week across the whole school at Trinity.
The aim of Book week is for the children to be immersed in rich literature (through books that have been chosen by the Children’s Book Council of Australia- CBCA) and to engage in fun learning activities that promote the enjoyment of reading.
Our fantastic Library Leaders - Mailys, Kathy, Edom and Maggie have made daily PA announcements each morning to let everyone know what is happening each day for Book Week. They have also been super enthusiastic and a wonderful help to Mrs Shaw in the library, preparing and running Book Week. Look out for them on Monday as they will be running the whole school Book Week Assembly as well!
Children have been engaged in some fun and engaging literacy and art activities each day, using some of the shortlisted books announced by the CBCA.
On Monday, the children enjoyed a presentation online from Meerkat Productions. They are a drama production group who adapted two of the shortlisted CBCA books: ‘Three’ for the Juniors, and ‘The little Wave’ for the older students. Whilst it was unfortunate that these performances could not be viewed live as originally planned, the children were still able to enjoy this interpretation of the two shortlisted books as online performances.
Here are some comments from the children in 3/4TR about the ‘Meerkat Productions’ performances:
Edie: “I liked the puppets and how the puppets sang songs. It was kind of funny”
Amelia: “I loved the singing and the dancing”
Fanta: “I enjoyed how they were funny and acted really good”
Nathan “I liked the puppets because they were cute. The acting was good quality”
Douglas: “I liked how the people were acting as animals and objects”
Quinn: “What I liked about the Meerkat productions was that it was fun. I liked how everyone was happy at the end. It made me feel happy because we all did lots of laughing”
The highlight of our week has been the three local and very well-known children’s authors who have and will be making guest appearances (online) to the students at Trinity.
On Tuesday, we welcomed Bic Walker, author and illustrator of the book ‘A Safe Place to Live’. Bic is a local artist and author. She grew up in the housing commission flats in Fitzroy and attended Sacred Heart Primary School and the Academy of Mary Immaculate in Fitzroy. She shared her family’s inspiring story as Vietnamese refugees and their journey to Australia. She shared her beautifully illustrated book with the Year 4/5/6 children. Bic’s story and presentation was truly moving and inspiring. She had some wonderfully positive messages of resilience and hope for our senior students. I would like to encourage the senior students to share this author visit with their families. Many thanks to Bic who has very generously donated three signed copies of her book ‘A Safe Place to Live’ to the Trinity School Library for the children to enjoy. We are so grateful for her time with us and we look forward to reading her books when they arrive.
Here are some photos of her presentation and a student reflection from Adelia in 4/5MG:
Bic Walker Reflection by Adelia in 4/5MG:
“I was very touched by what Bic Walker said. Although I couldn’t connect with any of the events that she spoke about, I was able to connect with how she felt at the time. It was interesting to hear how her experiences related to other people’s families’ experiences. Bic’s story reminded me of a time when my dad told me about the war in East Timor and Indonesian war where he nearly got taken away by Indonesian soldiers. He luckily escaped, and my Dad’s mum and siblings ran away and hid. I could understand what Bic was talking about and what she felt, it was nearly like I was there, and I thought about how hard it must have been for her and my family and so many others. I was also interested in her paintings and the way she created them to tell her story; they were very unique. Bic’s presentation was very good for me as I could feel how hard it was for her and her family.”
On Thursday 22nd we look forward to listening to guest speaker Michael Wagner, author of the ‘So Wrong’ series, ‘Little Ned’ and many more, who will present to the Prep/One children and 2/3/4’s. Then on Monday 26th Jane Godwin, who has written many books and this year her book ‘Tilly’ has been shortlisted for the 2020 Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Awards, will present to all classes from Prep to Year 6, in three separate online sessions.
Below you can access links to these authors websites where you will be able to read and learn a little bit more about them.
Bic Walker
http://bookedout.com.au/find-a-speaker/author/bic-walker/
https://www.ncacl.org.au/books/a-safe-place-to-live-walker-bic/
Michael Wagner
Jane Godwin
The children have also been involved in other exciting learning opportunities throughout Book Week such as Surprise Reader each day, a Voting booth in the library, Art activities related to the Book Week literature, Science fun and more!
The students have had lots of fun being visited by 'surprise readers' every day after snack and hearing fabulous stories from staff who normally don't work in their classroom.
“I don't know who had more fun during surprise reader. I spoke to many children who really enjoyed this and I was thrilled to read to the students”- Mrs Shaw
On Wednesday, Mrs Shaw set up a voting booth outside the library at lunch time and the children were invited to vote for their favourite book from the Book week shortlisted books. There was a lot of excitement as the children had a lot of fun doing this. The winning title will be announced on Monday's assembly along with the CBCA winning books for each category.
We are looking forward to Monday when we will finish off Book Week with our dress up day and Book Week Assembly. This year’s theme for Book week is ‘Curious Creatures, Wild Minds’. The children will be invited to ‘dress up’ as their favourite book character or something related to this theme as part of our Book Week celebrations. The ‘Dress Up’ day will be held on Monday 26th October and even though we won’t be able to gather as a whole school community for our Book Week Parade we will still parade in each class and this will be recorded and then shared with the community at a Book Week Assembly on Monday 26th at 2:30pm.
We encourage parents to be part of this exciting week with us and we hope to see you all at our whole school online Book Week Assembly dressed in your favourite costume! If you are interested in joining us for our Book Week Assembly, please ask your child’s teacher for the Zoom link. (Unfortunately this cannot be shared through Skoolbag or in the newsletter for Child Safety reasons)
Here is the link to the Children’s Book Council of Australia where you can find out a little more about Book Week and the shortlisted books for 2020:
https://cbca.org.au/news/book-of-the-year-and-cbca-book-week-postponed
A big thank you to all the staff and students who have helped make Book Week such a wonderful and fun week for all!
Happy Book Week everyone!
Barbara Shaw (Library Administrator)
Antonella Tsakmakis (Wellbeing Leader)
Annabelle Marinelli (Literacy Leader)
LITERACY & NUMERACY LEARNING
As you can imagine we are very pleased to have all children back at school where we have been able to continue with face to face learning for Term 4. It is truly wonderful to see how settled and engaged the children have been, getting straight back into routines, structures and great learning across all grades. As I have mentioned previously, as per Dept of Education and Catholic Education guidelines, Wellbeing will continue to be our primary concern, and Literacy and Numeracy will be the main priority for learning this term.
Over the last few weeks your child has been involved in different assessments in Literacy and Numeracy so that we can plan for their individual learning needs for the rest of this year. Teachers have spent a lot of time assessing students, analysing data and planning for learning needs, with Literacy and Numeracy being the highest priorities. This term it is our priority to focus on doing everything we can to ensure that all students have the best opportunities to progress their learning, receive feedback and work towards learning goals to ensure a good start for 2021.
If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s learning, please do not hesitate to contact me on the email below, or your child’s class teacher.
Annabelle Marinelli,
Literacy Leader | Acting Deputy Principal
amarinelli@tcs.catholic.edu.au
