Literacy
Reading resources
During the 2020 COVID19 restrictions, Nielsen Book Australia, examined reading habits and found that overall children and adults increased the time they spent reading during periods of lockdown.
While this is good news in terms of literacy development, it doesn’t acknowledge the difficulties associated with reading during a lockdown. The most obvious one is that it can also be hard to find reading materials especially when Libraries are not open.
Consequently, here are some reading resources that might be useful:
Epic!Books https://www.getepic.com/students Class code: mii9718 Click on your name and explore the great variety of books available! | Storybox Online https://storyboxlibrary.com.au/ Login: scelwood Password: scelwood A place where your child can have stories read to them by authors, actors and activists |
Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/20?sort_order=downloads Lots of classic novels like ‘The Secret Garden’, ‘Little Women’, ‘The Wind in the Willows’ - Great for older students and adults alike. | WilBooks https://www.wilbooks.com/free-resources-free-online-books A collection of books suitable from Prep to Year 3/4. Many of these books are like take home/leveled books so they are good for practising reading skills. |
Our own COVID19 book
Some exciting news - we at St Columba’s are going to try to create a book for our Library that will capture our COVID19 experiences. Any students are welcome to contribute (including our youngest Prep students)
Submissions for this book are voluntary but must comply with the following guidelines:
- Each piece must be produced on an A4 sheet of paper (portrait)
- Each piece must not go over one A4 page
- Each piece must be legible and illustrations should be clear (in most cases, I would recommend typing submissions)
- Each piece must contain some writing (it does not need to be much but something that explains any illustrations)
- Each piece must be inspired by the theme of COVID19/lockdown
- Each piece should include the author’s name
Ideas for submissions include:
- A poem about COVID19/lockdown (types of poems: Haiku, free verse, shape poem, alphabet poem, cinquain, senses poem, etc.)
- A carefully drawn illustration showing life during COVID19 with a sentence or two to explain the illustration
- A day in the life of lockdown written piece
- A comic strip detailing lockdown
- A letter to someone in the future about this experience
- A piece about what has changed in your life since the pandemic
- A song/rap about COVID19/lockdown etc.
Note, students may have their own ideas and I am happy for them to use their creativity. This book will be a bit like a time capsule that can stay in our Library over years to come.
The aim is to have submissions by Monday 21st June. Ideally, I will be able to collect the original pieces in person once we return to school (as this will improve the photocopy quality of the book), however, I am happy for students to also send me their piece so that I can acknowledge their work.
My email address is: bdobric@scelwood.catholic.edu.au