St Raphael's School

Literacy

Melanie Pizzonia 

Guess the Author

This author started his career with surfing cartoons and exhibitions of his psychedelic art and then joined the famous marionette troupe ‘The Tintookies’ as a trainee set designer/stage-manager in 1968 (The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, Sydney).

 

Since then his work has been solely for young people both here in Australia and overseas.

 

His many credits include his ‘Alexander Bunyip show’ (ABC TV 1978-88), pantomimes, fabric and varied merchandise designs, toy and board game invention and the writing and illustrating of over 170 picture story-books and activity-books for young readers. Several million copies of his titles have been sold worldwide.

 

He has been visiting Australian Primary Schools since 1972.

 

The Australian Government honoured his work in 2004 by printing a 32nd Centenary, special edition of his first book ‘The Monster that ate Canberra’ as a Commonwealth publication … for both residents and visitors to our Capital. Every Federal Politician received a copy!

 

He was also the designer of ‘Buddy Bear’ for the Alannah and Madeline Foundation (Port Arthur 1996). The Foundation financially supports Children/Families who are victims of violence/violent crime; they are currently running an anti-bullying campaign in Australian Schools.

 

In 2010 the ACT Government further recognised his work by commissioning a bronze statue of his first book character ‘Alexander Bunyip’. ‘Unveiled’ in April 2011, it stands next to the new Gungahlin Library in our Federal Capital.

 

He will be visiting St. Raphael's in Book Week. 

Supporting Literacy Development At Home

Here are some ideas that you could use whilst children are learning at home to support literacy development and consolidate literacy skills.

-Adapted from the 'Raising Children' website

'School-age children: Literacy Activities

Talking activities

  • Play word games that encourage your child to learn sounds. For example, ‘I spy with my little eye something beginning with f-f-f. What do you think I’m looking at that starts with that sound?’
  • Ask your child about words that rhyme. For example, ‘What other words sound like car?’
  • Talk about the past. Ask your child to tell you something they enjoyed doing at school that week.
  • Talk about the future. Tell your child what you’re going to do on the next day or on the weekend, or ask your child to tell you what they need to do before bed.
  • Give your child simple instructions to follow, and ask your child to repeat the instructions back to you. Gradually increase the number of steps based on how many your child can follow. For example, ‘Go to your room. Get your hairbrush and a towel’.

Reading and book-based activities

  • Read stories and then talk about them. Ask, ‘What was your favourite part of the story?’ or ‘Who was your favourite character? Why?’
  • Take turns reading. You could read half the page while your child reads the other half. 
  • Ask your child to make a storybook and have your child draw the pictures. Your child can do this on a computer or with pens and paper. 
  • When you’re out and about, ask your child to pick out or sound out letters or words on billboards, shop fronts, street signs or items at the supermarket.

Drawing and writing literacy activities

  • Select a few alphabet letters and move them around to make new sounds – bat, tab, abt – and see which of them are real words. Practise sounding them out letter by letter, then saying the word – for example, ‘b-a-t makes the word bat’. Start with lower-case letters, so you don’t confuse your child with the two different letter shapes for each sound.
  • Get some alphabet letter magnets and keep them on the fridge for your child to make words with. As your child learns to read, leave messages for your child, and encourage your child to do the same.
  • Encourage your child to write their name and the names of other family members in greeting cards or on pictures. Once your child can use all the letters well, they’ll be ready for upper case and lower case (capitals and small letters).
  • Encourage your child to write shopping lists or restaurant menus for pretend play.
  • Ask your child to make you a book, with a word on one side of the page, and a picture of that word on the other side.'