World Book Day celebrated in style

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To mark this year’s World Book Day, pupils in the Junior and Senior Schools took part in a wide range of book-themed activities – both at home and in school.

Junior School – Early Years and Key Stage One

Early Years and Key Stage One children enjoyed reading ‘The Lion Inside’ by Rachel Bright – a heart-warming story of a mouse who feels small and insecure and determines that what he needs to do is learn how to roar like a lion.

Pre-Reception

Pre-Reception boys and girls loved listening to the story and joined in with very loud roars and tiny squeaks. The book prompted lots of talk about times when they were brave, with Mila T saying: “I don’t like spiders in the garden but Sebastian showed me one down in the grass and it was only tiny”.

The children also enjoyed moving like the animals, making lion and mouse masks, adding sounds to the story and making a life size lion using hand prints for a mane.

Reception

In Reception classes the boys and girls enjoyed their story telling sessions, sharing their favourite stories and putting on fancy dress costumes. They also made puppets and masks, explored feelings of confidence and learnt lion and mouse facts and descriptions.

Year One

Year One children shared their favourite books at home with their parents, and there was a super selection of fiction and non-fiction, modern and old. The boys and girls also showed their friends their books virtually and explained why they were their favourite, before sharing a page that they particularly liked.

Rebecca B looked the part as she dressed up as a witch from ‘Room On The Broom’.

The parents enjoyed sharing a favourite book from their childhood too, with Roald Dahl stories and a Chinese book with traditional tales being introduced to the pupils.

Miss Gay shared a new book that she has bought about Captain Sir Tom Moore and Mrs Bailey shared her collection of Narnia stories alongside a book that she has just read by Michelle Obama. Mrs Ehegartner shared ‘The BFG’ by Roald Dahl, who is both her and her son’s favourite author.

In Science, the children were asked to research facts on either a lion or a mouse. They could use either a non-fiction book or the internet to help with their research and they were challenged to use scientific vocabulary such as ‘carnivore’, ‘nocturnal’ and ‘predators’.

Emily H got creative as she put together a ‘tinyful house’ for the mouse.

Year Two

‘Bears Don’t Read’ was the starting point for Year Two, a story about a bear who wanted to learn to read but found it difficult. The children discussed their feelings about learning to read and through perseverance, support from their teachers and families they have developed a love of reading.

The children spoke about their favourite books and, after reading ‘The Lion Inside’, they realised you don’t have to be big to be brave and, just like the mouse, you can have the heart of a lion. In the afternoon, they created mouse and lion puppets and a new setting for the newly formed friendship of the mouse and lion.

Mrs Turner told the children in her class about her love of reading and shared one of her favourite books, the ‘Brownie Guide Handbook’.

 

Lara S enjoyed reading her favourite book to her dog during remote learning.

Mrs Hurst told her class about the books she loved to read as a little girl. Her favourites were the Ladybird books featuring princesses, as she imagined being the characters inside them and she loved the thought of magic happening in books like the ‘Elves And The Shoe Maker’. As she got older, ‘Danny The Champion Of The World’ became a firm favourite before her interest turned to non-fiction books about the world, space and planets.

Junior School – Key Stage Two

Key Stage Two children loved exploring ‘The Barnabus Project’ by The Fan Brothers.

Barnabus, half mouse and half elephant, was written off by pet scientists as a failed project; he wasn’t perfect so couldn’t be sold in the ‘Perfect Pets’. Instead he languished with the other failed project specimens in his domed jar within the laboratory underground and was destined for recycling. From this unfortunate start, Barnabus wouldn’t give up his dream of seeing the outside world. He saw nothing as ‘impossible’ and dreamt big – finally achieving his aims and escaping the lab with the help and support of his friends.

Year Three

Year Three children enjoyed reading such a beautiful book and examined the concept of perfection – a subject that prompted much discussion.

Year Four

Year Four pupils followed instructions from the illustrator of the book and tried to sketch some of the characters. Following on from discovering the different pets created in the book, the children created their own pets by combining two animals together to give life to a brand new creature.

The girls and boys also wrote poems following the theme of hope and redemption and used ‘The Greatest Showman’ theme song, ‘This Is Me’, to structure their words.

Year Five

Year Five pupils had a busy day writing haiku poems about Barnabus, creating a portmanteau animal and a fact file to accompany it. Thomas C created ‘Hiccup’ from ‘How to Train Your Dragon’.

As part of a PSHE challenge, the children were tasked with drawing two of the characters and designing a leadership badge for Barnabus.

Year Six

Year Six enjoyed analysing the meaning of aspirational quotes before creating designs of quotes and sayings that resonated with them after reading about Barnabus. They also designed their perfect pet from different genome sources and wrote persuasive adverts and scientific reports.

After watching an inspirational interview with footballer Marcus Rashford and his mum and listening to Lin Marsh’s ‘Believe,’ the children wrote a letter about their future hopes, dreams and aspirations and put it in an envelope addressed to themselves to open when they are older. They also performed songs they wrote by innovating lyrics of well-known songs to capture Barnabus’ voice and anthem for change.

Key Stage Two pupils were also challenged to use household objects to create their favourite book character. The teachers really enjoyed seeing how innovative and creative the children were and were really impressed with all of the entries submitted.

The winning creators, who will each receive a book token, from each year group were:

• Year Three: Lily R – lemonade bottle woolly mammoth from David Walliams’ ’The Ice Monster’;
• Year Four: Connie G with her wooden spoon ’Tracy Beaker’ character;
• Year Five: Thomas C with his wooden spoon ‘Hiccup’ from ‘How to Train Your Dragon’;
• Year Six: Erin R with her washing machine ‘Old Woman’ from ’The Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly’.

Senior School

In the Senior School the SGS Library held a book-themed baking competition and the pupils impressed with a remarkable range of entries. Congratulations go to First Year Sadie Canty who picked up first prize and to joint runners-up Molly Steele in First Year and Second Years Abigail Sullivan and Alexa Ashwood.

They also held a number of World Book Day themed quizzes. 2R and 4M tied in the Pictionary Quiz, 1Y and 2Q both scored 100% in the Masked Books Kahoot and Abigail Sullivan won the lunchtime quiz.