Children at Ellington Infant School in Ramsgate have celebrated their own Book Week to coincide with World Book Day on March 3.
All week the children have been engaged in a wide range of book related activities aimed at promoting a love of books and the joy of reading.
Children were invited to bring in their favourite book so they could share this with their class. This allowed children to practice their ability to speak to an audience, as well as promoting new books to their peers. Parents were invited in throughout the week to read to children in the school.
Ellington is lucky to have the space and resources for an amazing library, managed by an incredible team of volunteer librarians. The librarians devised an exciting book scavenger hunt which took the children all around the school, looking for book related clues. This was very well received by the children and school staff alike.
There were also some opportunities to be creative. Children were invited to decorate a vegetable in the style of a book character. Initially the school planned to choose some winners from the available selection, but each entry showed such creativity that choosing a winner proved impossible. All children who entered were therefore able to choose a new book to take home for taking part.
Children also had the opportunity to design alternative covers for their favourite books, as well the time-honoured tradition of a dress up day on World Book Day. Children in year 2 took part in an ‘extreme reading’ challenge where they had to be photographed reading in the most unusual place they could think of!
To end the week, the school held a book swap event where children could bring in their unwanted books from home, and these could be swapped for alternatives. This was a great success and allowed every child in the school to take home at least one book that was new to them.
Headteacher Adnan Ahmet said: “The importance of books and reading cannot be understated in terms of the impact they can have on a young person’s life and so I am keen for us to explore any opportunity to promote an enjoyment of books and reading to our children.
“The week has been a great success and has been enjoyed by all. We were fortunate enough to have parents volunteer their time to come and read to children and our school governors also gave their time to read some stories to children across the school.
“Thanks to the World Book Day initiative of giving every child a book token to exchange for a special World Book Day book, plus the success of our book swap, I am very pleased with the fact that all of our children have been able to take home a number of books to keep and enjoy in their own time at home.
“As always, a huge thank you goes to our parents who supported their children in taking part in these events, our amazing staff who make it all possible and run so smoothly, and our dedicated volunteers who so willingly give up their time to support the school.”