Not content with just celebrating their love of books for a single day, children and staff at Ellington Infant School have celebrated their Ellington Book Week this week.
Celebrations kicked off with a book-themed dress-up day for children and adults which was greatly enjoyed by everyone and resulted in some creative costumes. Throughout the week the children were also able to enjoy stories read by a wide range of staff from other classes, and also took part in a book-themed scavenger hunt organised by the school librarians.
As Ellington is a school with strong links to its community and other local schools, St Laurence Junior Academy also helped make the week a success, with St Laurence pupils invited in to spend some time reading and enjoying books with the children from Ellington. The children enjoyed getting a chance to mix with their older peers, and there was a great ‘buzz’ around the school with so much book-talk going on. Ellington’s Year 2 children had the opportunity to visit St Laurence Juniors, to share books in a different environment.
The classes at Ellington are named after children’s authors and there was a focus throughout the week for each class on learning more about these authors and their books. One of the Year 2 classes produced artwork inspired by their given author, Dapo Adeola, which the class teacher shared on Twitter. Incredibly, Dapo Adeola saw this tweet, and arranged a surprise online live question and answer session for the class. The children loved this, and it was an amazing experience for all involved to be able to engage with an award-winning author so unexpectedly.
As an extra addition to the week, each class also took part in a dance workshop designed around their class author and their works. The children engaged in a range of activities and exercises themed around notable characters and there were lots of drama and role-play opportunities to really get into character.
To top the week off, on World Book Day the school was visited by Adam Taylor, owner of Westgate book business ‘The Classroom’, who very generously came to deliver a World Book Day book to every child in the school.
Ellington English Leader and assistant head teacher Mrs Wheeler co-ordinated the week’s events and was very happy with the end result, saying: “We have enjoyed a whole week of fun and engaging activities to celebrate our love of reading. The children have enjoyed dressing up as their favourite book character, sharing stories with children from St Laurence Junior School, going on a book hunt and having dance workshops related to a story book.
“Alongside this, the children have also been doing a sponsored read at home to raise money to buy new books for the classrooms. It has been a fantastic week and has been wonderful to see how engaged the children have been.
“From all of the children and staff, we would like to say a huge thank you to Kelly, one of our volunteer librarians, for creating the book hunt and Adam from ‘The Classroom’ for bringing in books for the children to take home with them.”
Headteacher Adnan Ahmet added: “Personally I can never pass up an opportunity to discuss just how important a part books can play in the development of children and their future life chances, and so events such as this are always welcome.
“I’d also like to add my thanks to everyone who contributed to the week, including Mrs Wheeler for organising, all of our staff for getting stuck in and dressing up, the children and staff at St Laurence Junior Academy, and of course the parents and carers of our children for being so engaged with our activities.
“A special mention also has to go to Dapo Adeola for giving his time so generously and unexpectedly to some of our Year 2 children! Ultimately it is our duty as a school to promote a love of books and reading, and we hope that holding events such as this help children to find pleasure and enjoyment in literature.”
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