By Gabriella Payne
Schooling may look a little different at the moment due to statewide Covid restrictions, but it was going to take more than a global pandemic to stop local schools from getting into the Book Week spirit this year!
Teachers and students across the Cardinia Shire had a ball bringing their favourite literary characters to life recently as part of Book Week 2021 celebrations, with both kids and adults dressing up and showing off their creativity.
The team at Pakenham’s John Henry Primary School had a wonderful week of book-ish fun, but perhaps the best part was the school wide dress up day on Thursday 26 August.
Grade one teacher, Taleisha Chellew, said that this year’s Book Week theme ’Old Worlds, New Worlds and Other Worlds’ had been a fantastic prompt and it had been great to see everyone make an effort, whether they were learning onsite or at home.
“Teachers and students both onsite and at home dressed up to celebrate,“ Ms Chellew said.
“Us teachers got to see our students dressed up during our online lessons as well as through photos, and students were so excited despite being at home.
“With the photos that parents/guardians sent through of their children dressed up, we held a ’Virtual Book Day Parade’ by putting these photos into a video to share with the community,“ she said.
“Students were so excited to dress up and have the opportunity to receive prizes for best dressed.“
As well as the creative dress up day, Ms Chellew said that students had the opportunity throughout the week to participate in a school wide writing competition by producing a piece of writing that responded to this year’s Book Week theme.
Prizes for this competition included the students’ work being published and distributed in classrooms for the school cohort to be able to view and read.
But that wasn’t all – Webex sessions also made an appearance in John Henry Primary School’s Book Week activities this year, and Ms Chellew said that it was brilliant to see both teachers and families joining in for some after school hours fun.
“Teachers held a Book Week ‘Hansel and Gretel’ themed cooking session where we baked cupcakes with families online, and shared the story ‘Hansel and Gretel’ while the cupcakes were in the oven,“ she explained.
“It was great to see the teachers, students, parents and siblings join in for some Book Week fun.“
The school community are already looking forward to next year’s Book Week, but in the meantime, there is plenty more reading to look forward to!
