The Summer Reading Challenge

The summer reading challenge is almost here!

The them this year is Roald Dahl – The Big Friendly Read and is part of the celebrations of Roald Dahl’s 100th anniversary in September.

To take part sign up at your local library for free and join in the fun. Read six books and collect stickers and other splendiferous treats along the way.

Visit  http://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/join-in  for more information.

 

 

Emily Diamand Author Event

This afternoon 17 children from Year 5 attended a special author event at Allerton High School. The session had been organised by a group of pupils from Allerton High in conjunction with the Ilkley Literature Festival.

Emily, first talked to the children about how she became a author and about writing. The children then embarked upon a creative writing workshop, developing characters and writing their own stories which at the end of the session were produced into books!

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If you would like to discover Emily Diamand’s books for yourself or would like to find out more information then you could visit her website

www.emilydiamand.com

Miss Whiteley also has some copies of one of her books, Ways to See a Ghost in the school library.

 

Leeds Book Awards Ceremony

LBA logoToday Mrs Johnston and Miss Whiteley accompanied 7 children to the Leeds Book Awards.

Since January the group have read, discussed and voted for their favourite shortlisted book and today they found out the overall winner.

They travelled to Pudsey Civic Hall and were greeted by the event organisers. Having had some juice and a biscuit it was time to be seated along with another 56 Primary Schools and await the start of the ceremony.

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Poet, Craig Bradley introduced all the authors and then entertained everyone before a question and answer session (prior to the ceremony schools were ask to submit questions that they would like to ask the authors and one of Abigail’s questions were chosen). Abigail asked author, Katherine Woodfine her question, ‘What was the first book you remember reading?’ Katherine’s answer was The Tiger who came to Tea by Judith Kerr.

After more entertainment from Craig, two children were selected from the audience to announce the winner of the Leeds Book Awards 2016. The winner was……..

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Gorilla Dawn by Gill Lewis!

The children then were given the opportunity to meet the authors and have their books/notebooks signed.

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Following a quick lunch at the Civic Hall we caught the train to Leeds station and walked to Waterstones.

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We browsed and talked books over more juice and biscuits. We even saw two of the authors, Kieran Fanning and David Solomons from the award ceremony!

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All too soon it was time to leave and return to school.

What a lovely day out!

Voting has now closed

Today the children participating in the Leeds Book Awards had a tricky decision to make. Each had a voting form and had to choose their favourite book, the one that they thought should win the book awards.

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Some knew straight away which one they wanted to vote for while others found it difficult to choose between two.

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Once every had voted (in secret) Miss Whiteley counted the votes and announced the results, they were:

Black Lotus 2 votes

Demolition Dad 0 votes

Gorilla Dawn 2 votes

My Brother is a Superhero 3 votes

The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow 2 votes

Mel Foster and the Demon Butler 0 votes

The group voted My Brother is a Superhero as their favourite. On Monday 23rd May the group will be attending the Leeds Book Awards Ceremony where they will find out who the overall winner is.

 

 

Book Award Debate

At today’s meeting several of the group held a debate on one of the shortlisted books, The Black Lotus by Kieran Fanning.

Yusuf, Tayyeb and Hamza all loved the book, Cezara and Charlotte weren’t sure about it while Abigail loathed it.

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The boys tried hard with their arguments to win Charlotte and Cezara over to the ‘love it’ side but Abigail’s strong arguments (and passion about her dislike of it) won them over in the end.

Next meeting the group have opted to discuss My Brother is a Superhero by David Solomons.

Waterstones Visit

This afternoon 12 children from years 5 & 6 visited the Leeds branch of Waterstones. They were met by Jen, the Children’s Department Manager who introduced the children to authors and books that they had not previously read, they discussed with Jen the books and authors that they liked and wrote their own book recommendations.  Afterwards the children had a good browse, selecting books for the library and finished the visit off with juice and biscuits.

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World Book Day

Today we celebrated books and reading. Some children wore costumes relating to past or present characters in their class novels or brought in props.

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Miss Whiteley organised quizzes and activities in the library and World Book Day vouchers were given to every child in school.

Don’t forget to swap your World Book Day voucher for a World Book Day Book!

WBD Books

Countdown to World Book Day

WBD Fest

World Book Day take place on Thursday 3rd March.

As part of the celebrations we are inviting children to bring a costume into school that relates to their class novel or book with a hook.

Children should wear their school uniform to school and can get changed into their costume when at school.

There will be activities in the library throughout the day and every child will receive a World Book Day voucher which they can exchange for a World Book Day book at a participating retailer or alternatively receive £1 off their purchase of any book or audio CD costing £2.99 or more.

Looking forward to seeing all those costumes!