Book Week 2018 at St. Anthony’s

Schools and educational settings all across the country joined together in celebrating high-quality tales and storytelling during Book Week 2018! We celebrated a terrific Book Week championing everything to do with favourite books, stories and storytelling, carrying out a variety of book-related activities! We know that storytelling, and story-listening, is a great way to build literacy and communications skills in young learners, and when practised at home provides one-on-one time with parents and children!

We also took part in SHARE A STORY to enjoy the pleasures of reading! Spending just 10 minutes a day sharing stories with children can make a crucial difference to their outcome and its fun for all involved. We hope to continue this tradition not just lower down the school but throughout all classes for the rest of the year—reading and sharing stories can happen anywhere at any time! We were lucky enough to be visited by Adam, Pastoral Deputy Head at St. Anthony’s Boys, as a group of Y8 pupils to share their favourite tales with us and even treat us to a reading from Charlotte’s Web! We discovered that despite differences in age and gender we shared many in common, such as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and The Chronicles of Narnia, proving great stories can be enjoyed by all!

Each class also took part in a workshop hosted by Perform for Schools. The amazing leader Jen took the girls on a fantastical fictional journey to celebrate their chosen books, bringing the magic of a story to life through acting, character role-play and improvisation. Reception had great fun immersing themselves in the beloved James and the Giant Peach, Year 1 and 2 focussed on Roald Dahl’s autobiographical Boy and Year 3 and 4 explored the world of Shakespeare through A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  All workshops were engaging,  lively and exciting, transporting the girls into the world of classic stories through drama and were thoroughly enjoyed by all.

We invited the school community to bring their favourite story characters to life by dressing up in costume to celebrate World Book Day.  The girls (and staff) did not disappoint bringing to life famed characters such as Little Red Riding Hood, the Demon Dentist, Augustus Gloop and Little Miss Twins, to name but a few.

In class, Reception enjoyed Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury’s We’re Going On A Bear Hunt and designed their own props to take part in the story themselves! Year 1 and 2 wrote brilliant descriptions about their favourite book characters and listened to a reading of The Great Pet Shop Panic by the author Katie Davies. Year 3 shared extracts from their favourite books with each other showing excellent expression when giving voice to their much-loved characters!