Library News | Junior School
Book Week in the Library
Two great Australian authors spoke to the Junior School boys during Book Week, Andrew Daddo and Gus Gordon.
Andrew Daddo organised two one-hour presentations for the boys. One for Kindergarten to Year 2 and the other for Years 3 to 6. Prior to the recording of his videos he had asked the boys to send him questions about writing so that he could respond to them in his presentation. Andrew is the author of many picture books and novels, 25 in fact! Some recent fiction books include the Atticus Van Tasticus series, aimed at Years 5 and 6 and young adult books like Just Breathe and One Step. His picture books for younger readers include Whatcha Building, First Day and Good Night, Me.
Gus Gordon is an author and illustrator. He was able to link in live with our K-2 boys and share his experiences of writing and drawing. Gus also gave the boys lessons in how to draw, just like he does in his books. Our library lesson for K-2 looked at some of his books in preparation for his chat with the boys. For the Kindy boys, linking their unit of inquiry’s idea of imagination worked well with The Last Peach. Boys reflected on seesaw how they had to use their imagination when making sense of the story. For Year 1, they looked at the book Last Pet Day that Gus illustrated. The boys are inquiring how people express themselves through the arts. We were able to draw connection to how Gus, as an artist can express himself in the style of art he uses when illustrating books. Finally, Year 2’s inquiry into how machines make our lives easier, linked in really well with Gus book Somewhere Else. There were at least 16 machines to be found in this book!
Even though we are unable to dress up as a whole Junior School this week, boys still participated in Book Week activities. Boys had the opportunity to dress up their teddies at home, create comic strips of favourite books, read under a tree or to a pet. Interviews of teachers’ favourite books in the morning sessions saw boys posting their own favourite books in response. Some boys even took notes!
Mrs Weber, who is on maternity leave at the moment, took photos of her son Jackson in book inspired outfits.
Boys responded to these photos with reading these books at home if they had them. Some even found them online to read.
It was great to see the different ways boys could still enjoy Book Week, even if we weren’t all together.
Nikki Bowden | Teaching and Learning Librarian
