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World Book Day 2021
Posted: 9th March 2021Teachers took part in a classic party game to inspire children to read.
As part of World Book Day, 23 teachers at Cooks Spinney Primary Academy played Pass the Story to capture pupils’ attention.
Each member of staff recorded themselves reading part of The First Hippo on the Moon by David Walliams and then passed the story on to their colleague to continue.
Pupils were then able to watch the whole story read out by the familiar faces.
A separate video – produced by art teacher Ann Clausen – gave pupils a step-by-step guide to drawing the main character, Sheila the Hippo.
Magdalena Dackombe, literacy co-ordinator and English curriculum lead, said: “I wanted our pupils to take one message away from it - whoever you are, you should always dream big, and if you work as a team, you can achieve so much more.
“We hope to encourage our pupils to discover the pleasure of reading and to show them that reading can be fun, stimulating and has the power to transform lives.
“Every day throughout the week, our teachers held World Book Day activities with their pupils on Teams, including book recommendations, World Book Day masterclass, writing prequels to stories they enjoyed, writing about their favourite characters, drawing a Gregasaurus with author/illustrator Rob Biddulph, reading a short story and getting the class to draw a picture of what they imagined as we were reading, and poster creations based on stories they love.
“World Book Day is important every year, but during lockdown we have tried our best to inspire our pupils and to encourage reading at home, as reading for pleasure is the very heart and essence of what reading is about.”
Pupils attending the Nursery on the day were able to wear their favourite book character costumes.
The school also held a virtual book fair and attended online Share a Story Live events hosted by World Book Day and celebrity partners to encourage children to read for pleasure.
The Reading Stars competition – where pupils tick off a reading star each time they complete a reading task – was launched during the special week.
