PY Book Week

Book Week is an annual event across the world and in the TISB PY calendar.  It is a special time of the year when students and teachers celebrate and promote the love of reading through various activities and events. Despite distance learning, the PY team has managed to carry out Book Week in a virtual fashion. This year’s theme is Reading is Power: Words Can Change the World.

Book Week is all about reading for pleasure, and we wanted to encourage the links between reading and writing, with activities and events, such as an author visit and DEAT - Drop Everything and Talk - Ms Emily, Deputy Principal PY.

To open Book Week, teachers shared their favourite stories in the Monday Assembly with students in LG1 to Grade 5.  A video montage of teachers talking about their favourite books, topped by author Steve Skidmore dropping in, resulted in some very happy and surprised students.  To round off the Monday activities, students got to share a photo of themselves dressing up as a character from a story in the Character Dress-Up Day event – giving the PY community a series of excellent pictures.

On Tuesday, the students had the opportunity to become illustrators where teachers, Ms Nikki and Ms Namita, read out extracts from stories and children drew or painted a picture to illustrate what was happening in the story.  Ms Emily explains that “the reason for this is for students to understand that powerful words create a vivid image in the readers’ mind.”  The activity was a House competition and the winners will be announced in the assembly that rounds off the Book Week.

Possibly the highlight of Book Week was Wednesday’s author visit by Steve Skidmore, one of the creators behind the ‘iHeroe’ and ‘Action Dogs’ series.  “It was early morning for Steve in the UK, but his energy was still high!” said Ms Emily, who introduced the author and his interactive session exploring some of his most popular books.  During the sessions PY students had the opportunity to engage with Mr Skidmore as he took them through some of his stories.  The sessions finished with a Q&A where the children got to ask questions about Mr Skidmore’s life, books and future endeavours – inspiring them to pick up storytelling and authorship.

This year, PY included DEAT – Drop Everything and Talk where the students became the storytellers. “It encourages students to make the connection between reading and writing – taking charge of the story, using their imagination to develop the plot and develop their storytelling skills with their classmates”, said Ms Emily, who also dropped into classes.
 
For this year’s Book Week, several parents have been enthused and involved through Parent Reading, where they have shared their love of reading and favourite stories with their children’s classes. “Something that has been made easier due to distance learning, is including our parents”, explains Ms Emily happily as the response from parents has been positive and resulted in many contributions.

As with previous Book Weeks, PY maintained the tradition of the Character Museum, where students dress up as their favourite book characters and act out scenes from the books.  This year the student contributions were done virtually, and students videoed themselves and submitted their contributions online.  “Even after Book Week is over, students will be able to visit the Museum at their leisure”, says Ms Emily who will share the link with students and parents in her PY Friday Update. Here is the link to the Character Museum video on Youtube.

“The love of reading does not end after Book Week finishes. We have initiated a Readathon to encourage students to read as much as possible, while at the same time raising funds through sponsorships for Pratham Books and their initiative to spread the access and skill of reading to the underprivileged”, says Ms Emily, who together with her team and Student Prefects believe in spreading the importance of reading to everyone.