WORLD BOOK DAY!
Oh yes, it’s that time of year again, and I LOVE IT! World Book Day this year is on 7th March. There are games, resources and a book review competition on their official website (see link above) and you can also follow them on Twitter here.
World Book Day, which sees events all over the world, has been going for almost twenty years and is organized by UNESCO to promote reading and publishing, the first events being held in 1995.
Usually, I have one or two events planned in celebration of this special day. This year, I have five, four school events and one library event (You can see details of these via the Workshops/School Visits tab of this website under ‘Events for 2013’) This is causing me mucho excitemento and a little bit of hyperventilation. As some of you may know, I love these events when I’m at them, but I get a tad nervous beforehand. This is compounded by a constant anxiety about my resources… Have I got enough? Have I planned the sessions properly? Did I remember to ask if the school has card? Do I have enough books? Do I have too many books? And then… Will they get glue in their hair? Will they fight over the puppets? Will they stick the straws up their noses? Will they stick the glue up their noses…?
My first visit is tomorrow at Hilltop Infant and Nursery school in Ashbourne working with 125 children… nerves, excitement, moments of sheer panic… yes, all of that! Fortunately, on the day, things normally come together quite well and if I blunder, we work our way through it, and I always try to remember that the kids have no idea what is supposed to happen, so as long as fun stuff is happening it’s all good. This year too, is the first World Book Day since Buttercup Magic: A Mystery for Megan was published, which means I’ve been developing a whole load of new resources that are Buttercup Magic related. My fave is the ‘What would you put in your treehouse?’ activity, which looks like this…
and is based on this part of the book, from the chapter entitled ‘The Treehouse’:
‘It was the best treehouse (Megan) had ever seen! It looked around the same size as her old bedroom, about five steps by six, Megan thought. Megan leaned back against one of the walls. She could see Freya’s garden and if she looked out of the window she could see the stream at the bottom of the garden. Then she saw Dorothy again, dashing in and out of the trees.’
and this, from ‘Some Extra Things for the Treehouse’:
‘She also wanted to take some more things to the treehouse. Megan had been saving up things that she thought might be useful, and some less useful things too.‘
I also updated my powerpoint thingamajig which now includes a ‘Where is Grub’ activity, where Grub magically appears in mysterious places… here’s one of them:
Any idea where this is?
Thanks to Anna-Lena Olsson for putting these pics together for me. So am I ready? Well, having spent the morning with dort making Grub Ears templates and attaching new handles (straws) to the Puppy Puppets… I think I am!
Happy World Book Day, whatever you’re doing!
Leave a Reply