Winston Book Week – Chapter 2
What a busy week it’s been! We’ve had staff dressing up, 2 author visits and lots of other book themed activities slotted in as well.
Thursday was WORLD BOOK DAY. World Book Day was created by UNESCO on 23rd April 1995 as a worldwide celebration of books and reading. It is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. The English department dressed up as their favourite book characters – with King Arthur, Little Miss Whoops and Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird all featuring, who do you think had the best costume?
At Winston, we usually try and get an author in to talk to Year 7 or 8 around the time of World Book Day. This year, we were fortunate enough to have an author visit our school ON World Book Day (and another the day after!!).
Kirsty Applebaum, author of The Middler, TrooFriend and The Life and Time of Lonny Quicke, came to our school to visit Year 7 students on Thursday 2nd March. In the weeks leading up to her visit, Year 7 students had the opportunity to read extracts from her books during their Library lessons. They came up with thoughtful questions they would like to ask, and responded to the extracts they were reading in a creative way. This definitely got the year group excited for Kirsty’s visit, as they kept asking what day she would be here!
Kirsty led 2 creative writing workshops in the Library with eager writers from Year 7 where they came up with their own fully developed character based on a tag lin. We ended up with some weird and wonderful characters such as a half-pig/half-warthog who could fly when he combed his hair, and a girl made of broccoli who had to disguise herself in a world full of fruits!!
The students all really enjoyed the workshops and were engaged and creative throughout. They appreciated being able to spend some time working on character ideas and developing them by adding a small element each time such as their favourite place or their favourite mode of transport.
After the workshop sessions, Kirsty took an assembly to the whole year group in the hall which focused on her influences on writing as she grew up and how this shaped the writing that she does today. She talked about writing about things that you really like as it sometimes makes it easier to come up with ideas. We also had a go at coming up with a story plan as a whole year group, which involved lots of running back and forth for Kirsty and some fab ideas from the Year 7s. The story ended up being about Spongebob Squarepants travelling to America and having a go at a dance move!!
