World Read Aloud Day 2016

If anyone is interested - February 24th is World Read Aloud Day.  This is a day to celebrate the power of words - and is about taking action to show the world that the right to be able to read and to write belongs to all people, whoever and wherever they may be.

World Read Aloud Day asks everyone to take part by grabbing a book, grabbing an audience, even if it is only one other person and reading aloud.  You have the right - use it!

Some other ideas to try could include:
*   Make bookmarks to hand out with information about the day
*   Ask someone from outside the school to come and read aloud to the class
*   Make posters about the day and put them up around the school 
*   Have a classroom discussion about the fact that worldwide at least 793 million people remain illiterate and why this is so bad.
*   Maybe each student could read aloud a paragraph from their silent reading books 

Make it a day to celebrate the power of words!

Student Data, Special Days and Unicorns

Believe it or not we are already looking down the barrel of the last quarter of the year!  Scary or what?

There are a couple of special days coming up in September that we should maybe find a way of celebrating... even if by just spending time reading.  
Whether silently, or out loud, or to other people or classes - can you think of a better way to celebrate Read A Book Day on the 6th September?  I know this is a Sunday, but hey, you know what?  We could be radical and do it on the Monday  - which would tie in very neatly with the fact that Monday 8th September is World Literacy Day!  

Of course, if it is fun stuff you want... then 6th September is also Pet Rock Day and the 9th September is for celebrating Wonderful Weirdos Day - and I know there are a few of those around.  I am pretty sure some of the students (and maybe the staff) would put me in that class - and I am quite happy to wear that tag. You need people like us around.

I am also sharing a link I came across on the MindShift site about collecting data on students.  Although I am not a teacher in any way, it made sense to me in terms of forging a good relationship with the students and although I believe we actually do a pretty good job of it here, maybe this post has a few more ideas that can be employed.  

http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/08/26/rethinking-data-how-to-create-a-holistic-view-of-students/

 Wishing you a great weekend, hopefully with more rain to come - and I will leave you with this thought:

'Always be yourself - unless you can be a Unicorn.  Then always be a Unicorn'

Global Read Aloud Day

While looking for other information for a student, I stumbled across this little gem.  Global Read Aloud Day - can it get any better?

Yes, it can - it is not just about picking up any random book and reading out loud - but it is about making connections, sharing ideas - not just with our school but across the globe in nearly 30 different countries, while enjoying the written word together. Along with the gift of our time as well.
(And I think we could include coffee and chocolate in here as well.)

Check out the link below for more information.  This event runs from Oct 6th through to November 14th, so plenty of time to get organised if anyone is interested. Have a look at the FAQ page for ideas.

http://www.globalreadaloud.com/

Library Lovers Day & Banjo Paterson

Just out of interest - you may like to know that February 17th will be the 150th birthday of 'Banjo' Paterson, one of our best-loved bush poets.  As our new curriculum seems to have more of a focus on poetry it may be a day to introduce our students to some of his works.

Friday is Library Lovers Day (and Valentine's Day) and here in the Library we are pleased to be able to facilitate some meetings between books and readers in the hopes of seeing romance bloom.

We are organising Blind Dates with books.  We have lots of mysterious wrapped up parcels of eager books just waiting to be borrowed and enjoyed.  These will be on display on Friday and can be borrowed all day.  There are lots of Fiction, along with some Non-Fiction books that wanted to get in on the action as well.  All sorts of genres and information.
So come in and give it a try - what have you got to lose? 

Just for general information and pre-planning there are a number of days throughout the year that promote READING.  Some of these are;

World Read Aloud Day                           March 5th
National Simultaneous Storytime        May 21st
Indigenous Literacy Day                        September 3rd
Picture Book Month                                November

The last one is probably my favourite - love those picture books!!  So if you have any ideas of things we could do to celebrate those dates, come and see me.

I am looking for people to write brief book reviews on books they have read and enjoyed from here, so if any of your students are interested, that would be wonderful.

Have an awesome week everyone!