National Literacy Week
29 July – 4 August 2013
With National Literacy Week fast approaching, it’s time to start brainstorming some exciting activities to get everyone engaged and motivated about literacy. In light of this year’s chosen ‘Read for Australia’ book Herman and Rosie by Gus Gordon, we want to celebrate the themes of friendship and dreams through Reading Eggs!
Here are some ideas to get excited about literacy at your school:
Read with a Buddy
Organise a cross grade or cross-class grouping or pair up for a buddy reading day. Get students to read and share their favourite books from the Reading Eggspress Library that reflect the themes of friendship and dreams.
Some book suggestions include:
– ‘There’s No Such Thing’ by Bren MacDibble (Reading Age of 6)
– ‘All The Colours of Paradise’ by Glenda Millard (Reading Age of 8)
– ‘Jed’ by Kathryn England (Reading Age of 11)
One School One Book
Nominate a day to celebrate a particular book in the Reading Eggspress Library that highlights the themes of friendship and dreams. The Library contains over 1200 e-books which can be accessible on the computer or iPad. Collectively read the book and discuss the importance of friendship and dreams in light of the text – maybe even create a PowerPoint presentation that highlights the key ideas in the book!
Literacy Stadium Champion
Dedicate a morning to the Reading Eggspress stadium where students can battle it out for the champion spot! Get involved in all four categories: spelling sprint, grammar skating, vocabulary pursuit and freestyle usage. Perhaps even reward students with a Reading Eggs Trophy! Click here to purchase a Trophy*.
A Poem in Your Pocket!
As recommended as a part of National Literacy week, encourage your students to discover poetry through the ‘A Poem in Your Pocket’ activity. Once written, students can carry their poem in their pocket and take it out at any time to read to classmates, teachers and visitors. The poems can be in any form including haiku, cinquain or blank verse – the only rule is they need to be able to fit in a pocket!
*Handy Hint: Get students to use the Jenny Eather’s ‘Writing Fun’ found in Reading Eggspress to help create their own poems!
Get Everyone Involved!
National Literacy Week is all about celebrating literacy. What better way to do it than to have each class write a short narrative together about friendship and dreams! Teachers and students can use Writing Fun to make sure they are using the correct narrative structure – but the creativity is still left up to the students! Share stories with the whole school!
Also consider hosting a family literacy day – invite parents, caregivers, grandparents and other family members to the classroom or school for a family school reading day.
Be sure to get your school involved in National Literacy Week this year! To access Reading Eggs simply log into www.readingeggs.com.
*Please note trophies are only available for Australian Schools.