Book Week!

In the last few weeks I've been hearing friends discussing Book Week which is an annual initiative of the Children's Book Council ofAustralia and the aim of this organisation is to promote  the enjoyment and engagement of children with Literature. At various levels in the Community, it is a week of activities promoting children's literature...most families become involved at the school, daycare, kindergarten  levels and it was this involvement that my friends were discussing...and in particular the costumes that have become part of the week's celebration. Apparently it can be a stressful time for mums, aunts, grandmas etc who have been put to work making a costume...one friend informed me that the standards and expectations of these costumes have grown exponentially from her  early memories of Book Week. 

Well in my occasional series of posts that look back at my time/career in the classroom, I am going back to Book Week 1999. 

I was team teaching with Nola on Year 1. We decided that we would visit a local Costume Hire store in our lunch break one day (yes a free lunch break; it did happen once upon a time!) and check out outfits. Hmmm, most of the costumes were in tiny sizes and we were starting to get a bit concerned about whether we would find anything suitable to wear as a character from a children's book....then Nola found the very loose witch costume. Our Year 1 class loved a book called 'Witch, Witch, Come to my Party?', so one costume had been found.

Then I found a loose nun's outfit, but the problem was, what children's book had a nun as a character?  Nola knew one! Miss Clavell in the Madeline books! So we both had costumes which we booked to collect the day before the dress up day at school. 

The photo was taken in the staffroom at morning tea...

And aren't I very pious there with my fruit for morning tea, ignoring the plates of cakes! Lol

Some background...one of the Year 1 girls would not come near Nola for the whole 2 sessions that we stayed in costume...she wouldn't believe that it was Nola under that makeup. That little girl is still in touch with me and there don't seem to be any long term ill  effects of being scared that day! Lol. 

At lunch time Nola and I walked out of the school grounds to the local shops just so Nola could buy some lunch...needless to say we did get tooted at a bit by cars on busy Kelvin Grove Rd. 

The wonders of the Internet...here is a reading of the Witch Witch book...I'd forgotten how much I liked this book as it really entranced the children!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UYXQj_bMDm8