Cliftonville Primary School & Pre-School Soaring to success. Every child. Every day.
World Book Day
World Book Day 2023
Children (and staff) at Cliftonville Primary and Pre-School have had a wonderful few weeks celebrating and developing their love of reading. There have been bookshop trips, free books, paired reading, author visits and much more!
Over 6 days, 6 lucky children from Year 1 to Year 6 travelled in our new school minibus to spend their World Book Day token at The Margate Bookshop each day. Many of the children had never been to a bookshop before and were excited to see all the wonderful books on offer. The children also browsed the children’s section and each day, each group decided on a book to be read to them.
On World Book Day (Friday 3rd March) we were visited by Adam from The Classroom Children’s Bookshop. He kindly donated a World Book Day book to every child in the school to take home and keep alongside their World Book Day token. Helen, a volunteer at the bookshop, also visited each Reception class to deliver their books and read them a story. This was a fantastic opportunity for the children and there was a real buzz in the hall as classes visited to browse and choose their book.
On and around World Book Day, every class in the school (including the Pre-School morning and afternoon sessions) had a special visitor who read to them. These were some members of school staff, parents, governors and sixth formers from Hartsdown Academy and Royal Harbour Academy. The children loved having a different face and voice and being introduced to some new books. Some of the dads were a real hit and we hope to be inviting them back again.
To share their favourite book, children brought in a prop or object linked to it to present to their class for them to guess. They talked about why they liked the book and would recommend it. Lots of fantastic book conversations took place and children were very imaginative about the objects they brought in!
During book week, all of KS2 wrote letters to the their new reading pen pal at Newington Community Primary School. They introduced themselves, talked about what they like to read, made a book recommendation and asked their partner to recommend a book to them. The children were really enthused by this scheme and are eagerly awaiting their replies from the children at Newington.
On World Book Day, 6 of the KS2 Reading Ambassadors travelled to Chartwell Care Home to read with their residents. They received a very warm welcome with a corner of the communal lounge decorated and set up for them as an inviting book corner. A very confident young man opened the session by reading aloud from his book “A Series Of Unfortunate Events” to the whole group of children, residents, school staff and care workers. The children then partnered up with a resident to read to them and talk to them about books as well as life in general. After some initial nerves (on both sides) everyone was soon chatting away happily. Pairs swapped once more before a 94 year-old ex-teacher resident read to the children. The children were all polite, kind and confident. Listening to their conversations with the residents was a delight. A young lady in Year 3 had asked her lady what her favourite book was when she was a little - she couldn't remember to begin with but just before the end, it came back to her and she recited a poem from it. It was a really wonderful afternoon and a great experience for the children and residents as well as the care home and school staff who witnessed it and got emotional at times! Chartwell House kindly sent the children back to school with some books, bookmarks and special World Book Day cakes.
Families had an opportunity to increase their home libraries by choosing a bargain book from the PTFA book sale after school on the KS1 playground. There was a huge crowd and some exciting purchases were made.
On Thursday 9th March, Max – the school dog – visited and some children from Year 2 to Year 6 spent some time reading to him. This was a great opportunity for children to practise reading aloud and develop their fluency without feeling any pressure or judgement. It was also a very relaxing experience for Max!
Throughout the term, most year groups have had a visit from a children’s author. Year 2 were first with a virtual visit from prize winning children's author Swapna Haddow. They loved hearing her read her book "My Dad Is A Grizzly Bear" and were fascinated by the process of writing a book. The children listened brilliantly and asked great questions. Swapna even taught them how to draw her bear character. She also told them about some techniques she uses for story writing and the children put these into practise a few days later. Swapna emailed afterwards to say "I've had heaps of fun! Your pupils are all so creative and curious and fantastically behaved - you must be very proud of them." One of Swapna's other books "Dave the Pigeon: Bookshop Mayhem" was one of the World Book Day free books this year and was a very popular choice with the children.
Year 1 were next with a virtual visit from Adam and Charlotte Guillain. They read 'What the Macaw Saw' and 'The Ocean Beneath My Toes' and showed the children some lovely images from the book. They talked about animals that live at different levels in the jungle and different depths in the ocean. The children really enjoyed 'One Banana, Two Banana' that they read towards the end and the authors also answered some of the children’s questions. The children were very excited that Adam and Charlotte had written lots of our school phonics books (Rising Stars Reading Planet series).
Reception classes had an exciting virtual visit from Claire Freedman. She read the children one of her stories and answered lots of their questions. They found out that her favourite story she has written is 'Monsters Love Underpants' because she thinks that the monsters look so silly. She also explained where she gets her characters from. Claire likes to use the things she sees around her and then tries to write a story about them. The children are now going to try and write their own stories.
On Thursday 9th March, Year 5 had a special in-person visit from author Thomas Taylor who writes the Eerie-On-Sea series. This term the children have been reading the first book “Malamander” and using it as inspiration for their own creative writing so it was very exciting to meet him. He talked to the children about where he takes his ideas from and how living on the south Kent coast, he often beachcombs and that this inspires his stories. He showed the children things that he had found and they got to hold sea glass, dinosaur fossils and coprolite (dinosaur poo). He wowed the children by lighting up some uranium salt sea glass that glowed under a special light. The children got a chance to ask questions, including what was the best thing about being an author and how he started. Thomas is also an illustrator and he demonstrated his skills by transforming some of the children’s scribbles into fabulous sea creatures. Every child (and adult!) was mesmerised by his talk. Children throughout the school put in orders for his books and those that purchased them had the opportunity to meet him and get their book signed making them feel very special indeed.
Later this term, Year 6 will have a virtual visit from Lindsay Galvin the author of their current class text “Darwin’s Dragons” which they are really looking forward to.
Year 3 will have a virtual session with popular non-fiction author Andy Seed and Year 4 hope to have a session with Emma Carroll in July who wrote the “Secrets Of A Sun King” which they read in Term 6.
We are very excited to share with you all the great things we will be doing this term to celebrate World Book Day and our love of reading. See this poster to find out what is happening.
World Book Day 2022
On Wednesday 2nd March, KS1 were really excited to be visited by ex-pupil and published author Paul Deslandes. He spent the day reading his book “The Garden Monster” to classes where the children were involved in acting out the story and searching for the monster. The children loved it! Paul stayed behind after school to sign copies of his books for children and families.
On Thursday 3rd March on World Book Day we were really excited to attend some virtual author events put on by The Children’s Bookshow. Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 watched author Catherine Rayner read 3 of her books – “Arlo”, “Augustus and his smile” and “Abigail”. She also demonstrated how to draw some of her characters and the children had a go too. We were so impressed by some of the children’s Arlo the lion and Abigail the giraffe. Key Stage 2 laughed all afternoon watching Michael Rosen answer questions, give tips on writing and perform lots of famous poems.
The children also really enjoyed sharing their props with their friends for them to guess what their favourite book was. This activity stimulated some really interesting and in-depth discussions about books and characters and lots of book recommendations were made. Year 1 also shared story sacks and read to each other and some children were so inspired that on Thursday they independently chose to make their own books!
On Friday 4th March, 20 children from KS2 went on a book expedition into Margate. They visited The Margate Bookshop to spend their World Book Day tokens and browse the shelves then popped to Margate library to relax and enjoy some books. Many of the children signed up for the library and were excited to receive their library cards and be able to borrow some books to take home. We were very grateful to The Margate Bookshop for inviting us and for also donating 3 novels to our school library.
