Book Week

We are so excited about Book Week which will be running in week 3. 

There will be a Scholastic book fair running in the library, guest readers, a book character dress up day, and Sally Sutton is our visiting author - to name just a few of the bookish activities coming up. 

More info to come soon ...

Colouring competition winners!

Well done WPS children for your amazing entries in the recent FIVE GO on an ADVENTURE colouring contest. 

I am delighted to share that Freya won 1st place in the 8-year + category and her prize is a family pass to see the show! 

Yiyi won 2nd place in the 8-year + category and her prize is a $30 Dorothy Butler book voucher!

Sorcha won 3rd place in the 8-year + category and her prize is a $20 Dorothy Butler book voucher!

Here are their colourful entries.

  

Thank you to the Tim Bray Theatre Company and Dorothy Butler Children's Bookshop :)

Aki Fukuoka on the Storylines National Story Tour

We were so excited to learn that we had won another Storylines National Story Tour visit! On Monday 17 June, Aki Fukuoka visited our school. The year 3/4s (whanau pohutukawa) were treated to a lively presentation in the hall.

Aki Fukuoka is the talented illustrator the famous Billie B Brown series and the Lily - the littlest angel series, both of which are really popular at our school. She also illustrated the Sam Kerr series, and picture books like Witchy goes shopping and Giraffe attack.

Aki showed us the many versions of Billie B Brown that she created for the publisher. There were around 100 versions before they decided on the perfect character. Billie B Brown has sold over 5 million copies worldwide!

We learnt about the publishing process, and how a drawing goes from a pencil draft, to "inked" to shaded and then to full colour. After that we enjoyed a drawing demonstration. Aki asked us to select two volunteers. I selected a girl and a teacher selected a boy. She created adorable 'book covers' of them and asked us to come up with the title. It was a wonderful, interactive time. The children were engaged during the Q&A time and asked thoughtful questions.

Thank you so much to Storylines and to Aki Fukouka for an inspiring morning! Afterwards the children told me they were "hooked in", Aki was "inspiring", "an amazing artist", and a teacher told me that many children started their own books after the visit. Once again, we are most grateful for the time and energy that goes into these tours!

 

Samoan Language Week

 Talofa Lava,

We have enjoyed Samoan Language Week at WPS. In the library I have been reading stories to the children from the Children of the Pacific series. 

I love the theme of this year's Samoan Language Week, "Serve in love for a blessed future".

Authors around the alphabet

We have finished going from A-Z in the authors around the alphabet display shelf. It is definitely a shelf theme that I will return to at some point, but for now, after Samoan Language Week, I have a new shelf theme coming up... Watch this space for more details. I think the children are going to enjoy this one!

Colouring competition winners!

Congratulations to the following children who entered the Tim Bray colouring competition (via the school library), and won prizes!

Sofia: 2nd place in the 6-8 age group

Sorcha: 2nd place in the 8+ age group and Freya, 3rd place in this age group.

The lucky winners have won book vouchers from the wonderful Dorothy Butler Childrens' Bookshop. As they are all keen readers, they are delighted.

Thank you to all the sponsors of this competition. I hope the Great Piratical Rumbustification will be a rip roaring success.

Sea Week

Sea Week made a splash at WPS Library. We "reached for a good book", and children entered a sea themed colouring competition at lunchtimes. Here are some pics.

Storylines National Story Tour

We were thrilled to hear that we had won another Storylines National Story Tour visit recently. Tessa Duder and Peter Millett visited our school on Monday 11 August. It was such an honour to hear from Tessa CNZM OBE. We were fascinated by her life story, including her swimming medal, working on the Spirit of Adventure, visiting Scott Base, and the research she did for her new book, The Sparrow. 

Both authors talked about research and about intermingling fiction and non-fiction (historical fiction). Peter shared some interesting choices that he asked the illustrator to make in The Anzac Puppy, and how he conducted his research in the days before the internet. It was interesting to hear about the challenge he had in making sure the ending was right. Our Y5/6 ākonga  will have gleaned so much from this - as their teachers are talking to them about the importance of research and rewriting before publishing. Thank you Storylines for an excellent visit! Kate, WPS Librarian

I was amazed that we had one another Storylines tour! It is our 4th since I've been working here. We've had Fifi Colston, Swapna Haddow, Des Hunt & Tania Roxborough and now Tessa Duder and Peter Millett visit our school. As a school we feel incredibly fortunate and grateful to Storylines for all your hard mahi bringing authors to schools! Thank you to Vicki Cunningham for your work behind the scenes and to Miguel for doing the facilitating. Thank you to Tessa for sharing your wonderful life story with us (we were star-struck) and Peter for your vibrant presentation and interesting behind the story titbits.