John Carr's fabulous second visit

John Carr visited our school today as part of Book Week. Each whanau group had a session with him in the hall. John's last visit was in 2020, and he was as entertaining and inspirational now as he was then. John entertained the children (and staff) with hilarious poems, rap songs, illustrations of children, stories about publishing, and tips on how children can write poems and stories.

I was ever so so proud of the WPS children today - they knew when to laugh and when to settle and show manaakitanga. At the end, a student thanked John for his "delightful visit". There were smiles and cheers, and a big paki paki.

Thank you so much John, for your time, energy, and enthusiasm, and all you bring to children's literacy with your 178 titles (for the SPCA, the School Journal, Sunshine books, and more)!

A huge thank you to Simie and the staff at ReadNZ Te Pou Muramura for organising another fabulous author visit!

Clare Aramakutu

Clare Aramakutu visited the school on 9 June as part of the Storylines Story Tour. Clare was down to earth and really comfortable with the children. She told us about her writing and publishing journey, and showcased some of her wonderful books. 

I later purchased some Lucy Loopy books for the school library, as they looked like engaging science fiction books, with educational space themes about the Hubble Telescope, etc, which tied in with our Space Inquiry. 

Clare also read to us from Koro's Star, which won the Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon award in 2023.

Here is a write up on Koro's Star: Set in the 1960s, Koro’s Star is a heart-warming, exciting, adventure story.

It’s the beginning of the summer holidays in 1967 when 10-year-old Atama moves with his family into a new army base. His father, Atama’s hero, departs for Vietnam, asking Atama to look after his mum and his younger sister, Maia, while he’s away.

Atama is nervous about making friends at the new camp, so his dad leaves a surprise under his pillow: Koro’s 1939-1945 star medal, handed down to Dad after his own father died during World War II. Atama finds new friends but has to undergo an ‘initiation’ to become part of their club.

Wearing Koro’s medal around his neck, Atama hopes it will give him courage … but is unprepared for what lies ahead, deep in the tunnels beneath the army base.

Thank you so much for visiting our school Clare, you were wonderful! Thank you to Storylines for another fabulous author visit!

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 ...

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.

Stacy Gregg's fabulous visit!

Meeting Stacy Gregg yesterday was a thrilling experience for our ākonga. Stacy is warm and lovely and a pleasure to host. A huge thank you to Stacy for your time and energy! Thank you so much ReadNZ Te Pou Muramura for another fabulous author visit, organised through your Writers in Schools programme. Our children have been so enriched by author visits over the years.

The morning started with a writing workshop for 25 children from whanau harakeke. Stacy led them through the writing of a short story with a beginning, a middle and an end. We brainstormed a variety of first lines in a story, some intriguing, some adventurous and others deliberately gross. Then we brainstormed sentences that formed the crux of the middle of the story, linking up with the opening lines. Finally we wrote the closing lines, some forming a victorious resolution, others deliberately tragic. The children then wrote their own short story based on the various options. When they read their work back to the class I was proud of their imaginations and writing talent. Lastly, they were asked to write a description of their main character and Stacy offered pertinent feedback. A teacher said that some of the children were still working on their stories at tea and wanted to carry on after that. 

Mrs Stephenson had asked me to organise an author for the Hui time. Stacy presented to whanau pohutukawa and whanau harakeke during this time in the hall. It was interesting learning about the actual characters and horses behind Stacy's historical fiction novels. The topics were clearly well researched and presented in an interesting way. The children were hugely engaged, leaning on her every word. A Viking contest was a fun way to end it, giving the children a chance to for some exuberance after sitting and listening so attentively. 

Stacy kindly donated a few books from her new series, Spellbound Ponies, and an overseas print copy of The Princess and the Foal to our school. Thank you Stacy! I am sure the Spellbound Ponies set will be a hit with younger readers. 

Stacy complimented us on our use of Te Reo in our school which was heartwarming to hear. Thanks again to Stacy Gregg for visiting your old school and bringing so much joy to our ākonga!

Stacy Gregg is visiting Woodlands Park School!

Kia ora,

I've got some exciting news! Stacy Gregg will be visiting our school on Monday 3 April for Hui time!

Here are some interesting facts about Stacy:

She is HarperCollins NZ’s third best-selling children’s author of all time – outranked only by David Walliams and Dr Seuss.

To date, Stacy has sold over a million and half copies, has been nominated four times for New Zealand book awards for junior fiction, has won the Children’s Choice award for fiction three years running, and has also been awarded 7 Storylines Notable books awards including two in 2019, one for her novel The Fire Stallion and the other for Mini-Whinny: Happy Birthday to Me!, her first book in a new series of younger fiction for 5-7 year olds. Mini Whinny was also shortlisted for the NZ Children’s Book Awards in August 2019.

One of her book series has been made into a TV series called Mystic - filmed mostly in NZ - which is currently on telly in the UK and on TVNZ2.

Stacy also wrote the script for this new TV series:

https://www.whakaatamaori.co.nz/media-releases/poniponi-yes-new-fluent-tamariki-show-with-horses-speaking-te-reo-maori-on-maori

And, get this ... Stacy went to Woodlands Park School! She is delighted to be coming to visit us!

We have quite a few of her books in the library:

https://nz.accessit.online/WDL00/#!resources/searchresult

Please encourage your children to read some of her books before she visits to make the most of the Q&A time.

Also, I borrowed some Stacy Gregg books from the National Library for issuing. I'm currently reading Prince of Ponies - it's gripping!

Storylines Tour

A warm welcome to Tania and Des

Thank you so much to Storylines for another fabulous tour yesterday! We were thrilled to host not one, but TWO inspiring New Zealand authors. Des Hunt, Tania Roxborogh and Peter from Storylines joined us in our brand new staffroom for morning tea. Then Tania and Des each presented to a group of children from whanau harakeke.

Morning tea in the new staffroom

Des Hunt presenting

I've had the privilege of listening to Des Hunt at two previous visits to our school, so I attended Tania's presentation. I can report back from Lee that Des was inspiring, using scientific gadgets to engage children. He spoke about rejection, resilience and persistence, which ties in well with discussions whanau harakeke have been having this term.

Tania Roxborogh reading aloud

Saying thank you

The children enjoyed listening to Tania (T.K.) Roxborogh. Her life story is one that deserves a memoir. It is not for me to share here, but to say that Tania pursued her goals with vigour and determination, despite many challenges. Tania also read to us from the first chapter of Charlie Tangaroa and the Creature from the Sea (supreme winner of the Margaret Mahy award at NZ Children's and Young Adults Book Awards in 2021). I'm sure it will be in high demand next year.

Thanks again to the authors and Storylines for your time and energy!

Reflecting on Book Week 2022

Book Week 2022 was a bookish blast! Our Book Week this year fortuitously coincided with SLANZA's first ever Aotearoa NZ School Library Week. This is a week that celebrates school libraries around the motu. 

Our Book Week kicked off with the Scholastic Book fair, which was well supported. Thank you to WPS parents and whanau for supporting the fair. We have raised almost $2000 in books for the school library. It is great to be able to stock the shelves with new, exciting books for the children.

We celebrated books by inviting community guest readers to read to children including parents and whanau. Past principal, Liz Manley visited and read to children. Debra from the Titirangi Community Library read The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors to a class, followed by a Rock Paper Scissors challenge. We all celebrated together with a morning tea.

On Thursday of Book Week, Weng Wai Chan, visited our school. The visit was organised through Read NZ Te Pou Muramura who run an excellent Writer's in Schools programme. Weng Wai won the Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction at the NZ Children's and Young Adult Book Awards in 2020, and received a Storylines Notable Book Award in the same year.

Weng Wai Chan was warm, friendly, engaging and sincere. She shared some of her early life in Singapore bringing in humour and educational information. She shared a picture book she had written in younger days, making the process of writing and illustrating tangible for the students. A bit of Zumba got the children to have a stretch and a wiggle before they settled in for some more interesting learning.

After presenting in age appropriate ways to the three whanau groups, Weng Wai ran a writing workshop to a group of around 20 children. I was impressed with our tamariki who answered questions and engaged with the author, showing how much their teachers have taught them about writing narratives. They went away buzzing.

 

Weng Wai gifted us a signed copy of Lizard's Tale.
Her books can be bought at Unity Books
and other bookshops and are available widely online.

We also ran a Bookmark Design competition - and winners were drawn. Children could choose prizes from the Book Fair. I'll post some of the gorgeous bookmark entries soon. The winners' bookmarks will be printed out and made available to children in the library. It was a "pawsome" effort!

Teachers also made use of some of the excellent resources in the SLANZA Aotearoa NZ School Library Week booklet, including search and find pics, word searches, crosswords and more. I believe there was a literary quiz too (I missed it as I was packing up the fair). 

The sun came out for our annual Book Character Parade, which was a real blessing. It was wonderful to see parents back at school - all of us enjoying a special event together. The pics and videos are on the Woodlands Park School Facebook page. Here's our principal, Nardz Stephenson dressed up as Violet Beauregarde turned into a Blueberry, and "I am Jellyfish", plus Thelma the Unicorn (who walked into a netball pole)! The costume winners excitedly collected their prizes from the Book Fair after the parade.

 

At the end of the parade, I was presented with a kowhai tree, which I will plant in the corner of our garden to attract Tui birds. It was a special moment for me!

Now I have the job of cataloguing and covering the new books. Thank you everyone. There is a blog post on 19 August thanking you all in more detail.

Ngā mihi

Kate

Wilbur's Cosmic Cone - written by Alan D. Parr, illustrated by Anna Lee

Morena tamariki,

I'm so glad we managed to have Book Week this year. If you want to reflect on some of the fun we had, there are some lovely pics of the Book Character Parade on the WPS Facebook Page. I've also written a blog post about the Des Hunt visit.

We were also visited by Alan D. Parr, the author of Wilbur's Cosmic Cone. He is a school parent, author and TV cartoon scriptwriter. Alan delighted the Y0-2 children with a reading of Wilbur's Cosmic Cone. He also visited his daughter's Y3/4 class. 

While he read, Alan flicked through the lively illustrations on the class TVs. He brought along the crocheted versions of the characters from his book. 

Alan has a natural orator's voice, and a warm persona, which the children enjoyed. Teachers and children laughed at the funny bits and were drawn into the story. They asked interesting questions. He was really accommodating, visiting 5 classrooms. One of the teachers told me that the children did some inspired writing after he left, and they were trying out big words and vocabulary.

Write a story

Here's a fun challenge:

Would you like to write a story where you combine something interesting about your pet (or an animal at the Zoo), and something outlandish?

It's fun to write stories about something you know about in your own world, combined with something imaginary. In Wilbur's Cosmic Cone, Wilbur the dog is zoomed up to Mars. You could integrate anything that comes to your imagination with a real world character. It doesn't have to be an animal. It could be a story about how your sister developed superpowers. I don't know... it's your story, so have fun with it.

Activity sheets

Here are some "how to draw Wilbur" activity sheets.

I'll be back later with more resources.

Ka kite ano

Des Hunt's visit

It's Book Week at Woodlands Park School. On Monday, Des Hunt visited whanau pohutukawa and whanau harakeke in the hall. He is a multi-award winning and much loved New Zealand author who writes "Kiwi Stories for Kiwi Kids". We have most of Des Hunt's fiction novels in the school library, and many teachers use his books for novel studies.

It was interesting to hear about the author's life and writing journey. The children and teachers were thoroughly engaged and thrilled!  He cleverly demonstrated the idea of plot structure through magnets, with a metaphorical reader (metal ball) shooting through the story. 

He showed us the build-up of tension through an inflating balloon that grew... and grew... and burst! Judging by the cheering children, they loved it too! 

We learnt a little about chemistry and physics and about how stories work. A story needs conflict to hook the reader in, but it also needs things to go right at the end (in children's fiction anyway). There needs to be dramatic tension - a climax (balloon popping) and a release of that tension. I'm sure the young aspiring writers and readers picked up some tips.

We organised Des Hunt through the Writers in Schools programme. Thank you to ReadNZ Te Pou Muramura! And thank you to Des and his lovely wife, Lynne, for your time and energy in sharing a love of reading and science with the children.

Swapna Haddow wowed Woodlands Park School on the Storylines National Story Tour

Swapna Haddow is the multi-awarding winner author of the Dave Pigeon series. She also writes the Ballet Bunnies series, picture books, middle-grade fiction and is currently working on non-fiction. Swapna visited our school as part of the Storylines National Story Tour. What outstanding work you are doing at Storylines Charitable Trust  - bringing authors to schools!

"The tour is funded by Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust as part of the Storylines Festival. Storylines has run their national festival since 1993 with the aim of bringing together children's writers, illustrators, poets and storytellers with their readers and audiences, to enjoy books and reading, and to encourage literacy." - Storylines

Swapna kept the year 0 - 6 children in our school captivated - with an interactive reading of My Dad is a Grizzly Bear, followed by a demonstration on how to draw a grizzly bear. Swapna gleaned tips from the illustrator, Dapo Adeola. Soon all of the children had drawn their own grizzly bear.

There was a question and answer time - and the children asked interesting questions - like "What inspires you to write your stories."

Then, Libby, the organiser whisked Swapna on to meet up with the van, ready for the next school. There were going to be two more schools that day! I take my hat off to you all.

I was also really proud of the children of Woodlands Park, who behaved beautifully.

Thank you so much!

Kate

 

Authors inspire readers and writers

I'm excited to share a few bits of news with you. We are in the process of organising three authors and an illustrator to visit this year!

Firstly, we won a Storylines Story Tour. Swapna Haddow is presenting to some of our children on 29 June from 9 - 9.45am. 

Book Week is scheduled for 2-6 August, and we have Des Hunt lined up for the Monday. 

We will also have a guest reader day, and Alan D. Parr and Anna Lee - author and illustrator of Wilbur's Cosmic Cone may be joining us! Speaking of this dynamic duo - they are running a free Book Reading, with art activities included at Blockhouse Bay Library on Sat 12 June.

John Carr's author/illustrator visit

Today we had the pleasure of a visit from John Carr, thanks to Read NZ Te Pou Muramura with support from Creative NZ.

John was absolutely delightful and had the children in stitches. John shared some fun short writing prompts with the children, ideas about cartoon drawing, stand-up comedian type jokes (for kids) and even had a rap challenge. The children and staff were fully engaged.

Pretending to be a cow while reading poetry to a field of cows

I read a quote on Goodreads just yesterday that reminded me of John Carr: 

“Genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will, childhood equipped now with man's physical means to express itself..." Charles Baudelaire

After lunch, John ran a cartooning workshop. John looked at facial expressions to express feelings, body language, characteristics - and gave the children a few prompts so that they can make their own cartoons and funny poems. The children very quickly came up with some amazing ideas - I have asked them to carry on working on their drawings and poems at home and to bring them in to show me.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month:

At the end of the day, John presented his book, Manu's Journey to Emma. We are so proud of Emma, an incredibly brave cancer survivor, and talented cat cartoonist. John wrote Manu's Journey about a young owl's journey to recover from cancer. He wrote it as part of the "Big Hoot" project which raised funds for the Child Cancer Foundation. You may remember our owl, Blossom (who now lives in the library) was part of the "Little Hoot" (the school owls). John signed the book and had a lovely chat with Emma. I believe she is looking forward to reading it.

Thank you ever so much, John, for your humour, warmth and creativity. You are inspirational indeed!

James Russell is visiting us on Thursday!

Author visits: Janet Martin & The Jampots "wowed" the juniors

Janet Martin and her partner Davyd (The Jampots) entertained the juniors for an hour in the hall yesterday with their lively mix of reading-aloud, storytelling, music and sound-effects. Janet is the author of numerous well-loved picture books about our local birds, and lives locally. There are songs at the back of the books and Janet and Davyd involved the children in sing-along fun and actions. This linked in with the Arts inquiry topic - including music, writing, visual art and a performance. 

The juniors have been creating beautiful bird art of their own which we handed over to Janet for judging. In an email from Janet, she says, "Just been looking through the artwork and you have some budding young artists to be sure". One child in each junior class will win a copy of Emily the Kiwi for their winning bird picture. 

Thank-you so much Janet and Davyd!

I will be selling Janet's books at the front office all week from 3 - 3.30 pm. They are $15 each and $3 per book goes to our school. 

   

Kate De Goldi's Visit

What a wonderful day it was! We want to say an enormous Woodlands Park School thank-you to Kate De Goldi from the bottom of our hearts for inspiring our Y5/6 children. 

The day started with an introductory talk in the hall with all the Y5/6 children. Without giving too much away, Kate sang us a special song, and we replied with the Woodlands Park School song (and actions). Kate shared stories she had written as a child and read one of her short stories to us (theatrically). The conversation evolved into an organic one that included questions asked about Kate's books, the inspiration for her characters, her favourite authors/genres, etc. It was a lively morning down in the hall and left many children buzzing about meeting an acclaimed New Zealand author.

The workshop, (held in the library for a class-sized group of senior children) went exceedingly well. The children hung on every word and were utterly engaged (as was I). Through exercises, discussion and her highly entertaining, engaging personality, the children were inspired to write some exhilarating poetry. I will publish some of these poems on the blog in due course. 

The feedback from teachers has been really positive and I am grateful that this opportunity, brought to us through our Book Council membership, was so openly accommodated by Liz and the staff. Thank-you to Lynette at the Book Council for making it happen!

The highlight for me was when Marlo, a student, said to Kate De Goldi, "It's not every day that a real life author comes to visit our school. Thank-you!" and Aidan said it was his "best day ever".