Ross Kinnaird is visiting tomorrow!

We are so excited that Ross Kinnaird, the prolific and amazingly talented New Zealand author is coming to visit the juniors and middle school tomorrow!

We have many of his books in our school library. He will be speaking to the juniors in the morning, then the middle school and he will be running a workshop in the afternoon.

Here are some of the books Ross has illustrated. 

We are so looking forward to watching Ross drawing pictures live, in real-time! We hope he is kind to the teachers when he does funny caricatures! :)

A fun morning with Fifi Colston

With the World of WearableArt TM Awards Show kicking off in Wellington, we were very fortunate to experience a wonderful morning with Fifi Colston at Woodlands Park School this term.

Fifi Colston is a Wellington veteran of the WOW awards. Fifi has worked as a costumier and illustrator in the film industry, written children's fiction, illustrated picture books and recently brought out "Wearable Wonders" and "Ghoulish Get-Ups" through Scholastic.

    (All available in our school library)

Fifi arrived with a 'steam-punk' hat and a gorgeous get-up made from bits and bobs, including part of her original wedding dress. She entertained us all by demonstrating how one can create amazing costumes using recyclable materials like old milk bottles, stockings, fabric, pipe, a bit of sewing, a glue gun and heaps of imagination. Dress ups do not have to be expensive with some time and imagination.

Here are some pics of the wonderful morning Fifi spent with our senior syndicate, thanks to the Storylines Festival.

 

 

Congratulations to the Y6 book club for a fabulous first ever reading fair!

Thank you to all the parents and whanau who took time out of your busy schedules to visit the reading fair. The children all put in a lot of work, coming in at morning tea times and the occasional lunchtimes to work on their boards.

Thank-you to the judges - Liz, Karen, Nick, Micah and Miss Ludlow who took time to carefully consider various aspects of the display boards. The results are as follows:

Highly Commended goes to Enchanted Wood by Arlo, Zoe & Fenna, Shadow by Claudia & Ava, The Tale of Despereaux by Gaia and Rebecca and Holes by Dylan and DJ.

Commended goes to Charlie & the Chocolate Factory by Josie, Julianna & Greta and Hatchet by Joshua.

The Hobbit (Felix), The Lord of the Rings (Damon & Oliver), Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone (Maggie, Elise & Georgia), Meet me in Horrorwood (Jamie, Emily & Georgia) & Spirit Animals (Ben) all received merit.

I felt proud of each and every one of the children because each board had its own strengths and interpretations and I thought the overall display was effective. 

Here are a few pics of the reading fair. The library was buzzing, and well done to all of the children who resisted the temptation to lick the lollies on the Charlie & the Chocolate Factory display!

 

 

Book Club's Reading Fair

We are busily putting finishing touches on the Reading Fair boards. Parents and whanau of Woodlands Park School are welcome to pop into the school library on Wednesday and Thursday next week (24th and 25th June) from 3 - 4 pm to view the boards. Each board represents a book that the Y6 book club children have read and enjoyed. Their designs and interpretations are all unique.



Karen, Liz, Nick, Micah and Miss Ludlow will be judges and we will be awarding the children with certificates. I commend all of the participants. They have worked so hard to get these boards finished. They have frequently spent morning teas and lunches designing, painting, making clay figurines, colouring, making collages, writing, typing, chatting about their books, etc. We have looked at various elements in books, like the plot, setting, author's intention, genre, conflict and resolution, publisher, mood/tone and more. The children could cover all of these areas, or focus on a few key areas.




I hope you can pop in and say "Hi". The children might even be dressed up as some of your favourite literary characters on the day. 

David Walliams at the Auckland Writer's Festival

Wonderful David Walliams visited the Auckland Writer's Festival recently and I took my children along to listen to him.

It was wonderful to see so many Woodlands Park School families at the show, and one of our ex students, Hannah, even featured on the six o'clock news getting her book signed by the delightful author and comedian.

I feel like I was privy to some in-house information by attending his talk. Did you know:

• Walliams fashioned the Gangster Granny on his own grandma.
• The character in Ratburger was inspired by a contestant at Britain's got talent who ate live cockroaches!
• Walliams wrote a book for Simon Cowell's first child because he wanted to give something unique to a billionaire who has everything.

We have most of David Walliams's books in the school library and I highly recommend them. If you want to hear David Walliams reading Gangsta Granny: click here and scroll down to the sound bite.

Upcoming Reading Fair

I'm excited to tell you about our upcoming reading fair. It's like a science fair, but it's all about books the children are reading. The Y6 book club has organised themselves into small groups and has been working steadily on their projects this term. 

We have talked about all of the sub-headings that need to be included, like the author, publisher's details, genre, setting, plot, characters, conflict and more. The children have been enthusiastically designing layouts, writing down short sentences on the above sub-headings and last week the display boards arrived and the book club members pencilled out their design and layout. Some children have come in twice a week at morning teas, and during the occasional lunch-time to work on their reading fair project. We still have a way to go, but we aim to be finished by the end of term 2. Once we are closer to being finished, I'll set a date for viewing and judging. 

Here is a sneak peek of two of the groups who have got to the painting stage. Their creativity is so inspiring!

100 Years of ANZAC

Thank-you to "old boys" Zac, Marcel and Joseph who created this thoughtful ANZAC display. It was great to have your help and the books are being put to good use.