by School Library Owl

CBCA Early Childhood Shortlist Dioramas

Shadow Judging example

The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) launched a Shadow Judging Program in 2022. Year 2 reviewed and judged each of the CBCA Early Childhood Shortlist books. Using A3 paper, a review chart for each of the books was completed by all students. Due to the tight deadline we had to read and review two books each lesson. Unfortunately due to clashes with special events we were not able to meet the deadline to submit a collective vote to the Shadow Judging Program. Forward planning I would start the exercise at the end of Term 2 to ensure that we can meet the deadline.

The creative activity was to design a diorama for each of the Shortlist books. Students were split into teams and shortlist books were randomly allocated. The fist step was planning, it was helpful focusing on a page within the book to help streamline ideas. Students were assigned different tasks including:

  • designing the top piece which included the book title, author and illustrator, an image from the book, group names and class
  • creating a background or back drop for the diorama
  • designing a floor to place the inside items
  • designing and creating items to stand or hang from the ceiling, items included characters, objects, and symbols from the story

Students were provided with a range of craft materials and created delightful representations of the stories. The diorama boxes were sourced from Clever Patch.

by School Library Owl

Walk of the Whales

The CBCA Shortlist book Walk of the Whales by Nick Bland stirred curiosity and concern. Each page revealed a new problem for the whales who had walked out of the water, and unusual complications for the people.

There was a great sense of relief at the end of the story, an understanding of why the whales did what they did and strong connection to the important message in the story.

Kindergarten responded to Walk of the Whales by creating a whale using a paper plate and template to construct the whale, and designing a collage background for the ocean. The whale templates were sourced from Super Fun Pintables which provided a template for a Blue Whale, Humpback Whale, Killer Whale and Narwhal.

 

 

 

by School Library Owl

Book Week Competitions!

During Book Week the K-2 library ran competitions linked to picture books.

Can you guess the book?

Five objects were placed in a box, children were able to open the box, handle the objects and submit an entry form. Wonderful discussion, nifty catalogue searching and book checking was witnessed. You could feel the excitement when a student made the connection.

The objects included:

  • Travel basket
  • Map
  • Bus ticket
  • Feather
  • Bird seed

 

 

Do you know who the book character is?

Children were able to look through the peepholes and enter the guessing competition. Once the competition ended the characters were revealed.

by School Library Owl

Amira’s Suitcase

Amira’s Suitcase written by Vikki Conley and illustrated by Nicky Johnston provided an interesting discussion for Kindergarten. After reading the story we discussed ideas of why Amira needed to hide, where she moved to, and what changed for Amira during the story. The idea of time passing as the plants grew and the friendships she made also offered ideas to explore.

The book was a Children’s Book Council of Australia Shortlist and won the Honours award. Kindergarten illustrated plants and flowers they would like to grow if they were in the story with Amira.

by School Library Owl

Winston and the Indoor Cat

Winston and the Indoor Cat by Leila Rudge is one of the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Shortlist books – Early Childhood category.

This was the first book out of the six read to Kindergarten. They really enjoyed the story which opened a discussion about having a friend and how we may enjoy different things. The girls enjoyed illustrating their own cat template and imagining if they would be an indoor or outdoor cat.

The cat template is from Walker Books Read to Us Storytime Kit Term 3 & 4, 2021. The kits offer a wealth of ideas and inspiration linked to a superb selection of picture books.

by School Library Owl

A guide to literature genres

A Literature Companion for Teachers by Lorraine McDonald has certainly been a companion to me! As an example Chapter 2 – Types of Literary Texts overviews a variety of genres and provides inspiration for practical approaches to provide meaningful learning experiences with reference to specific texts.

Recently I created a Genres Guide that students could refer to. This guide was used with Year 4 students to introduce the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Younger Readers chapter books. Reading an extract from the books and referring to the guide the students were able to identify the main genre. Providing students with extracts from a variety of book genres and getting them to examine and respond to the main genre with evidence from the text is another way to enable students to build knowledge of literary genres.

[embeddoc url=”https://libraryowl.edublogs.org/files/2020/09/Genres-Guide.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

Reference: McDonald, L. (2018). A Literature Companion for Teachers.
Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA)

by School Library Owl

CBCA Picture Book Shortlist – Colour, Symbol, Image

The thinking routine Colour, Symbol, Image (CSI) provides a way to explore the Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book shortlist. This week I will be introducing the first picture book to Year 3, they will be provided with a Colour, Symbol, Image summary sheet where they will complete a brief CSI response for each book.

This year I have created a guide for colours and symbols as some students struggle relating colour and understanding a symbol as one object linked to the story. Past examples of the CSI summaries can be found here.