General News
16 September, 2021
Terang College celebrates unique Book Week
TERANG College celebrated a belated Book Week recently through a unique combination of on-site and remote learning.
TERANG College celebrated a belated Book Week recently through a unique combination of on-site and remote learning.
Terang College P-4 librarian Kylie Morrissy said book week was traditionally a “huge event” on the school calendar.
“The entire school dresses up and comes together for a parade in the morning and then spends the remainder of the day in multi age groupings rotating around a plethora of themed activities organised by the SRC and the staff,” she said.
“Last year we were fortunate enough to be at school to have a modified parade which was recorded for the parents and students to view at home.”
Due to COVID-19 restrictions which closed schools during Book Week, which fell during the week of August 21, the school temporarily postponed its celebrations.
“Lockdown has meant that we were unable to celebrate in our traditional style so it was necessary to come up with an alternative for remote learning to cater for a vast variety of ages as well as taking into account limited time and resources available to families during lockdown,” Ms Morrissy said.
“Terang College has a focus on the development of literacy and numeracy from P-12.
“Book Week and the study of quality Australian literature is and has always been an integral part of creating excitement and a long term love of reading.
“We are very fortunate at Terang College to have amazing, well stocked library spaces for the children to enjoy and benefit from.”
The students were given 10 different ideas to celebrate remotely this year, which included dressing up, recreating book covers, baking cakes, chalk drawing or sharing their favourite spots to read.
Students were asked to take a photo or send their artwork in to Ms Morrissey, who will create a slideshow of their Book Week adventures to share with the school community.
“The school community has been amazingly receptive to this very different celebration,” Ms Morrissy said.
“There have been so many different and amazingly creative submissions. Some children have completed three or four different activities from the options available.
“I can’t wait to be able to share them, I think the children will be really interested to see what everyone else created.”
Ms Morrissy said the dress-up remained a favourite activity, and popular books included the Harry Potter series and Where’s Wally?
“It has been so refreshing to see children sharing their love for reading with their family pets,” she said.
“We have had dogs in tutus, zombie horses and cute cuddly cats curled up listening to their favourite books.
“Hopefully next year things will be somewhat normal and we will finally be able to get back to coming together as a school and community to share our love for literature.”
