Winners of the Dress as a Character in Your Class' Favourite Book parade at the South School assembly.
Winners of the Dress as a Character in Your Class' Favourite Book parade at the South School assembly.
It was all colour and excitement at Dannevirke South School on Wednesday, July 26 when the children were invited to dress up as a character in their class’ favourite book - part of the celebration of Children’s Book Week.
Children’s Book Week is an annual celebration of reading for pleasure for children of primary school age. It is an opportunity for extended teaching on any of the class’ favourite children’s books.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week and the theme is “Read, Grow, Inspire”.
The teachers dressed up as their favourite characters too.
There are technically no set dates for Children’s Book Week, meaning schools are free to celebrate this whenever it suits and South School chose July 24-28.
The idea for this event was conceived by Franklin K. Matthiews, the librarian of the Boy Scouts of America, in 1913. He thought that a celebration of children’s books would help get more children into reading, supported by the backing of publishers, booksellers and librarians in the US.
A snapshot of the children at assembly shows many dressed up.
The children and teachers of Dannevirke South have had a great week. They have been set a series of challenges, the results going towards winning house points and some book prizes.
The week began with senior students reading a book to a class and discussing it each day and later in the week the children had a quiz about events in the books.
They were also challenged to a scavenger hunt in the school library where they had to find book titles, authors and even books of different types.
Finally, they were challenged to photograph themselves reading a book in a strange or difficult position and sending it electronically to the office for judging. This challenge resulted in some bizarre photos – on a tractor, in the bath, up a tree, in a dog kennel, on a skateboard and in a clothes drier just to list some early entries.
This Year 4-5 class group had teacher Mrs Jackson dressed as Elsa, reading from its favourite book Frozen.
Wednesday was the fun day with the children being read their favourite book by their teacher and then going to an assembly to show off their costumes. Well over half the school participated and parents had been very creative in dressing their children up.
The winners from each class paraded on stage and so did the teachers to show they were all part of it.
It was a fun week enjoyed by all – just the thing to brighten spirits in the middle of winter.
Dave Murdoch is a part-time photo-journalist working for the Bush Telegraph and based at Dannevirke. He has covered any community story telling good news about the district for the last ten years.
