This week was World Book Week and Calderwood marked the occasion with a whole bunch of activities, including speed reading, a book swap, treasure hunts and a whole school assembly.

The first thing we did was read to the nursery class. We were each paired up with one or two kids from the nursery and we chose books that we could read to them. Some people gave comments on how good the nursery kids were and some nursery kids gave feedback as to whether they liked the book that they had read to them. The next day, it was time for the book swap. Every pupil had brought in one or two books that they had already read or had finished with. They were all collected and separated into groups, genres and age ranges. We all then got the chance to go and select another book from the collection, that we could now keep. Thursday was also Purim and that meant that we linked World Book Day with our Calderwood Purim traditions and all dressed up as characters from a book. On our final day of World Book Week, we took part in speed reading activities and treasure hunts. These were great fun!

For the school assembly, each class performed in a different way, all celebrating books and reading. The Primary 5 class performed a poem. Have a wee look at it…

I love to read, I really do, it’s a favourite hobby of mine.
And when I find a book I love, my chair feels like Cloud 9.

I love to read all sorts of things, some fiction and some real.
They speak to me in all lots of ways, with such a great appeal.

As we get older the books we read, can get tricky from time to time.
But to give up before the end of the book would truly be such a crime!

When I get stuck on a tricky word, I know what I should do.
To help me work out what it says, there are rules that I stick to.

Sometimes I’ll look at the picture, that will always give me a clue.
And sometimes I’ll sound the word out, and wish that problem ‘adieu’.

If the word is a little bit longer, I will break it up into its parts.
Or find smaller words within it, I’ve now got this down to a fine art!

If I had to replace the tricky word, I think of a word in its place.
Would the sentence still make sense now? I ask myself if this is the case.

Once I have tried each of these tricks, I might try one or two things.
I could reach for a dictionary or thesaurus perhaps + see what joy this might bring.

Last but not least there is always, an option for help I could use .
Ask my teachers, parents or friends, from which I have so many to choose.

There is nothing quite like a really good book, I will read every day if I can.
I will read as many books before I’m 16, that’s my brand new World Book Day plan.

Thanks for reading our World Book Day Blog!
Oliver and Zainab