Fantastic resources to support using the beautiful book ‘The Lost Words’ by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris
From The John Muir Trust:
Category: Literacy
#Falkirk Reading Teachers’ Book Group
Our teacher book group is continuing to read, discuss and review a range of new books for children and we want to share this as widely as possible. Here we review ‘When the sky falls’ by Phil Earle and ‘The small things’ by Lisa Thompson
Challenging Gender Stereotypes in Picture Books
You Can Be Campaign – Book Audit | Zero Tolerance
The You Can Be Book Audit is a chance for ELCs and nurseries to win £100 worth of books by taking part in an audit of their book collections. The idea is to bring greater gender balance and challenge old-fashioned gender stereotypes that can be harmful to children and stop them achieving their full potential.
Check out the link above for more information and book ideas.
We have also put together book recommendations that challenge the gender stereotypes:
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Early Years Picture Book Group
| Inclusive Stories
Our last round of books focused on LGBT+ families and inclusive stories. All children deserve to see their own lives represented in the stories we share and books are a fantastic way to build empathy and understanding of others.
The discussion was very positive and one of the most interesting points raised was that the LGBT+ family books were just accepted by the children as books about families in general and that we, as adults, can put our own preconceptions onto books. The children didn’t see a label, they just saw families and children like them. My Friends and Me by Stephanie Stansbie is wonderful as it shows a whole range of different families: LGBT+, single parents, foster parents, step families and many more.
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#FalkirkReadingTeachers Book Group Reviews
The Learning Resource Service runs two book groups for teachers and early years practitioners in the Falkirk council area. They aim to:
- increase teacher knowledge of quality children’s books
- support teachers in creating a reading culture in their classroom
- provide opportunities to talk about children’s books
- identify books that support different aspects of the curriculum
- ensure that the books we promote to children are diverse and inclusive
- have fun!
If you need some reading inspiration or want to find out about good reads for your pupils then click on the link above.
The RED Book Award is 15 years old!
The RED Book Award celebrates its 15th anniversary and to mark this achievement, the wonderful shortlist focuses on a BAME theme:
Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman
A Pocketful of Stars by Aisha Bushby
Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
My Name’s Not Friday by Jon Walters
The authors will join the young people in each Falkirk Council secondary school at the digital Award Ceremony on Wednesday 19th May 2021. The Award Ceremony will feature creative interpretations of each of the shortlisted books by the young people and a Q & A session with the authors before the winning book is revealed.
The RED Book Award ceremony on the 19th May 2021 was attended by all the shortlisted authors and the S2 RED classes from 6 of our secondary schools. The authors gave us interesting and insightful guidance on writing, there was dancing and prizes were awarded for best alternative ending and front cover designs of the shortlisted books and the Q and A session was really interesting.
Congratulations to all the authors for reaching the RED shortlist.
AND THE W
INNER IS…
Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin.
Author of the Week: Sally Gardner from the National Literacy Trust
Read and listen for free Sally Gardner’s Mr Tiger, Betsy and the Blue Moon, illustrated by Nick Maland. An enchanting story by a much loved author about Betsy K Glory, the daughter of a mermaid and an ice-cream maker, who meets the mysterious Mr Tiger and they have a giant challenge: a moon to turn blue, berries to collect and wishable-delicious ice cream to create. The sort that makes wishes come true.
You can also watch an exclusive video with Sally to hear all about her The Tindims of Rubbish Island stories, discover Sally’s top three children’s books and enjoy Questions & Answers to find out more about Sally.
Read, listen and enjoy here
The Book of Hopes
The Learning Resource Service promoted The Book of Hopes when it was published last year, it is a wonderful book to comfort and inspire children. Edited by the well known and loved author Katherine Rundell, it contains contributions from more than 100 writers and illustrators, including Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz, Greg James and Chris Smith, Michael Morpurgo, Liz Pichon, Axel Scheffler, Francesca Simon and Jacqueline Wilson. The publisher, Bloomsbury, have kindly made the on-line book available free during this lockdown.
There are some brilliant activities and ideas that have been produced based on the Book of Hopes as well as a challenge to spread hope, inspiration and a love of reading in your school and local community with a chance to win prizes!
Great Picture Books read by the people who created them!
From Grandad’s Island by Benji Davies
Click here for video resources for 11 author/illustrators, freely available on the CLPE YouTube channel and enjoy listening to 11 picture books read aloud by the authors/illustrators.
An amazing resource perfect for lockdown for parents and children to listen to.
Enjoy!
Benji Davies shows how to draw grandad from Grandad’s Island.
Also you will find some fantastic illustrators here showing how they create their characters, brilliant to draw along to.
Free primary teaching materials and resources from the
Power of Pictures project
The Power of Pictures helps primary school teachers to develop their understanding of the craft of picture book creation and illustration as a way of raising children’s reading and writing. Enjoy using the specially developed free teaching resources for all age groups.
RSE School Talks Programme
The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) have announced a free School Talks programme where a number of their Fellows will be delivering free online talks to schools throughout Scotland.
All talks are presented by inspirational experts, keen to enthuse and excite young people in P6 – S6 covering Sciences; Technologies; Social Studies; Health and Wellbeing; Expressive Arts; Mathematics; and Languages. They look AMAZING! Many of the speakers are also willing to work with teachers to tailor their talks to fit with class curriculums.
For more information about the talks and how to book please visit https://www.rse.org.uk/schools/school-talks/
