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
Tag: Reading
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 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!
RED Book Award 14
Falkirk Council’s RED (Read Enjoy Debate) Book Award is now in its 14th year and the excellent shortlist of books is:
The Quiet at the End of the World by Lauren James
Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen
The Closest Thing to Flying by Gill Lewis
The shortlisted authors are invited to Falkirk to lead workshop sessions in the secondary schools and to attend the Book Award ceremony in Falkirk Town Hall. A major highlight of the Book Award process is the award ceremony in May, where pupils from each of the secondary schools in Falkirk Council screen their creative digital interpretations of the shortlisted books, meet the authors and celebrate books and reading.
Unfortunately due to Covid 19 the book award ceremony has been cancelled for this year. It is so disappointing that this decision has had to be taken, feedback from previous participants tell us that the RED Book award is one of the highlights of the school year.
Book week Scotland 2014!
Scottish Book Trust run Book Week Scotland every year and Learning Resource Service wanted to be part of this. Many schools and public libraries take part in this every year but there was no overall plan for the Falkirk area. A team of representatives from secondary schools, public library, teachers and the community learning development team whose remit was to plan for an ‘innovative programme for Book Week Scotland’ and to have a more co-ordinated approach. Play the video to see some of activities that took part in Falkirk in November 2014. Looking forward to working in partnership again to organise more events in 2015!
“What young people told us…”
Bothkennar Primary School called in the help of Learning Resource Service to re-organise their library! The children wrote in to tell us what they thought…..
