Let your imagination fly…

“Storytelling is a creative activity that connects us with the people around us and with our past, present and future.”
(Storytelling and Creative Learning, Scottish Storytelling Centre)

The inspiration for our World Book Day display this year is two-fold – we are driven to develop the creativity skills of our pupils and to showcase Holmston community’s love of reading. Our pupils are encouraged to generate ideas that are significant to them and we celebrate their personalisation and choice in our display.

The starting point for this challenge began with, “What does reading means to us?” Responses were varied as people experience and imagine different things.  By exploring a book, we learn about the world around us, we escape to new places and dream of the impossible.  We wanted our display to show the power of our imagination.  One pupil said, “For me, reading is a portal to another world.”

Our whole school was given a family homework challenge to think of a way to travel using a book. Details were kept brief as we wanted people to be open-minded and inventive. We wanted our children to examine a familiar item and think about it with a fresh eye, to explore new possibilities and problem solve during construction. With the children’s knowledge and enthusiasm for books we were confident that they could be amazing inventors.  We were not disappointed.   Our families demonstrated superb teamwork and creativity skills.  Pupils returned to school with sketches, plans and models, eager and proud to share their creations.  There was a tremendous buzz in the school.

This particular challenge brought great collaboration amongst pupils, siblings, parents and staff.  Children were asking questions and telling stories of going to the charity shop to purchase old books, parents enquired about the materials they could include and some even asked for more time as they couldn’t get their papier mache to dry! The teamwork which went into this task was immeasurable. Staff were heavily involved in the construction of making sure the models were attached securely to showcase our work.  Time was spent looking at attention to details and discussing the unique and thoughtful ways our community had contributed to our display.  With the help of our sewing club we stitched paper together to help make real books. Pupils have enjoyed writing and sharing the books they made – reading can be such a social experience.

Our display can be found in our library. Each class that entered the library has gasped when they have seen our finished result.  We are thrilled at the explosion of ideas which can be seen in our display, but we are equally delighted at the way creative approaches were used to encourage our pupils to be imaginative, open-minded, to take risks, solve problems and collaborate.  Learning to read is a team effort and we hope that our display will show people how much our school community has worked together and that our pupils have a love of books which makes Holmston Primary fly high with reading.

Have a look through the gallery and let us know all about your favourite books this year and what you liked about helping to  make our display but adding a comment – thank-you!