Back to basics for World Book Day

World Book Day, celebrated this year on 2^nd March, is a fabulous opportunity for children to talk about and explore books. The aim of the day is to encourage a love of reading for enjoyment and pleasure.

This year, King’s Hawford’s Pre-Prep and Prep came together to take part in activities based around one book, The Boy and the Whale by Mordicai Gerstein. In this story, the boy spots a whale trapped in his fishing net and is desperate to rescue it. His father is more concerned about the damage the whale has done to the net and discourages his son from helping. However, the boy decides that he cannot see the animal be harmed and dives into the water and, through perseverance, frees the whale. The father, whilst not being happy at being disobeyed, recognises the bravery of his son and the good deed he has done and is very proud of him.

The story linked with one of King Hawford’s Growth Mindset foci for this term, bravery. The other focus is co-operation, so with that in mind, the children were split into different groups and worked with pupils within and outside their year group. Throughout the morning, they were taught by various staff members, discussing different strands of the story and undertaking work across all areas of the curriculum.

In Pre-Prep, children listened to the story in the Teepee and retold it through modelling clay. They also learnt about surface tension in water and made fish as well as creating a beautiful collage of a whale out of different materials. Finally, they explored the idea of bravery and their own bravery in a PSCHE session.

In Prep, some children created whale song whole body percussion pieces in music whilst others retold the story through freeze-frames in drama. Fabulous poetry was created drawing inspiration from the story.  Some superb artistic creations were made, including a mobile of fish, origami and pictures made using printing. Some groups learnt about the sustainability of the oceans and others retold the story through sign-language. There were also activities linked to problem-solving and computing.

The day was a wonderful opportunity for all children in the school to talk and discuss the same story and to come together as a community. Listening to the children talking about the book was lovely to hear. The creativity of the King’s Hawford staff was fantastic, leading to a varied and stimulating morning of learning for all involved.