Next week kicks off Book Week in Australia! I always love sharing this week with my students, celebrating great Australian books and dressing-up like our favourite book characters.
I thought I would share a few activities and resources that I'm using next week. My first stop is always to the Children's Book Council site for this year's Shortlist. I usually focus on only the Early Childhood and Picture Book Categories in the classroom.
I love going to the Zart Art Book Week PD and using the resource book they create each year to get ideas.
Here are my favourite 3 books from this year's short list and 3 great activities you might find useful. Click on the images for the original links & instructions.
Piranahas Don't Eat Bananas by Aaron Blabley
We love Aaron Blabley's books in my class and this one is hilarious! It is great for rhyming and there are also a heap of great crafts floating around.
Favourite Piranha activities:
1. Read the book or watch this YouTube video of the story being read by Two Teachers One Blog.
2. Make a Peg Piranha from CleverpatchCleverpatch have a free template for this one & instructions here. You also needs wooden pegs, paint and glue.
3. Draw a 'Friendly Fish or Piranha' from Relief Teaching Ideas. All you need is an A4 or A3 piece of paper (depending on how big you want it. Too cute!
The Cow Tripped Over the Moon by Tony Wilson
This is another great book when teaching rhyme but is also fantastic for teaching about resilience, positive mindset and power of failure. And the illustrations by Laura Wood are gorgeous.
1. Read the book or watch this video of the author, Tony Wilson reading the story to his son (side note, watch this video it is beautiful).
2. 'Moon Jumping Cow' from Cleverpatch
This one is easy and only needs a paper plate, black and white cow template, foil, split pin and textas or blue paint. Click on the image for the instructions from Cleverpatch.
Finally my favourite book from this year's short list is Mr Huff by Anna Walker. This book is perfect for teaching about managing emotions and feelings. Even though it is in the Early Childhood category I feel it has it's best potential used in grades 3-6 (and I even think with adults, I know I really relate to this one). I plan to use this with my whole class but also throughout the year for my high anxiety kiddos (it is also a great tool to describe depression).
1. Watch Mr Huff being read on Play School. This is a great video with lots of the presenters from the past and present reading the book (Eddie Perfect reads in this... I could listen to that man read all day).
2. Discuss worries and how we can turn a bad day around. Look at Mr Huff and discuss how he becomes smaller as the boy does happy activities like going for a walk. Autism Teaching Strategies have some great worksheet for writing about emotions. Worksheet 6 (pictured) is the one I am planning to use with this book.
