Book Fortnight

A reader for pleasure is more likely to be happier, healthier, to do better at school.

Dear Parents and Carers,

Book fortnight is a special two weeks in school designated to raising the profile of reading for pleasure and helping the children to recognise the importance of reading. Reading for pleasure opens up new worlds for our children. It gives them the opportunity to use their imagination to explore new ideas, visit new places and meet new characters. Interestingly, reading for pleasure also improves children’s well-being and empathy. It helps them to understand their own identity and gives them an insight into the world and the views of others.

This year, book fortnight will run from Monday 24th February and our focus for book fortnight is around hunger and food poverty. Through exploring books around these topics the children will have the opportunity to empathise with others and understand why it is important to eat a healthy balanced diet. We will be using Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a stimulus for this theme, exploring the characters and their actions in this story. We will also link our Design and Technology learning about food to this theme and the children will be designing, making and evaluating their own food creations!
 
Home Learning
In addition, during this fortnight, the children will also be involved in many other activities to promote a love of reading. For home learning we would like the children to create their own book character from a healthy fruit or vegetable. We would also like the children to write a label for their book character telling us who their character is and also displays their own name and class on it.

Competitions always create a real buzz about books and the children always enjoy sharing their creations.

Once these are completed, we will then display these in school, and we will award prizes for each class. We would like the children to complete their creation and bring it into school for the week beginning Monday 3rd March where they will be shared and discussed in class and prizes will be given for creativity.
 
Dressing up day
On Wednesday 5th March the children can come dressed as their favourite book character or they can wear their own clothes. Again, this provides the opportunity to discuss different book characters and share ideas for reading. The PA are arranging a costume swap ahead of World Book Day where parents will be able to bring in unwanted/outgrown costumes and they will then set up a stall after school for people to make a donation for a new outfit before the big day. More information on this will follow shortly.
 
Read Dating (Year 1-6)
The children will also be asked to bring in their favourite book. This is so that the children can participate in an activity where they share these books with each other, promoting them to their classmates. The children need to be able to discuss their book and why they really enjoyed it. The idea is that during this session the children will hear about at least 30 different books that they might also potentially enjoy. Your class teacher will be sending out a note informing you on which day your child needs to bring in their book.
 
The children will also be involved in many other activities during book fortnight such as visiting our reading den on the theme of Charlie and Chocolate Factory and other quizzes and reading competitions. We hope the children enjoy all the activities we have planned for Book Fortnight and also have plenty of opportunities to read for pleasure both in school and at home. We will be sending out further suggestions of exciting reads for you child during our Book Fortnight.

Best wishes,

Bridget Adnett 
Deputy Headteacher/English lead