Since 1945, the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has hosted Children’s Book Week, inviting us this year to explore the idea that reading is ‘dreaming with your eyes open’. We can dream ourselves into a book we are reading or dare to dream and be inspired by the characters, situations and real people we read about.

In the lead up to Book Week, ELC to Year 3 girls explored the Book of the Year: Early Childhood shortlist and voted for their favourite. The judges chose Jetty Jumping by Andrea Rowe as their winner, while we chose Walk of the Whales by Nick Bland by a narrow margin. Year 4 to Year 6 girls examined the Picture Book of the Year shortlist before voting. The official winner was Iceberg by Claire Saxby and we decisively voted for Stellarphant by James Foley. For the first time, the CBCA ran a shadow judging ‘Sun Project’, giving student panels an opportunity to use the same criteria as the official judges to vote for winning books. Interestingly, our winners reflected the decisions of these panels.

A range of activities has been enjoyed by buddy classes over the last week, including swimming whales, articulated jetty jumpers, curious birds, rockets, a suitcase of joy and (this week) standing cats. In Library lessons, girls gave themselves bubble beards and hair, became jetty jumpers and designed spacesuits to join the Stellarphant Aerospace Agency. At lunchtimes, we filled dream jars, hunted for and created butterflies and shared about the Grandmas we love. We also revealed the winners of the ‘Design a dress for Alice-in-Wonderland’ competition conducted by the Library Committee and these are now on display in the Library.

Our girls are convinced that Book Week is ‘the parade’ and it is always a delight and honour to invite them to display their imaginations and secret identities with costumes inspired by books. We appreciated the opportunity to have a wonderful audience of parents, including the brave souls who took on my challenge and dressed up too!

I would like to acknowledge the incredible support of our school Principal, Mrs Belinda Arnfield and Head of Junior School, Ms Liz McCarthy (an elegant and joyful Mary Poppins), Head of the Library Mrs Emma Phillips and our magnificent Library, Early Learning Centre and Junior School staff for placing reading at the heart of our school throughout the year.

Katie Silva
Teacher - Librarian

Zoo Snooze

The Year 2 classes had the opportunity to have a sleepover at the Adelaide Zoo for their Zoo Snooze. The sleepovers were held on Friday after school in Week 4 and Week 5.

After arriving and getting familiar with the rules and the room, the girls played some fun games and then got ready for dinner.

Dinner was a barbecue and salad, followed by ice creams with sprinkles! This set the girls up for their exciting, but a bit scary, night walk around the zoo. We got to see many different animals roaming in their enclosures, including the binturong and the fennec fox.

Next, it was time to set up our beds and settle down for a movie. Some of the girls fell asleep during the movie and the rest followed suit soon after—way later than their usual bedtime!

In the morning, we quickly packed up our sleeping bags and mattresses. Then we had breakfast, followed by a morning walk visiting some of the animals we had missed the night before.

The Year 2 girls can feel very proud of themselves for managing their very first overnight school adventure with such confidence.

Lauren Walker
Head of Outdoor Education