Are you participating in National Simultaneous Storytime 2024?
Held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), on the day a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country! This year, it's taking place on Wednesday 22 May 2024.
This year, countless Australians will be reading Bowerbird Blues, the wonderful picture book by Aura Parker. Shortlisted for the 2024 CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award, it stars a beautiful bowerbird on the search for blue! It's a moving story of longing and connection and provides rich opportunities for teaching and learning across the Australian curriculum, and state-based syllabi, in subject English.
We're proud to share a brand-new curriculum unit of work for members based on Bowerbird Blues to help you take this positive reading environment and transform it into a valuable opportunity for explicit English and literacy instruction! Written for Year 1 (though easily differentiated and adaptated across year groups), the unit will:
- Support students to make connections between the text and their personal experience, and then make relevant comments to demonstrate their understanding of a text.
- Students will also identify key words and the meaning they carry and understand that images add to the meaning of texts.
- Place students in the role of scientists and geographers, exploring their local school environment and making observations about the things that live there. They will use their observations to create a written text, artwork, or role play, telling the story of a living thing in their school environment.
- Guide students towards combining visuals with written text where appropriate and use vocabulary in their writing adapted from the text as part of a rich assessment task.
Access the unit today!