One Book! One Community!
by David Almond
On Wednesday, 22nd February, 5th Class embarked on a reading project in conjunction with other local schools – Bracken Educate Together NS, Balbriggan Educate Together NS, St. Teresa’s NS, and Balbriggan Community College.
5th class in each primary school and a group of 1st Year students from Balbriggan Community College will be reading a book called Skellig by David Almond over a period of 5 weeks and sharing their experiences and opinions of the book. They will also be doing some literacy and art projects based on the book such as debates, role play and creation of character profiles to mention but a few. Students from all the schools will come together to work on small joint projects. The art projects will be on display in Balbriggan Library over the Spring holidays. The children will be expected to read some of the book each day either in class or at home.
A major aspect of this project will be the use of a ‘One Book’ blog, where the children will have the opportunity to come together online to individually share their own ideas about the book. We encourage all the children to leave a comment….and parents too if you start to read the book! This blog will be mediated by one teacher from the participating schools and all posts will be approved by them before being posted to ensure the safety of the children. The link to the blog is http://balbrigganonebook.wordpress.com
The children will be attending a screening of Skellig, the film, in Balbriggan Library during the last week before the Spring holidays. This will give them a chance to see the film adaptation of the book and it will be a great way to finish off the project.
As part of this project we would like to invite parents to share in this reading experience. Parents can help their children read the book. This will give parents and children an opportunity to discuss the book and share opinions. Parents can add comments to the online blog and they will be invited to come together with the children at the end of the project to watch the film adaptation of the book. We are encouraging all parents to show an interest in their children’s reading at home and to ask them questions about the book. If any parents would like a copy for themselves please let us know.
This is an exciting venture for all schools involved and we hope it helps garner a sense of community and friendship amongst the schools whilst, most importantly, encouraging children to engage with books and the joy of reading and to share that experience with their parents.
We hope everyone enjoys reading this book – children, parents and teachers! It promises to be a great few weeks….so what are you waiting for….get reading!!!
