By Callum Ludwig
Wandin Yallock Primary School are encouraging more than just students to celebrate Book Week.
Grandparents and/or other special friends and family members joined students for a picnic and themed activities on Thursday 25 August.
Acting Principal Penelope Harris said she thought it was a great opportunity to invite grandparents and special friends to the school.
“It’’s really nice as a community just sit down and have food together and if our oval wasn’t a bit muddy it would’ve been beautiful outside but the turnout is amazing,” she said.
“We did a parade this morning and the amount of costumes was amazing, everything from princesses to Harry Potter to Fortnite and everything in between.”
Students completed activities from the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) with their special guests after having their lunch in the stadium.
Ms Harris said it is important kids are exposed to different forms of literature, not just always going to the books that they know but new authors and new styles.
“What I love about Book Week, it’s that understanding that books can be shared in a community feel, and they can share books with friends to family, and they don’t have to go read the books themselves, but immerse themselves in those books with family,” she said.
“It’s vital understanding from a really young age how special books are. It gives us something to be treasured and really enjoyed and shared in schools and households. The more books are exposed to them in a home setting then translates to school.”
The theme for Book Week 2022 was ‘Dreaming with your eyes open’ and students really embraced that with their creative costumes.
Ms Harris loved that Grade 3 and 4 students brought the book containing the character they dressed up as.
“It wasn’t just that they had an abstract understanding of a character they wanted to dress up as, they had an important connection to them,” she said.
“The costumes today all feel really genuine, not just some tenuous link. They love a book, they love a character, and that’s what they dressed up as.”
Students Elliott and Parker were dressed up as two of their favourite characters: Elliott as the lion from The Very Cranky Bear and Parker as Harry Potter.
“I like the lion’s mane,” said Elliott.
“I like that he can do magic and has a wand,” said Parker.
