The countdown has begun… …the Author Advent Calendar is nearly here! |
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Dear First name / Reading Rockers As promised, here's everything you can expect in this year's amazing Classroom Advent Calendar (I know it's long, but I wanted to give you all the time you need to prepare to use it in your classrooms) and a few ideas of how you can best use this Christmas freebie to bring a book buzz to your classroom. (scroll to the end for those) I'm so EXCITED!!! I may be festively peaking too soon….but I can't WAIT for the calendar to be LIVE and beaming amazing authors and illustrators into your classrooms! Link coming on FRIDAY! It's amazing to be able to bring this brilliant resource to you ENTIRELY FREE because of the publishers' support. To continue to offer you great stuff like this, please do make a point of sharing it far and wide with other teachers and make some noise about it on the socials when it gets going in December. Thanks in advance for this. |
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What's New… As you may have spotted from the image above, for this year's calendar, we are delighted to be celebrating it with World Book Day©, so you'll see some recommendations linked to that as part of the videos. Also, each featured author or illustrator has been asked to share a book recommendation as part of their window video. We are packing in as much book goodness as we can and hope these recommendations showcase a wide offering of reading choices to your pupils. |
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Day 1 - VIP - AF Steadman Length - approx. 4mins Content - An intro to the Skandar series, a reading from the book and a challenge to create a Christmas themed blood thirsty unicorn. Follow up ideas - Give pupils time to create their unicorn, giving it a name, drawing it and describing it. Suitable for - target age KS2 but will work for Y2 as well |
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Day 2 - VIP - Candice Whatmore Length - approx. 6mins Content - A dive into the graphic novel with jokes and funny moments and puzzles, followed by a fun draw-a-long, so paper and pencils at the ready. Follow up ideas - Give pupils chance to complete their festive slug drawings and add some colour. They may even write their own comics, jokes or puzzles inspired by this book. Suitable for - KS1 and KS2 |
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Day 3 - VIP - Holly Webb Length - approx. 4mins Content - An intro to the book and its plot and a reading from the book. Follow up ideas - Why not find out about different types of penguins together and where they live? Suitable for - KS1 and KS2 |
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Day 4 - VIP - Sue Hendra Length - approx. 4mins Content - A look inside the book, followed by a potato craft idea! Follow up ideas - Try the make your own Supertato hero sheet. You could even dress them up for Christmas! Suitable for - target age KS1 but I'm sure KS2 still love Supertato, too! |
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Day 5 - VIP - TBC Length - TBC Content - TBC Follow up ideas - TBC Suitable for - KS1 and KS2 |
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Day 6 - VIP - Sean Casey Length - approx. 2mins Content - A lovely sharing of the book and look inside the pages. Follow up ideas - Try creating your own Christmassy Drag Queens. Suitable for - target age is KS1, but I'm sure KS2 will love it, too! |
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Day 7 - VIP - Ash Bond Length - approx. 4mins Content - A book reading and a challenge to design a Christmas Tree for the Cosmic Realm. Follow up ideas - Give pupils time to complete the Christmas Tree challenge and add some colour. They could add some descriptions, too. Suitable for - KS2 |
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Day 8 - VIP - Daishu Ma Length - approx. 7mins Content - A lovely sharing of the book, followed by a great tiger draw-a-long. So paper and pencils at the ready. Follow up ideas - Give pupils time to add colour to their tiger drawings. They could even add a Christmas hat to them! Suitable for - target age is KS1, but I'm sure KS2 will really enjoy the draw-a-long. |
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Day 9 - VIP - Jim Smith Length - approx. 2 ½ mins Content - A funny look into the book and two fast paced draw-a-longs. You might want to pause or watch a few times! Follow up ideas - Give pupils time to complete the drawings and add some colour. They might enjoy creating their own comic stories from these, too! Suitable for - KS1 and KS2 |
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Day 10 - VIP - The Wildsmith Family Length - approx. 2mins Content - We meet Brian Wildsmith's daughter and great grandchildren, followed by a sharing of the book illustrations accompanied by the traditional song. Get ready to sing-a-long. Follow up ideas - Sing the song together. Challenge pupils to design an illustration to go with a part of the song. Suitable for - KS1 and KS2 |
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Day 11 - VIP - Emma Swan Length - approx. 3 ½ mins Content - Fun interactive questions on a Christmas theme. Expect hands up for this, hands up for that, stand up for this, stand up for that. Follow up ideas - pupils can create their own ‘would you rather’ and ‘this or that’ questions on a Christmas theme. Suitable for - KS1 and KS2 |
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Day 12 - VIP - Simon Fox Length - approx. 2 ½ mins Content - An introduction to the book and some avalanche facts, with a joke thrown in. Follow up ideas - Why not find out some more snow and avalanche facts or trying creating some snow jokes? You could watch some avalanche videos, too. Suitable for - KS2 |
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Day 13 - VIP - Daniel Thompson Length - approx. 3 mins Content - Daniel shares one of the poems on excitement, an apt emotion for Christmas, then invites pupils to have a go at creating their own Christmas poem - a mesostic poem. Follow up ideas - give pupils chance to create their Christmas poem. Christmas word banks might be useful to support this. Then perform them! Suitable for - KS1 and KS2 |
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Day 14 - VIP - Lu Fraser Length - approx. 3 mins Content - A chat about favourite things about Christmas, followed by a lovely sharing of the first part of the book. Follow up ideas - Why not chat about what makes Christmas special for everyone in your class? Then, you could try designing the perfect bear for a friend, thinking about all the things they love to do. Suitable for - target age is KS1, but I think KS2 will love it, too! |
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Day 15 - VIP - Gill Lewis Length - approx. 3 mins Content - An introduction to the book, followed by a beautiful craft idea. Get collecting clean glass jars! Gill shares how images of stories that are special to us can be captured in a tealight jar. Follow up ideas - Pupils could design their glass jars in class on paper and it may be one to make at home in the holidays, as I imagine this last day will be a busy one in school! Suitable for - KS1 and KS2 |
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Fun Ways to get the BEST from the Calendar: |
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1. Get the featured books so you have them ready in the classroom for your pupils to jump right into if they are inspired. You could wrap them up for an extra bit of build up and excitement, too! 📅 to order in time for 1st December Delivery: 26th November (orders still taken after that!) |
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2. Print off the book covers to add to your class Christmas tree each day as little bookish decorations. |
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3. Turn a display board into a big advent calendar. Add a numbered sheet over the top of a printed screen shot from the window videos, and peel back each day. Watch your new book knowledge grow together as a class . |
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4. Encourage pupils to make their own advent book recommendation videos to share with families on your school social channels. |
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5. Share the links to the window videos each day with families so they can rewatch at home and try some of the activities there, too. Pop them on Class Do Jo or school socials. |
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6. Try a round up of the windows and books in a Friday celebration assembly. Classes could bring their follow up activities to share, too! |
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7. If your pupils are loving the books suggested behind each window you can use our Virtual Christmas Book Fair link to encourage them to get their own copies, while earning FREE books for you school. If you need more info on this, just get in touch. |
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There will be lots of other books in the book fair too, so something for everyone. We'll let you know when the website is fully stocked, soon! |
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Any questions or suggestions, just hit reply and send me a message. I hope what we are bringing to you really supports the reading culture in your classroom and helps your work life balance, too. Happy Adventing!!! xxx |
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Heather and the Reading Rocks Team Helping you make reading rock for all children |
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Workshop 2, East Stables, Foundry Lane
Hayle, Cornwall TR27 4BW, United Kingdom |
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