We celebrated Book Week last week here in St. Marnock's with lots of activities including author visits, library visits, writing workshops, buddy reading and children could dress up as their favourite book character on Friday.
Authors, Fiona Synott and Lisa Gilmartin met with the Junior and Senior Infants in the hall and introduced them to their book "Different is Magic". This is a heartfelt story designed to spark important conversations about self-worth, friendship, and individuality. One of the authors even dressed up as the main character in the book, a giraffe. This really caught the imaginations of the Infant children.
Ms. Kenealy's Fourth class visited Malahide library to hear author Alan Nolan speak about his book, The Grand Central Cinema Club. A free copy of the book for every child was delivered to the school ahead of the visit. The children an Ms. Kenealy really enjoyed the talk.
Non-fiction author, Rod Smith visited the Sixth classes to speak about his books on Michael Collins and Padraig Pearse. The children have been learning about the revolutionary period in Irish history so this was a timely visit. The school purchased class sets of both of these books.
Mr. Maughan's class took part in an online writing workshop. The workshop was guided by Simon Blower from the Pobble team and Kate Sayer from the World Book Day team in a fun, engaging, and inclusive writing session. They used stimulus pictures to generate conversation and ideas amongst the children before moving onto a more formal writing session.
Various classes also took part in The Great Big Footy & Booky Quiz which was broadcast over Zoom and Youtube. Before the quiz, there were messages from famous footballers like David James and authors such as Matt Oldfield encouraging children to keep reading for pleasure. There were two rounds of ten questions based on football and the children really enjoyed the experience.
We are looking forward to next years' Book Week already!
