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This has been an amazing year for Literacy at Bradbury School. Our students have been involved in many activities both in and out of the classroom, promoting reading, writing and speaking. Some of the highlights:
Battle of the Books
Our Battle of the Books Team is still going strong! Students have been meeting every week to battle to be named that week’s winning team. There are 20 books to be read for the formal competition in May, and we already have three students that have read all 20 titles and are now reading some for the second time! I am very impressed with the level of commitment and enthusiasm our Year 5 and 6 students have shown for the event. We have recently begun using competition regulations which are very strict, but the students have still been performing exceptionally well.
Book Week
There are so many successes that have come from this year’s book week, but with such limited space to write about it, we can only mention a few. We’ve seen our students walking the halls all week with their noses buried in books; teachers reading to groups of enthralled students in the lobby at lunch times; and every class in silence during our daily, school-wide DEAR time – Drop Everything And Read – as the students take fifteen minutes from class time to read another captivating tale.
The tremendous success of this week has been the result of a massive effort from all members of our school community.
· Our teachers enthusiastically embraced all the activities and jumped into the week’s events with an infectious energy that had the school buzzing.
· Our parents gave generously of their time, helping with the book fair, coming in to read to classes and supporting teachers during activities, and helping as much at home by organising some truly wonderful costumes for the character parade.
· And of course, our students, who worked with diligence and inspiration on the school-wide projects they undertook this week, such as our “book bricks” and author in focus activities.
Please check out The Buzz for pictures from Book Week.
Hong Kong Young Writers Awards
Thank you to all students that submitted entries to the Hong Kong Writers Awards 2010. It is fantastic to see students choosing writing as a leisure activity after school! Please see below the message I received from Jessica Chong, the project manager from Hong Kong Young Writers Awards
“I am pleased to let you know that the following students from Bradbury School have been published in New Tales of the South China Sea, the 2010 Hong Kong Young Writers Awards anthology”
- Nadia Cheng 5C
- Justin Mak 4S
- Samantha Brooks 4M
- Tara Clements 6K
- Tobie Tse 6L
Additionally, Nadia Cheng is the winner of The ChinaStylus Art Prize, and her lovely pastel work has been made into the cover of the anthology. Congratulations Nadia!
It is a tremendous accomplishment for these writers to have been published at such a young age, so congratulations.
All of these young authors have been invited to an awards ceremony at Wei Hing Theatre at City University, on
23 April. Here they will collect their copy of the anthology, and listen to the keynote speaker, Nury Vittachi.
I have included one of the winning pieces from Tobie Tse below. Please watch for more of the winning entries in future newsletters.
The Tale of the South China Sea
Deep in the ocean of the South China Sea,
It’s where all the wonderful creatures will be.
White dolphins glide through the waves.
Colourful fishes dance in the caves.
Crabs scuttle with their pointy claws,
Sharks yawn as they snap their jaws.
Green turtles find their way back home,
After laying eggs on their own.
It all seems peaceful, perfect like that.
But you wouldn’t know the real fact.
A roaring boat enters the scene,
Huge nets drape over, torpedoes zoom in,
Turning laughter into screams.
All of a sudden, it rains stones and rocks,
Workers are dumping mud from the docks.
The ocean floor shakes, the corals break.
Things were messing up, like a gigantic earthquake.
Eat less coral fish,
We don't want to see them on a dish.
Turtles can't swallow plastic bags,
Dispose waste in recycle bins, not in the sand.
Reclamation destroys the habitat,
Build skyscrapers and roads off the seashore.
So let's get together, you and me
To help us protect the South China Sea
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