General Literacy Support - Read, Write, Illustrate

The activity suggestions provided are designed to encourage children and students of all ages to be come actively involved in reading, writing and illustrating.

Use these as a starting point to stimulate your own ideas for working with the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards finalists in the classroom, in the library or at home.

General Activities

• Book reviews - organise for students to present a review of a book or books of their choice in a live radio situation. Many Regional Co-ordinators organise with local radio stations to have children and young adults review finalist books during the New Zealand Post Book Awards celebrations. Contact your local Regional Co-ordinator to arrange this with them.
• Design a poster to encourage reading.
• Keep a reading journal - notes on character names, ideas for stories, reviews, interesting words or phrases, sketches.
• Make a collection of biographies of famous or local people. wWrite and illustrate a biography.
• Have pupils write letters to authors and illustrators explaining why they like that person's work.
• Read the start of a story and have pupils develop the story, or fill out a character.
• Have pupils write a story leading to a given punch-line.
• Have pupils write about a photograph of a local event, a sports hero, a visiting band, a natural disaster...
• Invent a class plot and have every pupil write or tell the story in his or her own style.
• Tell the same story from different viewpoints - for example, as a baby, a very busy person, a poet, a blind person...
• Paint a photo - enlarge a regular photograph of a group of family or friends and use thick watercolours to paint on special effects such as science-fiction costumes or fantastical backgrounds. Write a story about the illustration.
• Take illustration to the next level - have students create 3D artworks based on favourite books. Offer your artwork for display in the local library.
• Have a pavement art morning, drawing scenes from books. wHave one pupil illustrate another's story, or invite older pupils to illustrate the stories of younger children.

Early Childhood

• Design a New Zealand Post Book Awards bookmark.
• Read a book aloud and have the children retell the story in their own words.
• Invite secondary students to share storytime with your pupils.
• Help children make their own stories and pictures into books.

Primary and Intermediate

• Find a favourite book where you think the cover does not do justice to the story and design a better cover.
• Find a book where the story does not live up to the cover and write a better story.
• Hold a quiz focusing on New Zealand books and authors.
• Write a poem about enjoying reading.
• Paint the library or classroom windows with scenes from books.
• Write a communal story or draw a communal mural to illustrate various story scenes.
• Create an evolving poem.

Secondary

• Debate the merits of various forms of entertainment or various uses of leisure time, including reading.
• Produce a non-fiction book using the skills of various pupils to write the text, take photographs, design the cover, pose for action photographs, index, layout, print, bind, catalogue etc...
• Host a writing or illustrating workshop.
• Host a Book Conference to coincide with the New Zealand Post Book Awards celebrations - invite other schools to attend. This could involve workshops, guest speakers etc and conclude with a social event.
• Design individual cartoons (analyse other cartoons, discussing ideas that work and why).
• Host theatre-sports with impromptu skits based on finalist titles.