Yikes! A whole week has passed and here I am writing my World Book Day post!
It's a post of two halves . . .
Part One: School Visit
I was lucky enough to be spending the day at St Faith's in Cambridge. Things got off to a slightly wobbly start - and I'm not just talking about my jelly-kneed jet-lag from returning from China the day before. My trusty school visit memory stick which holds all my Powerpoint pictures for a day of assemblies and workshops decided that the perfect time to retire from active duty was two minutes before I was due to address a hall full of lovely, enthusiastic pupils. Even the valiant efforts of Dave, the heroic IT man, couldn't bring it back to life. It seems the data had been well and truly scrambled - almost certainly due to its passage through numerous security scanners on the China trip.
But all was not lost!
St Faith's pupils are a remarkable bunch with extraordinary powers of imagination. They were able to "see" all the images on the blank screen in their minds' eye, from purple unicorns to Scooby Doo and the gang, to Cruella de Ville. It was almost an anti-climax when Dave managed to recover the files and the real pictures came up! In fact, I'm thinking of making the what-can-you-see-on-the-blank-screen activity a regular part of my school assembly talks from now on.
I've even got a name for it: The Emperor's New Powerpoint.
I really enjoyed spending the day talking about reading and writing with Year 3, 4 and 5 at St Faith's (including undercover stick insects, the new Range Rover Asparagus and Iron Man's Adventures in Toiletland - no wonder I love my job so much!). Thank you all for making me so welcome. Special thanks to St Faith's amazing librarian, Kate Johnson for organising everything - including the book sale at break time.
I had so many books to sign that I got a bit carried away and accidentally wrote Happy Birthday instead of Happy Reading not once, but twice!
Part 2
The other big excitement for me on World Book Day was receiving an email from Adventure Island reader Antsha, with some spectacular photos of her and her little sister, dressed up as Mrs Loveday and Emily Wild. And is that Drift I see there too?
How cool is that? Antsha has thought of everything; the bike helmet, the grey curls, the hi-vis jacket, the flowery dress, the trainers and, of course, the mop! And Tonisha looks just like Emily with those long brown curls. This photo was my favourite. I love how you can really see the action here - Mrs Loveday is shaking her mop at Emily (no doubt telling her off for something!), while Emily looks as if she's about to dash off and solve another mystery, with Drift running along behind.
Thank you, Antsha, for sending me this picture. I hope you both had a lovely World Book Day!
Sadly, World Book Day is now over for another year. Don't forget to spend those £1 tokens. There are some great books to chose from but my personal recommendation would be The Midnight Picnic by Lauren St John.
And it's not too late to win a brilliant prize of Book Tokens for your school - all you have to do is send in a photo of your class all dressed up for World Book Day - not to me, but to the World Book Day people - all the details (and loads more fun stuff) on their website here.
It's a post of two halves . . .
Part One: School Visit
I was lucky enough to be spending the day at St Faith's in Cambridge. Things got off to a slightly wobbly start - and I'm not just talking about my jelly-kneed jet-lag from returning from China the day before. My trusty school visit memory stick which holds all my Powerpoint pictures for a day of assemblies and workshops decided that the perfect time to retire from active duty was two minutes before I was due to address a hall full of lovely, enthusiastic pupils. Even the valiant efforts of Dave, the heroic IT man, couldn't bring it back to life. It seems the data had been well and truly scrambled - almost certainly due to its passage through numerous security scanners on the China trip.
But all was not lost!
St Faith's pupils are a remarkable bunch with extraordinary powers of imagination. They were able to "see" all the images on the blank screen in their minds' eye, from purple unicorns to Scooby Doo and the gang, to Cruella de Ville. It was almost an anti-climax when Dave managed to recover the files and the real pictures came up! In fact, I'm thinking of making the what-can-you-see-on-the-blank-screen activity a regular part of my school assembly talks from now on.
I've even got a name for it: The Emperor's New Powerpoint.
 |
| The book sale queue. I love these gorgeous stripey blazers. |
I had so many books to sign that I got a bit carried away and accidentally wrote Happy Birthday instead of Happy Reading not once, but twice!
 |
| Just a few books to sign! |
Part 2
The other big excitement for me on World Book Day was receiving an email from Adventure Island reader Antsha, with some spectacular photos of her and her little sister, dressed up as Mrs Loveday and Emily Wild. And is that Drift I see there too?
 |
| Mrs Loveday gives Emily a very stern look! |
Thank you, Antsha, for sending me this picture. I hope you both had a lovely World Book Day!
Sadly, World Book Day is now over for another year. Don't forget to spend those £1 tokens. There are some great books to chose from but my personal recommendation would be The Midnight Picnic by Lauren St John.
And it's not too late to win a brilliant prize of Book Tokens for your school - all you have to do is send in a photo of your class all dressed up for World Book Day - not to me, but to the World Book Day people - all the details (and loads more fun stuff) on their website here.