World Book Day 2024 at Woodbridge School Prep
Yesterday, children across the world celebrated World Book Day. Our own children at Woodbridge School Prep were no exception, taking part and celebrating with an exciting day at School.
Dressed as characters from their favourite books, children also spent time with a very special visitor in School, Lisa Thompson, an English children’s book author whose first book debuted in 2017. The Goldfish Boy was a national bestseller and was shortlisted for Waterstones’ Children’s Book Prize. Lisa’s other books include The Light Jar, The Day I was Erased and The Boy Who Fooled the World, The Rollercoaster Boy and The Treasure Hunters.
“I was inspired by the adventures that Lisa wrote about in her book.”
After a whole School assembly where Lisa spoke about books in general and the thought process when writing stories, children split into their classes to take part in workshops throughout the day as well as lots of other activities.
Writing Workshops
In the writing workshops children had fun spending time with Lisa, where they spoke about what they thought might inspire them when story writing. From things you can see and hear to thoughts and feelings you have inside, children explored and discussed each of their suggestions before being tasked to use them to help draft a small introduction for a story.
“I loved how we got to imagine and create our own stories, with Lisa’s guidance.”
They had great fun reading those introductions out loud to one another, and to Lisa, who thoroughly enjoyed them too.
At the end of this particular workshop children had the opportunity to ask Lisa lots of different questions about writing; from asking her what she might be doing if she hadn’t become an author, to wanting to know where she gets her own story inspiration, where she writes and what she uses to do so. Our inquisitive and curious Prep School children enjoyed listening to her answers immensely.
“I loved listening to how Lisa created the ideas for her books.”
The children also heard about the editing process of book writing, and Lisa shared details about how her books are published throughout the world and the importance of translation so that everyone could enjoy her stories.
Bedtime Stories
In other parts of the School, children took part in a workshop called ‘Bedtime Stories’. Two of the School’s classrooms had been magically transformed by Year 6 children, into a dreamy, relaxing environment, darkened but featuring twinkling light displays set around tents, picnic blankets and cushions – it was the perfect place to read books we might use to relax us ahead of bedtime in the evenings.
Children enjoyed reading to one another and themselves, recognising the way stories make us think and feel, and how relaxing reading can be.
Recorded Reading
A number of our Prep School teachers had recently recorded themselves reading Lisa’s books, and so children listened while enjoying the illustrations; recognising and appreciating how they bring the story to life even more!
Illustration Workshops
In preparation for today’s event, the illustrator responsible for the lovely drawings in Lisa’s books had kindly recorded a video demonstrating the drawing process. By explaining how he imagined and created the characters from the story, children were able to follow along drawing characters themselves.
After also taking a look around the book fair and singing sessions to MC Grammar’s World Book Day tunes, the day finished with Lisa signing books for the children. It was the perfect ending to this particular World Book Day, and certainly one they won’t forget – we hope they talk about and share with their families and friends. Lisa commented on the day saying,
“World Book Day is always a very special time of the year and it was such a joy to spend it with such enthusiastic students in Woodbridge School. I loved seeing all the wonderful outfits!”
Talking about the day, Luke Palin, Head of English at Woodbridge School Prep said,
“One of our key aims at Woodbridge School Prep is to foster a love of reading and an understanding of the joy that books can bring to our lives. World Book Day provides the perfect platform to celebrate this notion, and for our students to immerse themselves in a magical world of storytelling, dressing up and creative writing. This year we were joined by the bestselling Author Lisa Thomson who inspired us all with writing workshops and group reading sessions throughout the day. It was wonderful to witness the buzz and excitement across the entire School as students of all ages demonstrated their passion for reading and storytelling.”
A huge thank you to Lisa Thompson for spending the day with us, and to our children for making so much effort with their wonderful costumes which were nothing short of spectacular and creative!
Signed copies of Lisa’s book The Treasure Hunters can be purchased from the Waterstones website and she’ll be signing copies of all of her books, including her new novel The Mystery of the Forever Weekend, in Woodbridge Books at 11am on Friday, 12 April.
