CMIS Evaluation Primary Focus

For an inspiring read check out Bright Ideas detailed account of Victoria’s Mount Waverley Primary School’s innovative Year 6 end-of-year production.  The production took the form of a Film Festival of animation.  A team of teachers, which consisted of the Year 6 class teachers, the Art, Music and ICT specialists, and the two Assistant Principals, assisted each student to produce an animated story.  There was a lot of community support and participation including from Academy award winning animator, Adam Elliot, who also presented the inaugural “Adam Elliot” award on the night.  Read more here.

What a wonderful idea! A new prize has been created in Roald Dahl’s name to honor the best funny books for children.

Founded by the Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen, the Roald Dahl Funny prize honours the funniest children’s authors. Two prizes will be awarded — one for the funniest book for children six and under, and one for the funniest book for children seven to fourteen.

The Roald Dahl Funny Prize aims to boost the profile of humorous books as part of Rosen’s campaign to put the fun back into children’s reading. It hopes to promote laughter and humour in children’s books and encourage families to read together and discover the pleasure of humorous books. This in turn will reinforce the message that reading together promotes family togetherness..

The Roald Dahl Funny Prize also aims to reward those authors and artists who use humour in their stories, poetry and fiction.

A shortlist of six books in each category was announced on 8 September to tie in with the third Roald Dahl Day on 13 September. The winners will be announced in November 2008.

Find out more about the shortlisted books and the award from the official Roald Dahl Funny Prize website or about Roald Dahl from his website.

Joy Cowley and Gavin Bishop’s delightful Snake and Lizard is this year’s winner of the prestigious New Zealand Post Book of the Year prize and Junior Fiction Award.

Snake and Lizard is highly recommended on this year’s Primary Focus list.

Excellent articles about Cowley and Bishop are available on the New Zealand Book Council website.

The winners for the 2008 New Zealand Post Book Awards were announced at an awards ceremony on Wednesday 21 May at the Wellington Town Hall.

View the press release, the judges’ report and the 2008 winning titles.

Simpson and his donkey by Mark Greenwood and Frane Lessac.

In his new picture book, Simpson and his donkey, Western Australian author Mark Greenwood has fleshed out this popular ANZAC story with interesting details about the life journey of Simpson, from his childhood in England to Australia and Gallipoli, and his connection with the donkey.

Finely detailed, full-page illustrations by Frane Lessac, painted in her characteristic naive style, create a captivating backdrop for the story.

Some facts about Simpson and the Gallipoli campaign conclude the book and extend the ANZAC experience for students.

Teachers notes are available from the Walker Books Australia and New Zealand website.

For more ANZAC resources visit the CMIS ANZAC Theme page and find resource lists, classroom ideas, teaching ideas and a variety of topics pertaining to ANZAC Day.