Always a highlight of the Pre-Prep calendar, this year's Literacy Week challenged and delighted the children in equal measures 
This week-long event helps the children focus on the importance of developing an early love of language and reading and gives them the opportunity to explore other aspects of literacy including speaking, listening, writing and spelling.
A visit from Zoolab kicked off the week. They came into Harrodian and introduced our Pre-Prep pupils to a menagerie of mammals, insects, amphibians and arachnids in a hands-on, interactive workshop. By handling the animals, the children used their senses to make discoveries of texture, temperature and colour.
The children reflected on their findings in some written work and explored evocative language and powerful adjectives to describe the creatures they had seen. The teachers also set them the additional challenge of writing a poem or limerick about an animal of their choice. They were able to do this at home with the help of their families and a competition was held to choose the winning piece of poetry from each class.
Some of the children also took part in a cookery and recipe-writing activity. They made chocolate rice crispy cakes and practiced their literacy skills afterwards by writing instructions on how to make them.
Reading and being read to is an everyday activity in the Pre-Prep that the children love and Literacy Week is another chance to celebrate this enthusiasm. The children particularly enjoy thinking about their favourite books and stories and this is clearly demonstrated in the wonderful book reviews they wrote, which decorated the walls outside their classrooms, below.
In their classes, pupils were also asked to design and decorate their classroom door to reflect a favourite book - a challenge they rose to with great gusto.
(Below is a collage of the classroom doors, including Ms Horan's office door which was decorated with a Miss Bossy cardboard cut out made by Teaching Assistant Miss Mackay!)
Book Character Day is always a much-loved part of Literacy Week. Pre-Prep pupils relish the opportunity to dress up as their favourite fictional personalities and this year was no exception with a mixture of traditional children’s book characters costumes and new characters on display too, below.
With an extra stage area in the Theatre (courtesy of the upcoming Legally Blonde production), Mr Hooke introduced a new 'parade' format to Book Character Assembly and encouraged the children to complete a circular lap of the stage, whilst waving to their parents and showing off their costumes, below.
Other exciting activities involved teachers swapping and reading to different classes and the chance to buy lots of brand new books at a special Book Fair in the Pre-Prep courtyard.
A special thanks to Pre-Prep Literacy Coordinator Mrs Burnett (PP1) for preparing the week's activities and also to all the Pre-Prep staff who surpassed themselves with their Book Character costumes!
