Year 6: Becoming authors

In Year 6 last week we became authors and learned all about publishing a book. We focused specifically on nursery stories as we had to develop our reading skills to go and read to the nursery children on Thursday. We began our journey as authors by drafting ideas with our group to create a storyboard. We presented our story to the class and received feedback from our classmates and teacher. This allowed us to think about what we needed to develop and so we edited our stories and focused on creating vivid imagery to accompany our intriguing pieces of writing.

We bound our books and ensured that we added sensory materials such as felt, props and leaves. This would make our stories even more child-friendly. We learnt many writing and reading techniques over the week to keep our audience engaged and to think, feel and want to read on. Some of these techniques included controlling our voices when reading, using body language and to use repetition and onomatopoeia.

When we finally went to the Nursery, we each read a story book to the children. It was an incredible experience as we learnt how to use our speaking and listening skills in greater depth. It was a wonderful feeling interacting and teaching younger children. We were the teacher!

After we had read all our stories to the children we sat together and listened with great interest to Rupert reading one of the stories we had published. The story was called ‘’The Friendly Monster’’ and everybody loved it!

Before we left, we presented the Nursery children with parting gifts. Each group presented the book we had published and gave it to the children. They were excited about their new books which they added to their bookshelf.

This experience taught us how challenging and rewarding it is to be able to publish a book and read it with enthusiasm to an audience. Reading made this week extra special for us all!

Happy World Book Day everyone!