Author Emma Bowd recently worked with Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 students at Dinjerra Primary School in Braybrook, to transform a story into a published book, which was launched at the school on Friday, November 10.
The Writer in Residence program is run by Ardoch, which is an educational support non-for-profit organisation designed to engage students in literacy activities.
During the program, a published children’s author leads weekly workshops, guiding and inspiring students to develop their creativity, storytelling and writing skills.
Emma said she had an enormous amount of fun creating her first storybook with students.
“It is a credit to the students that they all worked so well together,” she said.
“I could not be happier with Happy and the Sports Carnival Day Disaster. It’s an entertaining and joyous story with many lovely connections to school life at Dinjerra Primary. All the illustrations are the work of the talented students.”
Year 5 classroom teacher Rebecca Clark said the process was very collaborative and kept the students engaged throughout each of the three sessions.
“Over one week the students took part in each session which covered different topics,” she said.
“It was a very creative, meaningful and fun process which was mostly group work, talking about sharing ideas, incorporating school values and emotional regulation framework.”
One class from each year level participated, carrying on each other’s work.
“The Year 3’s and 4’s worked on from the beginning, and then the 5’s and 6’s carried on, while they all worked on the illustrations,” she said.
“One group of students drew animals, some drew students, they all drew themselves and the teachers, something they now all have ownership over.”
Jennifer Pittorino
