In week 1 we made our way to year 7 Niamir’s house form room
where we found an eager group of pupils waiting. It was time for our second ‘
not in the library’ house activity!
Niamir's were very vocal in choosing the top heroes and villains
in literature although Huzaifah in particular was over enthusiastic with the
‘he who must not be named’ villain! They made the valid point that maybe people
chose popular heroes and villains rather than really thinking about who was
actually the most heroic or villainous. When we moved on to reading for
pleasure we discovered that many of them liked reading when they were upside
down and Red certainly had the most unusual place of where he loved to read -
the shower!
Week 2 was nonfiction week so once we had run through click and collect again, we discussed Melvil Dewey and his classification system. Everyone had a go at classifying books on Mr Carruthers favourite food - pizza!
Niamirs House are very competitive as we found out when we played Dewey
Jeopardy quiz with a winning score from Team 1 of 190 points! Mr Carruthers
then showed us a great BBC news article on a cleaner who had rearranged her
local library during lockdown in order of size of books - all 5000 of them! We
decided Dewey was better!
In week 3 pupils spent the session choosing their favourite
book and writing a review about it lasting two minutes. Ms Johns found any
books in the library that they wanted so they could show them next week. We
ended the activity by having a discussion on books versus eBooks. Niamir's
definitely prefer books!!
Week 4 and what an amazing session! Niamirs, you were
brilliant and listened to everything we told you last week. All of your
presentations were great and it was incredibly difficult to choose the top 5 -
so much so that we chose the top 6 instead! We wanted you to show the book,
give us a plot summary, tell us the strengths/weaknesses and what your personal
response was to it. You all did all of these things.
In 1st place was Ashna with Thief by Malorie Blackman. There
were plot twists, cliff-hangers and an unexpected jump to the future which she
was not expecting. She read it in a week which was amazing for someone who was
very honest about not particularly liking reading!
2nd place went to Lilly with Can you see me? by Libby Scott
& Rebecca Westcott. She found it impossible to put down and felt she could
relate to the book. In her words 'Don't try and fit in if you are born to stand
out'! The only weaknesses were the illustrations in her opinion.
3rd place went to Anastasia with Harry Potter & the
Philosopher's stone by JK Rowling. She loved this series because it is full of
moral decisions and beliefs. Its only weakness was that sometimes things needed
more explanation but she loves escaping reality in it. Her favourite character
was Ron!
In 4th place was Leo with Origami Zoo by Robert J Lang. A
nonfiction book this gave him satisfaction when he followed the well thought
out steps and made an animal. It kept him occupied and had a good outcome most
of the time. His favourite was the swan. The only weakness was that sometimes
lots of steps were put together which made it harder to follow.
In joint 5th place was James and Bella. James talked about Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce. He loved the idea of thinking about what you would do with a million pounds if you found it and the book had lots of twists and turns with changing views as to what the right thing would be to do.
Bella's
favourite book was A Place called perfect by Helena Duggan. It is part of a
trilogy, had unexpected adventure and was confusing in a good way. The only
weakness was that there were not many characters.
In our final session we started by giving out prizes for the book reviews. Then we turned our attention to the history of Bristol Grammar School. Lots of questions later and we were ready for our final quiz. What a tight race it was! Even after extra questions all three teams had the same number of points so we were left with the decider question…..how many resources are there in our school library? Team 1 guessed 14,668, team 2 guessed 14,669 and team 3 went for 21,248. The answer is 36,716 so team 3 won!
You were a pleasure to spend Monday afternoons with Niamirs
and we look forward to seeing you in the library when you are allowed to do so
Mrs Godden & Ms Johns