4 Learning Activities for Thelma the Unicorn

Thelma the Unicorn by Aaron Blabey is definitely one of my favourite books. Afterall, how could you not be in love with the little horse who becomes an internationally famous unicorn? 

As well as being a fabulous read, Thelma the Unicorn is perfect to use in the classroom - filled with themes to explore and potential activities to share. Here’s four learning activities for Thelma the Unicorn which you can use in your classroom today.

1. Explore Disguises

Thelma uses a disguise to become a unicorn - tying a carrot to her nose before having a run in with some glitter and paint. This disguise is enough to convince everyone that she is an actual unicorn. When it gets too hard to be a unicorn and she needs to return to her old life, she washes away her disguise and no one recognises her at all.

Disguises are a great topic to explore in the classroom. Students can examine why you might need a disguise as part of a job or why people might like to get dressed up in a disguise. They can research different ways of disguising people - and some of the technology behind that. They can also engage in an activity to design - or create - their own disguise. 

Students can also connect disguises with the secret identities of superheroes and look at how they disguise themselves. Students might like to engage in an activity to create their own superhero - and their everyday secret identity. 

2. Investigate Unicorn Books

Thelma the Unicorn is a brilliant unicorn themed book, but it’s not the only one out there! There’s some great unicorn books available, from the wonderful Grumpycorn to the lovely Pearl the Unicorn series with many more in between.

Looking for unicorn books is a great library activity. Students can look at different methods of finding books on different themes - from just wandering around, to asking a librarian, to using a search if it’s available. 

When students have a collection of unicorn books, they can share and explore them. Students can look for similarities and differences with Thelma the Unicorn, nominate their favourite unicorn books and explain their choices, or you can set up an activity for students to create a poster or leaflet to tell other students in the school about great unicorn books.

Looking for something a little different? Don’t miss Sarah McIntyre’s tutorial on drawing Grumpycorn!

3. Examine Kindness and Bullying

Being kind is a key theme in Thelma the Unicorn - being kind to yourself, being kind to your friends - and the impact when people aren’t kind to each other. Taking a closer look at kindness - and bullying - is a great Thelma the Unicorn activity.

Students can discuss the bullying in Thelma the Unicorn and why they think Thelma experienced this bullying. This might lead to discussions about whether you can bully someone who is famous and what it means to be famous. Students can take this further by exploring what bullying looks like and what they can do if they or someone they know is bullied.

Students may also like to look at what Otis does and why he is a good friend to Thelma. They might like to list his qualities as a friend (and where you see them in the text) and think about how they can demonstrate these good qualities at school.

Want to explore the topic of kindness and bullying further with your Prep or Year 1 students? One of the activities in the Prep/Kindergarten and Year 1 book companion dives deeper into this.

4. Write a Fan Letter to Thelma

When Thelma is famous, she receives attention from all around the world. One way famous people get attention is through fan mail. This is a wonderful writing activity for students, even young students who are learning to read (they can combine writing and drawing in their letter).

Through writing a fan letter to Thelma, students can explore the techniques of letter writing as well as thinking about what they might say if they were a fan of Thelma. This might be something they do individually or you can work as a class to brainstorm ideas or even craft the letter together.

Would you like to write fan letters with your class? You can get free printable letter writing templates to support this activity in your classroom by signing up for the free resource library.

Have you taught Thelma the Unicorn in your classroom? Share your favourite activities or experience in the comments!

Related posts to read:

• 7 Reasons We Love the Pig the Pug Books

• 4 Literacy Activities for I Just Ate My Friend

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• 4 Literacy Activities for The Wrong Book by Nick Bland

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Why You Should Teach Civics and Citizenship

We have limited time in the school day and limited time in the school year. We are told to prioritise reading, writing and mathematics, along with science and technology if we want students to succeed in the ‘real’ world. And teachers are often told to teach an endless array of other subjects to fix the problems of the world we have now.

So why is it important to teach civics and citizenship to our students? How will an understanding of how government and government institutions work fit into their lives after they leave school? And why is civics education vital in the ‘real’ world?

Teaching civics and citizenship is important because our students need to know how things work

When we talk about teaching how government works, it can be easy to think we’re only referring to the work of big, central or federal governments - the things which happen at Parliament House in Canberra or the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. But understanding how civic institutions work applies to so many more levels, from local community organisations through to those big central institutions.

Choosing leaders, making decisions on laws and regulations, setting goals as a community, a state or a country, enforcing laws, engaging in actions which challenge the decisions made, being involved in community, gaining citizenship - these are all elements which make up government. And they all work in different ways.

When students know how decisions are made or how leaders are chosen, it makes it easier for them to trust or engage in civic institutions and processes. They are able to bring a higher level of background knowledge to reading or discussions about government issues and will take away a better understanding of the impacts of government decisions on their own lives and the lives of other people in their community.

Increased civic understanding means that students have a better understanding of how someone becomes a leader - and helps them reflect on whether there can be better ways of choosing leaders. It means they understand how laws are passed, how laws might be enforced in a community and why laws might need to be changed or updated. It allows them to explore their role as a citizen of a country and how people can participate as members of a community. 

It shows them how civics are present in so many parts of their life - and the lives of people around them.

Takeaways:

• Learning how government works increases trust or engagement in civic institutions and processes

• Learning how government works allows for better informed reading and discussion

• Learning how government works allows students to understand the past and think about their role in the future

Teaching civics and citizenship is important because students should know they can have a role in their government

So often teachers are asked ‘when am I going to need this when I leave school?’ Good civics education allows students to see where government is part of their life everyday . . . and how they can be part of civic institutions and processes.

From the smaller regulations around where you can park cars or walk your dog, to systems like roads and public transport, to big decisions about taxes we pay or how to respond to a natural disaster, governments are constantly making decisions which impact people. By learning more about how these decisions are made, students learn how they can be part of the decision making process - either now or in the future.

Voting is an important part of this and civics education is definitely vital for understanding voting systems better. But voting is not the only way for people to be involved in decision-making processes. Students can learn about communicating with elected decision makers, through letters, emails or phone calls. They can learn about protest movements and leaders and the impacts they have made, both in the past and in the present. And they can learn about how they can engage in local community groups and the decisions which can be made at a local community level.

Learning the ways you can be connected and participate at local - or higher - levels allows students to create better community engagement. This is something they can take with them long after they finish school.

Takeaways:

• Students should understand how the decisions of governments impact so many parts of their lives

• Students should understand that they can engage with decision makers in a range of different ways

• Students should understand that they can participate in community groups and local decisions

Teaching civics and citizenship is important because students should reflect on what it means to be a citizen

Civics and citizenship in the classroom is about so much more than facts about how laws are made or how many elected representatives there are. Citizenship is being a participant in a community or country and there are so many aspects of this for students to explore.

Becoming a citizen of a country, the responsibilities of citizenship and the promises new citizens make are all essential things to learn and understand. Many of these subjects involve what a country stands for - what its core values are. This allows students to reflect on what the values of their country should be and whether they - as citizens or residents of the country - can reflect those values.

The many different ways citizens can be involved in democratic decision making is another element of citizenship in democratic countries. In some countries, such as Australia, this participation is a responsibility of citizenship - with almost all citizens over the age of 18 required to vote in different elections. In other countries, voting and other means of participation in decision making are rights. Learning about what rights they have as citizens allows students to understand when their rights or the rights of others are challenged and what they can do about it.

Citizenship might also mean being involved in local communities - including the communities we create inside our schools. It could mean participating in school clubs or activities, engaging in volunteer work or opportunities or simply understanding the different ways people can play a role in the community they live and work in.

Takeaways:

• Learning about citizenship allows students to explore the core values of a country

• Learning about citizenship allows students to examine the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen

• Learning about citizenship allows students to reflect on how people can participate in their local communities

Teaching civics and citizenship is important because it helps students understand history better

So much of history revolves around what decisions were made and what were the consequences of those decisions. Sometimes we look at who made the decisions or why they made the decisions, but we don’t always look at the structures which informed their decisions.

When we teach government to our students, we help them get a better understanding of those structures. Students can look at how different political systems developed different leaders (and lead to different conflicts) in ancient civilisations. They can learn how the Magna Carta influenced other political movements and the belief that no one was above the rule of law. They can better understand political systems which were being protested by so many people working to get the right to vote.

By learning that there’s often a deeper background or issues to learn about, students begin to understand that history is complex, that sometimes we need to look at it closer to understand the different perspectives. Students also can examine the different ways that people have worked together in the past and explore how they can apply that knowledge to civic experiences now and into the future.

Takeaways:

• When they learn about government, including civic processes and institution, students gain a better understanding of history 

• When they learn about government, students gain a better understanding of the complexity of history and the different systems which can influence decision making

• When they learn about government, students gain a better understanding of how they can apply organisational systems of the past into present or future situations

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Related posts to read:

• What are Political Parties, Why Do They Matter and How Can We Teach Them?

• 7 Things You May Not Know About Government in Australia

• Australian Election Myths (And Teaching Ideas for a Better Understanding of Elections)

• 6 Great Books to Integrate With Australian Social Studies

• Different Types of Government (And How We Can Teach Them)

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Finding Anzac Day Teaching Resources for Your Classroom

Anzac Day can arrive suddenly in the classroom. Usually nestled somewhere near the Easter holidays, you may not be as ready as you’d like to be to engage your students in meaningful activities. And that is where Galarious Goods - and fabulous picture books can help you out.

Use a Ready-Made Book Study With Your Class

There are so many fabulous Anzac Day picture books you can use in the classroom. To help you take a deeper look at these with your students, Galarious Goods has a range of picture book studies suited to a range of grade levels.

For the youngest students, there’s book activities for two classics - Anzac Biscuits by Phil Cummings and My Grandad Marches on Anzac Day by Catriona Hoy. These teaching resources allow students to engage in comprehension discussions and to explore descriptions. The Anzac Biscuits companion allows students to engage in retell and comparison to to think about what it would feel like to be away from family, while the activities for My Grandad Marches on Anzac Day focuses more on the important elements of Anzac Day and why remembering is important.

For older students, there’s book companions for When the War is Over by Jackie French, Torty and the Soldier by Jennifer Beck and Memorial by Gary Crew. When the War is Over covers a wide range of conflicts and the book activities allow students to take a deeper look at these events, with an activity providing more information. Torty and the Soldier explores the real life story of a soldier and a tortoise and includes an activity exploring loyalty. Memorial - which includes illustrations by the amazing Shaun Tan - explores the nature of memorials and why people remember. The book study is quite in-depth and includes activities on symbolism, telling stories through conversation and creating a visual display of discussions raised by the book.

Explore Any Anzac Themed Picture Book

With so many wonderful Anzac Day picture books from so many notable authors, you may want to explore one - or several - not covered by a specific book companion.

That’s where the Anzac Day Book Studies for Any Book are perfect. With 3 book study resources covering grade levels from Prep/Kindergarten to Year 7, these are great for getting the most out of the Anzac Day books you love and the books you have available to you.

One of my favourite activities in the Prep/Kindergarten and Year 1 resource explores what students learn from the book as they create their own hanging display. This lends perfectly to a whole class or small group discussion about the book you are reading, identifying important words or concepts or ideas from the book and drawing conclusions.

The Year 2, 3 and 4 resource and the Year 5, 6 and 7 resource encourage students to examine vocabulary and to ask their own questions about the Anzac Day themed text or texts you are exploring. Asking questions is such an important skill to foster when students are reading picture books, so this is a great opportunity for practice, while building topic knowledge.

Comparison Activity

Anzac Day is one of two important military commemoration days in Australia, alongside Remembrance Day on the 11th November. Comparing the two days and the way we commemorate them allows students to examine the traditions of both days and the nature of commemoration. The Anzac Day and Remembrance Day: Comparing Commemoration Traditions Lesson allows students to take a closer look at both days and their commemorations and is the perfect lead up lesson for Year 4, 5 and 6 students before the commemorative services at your school.

Keen to keep up to date with any new book companions? Click here to follow Galarious Goods at Teachers Pay Teachers

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• Using Primary Sources in the Classroom when Exploring Anzac Day

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4 Learning Activities for Give Me Some Space!

2021’s National Simultaneous Storytime book is the lovely Give Me Some Space! by Philip Bunting. This is the story of Una, a space-obsessed girl who wants to escape the everydayness of her everyday life to explore the solar system. But what learning can we do with these books? Here’s five ideas for your classroom

1. Research Astronauts

Researching astronauts sounds like a rather humdrum activity, but this is a great way for students to develop an important skill - developing research questions. Astronauts tend to spark a lot of curiosity - how do you become an astronaut? What does it feel like to travel into space? And of course, everyone’s favourite - how do you go to the toilet in space?

Younger students can start by just brainstorming everything they’d like to know about space. With the guidance of the teacher, they may like to pick 2 or 3 of their questions and explore different places they could find answers, like interviews with astronauts, videos about astronauts and books about space exploration.

As students get older, they can begin to group their questions, looking for broader research topics. They might like to investigate life in space, astronauts in history or the jobs of astronauts. Students could work in teams to each research a question, then come together to share their findings.

For older students, you can work on developing more sophisticated research questions. How do you become an astronaut? might become “How has astronaut selection changed over history?” What does it feel like to travel into space might become “How do humans feel about earth when they see it from space?”

2. Explore food in unusual circumstances (and plan a space inspired menu)

Una’s picnic is an important part of Give Me Some Space! as she sits on the Kuiper Belt and eats her cheese sandwiches and astronaut ice cream. This also gives students the opportunity to ask an all important question - what do you eat in space?

For younger students this can be a really simple activity of looking at some of the food astronauts eat in space, exploring some of the problems of eating in space and designing their own ‘space menu’. 

Older primary students might also like to look at the history of food in space and how it changed as space exploration changed. They could also compare this to food in other unusual situations, such as food in Antarctica or food on long sea voyages. Additionally they might like to investigate some of the technology involved in preparing food for space and what tools would make eating in space easier. 

Looking for more information? Try

• https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/apollo-to-the-moon/online/astronaut-life/food-in-space.cfm

• https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/features/F_Food_for_Space_Flight.html 

3. Create space inspired miniatures

In Give Me Some Space! Una uses materials from around her house to create her space exploration tools. But what about using regular items to create tiny things.

Students can use a range of everyday and craft materials to create miniature items or scenes inspired by the book. They might like to create a tiny rocket or astronaut, or imagine what the inside of a space habitat might look like.

Older students can explore ways they can use their miniatures to create stories. One way they can do this is by making their own stop motion animations - taking photos, moving items slightly and taking another photo. Then they put these photos together to make an animation. 

4. Explore a space inspired dance

Space is such a great topic to pair with dance, because of the number of elements which require movement.

Younger students can look at how a rocket takes off or how a moon buggy moves across the surface of the moon and try to recreate those moves with their bodies. For extra fun, they might like to explore all the different ways a space alien might move

Middle primary students might like to imagine what it feels like to move with no gravity or lower gravity and how they could show that in a regular gravity situation on earth. 

Older students might like to explore some space themed music, such as Gustav Holst’s  The Planets, David Bowie’s Space Oddity (especially the version by Chris Hadfield played in space!) or Josef Strauss’ Music of the Spheres and explore how they could move through along with these pieces of music. Students could work individually, in pairs or in groups to choreograph movement sequences which fit to these pieces of music.

Are you looking for more ways to explore Give Me Some Space? Don’t miss the Galarious Goods book studies - available for Prep/Kindergarten, Year 1 and 2; Year 3 and 4; and Year 5 and 6.

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Challenging Students to Find Connections Between Picture Books

When you’re focusing on a picture book unit study, it can be tempting to focus on that book alone. But don’t forget to help your students to step back and make the connections with other picture books - and to share those connections with others.

It’s important when we’re teaching reading that we help students to make text-to-text connections with other pieces of text. This is particularly important as students get older and begin to find references to other books in the novels they are reading or need to collect information from a range of sources to write an informational report, but it’s a skill which helps students learn and develop their schema from the youngest grades at school.

When students are reading picture books, you can start with the easiest connections. Students can identify some of the basic elements of the book - like it’s a book about school, a book about animals or a book about space. Students can identify other books they know which also have this element. This allows them to identify differences and similarities as well as identifying what those books tell them about that topic.

Easy connections can also be made when students are exploring texts in a series of books or picture books written by the same author. The Pig the Pug books, for example, all include the same two characters as well as similarities in what those characters do (Pug does the wrong thing, Trevor does the right thing). Students can connect the books easily through the characters and the similarities, then use that information to look deeper at the differences in the books - what does Pig do wrong in this book? How is it different to what he does wrong in that book?

Once students have developed the easy connections, they can start looking for more difficult connections. You can assist them in this by offering students two or more books which aren’t obviously related and asking them to find the similarities between the books. This can be even more fun to do if you haven’t found the connections yourself - you might be surprised what the students will present you with when you’re not guiding them in a certain direction.

Another way to do this is by asking students to look for certain themes or characteristics as they explore books over a period of time. You might ask them to look for lost things or characters who are anxious about something or books with surprise endings. When students begin to find these connections, they can look at how the author and illustrator has portrayed that particular element or theme, gaining a better understanding of how a book can be crafted to get a response from the reader.

How Can Students Share the Connections They Make?

The easiest way for students to share the connections between different texts is simply by talking about them with their peers or in student conferences. You can make this easier for students by providing prompts in the room - a question on the classroom wall which asks students how books connect to each other can help it become a normal part of conversation about books.

Students can also use graphic organizers to make connections between different book - either by using prepared ones or making their own. 

When you’re working as a class on a bigger project, you can work with your students to create a display showing the connections you’ve made as a class. This might be a bulletin board within the classroom, a display in the school library or office or even an online display which can be shared with parents and other students in the school. 

Students can also share their connections with their ‘future self’ by keeping a reader’s notebook. Taking some time to go back through old entries can remind students of the connections they made back then - and allow them to make new connections with books they’ve read since then.

How do you encourage students to make text-to-text connections? Share your experiences in the comments.

Related posts to read:

• What Does it Mean to Be Australian?: Using Picture Books in the Classroom to Explore Australian Identity

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Exploring Early Childhood Books in the Middle Grades

So, you know that picture books are great for students to read, no matter what grade level they’re in. But there’s different types of picture books, and you wouldn’t use the ones aimed at early childhood with older readers, right? Right?

Well . . . not necessarily.

While you wouldn’t use some of the very simple picture books - like the ones aimed at babies and young toddlers which simply match a word and image - any early childhood picture book with more of a story can be used in the middle grades classrooms. 

Here’s how you can do it.

The first thing you would want your older readers to do when they’re exploring a picture book aimed at preschoolers is to think about who the book is written for. Students will know that they are not the ideal audience, but this gives them some insight into the language and the pictures used in these books and allows them to start comparing them with other books aimed at a similar audience.

When students are thinking about the audience for a picture book, they are learning to assess the audience of other types of text - for example - who is that advertisement aimed at? Why does it make kids want to buy something and make adults shudder? Learning that authors use different styles for different audiences is important to know both as a reader and as a creator of texts.

Students might also question whether these books are really aimed at an early childhood audience alone. They might draw the connection with many kids movies and television shows which entertain (and sometimes teach) adults. Are these books just for young children, or can older children and adults learn from them as well?

Once students have assessed the audience of the book, they can start exploring the author’s intentions in writing the text. For example, Mem Fox’s Good Night, Sleep Tight introduces the reader to a range of nursery rhymes. Why has she chosen to do that? What does she want the audience to learn? Why has she put them into a story with characters rather than just editing a book of nursery rhymes?

Students can assess whether the author is aiming for the audience to learn something - many early childhood books are based around enhancing literacy or social and emotional skills - or whether they’re just written to entertain the audience (a lot of books about farts lean more towards entertainment).

Part of looking at the intention of the author is examining the word choice. Many early childhood books look like they’d be easy to write. Afterall, there’s not many words in them and the words aren’t very difficult. But when you hear the authors of these books talk about how they were written, you hear that they can spend serious time making sure that they’ve chosen the best possible words and that they’ve put them in the best order. Students can explore this by rearranging the words in the book to see how it changes the text or they can experiment with putting in their own words and seeing what happens.

When students have a really good understanding of picture books for younger students, they can be challenged to write their own early childhood picture books. From coming up with an idea for the book, to planning it out, to finding the best words and creating illustrations to go with them, this is a great activity for students to engage in to explore the challenges of picture books and looking at how picture book authors and illustrators meet them.

Have you explored early childhood picture books with older students? Share your experiences in the comments

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Asking Students to Create their Own Picture Book Questions

Do your students ask questions? 

Not the questions about going to the toilet or when is it lunchtime or “why did you do that to your hair, Miss?”. Questions about the topic they’re exploring, about the concept they’re learning about . . . or the picture book they’re reading?

And if they aren’t asking questions about the picture books . . . how can we get them to start asking?

The Value of Asking Questions

When we’re exploring a text we usually ask students to answer a range of comprehension questions. There’s the who, what, where style simple recall questions, but we also ask them to think more deeply about the text they’re reading.

But one skill we need students to develop as they are reading is learning to ask their own questions. Good readers ask questions all the time when they’re reading - questioning helps readers to monitor their own comprehension and to create connections within the text and outside of the text.

For example, I recently read Pink! By Margaret Wild. As I was reading the book, I found myself asking questions about the colours of dinosaurs (“Hasn’t there been research done on dinosaur colours recently?”), about where the story might go next (“I wonder if the author will make it easier for Pink to hide?”) and hide and seek (“They played hide and seek earlier, will that come back to that?”) Even with a text that is essentially easy for me to read, I can ask questions of connection, prediction and author choices.

Starting With a Brainstorm

There are many ways to teach students to ask questions when they are reading - from demonstrating questioning to talking about different types of questioning. But one way for students to think more about questioning is to ask them to brainstorm before, during and after their reading.

Provide students with a familiar picture book and ask them to brainstorm all the topics they might ask questions about before they read it. As you are reading the book to them, ask them to keep brainstorming, then provide them with more time when you finish. Students can share their brainstorm ideas, allowing the class to see that there are many different areas of questioning when it comes to a text. You can then repeat this with an unfamiliar text, asking students to engage in the same brainstorming process.

Who, What, Where, When, How: Recall Questions

Once students have a brainstorm, they can start formulating more formal questions. The easiest to start with are the recall questions - the who, what, where, when, how types of questions. These can sometimes be dismissed as too simple, but while we wouldn’t want to only ask these questions, they’re important when it comes to having a solid understanding of the characters, setting and plot of a picture book.

Asking Prediction Questions

Good readers are often asking - and answering - prediction questions as they read. One of the easiest to ask questions is ‘based on the cover and title, what do we think this book is about?’ Students might dismiss prediction questions because they find they’re answering them as soon as they ask them (What will come next? I think it’ll be . . . ) but it’s important that they know they are asking these questions and they do play a part in how they are reading.

If students are writing prediction questions for other people to answer, they might like to reflect on where the best places to ask those questions are. Should they ask them at the beginning of the book? During the book - and when during it? At the end? This is a great way at taking a closer look at how an author might have structured suspense or anticipation into a book 

The Things Which Aren’t Obvious

The inferring and author intention questions are the harder questions we ask ourselves when we are reading. Why did that character do that? Was that foreshadowed earlier in the book? Why did the author make that choice? Sometimes it can be hard to ask those questions because you need to go back to the text once you have the recall questions down. Other times it’s hard to ask those questions because you’re not sure if you’re overthinking it!

One thing we can let our students know is that it’s ok to ask ‘do you think’ questions - open-ended questions which different people might answer in different ways. Those might be the questions which get us to think the most about the book - even if the book looks simple on the first read. ‘Why . . .’ questions with many different possible answers are some of my favourite - every time I read Mem Fox’s Where is the Green Sheep I wonder why the slide sheep is wearing skis (it just doesn’t look safe!).

By modelling, encouraging exploration and explicitly teaching question asking when we’re reading picture books, we can help our students become better readers of these - and more complex texts.

Do you teach question asking? Share your experiences in the comments

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• Exploring The Girl With a Mind For Math in the Classroom

• 8 Free Resources for Classrooms Reading Boy Overboard

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5 Ways to Introduce Reading and Books at the Beginning of the School Year

It’s the beginning of a new school year and you know you want to make books and reading an important part of your classroom environment. But how can you establish that from the beginning? How can you help your students to know that reading is valued in your classroom? How can you encourage a community of readers? Here’s 5 ideas to help you introduce reading and books as a back to school activity.

1. Start With A Favourite

You’ve introduced yourself to your students, checked all their names, put books and stationery into some sort of organisation. It’s time to start teaching. You might have a great getting to know your students activity planned, but it’s worth waiting for just a moment to read them your favourite picture book.

Why? First of all, picture books are great transition tools. They show the students that it’s time to move from organisation mode into learning mode. They’re a quiet and calm way to get things moving. Secondly, you’re letting your students get to know you a little through your book - they know that you value reading and that this is one of the books you really value. And finally, it gives you, the teacher, a moment to breathe and enjoy what you’re doing.

As a bonus, it never hurts when someone from administration pokes their head in and sees reading happening on the first day

2. Create a List of Topics to Read About

In the first few days of school ask your students what kind of books they would like to read or what topics they would like to read about. Use this list as a display in the classroom, use it to guide some of the reading choices or book choices throughout the year and return to update it as the year progresses.

By asking students what books or topics they want to read, you’re giving them some ownership over the reading environment. You’re telling them that their reading preferences are valued in the classroom and that it’s a safe place to read all kinds of books.

3. “Sell” a Book or Two

Book talks are one of my very favourite tools for encouraging reading in the classroom. I love them so much, I wrote a whole post about them and how to give a book talk. At the beginning of the school year it’s good to use books which might be unfamiliar to the students. This lets the students know that you love finding books they might not know about and that it’s ok to read and enjoy unfamiliar books. 

Book talks are great for generating excitement about a book and therefore excitement about reading. With lots of enthusiasm, or a well placed preview of a book, you’ve shown students that it’s ok for books to be exciting. Be aware that a really exciting book talk might generate a lot of enthusiasm for the book - you might need to create a ‘next in line’ list for potential readers. 

4. Ask Students to Write About their Ideal Book

What would the best book in the world look like? This is a great question to pose to students early in the school year. As well as getting students interested in what books could be (or what books they may not have found yet) this is a great way to learn a bit more about your students.

Be aware, though. There’s a very real possibility that you’ll have a students or two who’ll say there’s no such thing as a good book. It’s ok to get them to explain why that’s the case (they’re still writing and you’re still learning about them!) or to challenge them a little to write about what a book would have to have to be readable by them - they might like to link it to what they like about games, television shows or other activities.

5. Let Students Know Where They Can Find Books

Once you’ve got students excited about reading, you need to let them know where they can find books. You may have a complete classroom library or a small collection of books in the classroom - let students know what they can access at any time or what books you’ve set aside for classroom lessons. Take your students to the school library and talk about some of the borrowing they can do there.

You might also like to introduce the local library to your students. You can do this by visiting yourself and taking some photos of the different areas or you might like to arrange a visit from a librarian at the library who can help your students to understand what’s available to them there (it’s not unusual for people to think they need to pay to borrow books from the library.

How do you create a reading environment in your classroom at the beginning of the school year? Leave a comment below to let us know!

Related posts to read:

• 5 Great First Day of School Reads

• Helping Our Students With Goal Setting

• Classroom Organisation for the Unorganised

• Taking Care of Ourselves as Teachers

Looking for more?

• Follow the Galarious Goods TpT shop

• Follow Galarious Goods on Facebook

• Follow Galarious Goods on Pinterest

• Follow Galarious Goods on Instagram

5 Galarious Goods Back to School Posts and Why I Love Them

So, this is a blog post about back to school blog posts? Of course, it’s a recap show! Seriously, though, I’m quite proud of the different back to school blog posts I’ve written and shared here at Galarious Goods and I wanted to make sure my favourites were all in one place. Plus, add a little commentary on why they are my favourites.

1. 5 Ways to Find Joy in Your Classroom and Teaching

This is definitely a mindset blog post - a good post to read and reflect on before you get anywhere near the classroom. Joy can sometimes be an elusive concept, something which doesn’t gel with the day to day processes of teaching in a classroom. This post provides some ideas for finding that joy, even if it’s just in little pieces.

Why is it a favourite?

It’s actually a great reminder to myself to find the joy in small things - whether it’s creating a beautiful or calm or colourful space for myself or dancing it out. Those little things won’t change the world, but they can give us a moment of respite.

2. 5 Things School Parents Might Worry About (And how teachers can help those worries)

It’s a bit terrifying to be a new parent in a school! Especially at the moment as our orientation processes may have been changed due to the pandemic or we might be facing the kinds of first days and weeks we never would have imagined a few years ago. This blog post highlights 5 questions new school parents might be worrying about and some ways you can relieve those worries.

Why is it a favourite?

I wrote this one when my eldest was heading off to his first year of school. Now it’s time for my youngest to head to her first day. While some of the worries are gone (I’ve got the school shoe thing down perfectly!) I’m still unsure just how she’ll go when she heads into the classroom on the first day. I’ve also received some excellent advice from her school - get the little ones to practice fastening and unfastening their seatbelts in case they’re restricted to the drop off and pick up zone!

3. Starting a New Teaching Job on a Limited Budget

This blog post was inspired by a news article highlighting how much money teachers were spending to set up their classrooms. In the post I look at many affordable or free ways teachers could set up their classrooms for the new year when they didn’t have a lot of money (or were looking to save their money for other purposes - you don’t have to spend all your own money on teacher things!) I highlight my ‘must buy’ essentials (spoiler: not much) and some ways to create an effective learning environment without spending much at all.

Why is it a favourite?

It reminds me so much of what it was like to walk into my first real classroom. I very much had to ‘make do’ with low cost or free items and I know this is the case for so many teachers.

4. Classroom Organisation for the Unorganised

I’d love to say I’ve become more organised since I wrote this post, but not really! I do however follow many of the tips in this organisation post and can honestly say that they’re super helpful (my children do, however, scoff at how many times I label their things. They have never lost a school or kindy hat, though!)

Why is it a favourite?

I was chatting with one of the cleaners at the school I used to work at and was pleased to learn that I’d lost the title for messiest teacher desk at the school. However, it was a reminder that other teachers might find this organisational information useful!

5. Taking Care of Ourselves as Teachers

This is such an important post as we enter the new school year in Australia, unsure of what might happen, what new rules teachers might need to follow and still coming up for air after an incredibly hard 2020. This post looks at a number of practical ways to take care of yourself, from pulling positivity into your social media to making sure you have a great water bottle.

Why is it a favourite?

Finding ways to take care of myself is something I need to be regularly reminded of. I can easily fall into a spiral of ‘doing all the things’ while forgetting to stop occasionally to do things which take care of my physical and mental health. If it gives a few ideas to make life a bit easier for teachers anywhere, then this post is worth its weight in gold.

Do you have any great back to school advice for 2021? Leave a comment below to let me know!

Related posts to read:

• 5 Great Reads for Teachers Setting Goals

• Using Back to School Reading Tools in Your Classroom

• Back to School Blog Posts to Enjoy

• 5 First Day of School Blog Posts to Inspire You

Looking for more?

• Follow the Galarious Goods TpT shop

• Follow Galarious Goods on Facebook

• Follow Galarious Goods on Pinterest

• Follow Galarious Goods on Instagram

Taking a Deep Dive Into Picture Book Illustrations in the Classroom

One of the benefits of using picture books in the classroom, including middle grades classrooms, is developing visual literacy. But how can we make sure we’re doing this effectively?

The Importance of Visual Literacy

Visual literacy is the ability to understand and make meaning from information which is presented in the form of an image. We use simple visual literacy every day as adults - from the signs we use when we’re driving, to the icons on our phones. Visual literacy gets more complicated, however, when we look at artworks, media photography, social media images and advertising.

When we look at old newspapers, it’s not uncommon to see a full page of text. These days, front pages are more likely to be a combination of images and headlines, with very little news story text. Social media prioritises images over text, especially on those platforms built on images such as instagram. And advertising is using more and more complicated imagery to reach customers. Understanding what pictures are trying to say to us allows our students to be better readers and more thoughtful participants in the world as they grow older.

Telling the Story Through Illustrations

Picture books are a great way to teach visual literacy because they ask students to take a closer look at a text form which is already familiar to them. Most children are exposed to picture books before they learn to read, so they’re used to examining the pictures, ‘reading’ what is in them and using them to help them understand what the whole book is about.

Many picture book illustrations also tell us the story that isn’t in the words. In Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French, there are all sorts of things in Bruce Whatley’s illustrations which tell us the real story about Mothball’s opponent (the doormat) and the impact Mothball is having on her surroundings (it’s very, very bad). Pig the Pug by Aaron Blabey makes a lot less sense without the illustrations, and make sure you keep an eye on what those mischievous monsters are up to in Nick Bland’s The Wrong Book!

When we start pointing this out to students, we’re letting them know that images have messages for us - that they’re telling us more information and that they can be as important as the words we read. It’s definitely worth the time investment to compare the text and the images when you’re reading picture books.

What Can We Tell From Pictures?

Have you read any books with Shaun Tan’s beautiful illustrations? I have spent a lot of time with Shaun Tan books because they are amazing, but one of my very favourite teaching memories was spending time exploring The Arrival with my students. This is a book with absolutely no words - or no words in a language we know. 

As the students read this with me, they found images they were familiar with - like photographs - and less familiar ones which we would have to dive into. Sometimes they would read the images better than me and we’d all learn from it together as we built the story out of the images.

Wordless picture books are amazing tools for developing both visual literacy and an understanding of how stories can be told. Jeannie Baker’s Window and Belonging are another example of these texts - and are a little easier to read - which students can spend ages looking over, pulling out all the little tales woven into the images.

Matching Pictures and Words

Another way to use children’s book illustrations to engage in visual literacy is by asking students to put the words and the pictures together. You should use a book the students aren’t so familiar with. You can use a photocopier or a photo and projector to share the page with the words removed. Offer the students a selection of words which could go into that space and ask them to choose the best one. Ask them to reflect on their choice and whether any of the other words might have worked.

Alternatively, you can present the students with the images and ‘incorrect’ text. Ask them if the pictures and words go together. Why? And if not, what should the words be.

By doing this, you’re asking the students to be more thoughtful when they see words and images together - this is something which can be reinforced by reading graphic novels - good visual literacy is definitely required there!

Do you explore visual literacy in your classroom? Share your experiences in the comments

Related posts to read:

• Five Reasons to Use Picture Books in Middle Grades Classrooms

• 5 Reasons to Explore The House that Cleaned Itself in the Classroom

• 5 Reasons We Love Macca (the Alpaca)

Looking for more?

• Follow the Galarious Goods TpT shop

• Follow Galarious Goods on Facebook

• Follow Galarious Goods on Pinterest

• Follow Galarious Goods on Instagram