Book Week Activities
World Book and Copyright Day
World Book and Copyright Day was designated by UNESCO as a worldwide
celebration of books and reading, whilst promoting publishing and the protection of
intellectual property through copyright. It is marked in over 100 countries around the
globe. 23 April: a symbolic date for world literature for on this date and in the same
year of 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is
also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon,
K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. It was a natural
choice for UNESCO's General Conference to pay a world-wide tribute to books and
authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to
discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable
contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of
humanity.
This year at San Andrea, unlike
previous years, we celebrated Book
Week during the first week of third
term (Monday 2nd to Friday 6th May),
since the 23rd April fell during the
Easter holidays. The slogan chosen
for this year was Get Lost…into a
Book.
The build-up for this week starts well
before, with the onset of the
Readathon. This year the Readathon
was launched on Wednesday 9th
March, with the closing date being the last day of Book Week Friday 6th May.
The Grade 8 students started preparing early for Book Week, by working in groups
on various assignments related to books and reading. After choosing their favourite
book the students were given various activities to apply to this book, such as:
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designing a book jacket
creating another ending to the book
designing a poster to promote the book which is being produced into a movie
making up a poem about a character or characters in the book and recording
it on a CD
making up an illustrated timeline of the main events in the book
writing a promotion for the book as a newspaper article
These works were put up on display in the library during Book Week.
The Grade 8 students had the
opportunity to meet with Ms Marisa
Attard, who is an artist and illustrator
working mostly in pen, ink,
watercolour and acrylic. She has
illustrated many children's books and
workbooks and was awarded the
Premju Letterarju for Best Illustrator
of Children's Books in 2002 and
2003. During this interactive event
Ms Attard explained how she
creates illustrations to stories and
how these are further produced into
books. For the last ten minutes of
this activity the students were encouraged to draw their own pictures using
techniques, explained by Ms Attard, to create certain actions in their cartoon
drawings.
The Grade 9 students planned for this event by
compiling a booklet about their favourite author. They
were guided to research different sources for
information about their chosen author’s life and works.
They also had to include their own reviews on some
of the books they’ve read written by the chosen
author. These projects were put on display in the
library during Book Week for other students to browse
through.
This year Mr Charles Casha, a wellestablished Maltese author for children’s
books, was also one of our guests during
Book Week. Mr Casha met with the Grade
9 students and shared his passion for
writing and story-telling through a
Powerpoint presentation depicting various
aspects in the author’s life which influenced
his writing. The students could relate better
to the author since one of their reading
books used during their Maltese lesson,
“Minn Tarf sa Tarf tat-Triq”, is in fact written
by Mr Casha. At the end of this session the students had the opportunity to have
their books signed by the author.
As in previous years the Grade 10
students were taken on a visit to
the University library. Visiting a
much bigger academic library
proofs to be a very beneficial
experience at this particular age,
where our students are being
constantly guided to choose their
future
study
programmes.
Through this guided visit they
could get a feel of the University
environment and how the library is
involved in assisting its students
through their studies. During this
visit it was a pleasure to meet some ex-San Andrea students on campus.
To further celebrate World Book Day on Wednesday 4 th May, all the students and
staff at San Andrea stopped at 12.20pm, grabbed a book and read for 20 minutes.
Special Library Awards
Special awards were given to two students in appreciation to their work and
commitment in helping out in the library during break times. These awards were
awarded to Matthew DeGiorgio (Grade 11) for commitment and to Kluivert Lee Borg
(Grade 8) for his effort.
Readathon 2010-2011
This year’s readathon was once again a great success. It was launched just after
the mid-year exams, on Wednesday 9th march, till Friday 6th May.
This year’s winners were the House of Provence with 84 points. The House of
Castile placed second with 72 points, followed by the House of Aragon with 64 points.
The House of Auvergne placed 4th with 36 points.
The first three students who managed to get the most points for their house were:
Saveria Cremona being presented with the 1st place award.
1st placing - Cremona Saveria (House of Provence) with 41 points
2nd placing - Bugeja Nicola (House of Aragon) with 21 points
3rd placing – Gary Azzopardi (House of Castile) with
20 points
A big well-done to all participants!
Ms Lina Farrugia Dip LIS
Senior School Librarian