Book Week Scotland takes place between 18th - 24th November 2024 - and if you are looking for a WOW day to celebrate this exciting event in your school then read on, as we have a fantastic range of literacy workshops for primary and secondary schools in Scotland. 

View our full range of primary school workshops here

View our range of secondary school workshops here. 

Book Day Assemblies

Assemblies are a great way, of course, of launching your Book Week celebrations - and ours are guaranteed to create a buzz about reading! All of our programmes listed below come complete with their own whole-school assembly at the start of a day - and all at no extra cost!

 

The Extraordinary Adventures of Fillolog! (P1 - P7)

Whatever book our friend Vistie was reading as a little girl (and she read a lot of them!), it always featured Fillolog, an extraordinary creature with an extraordinary appetite for stories. They were there in the forest, as she read of wolves, owls and eagles. They were there in the sea as she devoured tales of pirates, shipwrecks and treasure islands. And they were there in the distance as she read of adventure, action and mystery. Fillolog also had their own story to tell - but now that Vistie has got older, it’s faded to the back of her memory. And that’s where you come in! Because you and your pupils have the chance to help her by writing a unique and extraordinary whole-school story - with Fillolog at its heart!

The Extraordinary Adventures of Fillolog can accommodate the whole of up to a two-form entry in a single day*, comprising an interactive assembly, workshops (one per year group) and follow-up literacy activities designed to put flesh on the bones of the story.

The workshops see children participating in related and age-appropriate drama-based activities before working together to solve literary clues revealing key aspects of Fillolog’s story.

  • Nursery children (where appropriate) will be the Locksmiths - literally looking for the key to the story …
  • P1 - the Story Openers - discovering where the adventure starts …
  • P2 – the Explorers - will want to know where the Secret Doorway leads …
  • P3 - the Friend Makers will provide a companion for Fillolog …
  • P4 - classes will be the Questors, searching for an object vital to the success of the story …
  • P5 - pupils, the Intrepids, will need to unravel the threads to discover the problem that Fillolog and their friend will face …
  • P6 - children – the Problem Solvers – will be helping Fillolog overcome the challenge they’re faced with …
  • P7 - classes, the Bridgers, will provide a bridge to the next part of the story by finding a cliffhanger ending to the tale so far!

*The Extraordinary Adventures of Fillolog also exists in formats for both infant and junior schools.

Every school booking The Extraordinary Adventures of Fillolog will also receive a link to a package of downloadable follow-up resources – completely free of charge!

 

The Character Hunt (P1 - P7)

The great characters of fiction leap off the pages of the books they inhabit and into our imaginations because their authors have taken the trouble to breathe life into them, creating fully rounded beings. And now your pupils will get the chance to do that too, in our new programme, The Character Hunt!

In a lively whole-school assembly, children will meet The Mighty Pen a writer with plenty of wonderful ideas for stories - but no characters to put in them! The Pen, will, though, introduce your pupils to some archetypes – and challenge classes, a year group at a time, to take part in workshops designed to transform those archetypes into all-encompassing characters.

EYFS / P1 will muse over The Magician – and what it is that magicians love to do …

Year 1 / P2 will have a look at The Hero – and what heroes do when they’re not being heroic!

Year 2 / P3 will investigate The Villain – just where do villains hatch their plans?

Year 3 / P4 will shed light on the Lover - do lovers always have to be so soppy?

Year 4 / P5 will consider The Clown – and what makes them laugh!

Year 5 / P6 will analyse The Athlete – and where their competitive spirit comes from …

Year 6 / P7 will go into The Geek – what do they want most in the world?

The Character Hunt can accommodate the whole of up to a two-form entry school in a single day – and is available as both an in-person and a live streamed experience. And every school booking The Character Hunt will receive a free digital download of follow-up ideas and resources.

 

A Visit from Bookman - Character Visit (P1 - P7)

The world’s newest superhero, Bookman has the extraordinary power of bringing stories to life – and he'll fly into your school all set to help your pupils in doing the same. Armed just with his trusty Book Bag, he'll make an unexpected appearance at an assembly before leading classes through a series of exciting, engaging and enticing drama-based workshops (all differentiated for age). And the outcomes? Connection-making, Freeze-Frames and Talking Tableaux, illustrating key narrative moments from a host of well-loved stories!

"The visit was amazing,  Jay (Bookman!) was a fabulous start to the day with his assembly, which really caught the kids' imagination. I had staff coming to tell me they were shocked when he burst forth from the cupboard and surprised the hall. He was brilliant - and I'm especially impressed that he managed to work with children ranging from reception to Year 6s and entertained them all. It's created a great buzz around the school about reading which is brilliant in the week of world book day." (Jeavons Wood Primary)

Paige Turner's Fiction Mission - Character Workshop (P1 - P7)

If the characters in our favourite stories only come to life when their tales are read, what would become of them if Mr Noah Magination got his way and had all books banned? Paige Turner is on a mission to save the fictional worlds that these characters live in and she’s going to need your pupils’ help. After introducing herself at a whole-school assembly, she’ll work with a number of classes, using age-differentiated drama approaches to bring some of their favourite characters to life, exploring what it is that makes them so wonderful and what we would stand to lose if we never had the chance to meet them in the first place. This is her only hope winning over Mr Magination and guaranteeing the survival of books and stories for future generations - and that hope lies in you!

 

Soundscape Poetry (Primary and Secondary) 

Those pupils who claim they don’t like poetry will be writing furiously at the end of this magical poetry workshop. Realising the power of “sound”, they’ll design and perform two contrasting soundscapes, working to topics/themes of your choice. We’ll then guide them through a structure supporting them in crafting richly descriptive poems that tell both individual and collective stories in which the "truth" can change with time or place. 

 

Character Clerihew Poetry (Primary and Secondary) 

Clerihews are four-line, fun and descriptive poems - and so a perfect vehicle for your pupils to recall what they know of characters from the stories they love and indulge in a little speculation - all while having fun with simile, metaphor and personification! We'll show them how this poetic form works, take them through a model or two, support them as they're creating their own verses - and even give tips on performance techniques!

 

Scrambled Stories: The Return of Bookman/Paige Turner (P1 - P7)

Already enjoyed A Visit from Bookman or Paige Turner? Well, now you can now invite them back with Scrambled Stories! … Your favourite book lover has a new problem this year – because their archenemy has managed to wreck some of the world’s best loved stories by changing tiny details. Imagine how dull the tale of Red Riding Hood would be if the Wolf had turned vegetarian - or how boring Jack and the Beanstalk would become if Jack didn’t get his hands on the magic beans! It’s up to your pupils to save the day, by inserting themselves into the stories and putting them back on track!

 

CSI: Bookmark 

The Book Review Competition at Little Podmore Library received record entries this year – but someone snuck in before judging was complete, and jumbled up all the entries! In a series of age-differentiated workshops, we’ll be asking your children to indulge in a frenzy of connection-making, using their knowledge of a range of well-loved tales to make sense of it all!

 

CSI: Reading Skills (Primary and Secondary) 

Pupils who tell us they don’t like “reading” are always amazed when they realise quite how much skilful reading they’ve accomplished by the end of this fun and busy workshop. From inference and deduction to skimming and scanning, from previewing to predicting and from context to content, CSI: Reading Skills makes no bones in drawing connections between the everyday skills required to interpret infographics and play computer games and those required to delve into more formal texts.

Specifically designed to support pupils in making those connections between different ways of “reading”, CSI: Reading Skills sees them working in small teams to help out in a time of national emergency – because a briefcase containing some Top Secret plans was discovered on the 8.42 to Little Padworth, destined for an Enemy Power. The only clues to the identity of the traitor are to be found in a pile of old train tickets, recipe, book reviews and faded photographs. If “read” correctly, however, they’ll allow the pupils to discover who took the plans and why. P1 - P3 pupils will travel to Storyland and use their reading skills to work out who it is that's been sending secret messages to the Big Bad Wolf!  

 

Scenes from Shakespeare (Primary and Secondary) 

Shakespeare was a superb storyteller - and his stories still survive unscathed today! These exciting workshops, though, take him back to his roots - by taking a dramatic approach to his work. Working with one of our professional drama specialists, pupils will get an actor’s-eye-view of one of his plays - and have a chance to taste the text too!

All of the workshops can be differentiated for age and require a minimum of 60 minutes (although we prefer longer) - preferably in a large space. You can choose from Macbeth, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, or A Midsummer Night’s Dream - and we’ll leave you with a whole host of suggestions for follow-up writing activities!

 

Jigsaw Stories

How well do pupils know well-loved tales? Having pieced together the key moments of given story in the correct order, small groups then dramatise scenes, culminating in a whole-class retelling of the tale.

 

Find out more

View our full range of Literacy workshops for Primary Schools in Scotland here

View our full range of World Book Day workshops here

Find out more about Book Week Scotland here - www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-scotland

Book Week Scotland

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