The past fortnight saw us once again diving deep into our Leaping into Literature immersion. This fortnight we focused on reading our way through our collection of Animal and Anthropomorphism (attribution of human characteristics & behaviour to animals) picture books. We discovered and re-discovered some real treasures, we also discovered some total duds. When well done, picture books can be wonderful avenues for learning, informative and engaging, and springboards for the imagination, Jack Jack (12) was so inspired by one book he began re-writing plot twists. Yet some picture books can be such a disappointment, the illustrations gorgeous but the text dull, the premise of the book rich with possibility but…

Way back in 2013 I had an idea and like all great ideas it took off, blazing a path. The idea was to devote the whole of Term 4 to an immersion in literature, predominately with a focus on quality picture books. When introducing new ideas to our children I need to carefully consider as often my great ideas quickly become firm Tradition, as has our Leaping into Literature, which now reaches it’s 6th year!!   Over the years, with our older children particularly in mind, we have expanded our Leaping into Literature Term to include another Tradition, our Bookworm.  This is a favourite, oft visited reading competition which the whole…