Prep Publishers

Wow can you believe it, we are into our second term of school! Time really does fly when you’re having fun.

Our preps have come such a long way since starting school. Term 1 culminated with each and every student publishing their very own book.

The process started at the beginning of week 8, with Bec, Ebony and Fabienne reading ‘The Three Kangaroos Gruff” by Kel Richards and Janine Dawson. The learning was evident immediately, with some students making connections to The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Students acted out a role play of the story in groups, and then the first drafts of their books commenced.

It was a long process with several steps, and students were not just the author of their books, they were also the illustrator.

Students had to plan their books and what they were going to write and draw on each page. They numbered their pages then got to work.

They already know that one reading strategy is to read the book using the illustrations, so students took their time drawing their illustrations, making sure it was their best work.

Students were very brave and gave each other feedback on their illustrations, and listened to each other’s suggestions, before going back and adding to their work. Some suggestions were to colour in the whole page, or to use a fineliner pen to outline the drawings.

Writing was next, with alphabet cards and our chewing gum trick where we stretch out the words so we can hear all the sounds in them to help us spell them. They had to decide what to write on each page, so just like professional authors, the children wrote their first drafts in their workbooks so they could reread their work before publishing their final copy.

Then the final stages: carefully writing on each page and drawing a front cover.