Tag: Jane Clarke

Strange new animal species

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Snorse, Gorilladile, Whuppy, …

…. and in between Jane Clarke and our pre-primary and P1 children

Have you ever experienced something that you would dearly like to share but  – no matter how hard you try and think – you just can’t seem to find the words to get it right? Well, this is exactly how I am feeling now, trying to share the special moments our youngest students of the English section experienced earlier this week.

There were some “awwws” and “ohhhs” when the children entered the primary library and noticed that most of the shelves had been moved aside to give room for them to comfortably sit down on floor mats. However, this was just the nice stage for the main attraction: Jane Clarke who brought her picture book “Who woke the baby” to life and the children joining in by yawning like the hippopotamus, roaring like lions and having loads of fun.

Jane Clarke - PP+P1 (3)

And there was more fun to follow! All children created their own species by combining their favourite animal with another animal of their choice. Afterwards they presented their creation, Jane asked them for some imaginary facts on their animals and, without even noticing, the children had made up their own little animal story. At the end it was the children’s turn to ask questions. They were curious about the number of stories Jane had written, where she got her ideas from and they wanted to know her favourite character from her books.

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Thank you Jane, for this wonderful gift to our students:Sharing your stories and adding a copy of “Who woke the baby” to our library’s picture book collection!

Who woke the baby

Creative writing with Jane Clarke

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What a creative group of children our primary student in classes P2EN are!

When Jane Clarke explained the process of making a book she did it in a very special way: By showing her “book of ideas” with the first sketches of her ideas, “black and white rough” of the illustrator and in the end the final result – her book “Knight Time“. She also explained the different parties involved in this process – e.g. editor, illustrator, publisher, buyer – pointed out the time this process requires and made the children realize that not every great idea and story would instantly turn into a book, be published and end up for sale in a book store.

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After introducing the children to her ghost writing “Dinosaur Cove” books – which will most probably be on the most wanted book list of some more students by now – time had come for the children to start the process of creating their own dinosaur. Jane Clarke pointed out the unlimited possibitlies of creating a “sillysaurus”, “princesssaurus”, … and set free the enormous creative potential of our young students. After sharing their unique dinosaurs with Jane and their classmates our guest author encourage the children to make their dinosaur come to life by thinking about where it lives, what it eats, how it moves, which noises it makes and so on. The children were as eager to share their dinosaur stories as they had previously been with their dinosaur pictures and just as before, Jane Clarke gently supported the children in developing their ideas further and emphasized on the countless ways a story could develop.

It was a truly inspiring experience for our students!

 

Readings and readings and even more readings

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These are busy times at European School RheinMain Library. Not to speak about up to 3000 loans per month. Not to speak about the planning for the new Primary Library. Not to speak about the new books to be ordered. Let’s better talk about great readings and workshops that took place at our wonderful library! We are deeply indebted to the Parent’s Association and Robert Bosch Stiftung who supported us with all these projects.

Es ist eine geschäftige Zeit in der Schulbibliothek der Europäischen Schule. Nicht zu reden von bis zu 3000 Ausleihen pro Monat. Nicht zu reden von der Planung für die neue Grundschulbibliothek. Nicht zu reden von den neuen Büchern, die bestellt werden müssen. Lasst uns besser von den großartigen Lesungen und Workshops reden, die in unserer wunderbaren Schulbibliothek stattfinden. Wir sind der Elternvereinigung und der Robert Bosch Stiftung, die uns bei all diesen Projekten unterstützten, sehr zu Dank verpflichtet.

P3D und P3E hatten eine deutsche Lesung mit Christian Tielmann: Wir drei aus Nummer 4. Zelten auf der Dachterrasse, Rohrpost durch den alten unbenutzten Kamin, Restaurant Hoheluftchaussee auf dem Baugerüst, Hochzeit im Hinterhof – so schön kann Kindheit (nur) in der Großstadt sein. Ein wunderbar humorvolles Buch und eine wunderbar humorvolle und gelungene Lesung.Christian Tielmann

 

Joachim Hecker

P4 (all classes) had a science event with Joachim Hecker: “Experiment to go” oder interaktive Wissenschafts-Show. This was a weird experience, not only for the librarian: autoclave in her office, shrinking frogs – and the first thing the author asked for was to switch off the smoke alarm. But we all know now what fire needs to burn…

 

P1E, P2E and P3E had a wonderful reading and Workshop with Jane Clarke: Dinosaur Cove, Attack of the Lizard King. Jane encouraged all children to create their very special dinosaur and write their own dinosaur story – amazing what the children took along after the reading. One said: “This was the first author I’ve met in my life!!!”

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Juraj & KatarínaS5Da and S5Db could meet Juraj Šebesta and Katarína Slaninková from Slovakia last week at a reading and Comic-Workshop: Venussha – eine harte Woche. (And Mirko Kraetsch did a wonderful job as translator!) This Event took place in the context of our project ViVaVostok, in cooperation with Robert Bosch Stiftung and the International Youth Library Munich. See also: http://www.fnp.de/lokales/wetterau/Den-Osten-entdecken;art677,844890

 

Die P5Da wird im Rahmen von ViVaVostok die Autorin Svetlana Prudovskaja aus Russland erleben. Svetlana hat ein wunderbares Kinderbuch zum Thema Buchherstellung gemacht und wird mit den Kindern in einem Workshop eine ägyptische Schriftrolle herstellen.

S3Da und S3Db sind eingeladen zu einer Lesung mit der Jugendliteraturpreisträgerin Ursula Poznanski und ihrem Science-Fiction-Thriller Die Verschworenen – einem überaus spannenden Pageturner, nicht nur für Jugendliche. Ursula Poznanski ist am selben Abend im Literaturhaus Frankfurt zu Gast und wir konnten sie für einen Abstecher nach Bad Vilbel gewinnen.

Die komplette S2 wird dann – erneut im Rahmen der Veranstaltungsreihe ViVaVostok, in Zusammenarbeit mit der Robert Bosch Stiftung und der Internationalen Jugendbibliothek München – Marcin Szczygielski aus Polen mit Die schwarze Mühle kennenlernen. Marcin Szczygielski – eigentlich Journalist und Erwachsenenautor – ist seit 2009 ein unglaublich erfolgreicher Kinderbuchautor. Als Schriftsteller für Jugendbücher wird er 2010 für die virtuelle Odyssee Omega mit dem Preis für das Buch des Jahres im Bereich Jugendbuch ausgezeichnet, und dann gewinnt Szczygielskis unheimliche Geschichte Czarny Młyn (Schwarze Mühle) beim Astrid-Lindgren-Manuskriptwettbewerb 2010 in Polen den Grand Prix.

S2EN and S3EN will get the chance for an English author visit of Miriam Halamy with her book Hidden. This is a literary, coming-of-age novel, dealing with courage, prejudice, human rights, judgement and the difficulty of sorting right from wrong in our complex world. It was nominated for the 2012 CILIP Carnegie Medal.

P4E, P5E and S1E will also come together to listen to Daniel Morden and his Weird tales for the storyteller. He is one of the UK’s most popular tellers of traditional stories. Daniel Morden and Hugh Lupton were awarded the 2006 Classical Association prize for ‘the most significant contribution to the public understanding of the classics’. Daniel has conceived and presented numerous documentaries on storytelling for BBC Radio Wales. In 2007 he won the Tir na n-Og Award for Dark Tales from the Woods.

Und ganz zum Schluss dürfen dann die Klassen P2Da und P2Db noch Armin Pongs und sein Krokofil erleben. Krokofil ist ganz anders als alle anderen Krokodile. Er ist ein freundliches Krokodil, und er ist ein Traumländer, einer, der an seine Träume glaubt und alles daran setzt, sie wahr zu machen.

We also believe in our dreams and will continue – from next year on with two libraries – to encourage the children to read, to visit the library, to take part in our activities – and to be aware of the fact that such a library is something very special and should not be taken for granted. In Germany and in many other countries only few students got such a library at their School.

Auch wir glauben an unsere Träume und werden fortfahren – ab dem kommenden Jahr mit zwei Bibliotheken – die Kinder zum Lesen, zu Bibliotheksbesuchen, und zur Teilnahme an unseren Aktivitäten zu motivieren – und dazu, sich darüber im Klaren zu sein, dass solch eine Bibliothek etwas sehr besonderes ist und nicht als selbstverständlich betrachtet werden darf. In Deutschland und vielen anderen Ländern haben nur wenige Kinder solch eine Bibliothek an ihrer Schule.

Renate Kirmse