Monday, August 10, 2009


New Zealand Book Month
ASB Wordbank Competition


The NZ Book Month organisers advise that they are just starting to spread the word about the competition for children to enter in New Zealand Book Month this year and we’d be delighted if you could share the information with your readers. We want lots of kids to enter the ASB Wordbank Competition in October, and they can start getting ready now by reading books by New Zealand authors that they can write about for the competition, depositing their words in Wordbanks at ASB branches around the country. There are some great prizes and we hope this will be a cool way for kids to help celebrate our top New Zealand authors and their books.

Below is the information for teachers and librarians about what is involved. This is available as a poster that could be distributed to teachers, put up in staffrooms etc to spread the word. There is also a poster aimed at the kids, to put up in classrooms and libraries, encouraging them to enter. The posters can be downloaded from the website http://www.nzbookmonth.co.nz/).

Crissi Blair
Youth Coordinator
NZ Book Month
Phone 09 836 1261 Mobile 021 163 2496
nzbm.wordbank@gmail.com

NZ Book Month – ASB Wordbank Competition
Teacher and Parent Info
New Zealand Book Month is our national book celebration, making heroes of all our great New Zealand books. We believe the words in our books are some of the most important in the country and, with ASB, we want Kiwi kids to prove it.
This competition works fantastically with the Key Competencies outlined by the Ministry of Education – it is active, relevant, empowering and the national prizes make it very real!
All children at Primary and Intermediate school are eligible to enter, and we encourage class entries. The competition runs from 1st October to 30th October 2009 so it can be started in Term 3 ready for drop off after school holidays, or even be a Term 4 project.
Best of all it’s really easy! Kids just pick a Kiwi book, write a letter to the author, and deposit it in a Wordbank at any ASB branch.
Key Competencies: In choosing a Kiwi fiction or non-fiction book, and telling us what they loved, connected to, what it made them think etc. we’re looking to encourage application of learning and independent creativity – making students really think about books they have read. They might have read the book at home or at an after-school group, or within other authentic contexts. We anticipate the competition will encourage thought and discussion with others about what or why they loved about that particular book and author above another. And of course, the prize packs will reward and empower students’ involvement, both as a group – towards the community prize – and as individuals towards prizes for best letters.
We do believe our Kiwi books are inspirational, they tell our stories, in our voice, and take us to new places where we can meet fantastic characters and have amazing adventures. So we’d love to hear from your kids.
There are lots of prizes!
Community prizes: The five ASB branches with the most letters deposited in their Wordbanks (worked out by formula so even small communities can win), can nominate a school for a visit by a great Kiwi author and a prize pack for the school library.
Individual prizes: The best individual letters win a trip to Auckland for a behind-the-scenes tour (complete with elephants!) at the Auckland Zoo, and a TVNZ experience. There are prizes for runners up too.
Get your kids involved! It’s a perfect time to start them reading Kiwi authors and then writing their letter for the Wordbank competition. Entries open on the 1st of October and close at 4pm on the 30th of October.
There are lots of prizes!
Entry forms, posters and further information can be downloaded at http://www.nzbookmonth.co.nz/ or http://www.asb.co.nz/

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