Thursday 3^rdMarch marks World Book Day, and we have been busy planning events to celebrate here at Fairfield. As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, this year we will NOT be asking the children to dress up as book characters on World Book Day but there will be memorable opportunities which easily involve everyone without the pressure of any  additional cost.

In school activities
On the day, the children will take part in a range of activities, including:

· Class lantern decorating competition, in which children will work as a class team to decorate a lantern around a chosen book theme. A team of judges will pick a winner and the winning class will be given an exciting prize (including signed children’s books by well-known authors)

· Story walk in the meadow

· Craft activities

· Collaborative story writing

As each class will be taking part in the story walk throughout the day on Thursday 3^rd March, please send your child to school with their wellington boots suitable for the meadow in a named carrier bag. Children do not need to wear full meadow clothes on the day. If Thursday is your child’s usual meadow day, it will be rescheduled for an alternative day within the week and we will communicate which day this will be before the children return to school after half term.

Competitions
We have organised 2 competitions for children to take part in at home, bringing their creations into school on Thursday 3^rd March for judging!

· Wooden spoon puppets. We are challenging the children to turn an ordinary wooden spoon into a book character puppet! Before half term, we will send each child home with a wooden spoon to decorate and the children can do so using any materials that they like. There are some ideas shown in pictures at the end of this letter. There will be a winner chosen from each year group and each winner will be awarded a certificate and a prize. This competition is free to enter and we hope that as many children as possible can take part. We are looking forward to seeing and  displaying their creations at school!
Book cover design. In order to support fundraising efforts for our school PTA, we will be providing the opportunity for the children to take part in a book cover design competition. Before half term, we will send each child home with an envelope containing a competition entry form. If your child wishes to take part, they should complete their design on the sheet provided and return it along with £1 in the envelope to their class teacher by Thursday 3^rd March as judging will take place on World Book Day. The winner will receive a certificate and a prize, which will include signed books from some famous children’s authors. This is an optional competition. We are very grateful to the PTA for sourcing the prizes for this.

PTA book fair
The PTA have begun plans to hold a second-hand book fair on World book day. More details regarding this will be sent to you by the PTA in due course.

Book Tokens

Each year, the school is provided with a £1 book token for every child to use against the cost of a new book, which can be spent at various book stores and book fairs. We will be giving these out on the day however we would encourage you to keep hold of this book token as the children will be able to spend it at our Scholastic book fair which will take place during the week of the 15^th March. By buying books from the book fair, you will support us in receiving funds from Scholastic to purchase new books for our school.

We are really looking forward to celebrating World Book Day with the children and hope they will come away with fond memories from the day.

If you have any questions regarding World Book Day, please do not hesitate to speak to your child’s class teacher who will be happy to help. Alternatively, you can speak to Miss Merrell on the playground or via the school office.