The Books, Books, Books Program

A Cherbourg Early Years Literacy Project

“Books, books, books”, involves every child in the school making a book. The project is funded by The Smith Family and Cherbourg State School and is a whole school and community approach to producing local stories and books.

Jo Ross, the school principal had a vision that every aspect of making the books should be a part of every-day learning in the classroom. These stages included; conceiving of the stories and writing them down, illustrating them and then finally using computer skills to design the lay out and the text. These skills would be spread over a number of subject areas like Math’s (counting stories) English, SOSE, Indigenous Studies, IT classes, Art etc.

Early Years teachers, Special Needs teachers, language specialists, Elders and many others where consulted about the language, content and the outcome of the project. Class teachers were consulted about the unit themes for the term and each class selected a genre.

Ratartat artists came from Melbourne and worked with local artist and story teller Venus Rabbit to set up an art space. Students participated in art sessions over a two week period, illustrating their stories using a number of techniques. Mono-printing, painting, body painting, drawing, collage, photography and film.

All the students at the school are engaged in making their own personal books. Madonna Cullinan teaches IT skills every Wednesday and Thursday in the IKC. Students bring the work they have done in class, scan their illustrations and work on the layout of their books.

• The Nice Feast - by Peter Langton [PDF]]
• The Koala and the Five Eagles - by Stormy Lee [PDF]
• The Old Man - by William Langton [PDF]]
• The Emu Eggs Pt 1 and Part 2 Print out onto one side each of a sheet of A4 - fold and trim, then staple for your book!

At the end of the year we hope to have a range of different books which reflect the local stories and events of Cherbourg. Four of the stories will be selected and students will turn them into film scripts and short films. We are hoping to select eight stories and have them published. The books and the films will be launched at a special event in the IKC in December.