CBN was there! Lesley Beake visited Good Hope Seminary Junior in Cape Town and shared books with a marathon number of children (well, she did offer!). This school has a very active chapter of Shine Literacy – http://www.shineliteracy.org.za/ – and we were very glad to make contact with this wonderful organization that does such a […]
World Book Day 2 February Read More »
Today – 16th February – is a big day in the reading calendar. It might not attract as much attention as the better publicized St Valentine’s Day, but it has more meaning for the many children around the world who have stories read aloud to them on this date. Long before they can read themselves,
World read Aloud Day! Read More »
Franschhoek 15 to 18 May 2017: Encouraging a culture of reading in the Franschhoek valley and raising funds for a new community library and local school libraries were important reasons for establishing the Franschhoek Literary Festival in 2007. The FLF Library Fund has invested extensively in four primary school libraries and continuing book donations to
Franschhoek 6th Book Week for Young Readers Read More »
Day Two and a different set of children – and expectations. We foregathered for games to let off steam and then separated for different activities. De Bron Primary School kindly provided the venue. The First Camps Bay Scouts once more obliged by helping. This time we worked more on the idea of description filling out
CBN and Stanford Creative Works workshop Two Read More »
We were delighted to be asked to be involved in an annual initiative to give children in Stanford something to do in the holidays. In the first of two morning workshops, we tackled the topic of Family with around 25 children from different grades, speaking different languages and from different backgrounds – and all getting
CBN and Stanford Creative Works workshop One Read More »
The Stanford creative works initiative is a community based project that offers after school creative workshops as well as school based skills development groups and a school readiness program for children from impoverished communities in Stanford. The workshops accommodate children from 3 to 13 year of age and the activities that we offer are art
Stanford Creative Works – holiday workshops Read More »
CBN’s core purpose is to encourage a love of reading among children who can read, but don’t. We began this through workshops, and this has been the prime testing ground for ideas that potentially can carry the purpose forward. It has always been clear that a small (however dedicated) team cannot make a difference to
Toolboxes: Future development and current activities Read More »
Our thanks to our Chairman of the Board of CBN, Roy Zazeraj When we begin a workshop, we always tell the children that they are now part of a network of friends, a network that extends throughout the world of people and deep into the world of books. Without our friends, CBN would not exist;
Friends, friends … and even better friends Read More »
Mike Fisher wrote the following extract in The Guardian newspaper (quoted from Jay Heale’s Bookchat, with thanks.) He’s right! ‘Bored out of their skulls by real life,’ is an interesting concept, but when your daily round consists, as it must, of pretty dull events (school springs to mind), what can we expect? If even adults
The competition for books and reading Read More »
Ten librarians from five schools gathered on a Saturday 10 September at Groendal Primary in Franschhoek to listen with interest to a presentation – and then demonstration – of the new CBN toolboxes. Their reaction was heart-warming. Plans are afoot to start a network in Franschhoek to use the toolboxes as a team with children
Lively Librarians Workshop Report Read More »
Today is the day when the world should be focussing on literacy. We SHOULD be. It is the single best chance for a way forward in a troubled world. One school celebrating out of doors in the crisp Drakensberg air is Goxhill Primary School, which sent us this photograph of Mrs Dlamini reading a Zulu
World Literacy Day Read More »
Franschhoek Toolbox Workshop: 10 September This workshop is an invitation to explore ideas about bringing books to children – and children to books, Background: CBN has had the toolboxes in its sights for three years now, and we have tested all the books and activities during our workshops. What you will see today is the
A workshop for teacher-librarians and readers Read More »
‘It Wasn’t Me!’ by Lesley Beake, Gwendoline van der Merwe, and Alexandria Mackinnon has been published online by Book Dash and is available for download. You can view it here: http://bookdash.org/wasnt-lesley-beake-gwendoline-van-der-merwe-alexandria-mackinnon/ Please share the link online, and tag Book Dash if you like. You can also encourage friends and family to download our Android app
‘It wasn’t me’: Published online! Read More »
CBN workshops encompass a rich mix of story, activity, books, art, books, drama, books, craft, books, puppets, books … whatever it takes. Here is a brief summary of what we have been working on since the beginning of our financial year in March. CHILDREN In the four years we have been in operation, we have
We have many methods of encouraging children writing – something that almost all of them love to do. Those who finish early get on with some quiet reading. Some of these tools are: • Each theme has a set of photographs designed to inspire both writing and artwork and we have had some wonderful results
Toolbox writing ideas – children writing Read More »
Of course, the ultimate aim of toolboxes and workshops is to get children actually reading. Included in the toolboxes will be sixty books and the aim is that each child in a reading group will read each book at least once. These consist of fact books and fun books, poetry, art and music books and
Toolbox books – the ones the children read Read More »
The Super-Books are an integral part of the toolboxes – and sooner or later, we have to fix the titles we will be including. This is hard! In fact it is so hard that arm-wrestling may have to take place. We want the children to have the best of the best – both South African
CBN has created our own super hero – Zeb, Super-Book-Hero! With text by Lesley Beake and illustrations by Vian Oelofsen, Zeb leads the way throughout the themed boxes. Zeb is already a reader – in fact his mother tries to get him to: ‘STOP READING and get some sleep!’ But when Zeb finally sleeps, he
Zeb! Super-Book-Hero Read More »
Spreading the reading word … For some time CBN has been looking for a way to reach more children – to excite more children about books, to make reading cool. The methods we have been using in our workshops (for nearly four years now), work really well. We see a difference. Children come back. They
What is a toolbox? Read More »
The last workshop of the winter workshop season finished in hugs (handshakes went out long ago) and then hugs again as a dedicated group of CBN participants decided that they want a regular book club ‘with badges’. There are always surprising things that children do or say – or need. We have been consistently surprised
Stanford CBN Book Club (Workshop 3 of the Winter Workshops) Read More »
