Rickson Ridge PS celebrates literacy with a competition and event
April 3, 2019
GUELPH, Ontario – Rickson Ridge Public School will celebrate its fourth Cuddle Up and Read event on April 4.
As part of Cuddle Up and Read, the school will be hosting its third Literary Awards competition.
This year, the guest author at Cuddle Up and Read is award-winning children’s author Karen Rostoker-Gruber. Karen is a cousin to one of the schools families, which makes her visit to the event even more special.
Inspired by Rostoker-Gruber’s book Bandit, the theme of this year’s Literary Awards is “fear of the unknown.” Students have endless writing possibilities with this theme and can choose to write about something frightening, something not scary to others but makes them anxious, or something that used to be scary to them but has become less scary and how they overcame this fear.
Rickson Ridge PS Teacher-Librarian Jessica Patrick said, “there are real opportunities for strong messages within this theme, and a positive mental health connection as well. Students are welcome to write fiction or non-fiction, so they don’t have to write about themselves and their own experiences if that’s too personal or if they simply don’t have an experience that they want to write about. They are encouraged to explore different kinds of writing, so in past years we have received entries that are short stories, illustrated picture books, poems, collections of poems, and comic strips.”
This year, students that plan to enter the Literary Awards competition were given the opportunity to submit a brief writing plan before the event. Students that did this will have the opportunity to attend a workshop with Rostoker-Gruber before the Cuddle Up and Read event.
Final writing submissions for the awards competition are due on April 23. Winners will be announced and prizes distributed during a pizza and popsicles luncheon for all competition participants.
Patrick said that the goal of the awards “is to encourage children of all ages and abilities to explore their creativity, to enjoy the challenge of translating their amazing ideas into words, and to build their confidence as developing writers.”
The Cuddle Up and Read event is run by School Council volunteers and some intermediate students and is an event for all Rickson Ridge PS families.
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