Primary Times - the definitive what’s on and where to go family guide of activities and events for children of primary school age. Things to do with your kids during the school holidays including arts and craft activities, music and theatre for children, parties, competitions, days out, and family attractions along with term time drama schools, dance classes, after school clubs and sports activities. Things to do at a place near you!
Tom Palmer's tips on getting kids reading rugby
The Rugby World Cup takes place in England and Wales from 18th September. The planet’s third largest sporting tournament, here, this autumn. And one that England or Wales could win.
A great opportunity to encourage sporty children to read more for pleasure.
I have been working with England Rugby to develop resources and live events to help schools do just that. To give you an idea of them, here are six ideas from those resources. All free. Full details of everything below can be found at www.tompalmer.co.uk/rugby-world-cup-2015.
Sports teachers read
Ask your sports teacher (or sports coaches who visit your school) to come into assembly and tell the children what they like to read. A lot of sports teachers read sporting biographies and fitness magazines, as well as the newspapers. That reading had helped their careers. For some children to make that link between sport and reading, through a role model, can make a big difference.
Letter home
Send a letter home to parents with ideas about how they can encourage their child to read more at home during a major sporting tournament. There is a version of a letter you can use in the Read Rugby resource.
Rugby reading champions
If no teacher in schools knows a lot about rugby, ask two or three children to act as your school’s rugby reading champions. They can work with you to create exciting rugby reading interventions throughout the school building and the school day.
Writing Drills
Rugby training focusses on a range of drills that help players with the different aspects of the game. For instance, try scoring and tackling. Coaches devise drills to help the players improve those skills. I wanted to do the same for writing. Writing is intimidating to a lot of children. Like rugby. That’s why we created fifteen writing drills that focus purely on different aspects of writing. How to start a story. How to write dialogue. How to create tension.
Read a live story to your class
From 16th September until 16th October I will be writing a ‘live’ story set during the Rugby World Cup. It will be a thriller with outrageous cliff hangers and the chance for kids to vote on what happens next, drawing on Rugby World Cup events on and off the field. But overall it will be a mystery thriller and not too sport-heavy. You can read the first chapter already. The remaining chapters will be written the night before publication and made available every weekday morning during the dates above,
Blogging
Read my daily Rugby World Cup blog. I’ll be blogging about the tournament and also recommending rugby reads for children. Then do you own Rugby World Cup blogs in schools. I’ll retweet and link to blogs that you send to me. We might even be able to link up with schools in other countries. My Twitter address is @tompalmerauthor.
Read Rugby
The Rugby World Cup takes place in England and Wales from 18th September. The planet’s third largest sporting tournament, here, this autumn. And one that England or Wales could win.
A great opportunity to encourage sporty children to read more for pleasure.
I have been working with England Rugby to develop resources and live events to help schools do just that. To give you an idea of them, here are six ideas from those resources. All free. Full details of everything below can be found at www.tompalmer.co.uk/rugby-world-cup-2015.
I hope these ideas help. As I say, there are more to check out on the link above!
Thanks for reading,
Tom Palmer