Katapult - Edition 13 - June, 2020

Hi everyone and welcome to the latest edition of my newsletter.

This edition is dedicated to the upcoming Littlescribe Mini-Writing Festival which is being held 27 - 31st July (Term 3, Week 2).

Basically, it's an online writing festival for primary school children from all around Australia. It's online so it makes the festival accessible and safe for everyone! 

And the Book Week 2020 theme, CURIOUS CREATURES, WILD MINDS has been woven through it.

There are daily sessions for lower, middle and upper primary with amazing authors and illustrators including:

Andrew Daddo

Jackie French

Wendy Orr

Stephen Micheal King

Oliver Phommavanh

James Foley

Lisa Nicol

Kristen Darell

Susanne Gervay

and ME!

There will be an author and an illustrator in each 45-minute session and a Story Starter Wall to showcase work and get ideas.

I'm going to cheat (actually I see this as an effective use of my time) and quote directly from the press release:

Inaugural online writing festival for primary school kids

Primary school children from around Australia can team up online with their favourite Australian authors during Term 3 as part of the inaugural Littlescribe Mini-Writing Festival.

Created for schools and teachers by educational online writing platform Littlescribe, the festival runs for five days. It is supported by the Children’s Book Council of Australia, the educational video platform, ClickView and the online education community, On Butterfly Wings.

Students who take part in the festival will be able to publish their work on the Littlescribe “story starter wall” for peers, authors, parents and all Australians to read.

“Australian kids have the potential to become the best writers in the world,” Littlescribe CEO Jenny Atkinson said. “We want to help them by building a trusted community of supporters, to elevate children’s writing.”

The festival runs from July 27 to 31, with each day featuring three workshops that cater for lower, middle and upper primary students. During each 45-minute workshop, students will work with a new author on a writing challenge.

This year’s Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book Week theme – “Curious Creatures, Wild Minds” – will be woven through every session.

“This means the Littlescribe Mini-Writing Festival will be a winter warm-up for Book Week, usually staged in August, but running from October 17 to 23 this year,” Ms Atkinson said.

Professor Margot Hillel, OAM, Chair of the CBCA National Board, said: “This is a great opportunity for Australian authors and students to collaborate and write alongside each other in the lead up to CBCA Book Week.”

Some of Australia’s most-loved authors in the festival include Jackie French (The Schoolmaster’s Daughter), Andrew Daddo (Atticus Van Tasticus), Deborah Abela (The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee), Katrina McKelvey (Isla’s Family Tree), author/illustrator James Foley (​Toffle Towers and Brobot​) and author/illustrator Stephen Michael King (Three). For the complete program, click​ ​here​.

The cost of joining the festival is $5 (+GST) per student, with an early bird fee (until June 30) of $3 (+GST) per student. This provides access to all 12 workshops.

For teachers, the Littlescribe Mini-Writing Festival includes:

• ●  Lesson plans for before, during and after each workshop
• ●  An interactive, 45-minute write-along streamed video conference led by Littlescribe’s
  Literacy Leader Jo Edwards, featuring an author and an illustrator
• ●  A specific writing skill explored and modelled in each workshop
• ●  A short writing challenge for students in each workshop, including the 2020 CBCA
  Book Week theme Curious Creatures, Wild Minds.
  
  For more information and to register, visit​ ​https://www.littlescribe.com/lp/mini-writing-festival/​.
  
  
  
  ​Facebook 
  #littlescribe
  #cbca2020
  
  
  
  
  ABOUT LITTLESCRIBE
  
  Littlescribe, an award-winning company, started in Australia in 2018. It is an educational writing platform, written by teachers and connected to the national curriculum (Australia, New South Wales, Victoria). Designed for primary and high school students, it includes rich and engaging resources including teacher toolkits and its signature co-author program. Littlescribe inspires and motivates children to write by transforming their writing projects into digital and printed books to share with their class, family and friends. ​www.littlescribe.com
  
  For further information, images and interviews, please contact 
  Littlescribe: Karen Eck at karen@eckfactor.com or 0438 532 569 
  CBCA: Kate Flamsteed at kate.flamsteed@cbca.org.au
  
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The Mini-Writing Festival Program

Full program here: 

https://downloads.littlescribe.com/Littlescribe+Mini-Writing+Festival+Calendar.pdf

Co-author Program

I cannot tell you how excited I am to be part of this festival and the Littlecribe program as a co-author. If you'd like to know more about how I support the co-author program, go and have a look at my profile here: 

https://www.littlescribe.com/katrina-mckelvey/

I have been working with several local schools lately linked with the co-author program and would love to work with more. I've also been doing little 'hints and tricks and a Q&A' zoom session with participating schools. Could I be doing this with your school too?

Early Bird Discount

By the way, the early bird discount for this Mini-Writing Festival ends tomorrow, 30th June.

That's it for now. I'm off to help my daughter plan her birthday party. Hope to see you at the festival!

Feel free to email me (author@katrinamckelvey.com) if you have any questions about this festival or the Littlescribe co-author program.

And The Newcastle Herald is planning on doing a story about this festival next weekend. Gotta go and get my glam on - ha!

Just a fun reminder I have my new picture book coming out in August titled, Chasing Rainbows, illustrated by Cheri Hughes and published by Big Sky Publishing. We can't wait for you to meet Sam and Ruby soon.