Stories are at the very core of what we do at Great Hearts Irving. While great stories certainly delight us, they offer much more than simple diversion. Stories teach us about the world: about the way things are, the people that live in it, and the consequences of the choices we make. Stories take the stuff of the everyday world we inhabit and imbue it with meaning, destiny, and transcendence, transforming our imaginations and making them able to see the True, the Good, and the Beautiful not just in the imaginary worlds of the stories, but in the real world they imitate.
On Friday, October 28, the Lower School will host our fourth annual Storybook Festival in celebration of our shared love of stories and the worlds of wonder and beauty to be found between the covers of a good book. Each grade level has a unique schedule of events planned, but we will all spend the day listening to, reading, and participating in activities drawn from some of the best children’s stories.
October 28th is an early-release Friday; drop off and pick up will not be affected by Storybook Festival.
Hallway Decorations
Have you ever stepped through the wardrobe into the magical land of Narnia? Visited Wonderland? How about the Land of Oz? Every year for Storybook Festival, our amazing parents help us decorate each of our grade-level hallways to give the day an extra dose of magic for our students.
We’re looking for teams of parent volunteers to take each grade level’s traditional literary theme and run with it! We have some basic supplies available at school (staplers, tape, butcher paper etc.) as well as some decorations saved from years past. We may also have some funding available to purchase additional decorations. Please sign up if you’d like to be on the team of decorators for your child’s grade level.
Sign Up to Help Decorate the Halls
Costumes
For Storybook Festival, students are allowed to come to school dressed as their favorite character from works of classic children’s literature, such as our list of Classics to Keep. Since students will be wearing the costumes during the school day, there are a number of guidelines that we will ask you to follow. Click here for detailed instructions on what is and is not permissible to wear.
Little Sibling Story Corner
Update: Little Sibling Story Corner has sold out. Thanks to all who registered! We wish we had room for everyone and apologize to those who weren’t able to reserve a spot.
Calling 3- and 4-year-old siblings! As part of Storybook Festival, younger brothers and sisters of current Lower School scholars are invited to school for a story hour just their own hosted by our Dean of Academics, Mary Pantin. Special storybook read aloud and more await!
Registration for Little Sibling Story Corner will open on Thursday, September 29th at 10am. Space is limited for this exclusive event, so act quickly. We hope to see you there!
Help Us Grow Our Library!
Each year for Storybook Festival, we invite students to bring a beautiful book to donate to our school library. It is of the utmost importance that we offer our students only the highest quality books, so each year we compile a carefully-curated Amazon Wish List containing titles we believe are truly worthy of our scholars’ time and attention. Wherever you choose to purchase your books, please only donate books from this list.
Over the years, we’ve focused on recommending donations of children’s literature and picture books, which has left the non-fiction section of our library in need of some attention, so you might notice that this year our list consists largely of non-fiction titles.
Leave a Legacy
Our own Ms. Brigid Fox (3rd-5th Art Teacher) has designed the artwork for this year’s Storybook Festival themed to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, including our beautiful custom bookplate. These bookplates can be inscribed with your child’s name and placed on the inside cover of donated books as a lasting testament to the generosity and citizenship your family showed in helping us ensure we have a library full of beautiful books full of truth and virtue.
We will be sending home one bookplate in every student’s folder. Additional bookplates may be picked up at the front desk.
Food Permission Slips
During the day, our classrooms will be visited by a special guest and served a themed snack. Be looking for a food permission slip to sign and return so that your child can participate. We understand that things like this sometimes get lost on the way home, so you can also download and print from the links below.
Kindergarten food permission slip
1st grade food permission slip
2nd Grade food permission slip
3rd Grade food permission slip
4th Grade food permission slip
5th grade food permission slip
For questions about Storybook Festival, please reach out to Mary.Pantin@greatheartsirving.org.
