Family Literacy Day takes place every January 27th to raise awareness about the importance of reading and engaging in other literacy-related activities as a family. January 27th, was also Literacy Day at Wesley Christian Academy. With a full day of activities for our JK to Grade 8 students, we celebrated the gift of reading, writing, and storytelling.
The day began with 40 minutes of D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read) before meeting in the gym for the kick off assembly with renown Canadian author, Gordon Korman. Mr. Korman, who had visited WCA for Literacy Day in 2018, was welcomed by our Literacy Day organizer, Mrs. Ma, and introduced by his two Grade 8 Ambassadors.
Mr. Korman shared how his first book started as a school project in Grade 7 when he was only 12 years old! That writing assignment eventually got published when he was 14 and became This Can’t Be Happening at MacDonald Hall. He kept working at his craft and it evolved from homework, to a hobby, to a summer job, and finally a career. He has since written 106 books and shared how many of them have been translated into different languages. He even mentioned some of the humour surrounding some of the titles in the various translations, as some of the words do not exist in another language (e.g. Ungifted in Spanish). Mr. Korman also shared insight with the students. He talked about writing about things that you like or relate to, the importance of doing research for factual and historical accuracy, and generating ideas by asking “What if…?” questions. He ended his presentation by reading from his latest book, Snoop , which is about a boy who uses the live feeds from police cameras around his town and notices some unusual things happening.
After the opening presentation, students rotated through special activities. In the morning, Mr. Korman met with students in Grades 1-4 and then with those Grades 5-8. He even had some time for book signing. In the presentation sessions, he shared more about his writing experiences and read from his novel Hypergifted , which will be released on February 3rd. Wesley is the first school that he has read this to! Mr. Korman also opened up the floor to questions. There were many good questions including – “What is your opinion on AI?”, “Which of your books is your favourite?”, “Do you ever get writer’s block and what do you do about it?”, “Where do your book titles come from?”, etc. During the Q& A session, Mr. Korman also talked about his latest manuscript, Sleepless, about kids with paranormal abilities. This should be released in the summer of 2026.
Our JK-SK students as well as our Grade 1-3 students had the privilege of meeting with local author, Katie Sin. After providing a brief introduction of herself, she used age appropriate language to explain the different steps she used to write a book called Marin’s Magic Cheer. Then, she read her story, which was about a little girl named Marin who cheers on her mother who participates in a big running race! After hearing about the different ways Marin used to encourage her mom, Ms. Sin led a discussion about what makes a “good” cheer. There were lots of ideas from the students. They talked about using “magic words”, things to make noise (e.g. mouths, actions, props, etc.) and “silly” gestures or dance moves. For the JK/SK presentation, she even had a few volunteers go to the front to “make some noise” using cow bells and cheerleading pompoms. Then, she asked students for examples of “Magic Words”. She put these on posters, which the students took back to their classrooms to finish to encourage each other and remember their Literacy Day experience!
Our third guest author was Nadia L. Hohn, an award-winning educator, activist, and author of several books. She shared her book, Patty Dreams, with students in Grades 4-5. This story is about a Jamaican family who moves to Canada. When the little boy attempts to recreate the patties that he enjoyed in Jamaica, his father becomes inspired and turns that into a business in their new country. For the older students in Grades 6-8, Ms. Hohn shared A Likkle Miss Lou , a biographical picture book about how Jamaican poet, Louise Bennett Coverley, found her voice. Ms. Hohn was also the speaker for the closing assembly for JK to Grade 8 students. First, she energized the students by playing “Follow the Leader” by the Soca Boys. As she paraded through the gym with a peacock mask and a peacock puppet, the students got an(other) introduction to Caribbean culture. For the finale, Ms. Hohn read her book, Malaika’s Costume. The story is about a family and community that celebrates Carnival but at the same time is impacted by economic realities. Ms. Hohn narrated the story in a Caribbean patois and sprinkled bits of Caribbean culture for our students to enjoy including using a bucket drum, asking them to echo little melodies, playing Jamaican folk songs on her recorder and reciting spoken word poetry.
When the students were not with one of the authors, their homeroom teachers prepared special Literacy Day activities. Mrs. Chen organized a school wide pen pal activity. Students drew names from their own House Teams and wrote letters to their pen pal. Depending on the age of the writer, students were given conversation prompts, “all about me” sheets, and other ideas to start this letter writing initiative. For many, especially our younger students, writing a letter by hand, putting it into an envelope (with sender and return address information), and placing a “stamp” on it is a new concept. Not only was it a great activity, it helped students share information about themselves to other House Team members and ask curious, respectful questions to learn about others. Grade 6-8’s also had a chance to participate in a special workshop with Mr. Bailey on lyric writing while the Grade 4-5’s focused on digital music writing using iPads.
As you can see, WCA’s 2026 Literacy Day was a jammed packed day of exciting activities and experiences! We are thankful for this special day and hope it inspires our students to continue using their God-given gifts in reading, writing, and learning.
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