Skip to content

Students shake maracas with alpacas for National Simultaneous Storytime

Alpacas, maracas and book stackers galore! Students at St Mary's Star of the Sea joined over one million kids in Australia and New Zealand in gathering together to be read aloud the same book at the same time for National Simultaneous Storytime.

In its 19th year, the annual Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) event has been a huge success, with kids in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country all sharing in Australian author and illustrator, Matt Cosgrove’s book ‘Alpacas with Maracas’.

The colourful, fun event aims to promote the value of reading and literacy using an Australian children's book. This year’s book celebrates a positive storyline and themes and was chosen for its appeal to a modern and diverse audience, addressing key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6, and lending itself to craft and other learning activities – many of which were greatly enjoyed by our students throughout the day.

Our infants students all listened eagerly in the library together for their reading of ‘Alpacas with Maracas’.

The school’s music supplies were raided for all possible maracas and similar instruments, and the Kindergarten students had fun joining in by shaking them at interactive points during the story.

The students spent time afterward looking through the books on offer at the school's book fair, also set up in the library. 
 

Read more about St Mary’s Milton’s National Simultaneous Storytime event in this article in the Milton Ulladulla Times. 


St Mary's was one of several CEDoW schools who celebrated National Simultaneous Storytime. Read more here.