A COLOURFUL Reading Bug has been hatched by primary school pupils in Ballarat.
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While Phoenix P-12 Community College prep to grade 4 pupils from the Redan Campus were being read Chris Van Dusen’s The Circus Ship by teacher Erin Macaulay on Friday, the “egg” they had spent the past few months reading to appeared to move.
There was a phone call to the vet and the egg was quickly carried from the room. But before the egg could be rushed off to the clinic by Smith Family team leader Brenton Hancock, the Reading Bug had emerged.
The bug looked suspiciously like Jenny Sheriff of the Highlands Learning and Employment Network but most of the younger pupils were more than happy to have a story read to them by her, particularly when the story happened to be I’m a dirty Dinosaur, by Janeen Brian and Ann James.
The idea of having an egg that children could read to was to develop their interest in reading books, Mr Hancock said.
“The reason why we are doing this is because one in five kids who start school are behind in literacy. This has encouraged the kids to read and keep reading,” he said.
“They have embraced the idea and we’ve had guest readers, including Sharon Knight and Des Hudson.”
The egg was originally “found” at the Ballarat Wildlife Park on May 8.
Since then it has been back and forth between Sebastopol Primary School and Phoenix P-12 Community College. All the while the egg has appeared to grow.
Upon hatching, the Reading Bug asked: “Who’s been reading to me?”
Most of the children put up their hands, even some of the suspicious ones.